Golfbuzz episode2 13oct16

GolfBuzz - Episode 2

13 October 2016

He’s Back … the long awaited return of Mr. Buzzy …

Would you Play it or

Pass it

- Episode 2

Monte Rei G&CC Jack Nicklaus worked

A discussion about which courses, in a certain price bracket, to play or which courses to pass and not bother ! We work per country and each time, compare two courses and invite comments as to why you would play it or pass it. You can decide to play both or pass both, there are no rules.

Mr. Buzzy is back …

his magic on this outstanding golf course in the Algarve.

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GolfBuzz - Episode 2

13 October 2016

For Episode 2, we're heading to the Algarve in Portugal …

Would you Play or Pass the following courses and alternatives ?

Monte Rei G&CC - €190 buggy included.

This Jack Nicklaus Signature Design meanders its way through the hills close to the Spanish border in the East of the Algarve. This is a US Styled Country Club with service to match. Valet parking, personal attendance, fully equipped grass driving range with proper golf balls and targets. Greens 10+ on the stimp and 15 min. tee times. This is an experience and a day out.

Don't rush round Monte Rei ... that's not what it's there for ! Enjoy the round, play at a good pace without rushing ! Play or Pass ?

Alternative Next Door: Quinta De Cima, between €66 and €97 - This Rocky Roquemore design is the bigger brother of the more scenic Ria course with full length holes, a challenging layout without the views.

Oceanico Victoria @ €140, buggy extra @ €40.

Arnold Palmer opened the Victoria course back in 2004 and it has hosted several Portugal Masters. A modern design with plenty of water surrounded by flat marshland near Vilamoura.

It's a big course for amateurs and has a Tivoli hotel on site.

Three Musketeers on the 2019 Open Championship venue Royal Portrush.

Alternative nearby: San Lorenzo Golf Club @ €135 without buggy One of the clubs in the Quinta Do Lago area between Vilamoura and Faro Airport. One of the more challenging courses in the Algarve with holes 5, 6 and 7 amongst the most scenic in Portugal. There have been issues with maintenance at times which is mostly 'around the edges' but with the playing areas in good shape, there aren't many better courses to play in the Algarve.

Historic Hazeltine

G&CC will host the 2016 Ryder Cup and is one of two courses that will have hosted all of the US major championships.

Which ones would you PLAY or PASS ? Reactions to golfbuzz@par4our.com or on our Facebook page.

The Ryder Cup has come and gone … is it still half full or half empty !

There has been a lot of excitement, drama, controversy, tears of joy, patriotic chants, bring it on, finger waiving, sssttt’s, can’t hear you and then obviously the hindsight, the ‘I told you so’, the missed puts, the bottled under pressure and much more. It al started harmoniously until ‘the other’ Willet put the cat amongst the pigeons using a choice of words to describe the US supporters which would always see them rally against the Euro’s in general and Young Willett in particular. He basically ended Danny’s hopes of playing well in his first Ryder Cup well before the first ball was struck. Clarke had to leave him out the designated first partnership with Westwood. Instead it was the long hitting

Mr. Buzzy is back …

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GolfBuzz - Episode 2

13 October 2016

Belgian (no, not Colsaerts, the other one) who was picked up and dropped into the bonfire with the seasoned campaigner and Chubby, sorry … Darren’s pick.

Lee wasn’t firing on all, if any, cylinders and smothered Pieters in so many bad shots and the poor Belgian was the sacrificial lamb. Kudo’s to him the way he came back to pair with Rory and the combination of, one the one side, cocky self assurance in McIllroy and the other side, the other cool dude from Belgium saw them cook up a dream partnership for in Pieter’s case, hopefully many other Ryder Cups. The Americans won for various reasons … ‘our’ plan of adding experience to the mix with Kaymer and Westwood rather than form backfired for Clarke. Some pairings were questionable especially splitting up the passionate Spanish duo and then top loading the singles ‘to get some blue on the board’ fell flat like a badly baked soufflé when Rory lost to Mr. US Ryder Cup Patrick Reed. It looked all a bit ‘been there done that’ for the Euro’s and the Americans wanted it, needed it more. Mickelson was epic and shuffled the deck a bit following the humiliating defeats of the past few years and succeeded.

The US seems to have a bit more depth going forward and Paris is not a foregone conclusion.

The fans were, well, they were patriotic and while some of them went too far and that has no place in any sport, they created an atmosphere which reverberated far and wide. I loved it but losing 4 - 0 in the first session away from home is hard to get back from. The Ryder Cup is definitely half full for me !

You better Golf Now because there won’t be any golf tomorrow !

The merger of one of the leading tee sheet companies in Great Britain and Ireland with ‘the’ tee time marketing giant that is GolfNow, presents, as Harrison Ford once said in one of his movies, a ‘clear and present danger’ to the golf industry in those regions.

Obviously, as an individual course and on a micro economic level, getting a golf management system for ‘free’ in return for, just a couple of tee times per day, seems to make a lot of sense. Sure, they are not getting the best tee times … the season does not run for 365 days so they won’t sell all of them and we are not full anyway. What harm can it do?

Just to put things onto a macro economic level and perspective, in Ireland for example, there are for argument’s sake about 250 courses running on this software. All these courses, from January onwards, will have to give up two (2) tee times per day. Do the maths, two tee times per day times 365 days times 4 players, this effectively means that 730,000 rounds of golf have just slipped from Mr. Buzzy is back …

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beyond the golf industry’s grasp. The courses have lost control over these tee times. They’ve just given away a big chunk of their domestic green fee income because rest assured, the tee time marketing partner will sell these tee times at any price and will drive golfers to these available tee times and only to these tee times.

