Even more important, stresses Finch, "we no longer have those disaster days. We can now react quicker, so that maybe only a single group is temporarily inconvenienced. At one time, six holes might have been held up before we realized we had a problem." And that was with an aggressive ranger out monitoring play. Since installing Prolink, Finch has reduced the hours of three rangers--saving a portion of their salaries. Moreover, with the system providing hole-by-hole diagrams as well as tips on how best to play each hole, Emerald Dunes no longer has to print low-tech booklets that do the same. Annual savings: $30,000.
Already Prolink just about pays its way. Finch's annual Prolink lease comes to less than $2 per cart per round, $90,000 for 48,000 rounds. Soon the system should be spinning off profits. Because Finch was confident that Prolink's glitzy golfer-friendly features were amenities he could mark up, he's boosted in-season greens fees to $135. And just around the corner lies the prospect of advertising revenues. Ads for local businesses and golf products currently appear on the cart screens between holes. Finch collects about $13 a day per advertiser. "This is very targeted, rifle-shot demographics--people paying $100-plus for greens fees. And your ad is delivered in a positive environment," Finch says. He adds that as soon as Leading Edge Technologies reaches critical mass with its installed systems, it will begin selling national advertising, guaranteeing something on the order of 2 million "impressions" a year to advertisers. Profits from the ad sales will be split with Leading Edge's partner courses.
Still brainstorming, Finch anticipates additional wide-ranging benefits from his satellite-aided cart system that could do wonders for his bottom line. For example, he might try to negotiate better terms with his cart-leasing company by demonstrating that Prolink's tighter monitoring of vehicle usage distributes rounds--and wear and tear--more equally through his 80-cart fleet, protecting the fleet's resale value. Or he might push for lower insurance rates, now that Prolink lets him flash an all-carts warning message when lightning poses a threat.
Above all, the new GPS-based technology helps satisfy Finch's long-standing and heretofore unrequited craving for control. "Our inventory is spread out over 250 acres. You basically give a player a cart and say, 'See you in four to five hours.' Now we can make intelligent decisions about a person's playing status and react in a timely fashion," he stresses. "That's a control element that's never been available to this industry before."
A typical day at the course finds Finch keeping a close eye on the screen of a laptop while working at his desk. The screen displays the same cart-tracking map as the pro shop's computers, allowing him at any given moment to get a snapshot of how his course is playing and being managed. That capability to look in from afar and keep tabs behind the scenes is the key to his future plans. Emerald Dunes, he realizes, is fast reaching its maximum profit levels. Gross revenues have risen steadily, from $1.7 million in 1990 to projected revenues of $4.8 million this year. The course's revenues should soon reach $6 million to $7 million--more than five times the annual receipts of the typical family-owned public course--and should then level off. Those estimates are based on an ultimate target of scheduling approximately 50,000 rounds a year, which is about as many as Finch thinks he can book without putting undue strain on the course and creating logjams.
To continue to grow beyond that point, Finch will have to add more courses. Initial plans call for a handful of courses geographically close enough to share fixed overhead costs as well as expensive caretaking equipment--a $30,000 aerator, for example. Eventually, who knows? Golf is one of the few remaining industries still dominated by mom-and-pop operations, and Finch thinks it's a business ripe for consolidation. He believes that with a helping hand from Prolink, there's no reason he can't operate a string of courses from a distance. Not long ago he proved it, peeking in on Emerald Dunes from some 35,000 feet above Atlanta, using the back-of-the-airplane-seat telephone connection for his laptop modem.
High technology, indeed.
John Grossmann is editor and publisher of NewsReach, a monthly small-business newsletter, based in Jamison, Pa.
