U.S. course operators have much to learn from their European counterparts when it comes to using golf technology at the course. You might think the game of golf is the same wherever you travel—and you are probably right. It’s the business of golf and the experience that changes, particularly in European countries.

The European market in large part can be viewed as a “lifestyle experience”–spending leisure time in a healthy, stress-free way. To keep attracting their customers during all seasons, European leisure centers are increasingly combining indoor facilities, spa and fitness, with the traditional outdoor facilities of golf and tennis.

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“Being able to manage your golf, spa and leisure activities with one integrated system is of critical importance,” says Gerhard Zielinski, president of YellowTip Software of Spain.

“The facilities are working to bring an experience to both the husband and wife for the day. One plays golf while the other enjoys the spa. Later they both have a lunch in the restaurant and then pay one statement at the end of the day.”

Golf in Europe through the years has seen a steady growth and profit for the operators. “Golf has always been more businesslike in Europe, especially in the northern countries and along the Mediterranean,” says Kirk Jensen, president of Jencess Software & Technologies Inc. “It’s like selling widgets, but instead of widgets they are selling tee times. And they want to sell every widget they have on the shelf.”

Commercial golf is a fairly new development in Europe, dating only to about the mid or late 80s. “Golf seemed like more of an elitist game in Europe where land was much more valuable (thus making golf courses much more expensive to build) than here in expansive North America,” Jensen says.

This short history was probably beneficial in creating the business of golf in Europe. “We do not have such a long history of commercial golf,” says Lodewijk Klootwijk, executive director of the European Golf Course Owner’s Association. “We had hardly an example when we started, so we invented a lot of things ourselves, and this turned out not to be so bad in some cases.”

Selling Capacity

European golf course operators utilize management information systems (MIS) to sell their tee times—the equivalent of a company’s widgets.

“They fill that tee sheet up wherever there is a possible spot, whether it’s nine holes or 18 holes,” Jensen says. “Whereas most of us here in North America only focus on 18 holes, they focus as much on getting a nine-hole player as an 18-hole player.”

An MIS provides a total overview of the golf course’s available capacity. “From very early in the morning when the sun rises, our system knows what time this is, so no tee time is wasted,” says Klootwijk. “We can also use the back nine for booking tee times; for instance, nine holes in the morning from the 10th tee. We are very keen on selling all the capacity we have, and we look at the 10th tee all the time.”

Giving golfers the option of booking nine holes is one of the unusual features found on European golf course Web sites. “It’s better because their tee sheet is completely utilized,” Jensen says. “There’s not a couple of gaps here and there—they totally fill it up.”

Internet booking is not unusual; in fact, it has grown very quickly. “About 40 percent of our tee times are booked over the Internet,” Klootwijk says. “It’s great service, and it saves a lot of work at the reception area.”

In addition, European golf courses are more likely to move people around in their tee times. If a large group requires some space, the course will offer the golfer of a conflicting time a special incentive to allow the group or tournament to be fully placed.

The technology gives golf courses a lot of control over the thing they sell—capacity. “No hotel works without an MIS because they want to control their inventory or capacity,” Klootwijk says. “With an MIS, you can actively use yield management to improve your result. Also, you have access to all sorts of statistics that can improve your decision-making about your product, pricing etc.”

Building the Loyalty and Mining the Data

Loyalty points, where golfers receive points for their purchases, are another tool that European golf courses are utilizing better than their American counterparts.

“They are very focused on the loyalty member,” Jensen says. “They really market a loyalty member program to the public player.”

This kind of program may be somewhat easier to develop in Europe because every golfer already has a card with his or her handicap and golf association or certification number on it. “It’s almost like your golf passport, you must have it,” Jensen says. “You need your card to book a tee time.”

European courses also use golf technology to identify their customers and segment them for marketing purposes. “A good MIS makes micro-marketing possible,” Klootwijk explains. “You can almost communicate with each customer, or at least a selection of customers. If you have shoes that are size 7 on sale, mail this to your clients with a size 7.”

This data mining is also used for statistics on play, how many rounds per type of customer, occupation percentages on days of the week etc.

“They will look and see they have really low bookings on Monday through Thursday afternoons, so they will send a blast e-mail to the different loyalty members saying they have a special in the afternoons,” Jensen says. “They have even asked us whether they can blast e-mail a text message to cell phones.”

Because European golf courses are maximizing their utilization of golf technology to excel in the business of golf, as they have learned from the United States, there is much their American counterparts could learn from them.