They will obviously dazzle the course with marketing speak for they are a marketing ‘machine’.

Sure, we will push course rounds as well because not everybody will want to book these particular rounds oh, and sure, consider all the auxiliary spend of these 730,000 golfers on your golf course. Then we will give you extra promotion and marketing and every golfer will know about your course and only your course, bladibladibla and bla and then some more bla.

Let’s put that into perspective as well. OK, a golfer has bought a 5 € / £ tee time. Is he really going to spend €/£ 65 on a logo sweater and another 20 on a steak dinner? I’m sure there will be exceptions but my money is on him not bothering. He’s sniggering as he’s got one over on the course and come the 19th, he drives away into the sunset.

Well, it can’t be all that bad ? Well … there is a precedent. In the US, where this all comes from, this third party discounting mechanism created a generation of golfers that will look for the cheapest round available ... full stop. The new generation of tee time scavengers will go down the list and down and then further down to find the cheapest rate available, look at the course and think,”that’ll do.”

So this chunk of 730,000 rounds of golf will basically suck out the little life that’s currently left in the Irish market. At an average green fee of let’s say 40 Euros, this equates to potentially and almost 29 million Euros of green fee revenue that will not reach the course’s coffers.

On the other side, the inbound tour operator still feels smug as he has ‘loyal’ customers that have certain ‘standards’ and ‘requirements’ but that is only because that’s the only thing he can book at this very moment. If I was a US tour operator, I would approach this party and buy up a chunk of cheap rounds and wrap them up with some accommodation and flights and throw them on the market … cheap.

Furthermore, what prevents this marketing giant to wrap these rounds up themselves and throw them on their market. After all, they have the marketing channel for it !

Now suddenly, you not only have lost your domestic market but you have all these Americans trampling all over the Emerald fairways … without paying you for it ! Suddenly the tour operator is not that smug any more and will come to you, the course, and ask for a better deal … and a better one … and a better one … till there is hardly anything left. This is known in the industry as, the ‘death spiral of discounting’ and at the end of that spiral, even the golfer that the other day ‘got one over on you’, looses out.

Be very careful about his and don’t jeopardise all the good in golf by signing away your green fee life because, nothing good can come out of discounting.

Don’t golf now, as we need there to be golf tomorrow !

Mr. Buzzy is back …

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GolfBuzz - Episode 2

13 October 2016

NAU head for the Algarvian hills !

The NAU Hotels & Resorts has risen like the proverbial phoenix out of the CS Hotels ashes and in a short period of time, has established itself as the new and shining star on the Portuguese tourism firmament.

To start of our 10th anniversary year, EGTMA members were invited to the Algarve to experience just what exactly the NAU Hotels & Resorts are trying to achieve. With three golf courses and several hotels all within reach of each other, their offer is both diverse and immense.

We headed for the Morgado Resort just inland of Portimao and on the way to Monchique. The resort is easily reached via the A22 about 45 minutes west of Faro airport. Although it still bears the scars of the insatiable appetite for expansion the CS Group had, the resort has a nice level of privacy and cosines. With two courses, extensive practice facilities, a practical clubhouse and high quality accommodation, this is an ideal resort for smaller groups or couples who have their sights set on golf, good food and relaxing.

Morgado and Alamos are two different courses with Morgado being the longer and more generous of the two and Alamos requiring precision with both the driver as the approach. Both courses are designed by European Golf Design, a European Tour and IMG joint venture. Alamos, with its small undulating greens, sits on the north side of the valley with extensive views over the Monchique mountains and the Algarve's agricultural landscape while Morgado heads back towards the coast. The accommodation is set in several low level buildings nestled in the South East facing hill and waking up with the beautiful Algarve sunsets is one of the perks of staying at the Morgado Resort.

Heading back East towards Albufeira, the Salgados complex comprises of several hotels next to the Salgados lagoon. The golf course forms the buffer between the hotel complex and the nature reserve and has a distinctive Florida feel to it. With water in play on all but one hole, this is a test of nerve and skill. Stray and your ball will most likely find a watery grave. The courses is flat and easy to walk and has some lovely views at the far end of the course. The Salgados Dunas Suites hotel sits virtually on the beach and offers large rooms and suites to anybody's taste.

During the week we were to sample the different meals both resorts offer with a-lacarte and buffet dinners put in front of us.

None of them disappointed as they were equally as good. The hotels have pride in offering typical Portuguese cuisine with local meats, fish, vegetables and cheese all presented superbly. We all know that Portuguese wines, although not often found Mr. Buzzy is back …

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abroad, are amongst the best in the world and offer superb quality at a reasonable price.

Combine the two and you're in for a treat. The food is uncomplicated and deliciously honest and accompanied by a glass of Douro, Alentejo or even Algarve wine can't go amiss.

The Algarve is reachable from any European country with low-cost airlines. The weather is mild all year round and it's safe, very international and familiar. Portuguese society is all about family and children are welcome everywhere.

The NAU Hotels & Resorts are a young and vibrant local hotel group and they recently held a recruitment drive to provide employment to a beleaguered area of Portugal where youth unemployment is high. They are doing their best to provide a future for the region that is currently going through a revival and tourism in general and golf tourism in particular is very much at the heart of that revival.

But remember …

Will a 5-iron get me there ? Eventually !!!

Till next time …

Mr.Buzzy

Mr. Buzzy is back …

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