re: The Island closing for good

I would assume weather is the ultimate issue with why they fail and the costs to upkeep directly because of the weather.

How can courses in the north survive by by only operating a few months in the year? If courses here closed down in winter like the north, would that be beneficial if they're losing money anyway at that time?

I don't think golf here is too cheap. Atlanta has infinitely better conditioned courses everywhere in better shape that are all nearly $50 to play at peak times. Greystone and Pelican charge $75 for courses that usually aren't worth that price (esp Pelican which is no better maintained than the Island imo)

There is so much wrong with Baton Rouge area golf that it is hard to say what they do differently. My opinion so take it for what it is worth. Most people look at prime time rates and say Baton Rouge is priced just like everyone else. But it is my opinion that average prices for golf are very low in BR. People only look at weekend morning rates but that is a small portion of rates. Plus you have winter rates.

You can play golf for much of the time in Baton Rouge for damn cheap. Like insanely cheap. I am not talking about Saturday and Sunday mornings. Most rounds a course gets revenue on are not Saturday and Sunday mornings.

Heck people mention Greystone above. You can get on Greystone for a lot of Wednesday’s with a lunch and cart for like $30.

I bet other areas just have a higher average per round throughout year or higher volume. Knowing how much it costs to play a course at any one time is meaningless. I would need to know how many rounds the course does and the average price per round.

Here, the average price is largely driven down in BR by BREC and LSU.

Then add on most people don’t have a home course so they don’t care to support the course. They will buy balls online and want to bring their own beer. But that is an entirely different story/thread we can go down though.

So in BR: No home course bc too much spread around. And low average price per round. I bet other areas don’t have that. My opinion.

All I know is I have been telling everyone that it is broken and we are ultimately going to pay bc all that will be left is BRCC, CCLA, LSU and BREC and that sucks.

I would like to see public courses per capita.

I think GBR has too many especially for a non-tourist area. Plus, this is the Sportsman’s paradise for hunting and fishing plus we have LSU Sports & lots of weather events.

Yes

I worked for you at Acadian Hills when I was at USL. I'm still in the Golf Business for the time being.

I got out the golf business in 2010

Only after 31years in the business, five courses I worked at have closed, with only The Bluffs opening back up.

I've been around the golf business a long time too.

I remember back in the 90s Superintendents at mid level courses were making 60-70k a year. Golf Pros were making more than that, depending on their arrangement.

Today Superintendents are making 60-70k a year and Golf Pros are about the same. At least that's the case here in Louisiana. I think it's better in more affluent parts of the country.

The biggest problem I see in Baton Rouge and Louisiana in general is that our median incomes suck. We just don't have enough people that make $200k to support a bunch of clubs. Free time, available income, and interest in the game have all taken a dive in the last 15 years.

quote:

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customers who want to bring their own beer, who disappear Monday through Thursday and all winter and who all want 8AM tee times in Saturday for dirt cheap with primo conditions

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This. And most of them post here...

We had a baw on here saying he would only pay $100 for absolutely primo conditions. And if it was damp it should be lowered to $60. And he wanted to bring his own ice chest. These people are a dime a dozen in South LA. I don't blame people for being fiscally responsible, but if that's your position you can't expect "primo."

If you could have your operating expense under a million which is doable you need to have 350 members paying $200 a month and then generate $160,000 in outings and pro shop sales. That will give you 1 mil.

Seems easy don’t it?