9430 Fircrest Lane
San Ramon, California 94583

(925) 828-6100

Newsletters

Thank You from the San Ramon Staff
 

We’re sure most of you have no idea how difficult it is to run a profitable golf operation, and maybe some of you don’t care. We’d like to give you a little insight into what we deal with on a daily basis.

First, golf course operations are one of the most varied and diverse retail operations in the U.S. We are an agrarian business – we farm grass that you get to play on. We are a retail store – we sell merchandise in the pro shop. We are a restaurant business – we serve food and liquor. We are an event center – we host tournaments that often have banquets. We are a school – we teach people how to play golf. Some might say our Junior Academy is a day care center, but we reject that notion as our Academy members are bright, mature people who shoot scores from the 60’s to the 90’s! Anyway, you get the idea that San Ramon Golf Club is not “just a golf club..”

Second, our business is heavily influenced by something we, nor anyone else, can control: the weather. Granted, we have many customers who tee it up regardless of rain, wind, or temperature. But, a 50 degree day with drizzle and some wind does not a good golf day make, for most.

Third, not many businesses are so reliant on the whims and fancies of people when deciding how to spend their discretionary income and time. Golf is not an easy or inexpensive game, and it does take some time to play.

Behind the scenes at SRGC we have a consultant group who helps us with interpreting our numbers. One of the things they measure is weather as Golf Playable Hours (GPH). GPH factors in about a dozen things into what makes an hour “playable”, and then calculates our weather-adjusted course capacity and utilization. The news here is that Golf Playable Hours for January and February were down 9% from last year, and down 7% from our normal. (The 10-year average of GPH here for January and February is 345 hours). But, our course utilization increased from 49.5% to a whopping 80.3%! The national average is 53%. Our rounds played were way up, and so was our revenue. But, the greens fee per round figure dropped 11%, meaning you saved money every time you played here.

So what’s our point? It’s that many of you showed your appreciation for our Winter rate structure by giving us two outstanding months of rounds and revenue. We thank you, and are very happy you have shown your appreciation for our value-based pricing by playing here rather than somewhere else. Our competition may not be happy, and we don’t care. We are going to continue with our value-based strategy as we move into Spring. New rates go into effect on March 13, but you’ll see only small increases on some rates, and no increases on others. Our goal is to provide the best golf value in the Tri-Valley area, and you’ll tell us with your business if we are succeeding.

Thanks again, from the entire San Ramon Golf Club team.