A couple of months ago I got the enviable opportunity to work with a golf travel company. Initially I saw this as a great opportunity to mix business with pleasure, but it soon dawned upon me that this is a very competitive sector.
Having booked a few golf weekends myself, I initially questioned the need for a 3rd party in the booking process. Once I delved deeper into the customer journey for some of the more exclusive clubs however, I noticed that the golf booking industry is far from mature.
For many clubs, tradition and history are very important but some seem to be clinging on to that so much that it is dictating their strategy.
Other clubs are pushing forward with overdevelopment of new leisure facilities and in doing so they are losing their loyal customer base.
Those that are driving forward are those that have struck a good mix of tradition and modern development.
Some travel companies will aggregate all of those that fit in with the way they want to promote golf travel, and that has been very successful for them. For the more experienced and discerning golfer however with specific courses on their bucket list, the booking process can become quite a chore.
To illustrate this, I have taken the top 50 golf clubs from Golf Monthly’s Top 100 golf courses in UK and Ireland. I have then scored the websites on 5 factors:
· General aesthetics (first impression)
· Golf prominance (most scored a maximum 10 apart from some spa and hotels resorts)
· Course information
· Mobile responsiveness
· Visitor booking process
In each marking I have approached the website as a visitor rather than a member. I fully accept, as with the various top 100 course lists, that there will be differing opinions. As with other top 100 lists however, the best should generally rise to the top and the worst will generally sink to the bottom.
Joint 1st with 46 points out of a possible 50 are:
1= royalstgeorges.com (ranked 12)
1= burnhamandberrowgolfclub.co.uk (ranked 29)
Both of these scored a maximum 10/10 for their course information. The Royal St. George’s from the tee, approach and looking back from the green features were unique amongst those reviewed and a very refreshing look at each hole.
Burnham and Berrow dedicated a full page with flyover, tips and description in a very easily navigated design that blended well with the rest of the site which, along with St Andrews, were the only sites to score a maximum for general aesthetics.
Both clubs offer, on their homepage, a full introductory video depicting what it would be like for a visitor at the club. This proved to be really warm and inviting, and shows that it is possible to mix tradition with the contemporary. Unfortunately St Andrews was marked low for the booking process as many would be familiar with how hard it is to get a tee time on the Old Course.
Joint 3rd with 44 points out of a possible 50 are:
3= royalbirkdale.com (ranked 6th)
3= nottsgolfclub.co.uk (ranked 35th)
Both of these ranked highly across the board with 9s for booking process and Royal Birkdale also scoring a 9 for mobile responsiveness (no club scored a maximum in these categories).
On its own in 5th place was royalporthcawl.com. With just a few minor tweaks to the booking process and a simpler course information menu this could well have been challenging top spot.
Now to the other end of the spectrum...
The main failures across the Top 50 were with the visitor booking process (average 6.16 out of 10). I am a great advocate of letting a visitor know availability, even if one can’t book online. For many sites the only offering was a discrete number or generic enquiries email, and for others there was a form to fill in without any instruction of how quickly someone would reply.
I am personally not a fan of some plug-in booking systems. I think they are a bit dated and simplified but it does offer some accessibility and general politeness.
Most clubs can’t rely on a top 100 listing so publicity has to come from paid for activity. It then becomes even more important to really optimise the visitor journey.
All of this has given me faith that whereas a lot of golfers believe they can sniff out a deal and can book a tee time, there is currently still a place in the golfing world for a tour operator with good relationships and great customer service.
Contact me for a full listing or if you would like your own website assessed for free.