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Golf’s got 99 problems, but is the big cup one?

By |  November 24, 2014 1 Comments
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Nick Goettsche, assistant superintendent at Boone Creek GC, Bull Valley, Ill., cuts a 15-inch cup. Boone Creek was one of about 100 courses to test 15-inch cups this year as part of a pilot program.

The golf gods were not smiling upon Pheasant Run. They may have even been angry this particular day.

Andrew Hardy, superintendent at Pheasant Run Golf Club, Sharon, Ontario, and his crew had just spent 10 hours putting out 15-inch cups for an event on nine of their 27 holes. Now all they needed were golfers to come out and give these big cups a roll.

But they didn’t come.

“Lead balloon, big time,” Hardy sighs. “I guess people are too immersed in tradition.”

Tradition. The game is steeped in tradition. But what is it not steeped in these days? Rounds played. Revenue. Course openings.

Can tradition pay the water bill?
 

Size matters

The standard golf hole is 108 millimeters wide — approximately 4 ¼ inches. When it comes to playing golf, maintaining a handicap, bragging about a long putt for birdie, this is the only hole.

Andy Hardy

Andy Hardy

After all, no one has ever bragged with a straight face about a hole-in-one on an alternative cup, right?

In recent years, larger cups have entered the game. From a shade larger than the standard 4 ¼-inch cup to the whopper, a 15-inch hole (hard to call something 15-inches wide a ‘cup’), the intentions are good. But the reaction is mixed.

“Some of the traditional golfers thought we lost our mind when we put the 8-inch cup in the ground, even though we had an 18-hole traditional option available right next door,” says Anthony Williams, CGCS, CGM, Stone Mountain (Ga.) Golf Club, who happens to be recovering from open heart surgery apparently not caused by the new cup size. “We have to insulate the guys who have been teeing it up every Tuesday morning since 1969, because those traditionalists see it and they spit venom.”

Steve Mona

Steve Mona

Steve Mona, CEO of the World Golf Foundation, on his way to Barcelona to speak to members of the European Golf Course Owners Association concerning, coincidentally, the perception of golf, says that he’s never played on an alternative cup. That doesn’t mean he’s one of those traditionalists opposed to them.

“I think as an entry point (alternative cups) are fine. For instance, people who have never played, or who have played and left the game. If they’re more encouraged to come out and play 8-inch or 15-inch cups, that’s good,” he says. “My position is anything that creates more interest and activity in the game is good, so long as it’s not counter to the rules and the conventions of the game.”

What about maintenance challenges? Is an oversized cup popular with superintendents and their crews?

Anthony Williams

Anthony Williams

“From a maintenance standpoint, (the plugs) are not easy to set back into the ground and level,” says Michael Heustis, superintendent at Chicago Highlands Club in Westchester, Ill. “It seems like for weeks you can see where the big cup was cut. As a rule, the smaller the plug, the easier it is to match up.”

“Getting the plugs back in is a battle. That’s my biggest gripe,” says Mike Kearns, superintendent at Crowne Isle Resort and Golf Community, Courtenay, British Columbia. Kearns has tried the 15-inch cups as well as FootGolf on his course, with some success.

More popular than the big cups with Mike Kearns’ kids, Cameron and Aidan, was a FootGolf setup they helped with.

More popular than the big cups with Mike Kearns’ kids, Cameron and Aidan, was a FootGolf setup they helped with.

“The men’s/women’s group wanted to play night golf on (the 15-inch cups),” he says. “They’re labor-intensive (to install). If we’re going to do it, we have to make sure it’s worth it and we get enough golfers to make it work.”

Heustis says that big cup events have done well at his course, but mostly, being a new course with a new membership, they’re just trying to key in on what the membership likes.

“The thing they’re going to remember is holing a 30-foot putt, or chipping in,” Heustis says. “It’s a fun event for the family. If you’ve got young kids, (big cups) are an easy way to get them more involved.”
 

Point of entry

If you want a 15-inch golf cup and cutter, there’s only one place to get it: Par Aide Products Co. The biggest of the big cups came from an idea that started at the 2014 PGA Merchandise Show with TaylorMade golf.

“They approached us as experts and asked us if we could develop it,” says Dan Brown, sales and marketing manager for Par Aide. “They weren’t looking to replace the golf cup, but trying to find a way to get kids and novices involved in the game.”

Brown raises a good argument when it comes to sports and entry points for kids. It seems like every other sport has an easier version for kids to learn before graduating to the normal game. In basketball, the rim is lowered and the ball is smaller. In baseball, a tee takes out the difficulty of a moving ball. Even bowling has bumpers in the gutters so kids can enjoy success despite having no control over a bowling ball.

“Golf has always had the same equipment for adults and kids. Same ball, same hole,” Brown says. “Kids will spend eight strokes just getting the ball to the green before they can putt. That’s no fun.”

Lind Hunemuller, account executive with Standard Golf, says they offer customers 6-inch and 8-inch cups, and have had some success with both. Last year they sold just shy of 2,000 8-inch cups.

“Clubs want to know how to get more people involved,” Hunemuller says. “It’s fun for kids, for couples.”

