Community - GolfBusiness

technology to help retain and build participation.
Patterson’s offer of quick-fix
instruction uses the added sizzle provided
by instant video analysis on a
smartphone or iPad using the V1 Golf
app. “Video analysis in five minutes,
for $5,” Patterson crows. “That hits a
legitimate need in the market, and my
experience shows me a teacher can use
it to really over-deliver.”
A dollars-and-sense point should
be made here: When you program
well, pricing suddenly makes more
sense. Hilton Head Lakes, home of
the dollar-a-minute swing tune-up,
uses a similar concept in selling offseason
green fees. The course markets
18-hole golf for $35, then drops
it to $25 after 2 p.m., posting ninehole
rates at the $22 and $18 price
points. It then posts a $15 rate for as
much golf as you’ve got time for on
its six-hole, par-3 short course. If the
golfer standing at the counter doesn’t
choose one of these options, it’s not
about time or money—he or she simply
isn’t in the mood to tee it up.
I
nnovation that builds interest
and heats up the game’s image
in peoples’ minds seemingly
has to do three things: address and
solve the time issue; bend or tweak
the game’s cultural norms; and either
teach a skill quickly or at least isolate
couldn’t we do the same thing, except
in person on the range”
Patterson publicized the idea at
his club and got immediate response.
Golfers at Hilton Head Lakes began
waving him over for short-and-sweet
pointers in exchange for sums as small
as $2. Some of his consults started out
minimally, but then stretched to 45
minutes. In one full year of packaging
instruction this way, Patterson has
“clicked” with 20 to 25 golfers during
quickie sessions and added these golfers
to his clientele for ongoing lessons.
Like television, sportfishing, cinema
and skateboarding, golf will need
a specific skill area in a fun, focused
way. Thus, we see golf by the hour,
five-hole green fees sold 90 minutes
before dusk, and “flip the classroom”
clinics in which students study video
lessons at home then show up to “go
through reps” as instructors provide
hands-on guidance.