Did poor weather in 2016 cause our fall in green fees ?

[ship69]

Hello

Our green fees were 17% down in 2016 vs 2015.
We are trying to work out if the weather was the problem.


1. Was the weather during 2016 genuinely worse than 2015 for golf? And if so, how can we prove it?
i.e. Where can we get objective facts about what last year's weather was like?

Background
We are wondering why our green fees fell quite so badly last year. We suspect that the weather was part of the problem, but how can we be sure - where can we get the facts?


2. What is the relationship between weather and green fees?
Very subjectively it does feel like the relationship between green fees and the weather is rather complicated, either way. So far we think the relationship between weather looks like this:
- Warm + Wet ==> Lots of players (sometimes)
- Cold + Wet ==> Nobody plays golf
- Hot/sunny + Dry ==> Only a few players (visitors tend to go to the beach instead!)
- Cold/sunny + Dry ==> Lots of players

We have a links course located in Scotland, UK.

J

 

[Jimaroid]

If you're handy with spreadsheets. You should be able to correlate against historical weather information from the Met Office: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/climate-historic/#?tab=climateHistoric

But remember, correlation is not causation.

 

[Hosel Fade]

Hello

Our green fees were 17% down in 2016 vs 2015.
We are trying to work out if the weather was the problem.


1. Was the weather during 2016 genuinely worse than 2015 for golf? And if so, how can we prove it?
i.e. Where can we get objective facts about what last year's weather was like?

Background
We are wondering why our green fees fell quite so badly last year. We suspect that the weather was part of the problem, but how can we be sure - where can we get the facts?


2. What is the relationship between weather and green fees?
Very subjectively it does feel like the relationship between green fees and the weather is rather complicated, either way. So far we think the relationship between weather looks like this:
- Warm + Wet ==> Lots of players (sometimes)
- Cold + Wet ==> Nobody plays golf
- Hot/sunny + Dry ==> Only a few players (visitors tend to go to the beach instead!)
- Cold/sunny + Dry ==> Lots of players

We have a links course located in Scotland, UK.

J

The head greenkeeper should have extremely accurate data regarding the weather. Then compare it with green fee sales. It all depends on how the data is kept as to how hard that might be.

Bear in mind all the other things that could be the cause.

 

[BTatHome]

Was 2016 really worse than 2015, or was 2015 just so much better than 2014?

Also I would guess you need to be figuring these things out much faster than waiting almost 6 months into 2017 before looking at them. It would easily have been a small thi in May-2016 that caused this, and now your a year after the fact. It might not be possible to fix it now.

 

[ship69]

If you're handy with spreadsheets. You should be able to correlate against historical weather information from the Met Office: http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/climate-historic/#?tab=climateHistoric

But remember, correlation is not causation.

Thanks - that is just what we need except that there is no weather station remotely near us here at Arisaig.

 

[ship69]

Was 2016 really worse than 2015, or was 2015 just so much better than 2014?

Also I would guess you need to be figuring these things out much faster than waiting almost 6 months into 2017 before looking at them. It would easily have been a small thi in May-2016 that caused this, and now your a year after the fact. It might not be possible to fix it now.

We're only a very small course and we're lucky to figure out certain things ever!
In any case certain types of promotion (e.g. changing our brochures) only have a very slow burn effect in any case.
The thing is that the weather has such an enormous impact on a day to day basis, and is a handy excuse for poor performance!

Either way does anyone else have any numbers about weather being too good (i.e. too sunny) negatively affecting green fees?

J

 

[patricks148]

I assume you are at Traigh?

We had no worse weather last summer than at other times and we had a very successful year for visitors as did Royal Dornoch.

some of the smaller clubs around here all struggled for visitor green fee's

 

[Deleted member 3432]

I assume you are at Traigh?

We had no worse weather last summer than at other times and we had a very successful year for visitors as did Royal Dornoch.

some of the smaller clubs around here all struggled for visitor green fee's

Visitors not using the honesty box if it is indeed Traigh?