The Importance of Location When Buying a Golf Course
Alt text: A gorgeous golf course with a great location
The Importance of Location When Buying a Golf Course
The number of people who regularly play golf in the US alone is millions. Many people have decided to capitalize on that vast market by buying/investing in a golf course. However, if you plan to buy a golf course, you must understand that it’s not a business with guaranteed success. You have to be careful about making such a huge investment. Every aspect of this has to be meticulously thought out. With more and more golf courses closing their doors every season, it’s a high-risk, high-reward market. One of the most critical aspects is fully grasping the importance of location when buying a golf course.
A good location for your golf course can make or break your investment plan. Let’s go through some of the main points of interest regarding golf course location and what you can do to make the right choice.
Why is location important?
A good location is essential for every kind of business within the service industry, including golf courses. A good site presents a massive boost to your business’s marketing strategy. There are two main goals to remember when choosing your future golf course location.
Firstly, it must open your business to the largest possible market. Your course must be in an area with many present-day and potential future golfers. And secondly, the location shouldn’t be in a highly competitive area where your business wouldn’t stand a chance. If you’re looking at a golf course that was recently shut down and you see two other ones on your way there, there’s a fairly obvious reason why the previous one failed. You should focus on untapped areas or, at the very least, areas with golf courses that you know you could beat in marketing.
How to choose the right location?
There are many tips out there regarding how you should go about buying a golf course. But we also wanted to give you a more in-depth look at how you should choose the correct location. There are several important factors to consider to select the right spot when buying a golf course. Some of the most important ones are as follows:
- Accessibility from major roads,
- The number of current golfers,
- The number of prospective golfers who haven’t played yet,
- Tourism,
- Seasonality,
- Demographics,
- Population density,
- Golf trends in the area,
- The number of other courses,
- Weather conditions.
Once you’ve gathered all this information, making the right decision will be much easier.
Your marketing plan should affect your location choice
Another essential factor to consider if you want to choose the right location when buying a golf course is what you will be marketing your golf course as. The best way to get this idea across is through examples. Let’s consider two popular options with different location needs.
Resort based
If you plan to market your course as a destination resort, you should focus on looking for a touristy area. Additionally, population density and accessibility might not be as big of a factor. Since the point of this would be to have golfers in the resort already, the course doesn’t need to be near any residential areas or other landmarks. You should focus on things like having a good view and being able to offer all of the necessary utilities (groceries, pools, restaurants, bars, etc.) on or near the site. Another essential aspect of resort-based golf courses is seasonality and weather patterns. You have to ensure the tourism season matches up with favorable golfing weather conditions.
Pay to play golf course
On the other end of the spectrum, a popular investment choice would be golf courses open to the public and pay-to-play based. If this happens, things like accessibility and the local population will be critical factors. You’ll need a wide selection of potential customers who can quickly get to and from the course. A location around 20-30 minutes outside a well-populated town or city would be ideal. The local weather is also much more important than things like seasonality here. Your choice of location when buying a golf course must allow you to open your doors to customers for as much of the year as possible. That also means avoiding areas known for heavy storms and similar weather issues.
Supply accessibility is an essential factor as well
Although we have already concluded that easy accessibility for patrons isn’t a key factor in every single situation, there is another form of accessibility that is almost always important - supply accessibility. That is important in two main ways.
Firstly, you’ll always need new supplies while your golf course is running. You’ll be spending a lot more money if your golf course is hard to access by vans and trucks. For example, if you have a bar on-site, you’ll need to occasionally check drink options and similar things. Some supply firms will charge more if special conditions require them to bring those supplies to you. That means that the location of your future golf course should still be near certain larger roads and have good access points.
Secondly, if your golf course is in a location that’s hard to access, it’ll significantly increase your initial investment. For example, experts from Best Movers NYC advise you to consider initial moving expenses after you buy your new golf course. You’ll have to bring in new furniture, which will cost extra if your golf course is hard to access and very far from central urban areas (most moving companies charge by mileage).
To conclude
Buying a golf course is a considerable investment. We hope it’s now apparent how much more goes into choosing its location than meets the eye and how important it is to make the right choice. Of course, choosing the best possible location when buying a golf course is just the beginning. Plenty of other important dos and don’ts of this wonderful yet risky investment exist. But this is an excellent place for you to start.
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Meta: Choosing the right location when buying a golf course is essential. Luckily there are some tips on how to ensure you’re doing so.
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