Let’s face it, golf is not growing for Millennials. Although we’ve been fortunate enough to put a slight reversal in this trend with the growth of the National Collegiate Club Golf Association, the fact is that playing golf has become challenging for Gen Y. As the experts in young adult golf, we are constantly exploring ways to reverse this trend, below are four ways courses can join us in this movement.
1) Get Active on Twitter
Young adults are moving off of facebook and onto newer social media outlets such as Twitter and Instagram. Unlike Gen X or older golfers who have regimented tee time schedules on weekend mornings, Millennial golfers are more open ended in setting their golf schedules and more likely to swayed to tee it up on a weekend afternoon if a tweet were to come across their feed from a local golf course that might be college rated. Since many of the courses that are already part of our course network do not utilize twitter, we created an Introductory Twitter Guide to help courses get active on social networks that matter for Millennial golfers. We’ll be creating a series of more advanced guides for Twitter and other social platforms ongoing.
2) Become College Rated (formerly CollegeGolfPass)
College students typically can’t afford to pay the same rates as working professionals on the course. For that reason, we partner with courses across the country to market college rates to our base of 10,000+ students. Becoming college rated is as easy as figuring out what rate you want to offer and when. At that point, we post it on our website and let our NCCGA Club Golf teams know about it to increase your daily play. Students present their mobile memberships at the course and valid student ID so you know that nobody is cheating the system. Joining is free and always will be. Courses always maintain complete control of their rate and can change it at any point.
3) Host an NCCGA Tournament
In 2014 we will host over 100 student run college tournaments and we are currently arranging our fall tournament schedule. The size of our tournaments vary depending on the size of the NCCGA Region, but will typically range from 40-80 players with Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning tee offs.
4) Offer Group Lessons
We work with campus recreation and club sports departments across the country to encourage the growth of golf on campus in physical education, intramural, and club sports scenarios. If you are a pro and interested in teaching students on campus, email Mike@nextgengolf.org and we will be happy to work on setting up teaching opportunities for you.
We are always testing creative ways to get Millennial golfers and young adults out to the course. If you have an innovative method of engaging with college golfers or young adults, email blog@nextgengolf.org as we would love to interview you about it!
**Mike Belkin is a Co-Founder of Nextgengolf. If you are interested in getting more Millennial golfers on your course, let me know on Twitter @MikeBelkin11