But he adds, they’re not for everyone.

“I played on the 6-inch cups, I thought I’d make more putts, but I didn’t,” he laughs. “These cups aren’t for me. I’m more old-school.”
 

Breaking barriers

Scott Melling of Par Aide displays the blade designed to cut the 15-inch cup.

Scott Melling of Par Aide displays the blade designed to cut the 15-inch cup.

The big cups successfully brought Stone Mountain new business after their late summer/early fall aeration. Typically it’s a challenge to get golfers at this time of the year, so the resort lowers rates.

“It helped us fill in some spots that are typically slow,” Williams says. “Usually we just drop the rates way down and play it out for two or three weeks. This time, we dropped the rates but not as much, and encouraged people to come out, get in some golf, and still be home in time for the football game.”

Kearns says what he thinks about most when it comes to business is overcoming the intimidation people may have who aren’t familiar with his facility. Crown Isle is in a town of 40,000 people, it’s located in an affluent area and the clubhouse is an eye-popping 48,000 square feet.

“People don’t come to eat because they think we’re private. People don’t golf because they think we’re expensive or you need to be a member,” he says. “We think of these problems quite often. If we can get 125 kids up here… maybe the kids don’t play golf, but maybe their parents can discover what we have to offer.”

To Kearns, it’s not about an oversized golf cup. To him, it’s about breaking down barriers.

“People think you have to be a really good golfer to come out here. We want people who don’t even play to come out and see what we have to offer,” he says. “Parents can let their kids hit the range while they see what we have, just to get a taste. I don’t think (alternative golf) will stick, but maybe it can break down barriers.”

Williams plans on bringing the big cups out again in the spring. He used the 8-inch cups on 18 of his 36 holes and left them out for six weeks. Williams says the crew didn’t change cups daily because there is less wear around the cup. “People aren’t grinding out the 3-footers on these cups,” he says.

“We learned some things,” Williams continues. “We’ll be more successful next time. I had a lot of supers ask me if I lost my mind. We believe with 36 holes we have flexibility, whether we take nine holes or 18, to offer golfers variety. It’s a viable way to introduce new business to the club. Maybe it’ll lead to an occasional round, or channeling them to instruction. But the biggest thing is, we weren’t doing enough to be a welcome mat. I want this place to be a 340-acre welcome mat. I want people feeling comfortable coming to the club.”
 

A cup, not a windmill

Stone Mountain GC employee Gibbs Valcin stands next to the first 8-inch cup cut at the course, immediately after aerification.

Stone Mountain GC employee Gibbs Valcin stands next to the first 8-inch cup cut at the course, immediately after aerification.

The way courses utilize these alternative golf cups will continue to evolve. As Williams says, it’s a learning process. Certainly, golf courses and golf accessory companies will strive to continue to find new ways to be successful.

“We’re trying to do our part,” Par Aide Products’ Dan Brown says. “We’ve had some negative feedback on Twitter. We’re not trying to change the game — we’re not going to introduce a clown’s mouth or a windmill to the game. We’re trying to help grow the game.”

“We’re so caught up in tradition and golf being a certain way. It’s not going to change,” Pheasant Run’s Hardy says. “Golf costs too much. When you give families the option of a round of golf or spending some time at the lake, they’ll always choose the lake over golf.”

“We know we want more golfers,” Williams says. “And I know the one place I’m not getting them is from the golfers we currently have. They’re dying off. We have to do something to get the new breed in here.”

Another thing Williams has learned: keep the big-cup golfers and the regular golfers separated.

“If you mix rank amateurs with guys who know what they’re doing, you’ll have problems,” he says. “The pace, the knowledge of the game, the etiquette is all
different.”

He says he’s seen the old guard trying to talk newbies out of the big cups in the clubhouse bar. It’s something that makes him cringe, because he just wants to see people at ease and enjoying themselves at the facility.

“The goal is to have the beginner come out and have this great experience and want to come back. You don’t want to make this effort just to have them come in and get stressed out,” Williams says. “We’re so stuck on some traditions in our industry. Sometimes, I think we’d rather our ships sink than make adjustments.”

Photos: Sarah Nader; Courtesy Shaw Media; Mike Kearns; Stone Mountain GC by Seth Jones

This article is tagged with and posted in Maintenance, People

About the Author: Seth Jones

Seth Jones, a 18-year veteran of the golf industry media, is Editor-in-Chief of Golfdom magazine and Athletic Turf. A graduate of the University of Kansas School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Jones began working for Golf Course Management in 1999 as an intern. In his professional career he has won numerous awards, including a Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association (TOCA) first place general feature writing award for his profile of World Golf Hall of Famer Greg Norman and a TOCA first place photography award for his work covering the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In his career, Jones has accumulated an impressive list of interviews, including such names as George H.W. Bush, Samuel L. Jackson, Lance Armstrong and Charles Barkley. Jones has also done in-depth interviews with such golfing luminaries as Norman, Gary Player, Nick Price and Lorena Ochoa, to name only a few. Jones is a member of both the Golf Writers Association of America and the Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association. Jones can be reached at sjones@northcoastmedia.net.


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