Although golf courses in many regions were allowed to partially operate for much of the pandemic-challenged spring, they’ve still taken damaging financial hits in the era of coronavirus.
“Using the analogy of a Buffalo Bills ticket, if they say they can have only 50% capacity in the stadium for a game, there’s no way to make that up,” said Mike Roeder, the general manager at Ravenwood Golf Club in Victor, N.Y., just outside Rochester. “Once a game is gone, it’s gone. Once you lose a booking, even if they rebook, it’s probably on a day when you could have booked something else.”
As New York state slowly reopens behind many other states, the Rochester-area facilities are holding out hope that enough restrictions will be lifted to allow them to at least get close to full functionality, meaning the opening in some form of their merchandise shops and restaurant/bar/banquet facilities.
Roeder said Ravenwood had 19 events canceled in March; 24 in April; and 25 in May — everything from golf outings, baby showers and retirement parties to larger gatherings such as school banquets, proms and weddings.
Looking ahead to June and the rest of the golf season, unless the state relaxes its regulations on the size of groups congregating, more cancellations are likely on the horizon at Ravenwood and everywhere else. Courses in other states are dealing with similar issues.
“All the weddings have been canceled,” said Jim Edmister, the head golf pro at The Golf Club at Blue Heron Hills, which is located in nearby Macedon. “They can’t take that chance of putting their money down and then you get down to it and they can’t have it.”
All of which is creating a backlog because in many cases, weddings are being rebooked for the following year. Customers may stay at the same place, but as Roeder pointed out, “they’re taking our dates for next year, which we would have sold to somebody else. That’s just business that’s lost that you’ll never get back. And while you’re saving on some labor and food costs, you’re losing revenue. If we can get to 50% of our original budget for 2020, we’d consider that a victory.”
Clearly, the food and beverage end of the golf business is suffering, but so, too, is the actual playing of the game.
Edmister said Blue Heron Hills had a flurry of early play in March thanks to unusually cooperative weather, and when the one-week, state-mandated shutdown of golf facilities was lifted in early April, the golfers were back out playing, but certainly not at the numbers you’d typically see. Courses in southern states had the luxury of a few playing months before the pandemic started, but most northern courses weren’t as fortunate.
Continued guidelines on social distancing, the prohibition of cart use, which has only recently been lifted in NY— along with the fact that some people simply aren’t comfortable leaving their homes yet — have cut deeply into the bottom line.
“The PGA of America is recommending 10- to 15-minute intervals for tee times,” Edmister said. “That hurts you at the end of the day when you might have 80 tee times and now you’re down to 40.”
Not that he can handle too much more because with only 52 carts at his disposal and the one-rider rule still in place (unless two people are family members or have been quarantined together), Edmister can’t book too many more tee times.
Dave Eaton, the assistant executive director of the Rochester District Golf Association, said this same issue is universal to its member clubs. And the lost cart revenue, on top of everything else, has been detrimental.
“Carts weren’t even allowed for golfers with disabilities at first, although that came later,” Eaton said. “Eventually, these restrictions were loosened enough to allow for disabled golfers to ride. Finally, with (the) Phase I reopening for the Finger Lakes region, we received word that single-rider carts were once again allowed and that pro shops could open just to take payment for greens fees and pre-order retail pickup.”
The RDGA has already canceled several early-season tournaments, and clubs around the region have had to follow suit, which is a major blow regardless of whether they were member events or outside events.
“Many of our member clubs rely on outside tournaments for additional income and many of these have been canceled, mostly due to the social aspect of these events,” said Eaton.
Edmister has tournaments still on the schedule for June and beyond, and he’s crossing his fingers they can go on as planned, hopefully without social distancing restrictions.
“Things are slow,” he said. “It’s going to be a rough year. People aren’t playing — everybody is still nervous about getting too close to each other. Time will tell, but I’m planning on having a good rush come June and hopefully, we can knock it dead for the rest of the year. It’s a whole new normal, just like everything.”
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