John Durcan is the PGA owner of Alapaha Golf Links, in Kingston, New York. His facility is comprised of a nine-hole Executive course, full service driving range, and indoor golf center with four state-of-the-art simulators. John has been a PGA Golf Professional since 1989, primarily in New York State’s beautiful Hudson Valley. He credits his wife, Mary and son, John as being the backbone of the business.

John Durcan on the importance of maximizing the value of your golf property:
With the New York golf seasons getting seemingly shorter and shorter, it became a challenge to sustain the revenues and profits needed for our business to be successful during a six or seven month span. Just because the season ends, it doesn’t mean the bills stop. With unused space at our facility, and a desire to offer golf services to our customers year-round, we decided to acquire four aboutGolf simulators. After researching the product and speaking with indoor golf facilities within a couple of hours from home, we felt the time was right. Now we are confident that we’ve built a vehicle at Alapaha that satisfies everyone’s golf urges, and has helped make the numbers we need to succeed in these trying financial times. Our Kingston golfers have fallen in love with the simulators and can’t get over their accuracy. They’re playing courses they would never be able to, albeit virtually. And with three nights of leagues and a full food & beverage menu, we are offering the complete experience, all in a perfectly climate-controlled setting.

John Durcan on the business impact of maximizing the value of your golf property:
With over 1,500 hours of simulator use in the first three months of business at an average rate of $35 per hour, we are pleased with the response from customers we’ve seen in the past, as well as others from across the region who saw our ads on Facebook. We’ve filled the simulators on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights with over 50 golfers who wanted to take their indoor golf experience to the next level. Our three league nights have proved profitable and helped bolster our new food & beverage service, bringing in revenues we didn’t have before. With rates that are comparable to the greens fees of most local courses, our customers have given us wonderful feedback, both verbally, and in returning time and again. Mother Nature will dictate how much use our simulators get, but we anticipate great usage over the hot summer months as well as those snowy New York winters.

If you would like to email the author of this Best Practices directly, please email jdurcan18@yahoo.com