Guest Blog: Anney Fagan, Highland Pacific

Anney Fagan is marketing coordinator for Highland Pacific Golf in Victoria, which currently has nine holes open with another nine scheduled to open next June. As Highland Pacific anticipates having 18 holes open, it hasn’t forgotten the feedback it has received from golfers in the area about the merits of playing nine holes for a reasonable price. As a result, she says Highland Pacific will be marketing a nine-hole product as a complement to the traditional 18.

The full 18-hole course is scheduled to open for public play in June, 2010, right before the Telus World Skins Game that’s happening just up the road at the Bear Mountain resort.

We’ve been open for a year with nine holes and there has been such as significant demand for nine-hole play on a championship-calibre course, as opposed to an executive layout.

What we’ve learned over our first year is that people want a full nine holes of golf, so we’re going to continue to have that option of a nine-hole product when we have all 18 open.

What we’re seeing now are nine-hole players. We’re not really seeing the core golfers, or 18-hole players, just yet, but we do get some on the weekends who do a replay. For the most part, however, we’re seeing nine-hole players and they’re very protective of that and they want it to continue.

Quite often, they will seek me out as a marketing person, or they’ll talk to our starters or our players’ assistants and they’ll ask for the nine-hole product to remain.  They want that message to come through to us and the owners because nine holes are perfect for them due to time, for their energy levels and for their pocketbooks. Nine holes offer a very affordable product for them at the calibre of play that they desire. Perhaps, they’re retired or on a fixed income. A lot of women appreciate the nine-hole option and we haven’t tapped into the junior market yet, but I think that’s going to be really important to juniors, too.

We’ve also noticed with corporate events that a nine-hole product is perfect for them, as well. We’ve had a lot of demand for nine holes and dinner or nine holes and lunch events.  When I came on board a year ago, the idea was already percolating, but the owners weren’t sure if it was going to fly or not. Still, they wanted to keep it on the table and we decided to listen to the golfers and hear what they wanted.

Sure enough, this is what they want, but there are challenges. What we want to avoid is crossovers, which are difficult to manage for a new facility. From a greens crew point of view, if you’re starting people out on two nines at seven in the morning, that means you have need two separate crews starting with equipment, so you’re doubling your equipment and staff costs. We’re definitely not going down that road, so we’ve decided to offer nine holes at select times of the day, but it’s definitely not going to be limited to twilight or first thing in the morning. We’re going to monitor very carefully how the course is being used and adapt to that and put the nine holes in when people want it.

What we see happening at this point is that certain days and times during the week will be offered and we will publicize that so the people know the days of the week when they should play at Highland Pacific.

Promotion of a nine-hole product is just adapting to a changing industry. Here in Victoria, there are already local courses open to the public that are doing a tremendous job, but to create a market niche, we have to do something different and look at various options.

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