As a former director of golf at Turnberry, and with 12 years experience working for IMG Golf Course Services, Paul Burley is well qualified to pass judgement on how the golf industry can adapt to the new world post COVID.

In an exclusive interview, Burley – who is also a PGA Master Professional – shares his thoughts and opinions in order to help golf clubs all over the world emerge stronger from the pandemic.

“The COVID pandemic has affected us all in the golf industry, and everyone, everywhere will feel the effect,” he states. “It will not be business as normal when the situation eases, and there will be a new normal we will all need to adjust to.

“In some countries, golf will bounce back quickly, and we are already starting to see some markets recover and open up again. Other markets will need time, and in particular clubs and resorts in high-end destinations that rely on international tourist golfers for their revenues will have significant challenges to deal with in 2020 and beyond.

“We started to see the impact in January, initially at our clubs in China, and then throughout the region and across Europe as the weeks went on,” recalls Burley.

“We have stayed close to our owners and management teams at each club, making sure they had all the support needed to either keep the club operating with safety protocols, or make the decision to temporarily close, following government guidelines.

“We developed an extensive IMG COVID Best Practices guide which covered all aspects of club management; operations, greenkeeping, sales & marketing, PR and human resources, as a way to support owners and the teams at our clubs throughout the pandemic,” he added.

“Keeping in regular contact with owners, employees, industry partners, suppliers and members as much as possible has been important throughout this process, and it will continue to be the case. We have tried to use this downtown productively, and have been working on updating databases, websites, templates, SOP’s etc.

“The greenkeeping teams at our clubs have also been hard at work where it’s possible, doing renovation and upgrading projects, that are otherwise hard to do when the course is open and busy. Whenever possible, we have communicated greenkeeping projects to members and to our social media followers to keep them updated on the club’s activities and provide them with interesting, newsworthy content.

“We firmly believe that clubs that don’t communicate well during this period – internally and externally – will have significantly bigger challenges to deal with moving forward. We can all communicate better, and this period has highlighted to us some areas that we need to work on to improve our communication channels.

“Owners, members, partners and suppliers will value regular contact more than ever – not a call or email simply to talk about business, but also to know how they’re doing and to continue with building strong relationships. At IMG Golf Course Services we have regular management calls to go through all our different projects worldwide, and we find this a great way to stay connected and share best practises. We have the advantage of managing clubs in many different markets across the world, so can leverage this powerful information to benefit each of the clubs we manage.

“Social media is an important part of our marketing & communications strategy, and some clubs may have missed a massive opportunity to stay close to their members during the pandemic. We advise clubs not to self-promote and be sensitive at all times with their content.

“Humanizing posts has been a priority for us, and we took the opportunity to present team members, announce new appointments and do an IMG coaching series with videos from different IMG head professionals. These posts have the highest number of interactions and is something we aim to continue to do after the crisis.

“Perhaps some clubs will now understand the power of building and maintaining a strong database,” adds Burley. “Moving forward, digital marketing will play an even bigger role in the communication strategy for golf clubs, particularly as budgets will have to be re-organised. Clubs must take every opportunity they can to collect email addresses and constantly keep in touch with their members, guests and visitors.

“There will be a need to re-evaluate the membership products and associated benefits many clubs offer. Having the right membership product with built in flexibility, particularly with the challenges facing the golf industry in the future will be very important.

“Long gone is the time when golfers joined a club simply because of the golf element. Having the right portfolio of partnerships that can be used as a membership benefit, can play a significant role when deciding which club to join. Partnerships are something that take time and effort to build, but something that golf clubs must do more, otherwise we’ll continue to lose business to other hospitality products.

“Membership benefits can go from arrangements with car dealerships, lifestyle companies, to reciprocal arrangements with other golf clubs; all of these partnerships will enhance the membership offering, and help retain existing members and make new memberships more appealing.

“When clubs can start to sell tee times again, it will be important to have an appropriate selection of promotions ready to go. Reducing green fee prices now will present challenges in the mid-to-long term when the market recovers, so we have been advising clubs to create exciting promotions, add value and aggressively target local markets.

“Local golfers will appreciate the offer, and you are also giving them an opportunity to experience your club. Make sure you collect their contact information and stay in touch – you might be talking to a future member or golf event organiser.

“It took a pandemic for some of us to focus more on our mental and physical wellness. During the lockdown we regularly shared a Wellness guide with the teams at each club, incentivising them to look after themselves by exercising, reading or taking new online courses.

“We believe the crisis should also change the mindset of clubs, by making them invest more in the staff wellbeing. Social distancing gave us no choice, but to invest some of our time and effort in this might well have a positive impact on the business.

“With many clubs across the world temporarily closed, budgets are going to be squeezed like never before. The importance of partnerships as we mentioned earlier also applies to golf club suppliers.

“We are all in the same boat and no golf business is not being impacted by the pandemic, so it’s important that we all work together and show flexibility in our dealings and business relationships.

“It will take a lot of effort, but if we all work together as partners and not simply as buyers/customers, we will recover quicker and come out of it even stronger.”