The Pellucid Perspective - June 2018 - 8

GOLF COURSE
DEVELOPMENT

The ideal situation is a course with enough unused land for the hotel, parking
that can be shared, a good number of nearby companies attracting business
travel and a clubhouse featuring a full service restaurant and bar.
were doing 35 weddings a year and that immediately increased to
70. We generated up to $400,000 a year in increased revenue at
the golf course."
Miller said that it's not always that easy to find the right golf
course and the right hotel partner, although Fairway Suites works
with a number of different hotel chains. The ideal situation is a
course with enough unused land for the hotel, parking that can be
shared, a good number of nearby companies attracting business
travel and a clubhouse featuring a full service restaurant and bar.
Finding that is the trick, Miller said, and sometimes it requires
some out of the box thinking to make an apparently round hole
accommodate what seems to be a square peg.
"Sometimes a [golf course] site will seem perfect for us but
the clubhouse will only have a hot dog wheel for F&B," Miller
said. "Sometimes we try to turn [the usual arrangement] around
and carve out space in the hotel design for a golf shop. We're still
looking at different ways to do things if we need to."
After its hiatus, Fairway Suites is now buzzing with activity.
The company and its hotel partners are flexible - they will either

purchase golf course land outright (at a below market rate due to
the ancillary benefits the hotel will bring to the course) or, if it's
municipally owned, lease the land. When the deal closes, Fairway
Suites will have a marketing plan ready to promote the course
and the hotel, Miller said.
"We've got lots of stuff in motion now," Miller said. "We have
four golf courses under contract and we need to find an appropriate hotel franchise partner, which isn't always easy. We research
local occupancy rates at other hotels and a number of other
things. The course contracts are for one year, because it can take
that long to get the property rezoned if necessary, do a deep dive
feasibility study and make sure the necessary utilities are in place.
You don't want to do all that work and then have the course tell
you they changed their mind."
While it's not for every course, when everything fits, the course
generates years of increased travel and outing play and swollen
F&B revenue ... and gets paid for it! The hotel has golf virtually
on the property and guest dining at no expense to the hotel. All
told, a perfect example of win-win.
n

Sometimes the best
moments of the job...

...are the ones
you don't get to see.

Your course is more than just a superb collection of fairways, greens and bunkers. To golfers, it's a sacred
place where memories are made. You're passionate about protecting healthy, happy places where we
work and play. We're with you. That's why we back our customers with the full scope of our global
scientific development, technical expertise, business-building tools, education and industry advocacy.

@BayerGolf
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8 The Pellucid PersPecTive

June 2018

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