Trafford Golf Centre
An interview with Michael Clarke, Operations Manager, Trafford Golf Centre originally published in Golf Business Quarterly.
About: Trafford Golf Centre hosts a driving range, practice areas and academy and Dino Falls Adventure Golf.
Are adventure golf and other non-traditional formats of golf fundamentally distinct from the game itself?
I think if you have a standalone adventure golf facility, you would say that’s a separate thing. You wouldn’t see many of those adventure golfers making it onto a golf course or a driving range. But because of the layout at Trafford Golf Centre, you have to walk past the driving range and through the back of the bays to get to the mini golf.
You get an awful lot of people who see others hitting golf balls on the range and suddenly they’re interested. Sometimes it’s just a question of the child seeing activity going on and thinking, ‘that looks fun - can I try that?’.
Is adventure golf also an avenue for adults to get into the game?
We get all sorts of groups coming to use our facilities, including Dino Falls. We have people on date nights, groups of men and women, corporate gatherings, school visits. It’s the same for them - some of them might never have played golf, watched it, or set foot inside any kind of golf setting, and then they can see it and it appeals to them.
We definitely see cases where people who come to play adventure golf end up coming back to try the driving range, for example.
Why do you think people might be more comfortable starting their journey in golf with something like adventure golf, rather than at their local course?
I think there’s a strong sense of inclusivity at the centre - there are kids, families, a wide range of ethnicities; it’s a representation of the general UK public. There are also no barriers to entry, no dress code and no membership required, no committees or traditions.
The other aspect is, if you’re just starting out, can you even play and are you going to enjoy it? It’s not an easy sport and I think a facility like ours allows for an easier introduction and a more relaxed environment.
Should golf clubs be looking at non-traditional settings as a potential resource to tap into and steer people towards the green-grass game?
They should, but it’s not something we see much of.
We welcome hundreds of people every day but we don’t really get any local clubs coming in to try and benefit from it. We do have partner golf clubs where we offer a slightly discounted rate at the driving range for club members to buy balls and practice here. I think there are definitely pathways from these settings to the golf course, but perhaps they’re not being properly harnessed at the moment.
What would it take to convert some of those many millions of adventure golfers into golfers in the traditional sense?
The key is trying to bridge that gap between having someone coming in and willing to play adventure golf, to then going along to their local course. If clubs and the governing bodies want to see an increase in participation numbers, it’s looking at ways to make the transition more welcoming and more realistic.
Firstly it has to be affordable and also it has to be enjoyable - they need to feel welcome and encouraged to be there. We can see from the numbers of people who come to us that there is a huge interest in golf, but there are broken links in the chain that are preventing more of those people moving from non-traditional formats into playing the traditional format.
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