Jason Rockhold, a PGA Master Professional in Player Development, is the Director of Marketing with Ratcliffe Golf Services Inc., and Director of Instruction at the Impact Performance Golf Learning Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.

How it works:
At our range, we noticed that we had a large amount of our guests that would choose to hit from the nearest open bays from the golf shop and parking lot. This resulted in a lot of wear and tear on the top of the range and much less use of the slightly further away lower range. We had seven target flags set up at varying distances from about 100-230 yards, which gave no reason to choose one tier over the other.  So, at the beginning of the season, I decided to put 4 additional flags and cups directly in from of the lower tier. With distances of 50, 63, 75, 87, 100 measured from the center of the tee area, this offered a wedge scoring area that could sharpen those delicate scoring shots.

How it has helped my business:
The overall impact was instantaneous. As I finished placing the last hole of the scoring area, I saw two guests pick up their golf bags with remaining range balls and head down to the lower tier.  Not only that, but they both went back to the golf shop and bought additional range balls for the new area.   As the season progressed, the lower portion of the range started to gain more traffic with our lower handicap players that want to solidify all portions of their game.  The upper portion is still busy, however, made up of players that are looking to warm up prior to playing, just starting the game, or are working on swing mechanics. It has really evened out the usage of the teeing areas, which now have more time for re-growth. With more turf to hit off, we have greatly increased our guest experience. This minimal investment of under $100 and about three hours of time has shown over 100 times ROI in just the first year.  However, the increase in our range’s image from the customer standpoint will continue to grow for years to come.

If you would like to email the author of this Best Practice directly, please email jrockhold@pga.com