Golfdom, January 2016

Continued from page 18 Daily The paper reports the course lost 339000 in 2013 2014 compared with 188000 last year Still Cypress Lakes General Manager Scott Arndt remains upbeat and includes himself among those who think 2016 will be a good year for golf His hope is the course comes close to break even in 2015 2016 Its cyclical There was a boom then there was a drop off Arndt says I see golf growing here Is it where we want it No But its trending the right way Its all about getting the people on the fence Arndt continues We can do that by having a good friendly place to play Were not selling anything but fun and memories what can we do to incresae that Brian Burke superintendent at Sycamore Creek CC in Springboro Ohio says he is optimistic following three consecutive years of an uptick in business in southwest Ohio Weve had more members and more involvement Burke says I hope that well continue to see positive movement forward in 2016 Jordan Booth CGCS at Willows Oaks CC in Richmond Va thinks the incremental improvements hes seen over the last few years will continue His reason golf is responding by exposing more people to the game as well as becoming more laid back Youve got guys in shorts and jeans learning the game and having fun youve got speakers in golf carts people having fun with their buddies he says Thats what golf is about interacting with other people Continued on page 22 January 2016 Golfdom 21 Golfdom com ISTOCK COM ARTPUPPY THE GOLFDOM REPORT Jordan Booth SAN ANTONIO PAYS OFF FOR GCSAA Forget the weather GCSAA employees will remember their 2015 trip to the Alamo fondly In 2015 the Golf Industry Show took a departure from its regular slate of cities with a trip to San Antonio Texas While the weather was awful causing a cancellation of the final round of the golf championship revenue created by the new location created some sunny skies at GCSAA HQ in Lawrence Kan The GIS will return to San Antonio in 2018 San Antonio was an extremely strong show for us San Antonio was a very aggressive city in that they wanted our business GCSAA CEO Rhett Evans tells Golfdom There were a lot of concessions made by the city for now and in the future that bodes very well for us Evans says the success of the 2015 show adding the equipment managers into GCSAAs membership and the beginning of the Grassroots Ambassador program made for a good year for the association The association saw growth in their membership numbers and revenues came in above projections So what about 2016 Things are looking good so far according to Evans The 2016 Golf Industry Show heads west to San Diego always a popular destination and registration numbers are 10 percent ahead of where they were at this point in 2015 The association has added an additional hotel as the bookend hotels to the San Diego Convention Center already have sold out For our preview of the 2016 Golf Industry Show check out pages 30 34 The success of GCSAA is directly related to the success of the game Evans says Were projecting 16 to be stronger than 15 Not by a large stretch but any percent upwards based on this economy and based on the golf industry is a positive thing Brian Burke Rhett Evans THE SUCCESS OF GCSAA IS DIRECTLY RELATED TO THE SUCCESS OF THE GAME WERE PROJECTING 16 TO BE STRONGER THAN 15