Golf in Australia and globally is facing a number of challenges around participation due to the changing needs and demands of the consumer. Therefore it is vital that reliable data can be collected to assist the development of evidence-based programs to increase participation and sustainability in the sport. The National Golf Census is an annual commitment by Golf Australia and all golf industry stakeholders in order for the sport to monitor and plan the future development of the game around Australia. This year Golf Australia has partnered with Golf Management Australia (GMA) to undertake its census through utilising GMA s new world leading benchmarking tool, www.golfclubbenchmarking.com.au. This tool has been developed and adopted for the Australian market by Club Benchmarking USA, an industry leader in the USA providing benchmarking information to over 3500 of its golf clubs. Golf Club Benchmarking enables clubs to assess their financial and operational performance in minutes. With this online benchmarking tool, clubs will be able to benchmark their golf club against other golf clubs in Australia according to key metrics, such as revenue, subscription revenue, fee structures, operational costs and more. More detailed comparisons can be made by using industry filters including golf club type, club size, rounds played and location. In developing this tool, GMA have sought feedback from Golf Australia, State Golf Associations, the PGA of Australia and the Australian Golf Course Superintendents Association to ensure that Club Benchmarking becomes the primary benchmarking tool for the Australian golf club industry. Golf Australia CEO Stephen Pitt said the benchmarking tool would be a key component of golf club operations in the future. We understand the value of high-quality data to Australian golf clubs as they look at ways of improving their business efficiencies and they can compare themselves with best practice examples from across the industry, Pitt said. We re confident golf clubs will see this as an important part of their strategic planning in the future. Stewart Fenton, GMA Executive Member, said GMA is delighted to have initiated the new benchmarking tool for all Australian golf clubs to utilise and provides the platform for the collection of data for the future development of the sport. Clubs can produce reports in a range of document formats to share the comparisons with Board members and staff. With on-going access available, eliminating survey duplication, this tool not only captures clubs key participation data, but enables clubs to compare their results with all other clubs across Australia. For further information and to find out how to login in to the site please email: support@golfclubbenchmarking.com.au The 2013 Golf Census is due to be completed later in the year and will be made available to download from the Golf Australia web site.
Author: Golf Australia