Every Golf Club should have a small fleet of icadys available for rent by those golfers that want to play the game the way it was played for 450 of its 500 year history.
For the last 50 years, golf course operators and decision makers have attempted to push golfers into riding cars. Their primary motivation has been to improve the financial performance of their golf course. In some cases, pushing riding has chased golfers away form the game. Polices such as “Cart path only”, “required riding for tournament players” are very unpopular with golfers that believe golf is a walking game. “Single fee” pricing policies, which are otherwise very beneficial to the golf course, are unpopular with the golfer and can therefore only be implemented on a small number of golf courses. Because the course doesn’t have a comparable high service value product available for those that prefer to walk, “single fee pricing” is viewed as a “ride only policy” and resented by those who prefer to walk.
Riding cars have been very important to the golf industry for the last 50 years and have for the most part had a positive effect and most importantly have improved the financial performance of the golf courses. With 50% of the rounds played by golfers that prefer to walk and the negative financial effect of cart path only policies and the added cost of maintaining the course when allowing carts off the paths, it’s obvious the industry needs to offer an alternative for walkers. By offering the other half of the golfing public a high service value alternative rented from the course, they can add new gross revenues to their course operations.
To illustrate this point consider the economic impact of a cart path only policy. Most golfers dislike playing the course from the cart path but more importantly playing from the cart path will add 1 to 1 1⁄2 hours to the round of golf. Instead of enjoying a pleasant 4-1⁄2 hour 18 hole round, you now have to set through a 5 1⁄2 to 6 hour round. To a golf course sending a foursome off the 1st tee every 10 minutes this extended time results in the loss of 36 players. At a $50 green fee and a $15 per person cart fee, the golf course looses $2,340 a day. All golf course operators realize that the trade off of lost revenues is the reduced cost of maintaining their golf course. By having a mix of walkers using icady and riders the course can maintain their revenues and minimize the negative effects of a cart path only policy.
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Golf course operators realize they cannot just continue to raise green fees in the face of competition without the risk of losing players. However, by adding $10 a round to the fees collected from the 50% of the golfers who walk, a golf course doing 50,000 rounds a year would add $250,000 a year in revenues. Until the introduction of icady this has not been possible.
Having push/pull carts available for rent don’t allow courses to take advantage of this opportunity because the service value of the pull cart is very limited. Equally as important is the fact that when players decide they enjoy walking and playing with a pull or push cart, they’ll go to a golf discount store and buy one. The revenue opportunity from that player is gone.
Power assisted pull carts offer significantly high service value and because they cost $500 to $1,500 dollars to purchase, fewer golfers are inclined to purchase one for their personal use. The golfers who use these products like playing with them, but many of them complain about having to transport them to and from the golf course and maintain them. Recognizing the revenue opportunity of the walkers some golf courses have tried to use these product as a part of their rental fleet. Unfortunately, they were not reliable and could not stand up to the day in and day out commercial use without breaking down. As a result, golf courses have not been willing to include them as part of their rental fleet.
Icady represents a brand new opportunity for golf courses to offer a high service value alternative to the 25,000 to 50,000 golfers playing their course annually who prefer to walk. Icady will let you capitalize on the new revenue opportunity that is the only remaining opportunity golf courses have to improve the financial performance of their businesses. It has been engineered for commercial use only and will not be available for sale to the retail public. Golfer’s who appreciate the freedom of playing with icady will only be able to experience it when playing your golf course and renting icady from you. During the next 50 years the golf courses continued and long-term success will depend on their ability to preserve and enhance the walking tradition for those golfers who want to walk not continuing to push them to ride. Let’s face it, packing 25 to 30 pounds of equipment around the golf course doesn’t enhance the walking experience. Ideally, walkers would gradually give up their pull carts and adopt the use of icady that they rent from the golf course. This will take time just like the adoption of the riding car has taken time but by making icady available at your club and by promoting its use to your walker, your overall club revenues will continue to grow.
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