For too long, the golf industry has been overdue good news. Fortunately, positive feedback is beginning to roll in, like the recent Sports & Leisure Research Group study conducted on behalf of GOLF.com, in which golfers identified that in 2017, they are playing golf more and plan to keep playing as often or more often than they did last year.
As the core golfer (who plays ten or more times per year) comes back to the game, what can you as the golf course superintendent or director of golf do not only to encourage this trend but also to ensure that it is your course these enthusiastic golfers are frequenting?
Course design, reputation, and conditions matter greatly, as does the cost to play, geographic proximity and a courteous and responsive staff. However, among the many factors that determine which courses golfers choose to patronize, details that could easily be overlooked are key in shaping golfers’ perceptions and recollections of their on-course experiences. From bag stands to ball washers, course signage to clubhouse message boards, golf course property furnishings collectively work together to speak volumes about the course, and about the staff and crew who keep that course humming. Playing Your Way from the Mini Tours to the Majors of Golf Course Furnishings Back in 1997, in the wooded, green Wisconsin countryside, where a cluster of pristine, naturally formed lakes surround the small community of Nashotah, Matt Morse launched a startup company then called, Great Lakes Golf Course Products. Whether he realized at the time the impact his vision would have on the golf industry is hard to say. But Morse could certainly envision the ways that golf courses would be enhanced if superintendents and directors of golf had access to property furnishings that were coordinated, durable, affordable and remarkably elegant in design.
As Great Lakes Golf Course Products grew, upsizing from one location to the next, so did its product line and its reputation. In 2007, the company took the name Prestwick Golf Group, and by 2009, it had moved into its current location in Sussex, Wisconsin.
While the first facility in Nashotah had a footprint of only 1000 square feet, the company’s current space covers an expansive 60,000 square feet. Prestwick Golf Group’s headquarters and production facility is equipped with state-of-the-art tools for designing and producing top-quality products through processes that emphasize output and production efficiencies. By refining lead times, streamlining the production process and listening attentively to clients and the needs of the marketplace, Prestwick Golf has not only grown into a thriving company, it has also helped define an important niche within the golf industry.
Making Golf Courses Memorable
When golfers play your course, if the products they see and the surfaces they touch are highly functional and unified and coordinated in style, their opinions about the course are automatically elevated. Although golfers and guests may not realize it has happened or recognize why it happened, your attention to each element of course furnishings helps make your golf course memorable to every player who tees up a ball and every guest who walks through your clubhouse.
Today, you’ll find Prestwick Golf Group outdoor furnishings at courses in all fifty states and in sixty-one countries around the world. Eighty-four of America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses, forty-six PGA Tour Stops, and the sites of three of the four major championships in 2016 use Prestwick products to enhance the aesthetics and the functionality of their facilities. No wonder the team at Prestwick describes what they do as, “furnishing an experience.” In fact, the phrase is so fitting, Prestwick Golf Group has trademarked it.
Prestwick Golf Group Keswick Club
High-Quality Products that Unify the Look and Feel of Your Course
Prestwick Golf furnishings start with top quality materials. Hardwood components are made from ipe and garapa woods. Both ipe, which is pronounced ee-pay, and garapa woods are milled sustainably in forests in South America. These woods offer exceptional hardness (ipe is twice as hard as hickory), strong insect resistance and a distinctive grain.
Ipe is a robust, reddish brown in color while garapa is an equally appealing golden yellow. Although each of the natural woods has its fan followings, if golf course superintendents or directors of golf prefer a specific color or tint, Prestwick Golf will stain the order during production. When left unstained, as many superintendents choose to do, ipe wood weathers over time to a pleasing silver gray.
Another long-lasting Prestwick material is its Forever-nu™ plastic. Bonding agents, colorant and UV inhibitors added to ensure longevity comprise three percent of this product’s composition. The remaining ninety-seven percent of Forever-nu is composed of recycled plastic, specifically, post-consumer high-density polyethylene (HDPE), primarily from recycled milk jugs. The absence of filler components in the recycled plastic means there is nothing within the plastic’s composition to absorb moisture and in so doing diminish the product’s durability and performance.
All of Prestwick’s plastic products are available in a variety of colors as well as in black, white or gray and have dado-slot and pocket screw construction and reinforced steel tubing, which help ensure stability, strength and many years of long-lasting service. Considered to be essentially maintenance-free, Forever-nu may occasionally need a detergent and water clean-up. If your Forever-nu products are particularly soiled with dirt in the faux-grain or the engraved labels, you may need to use a stiff brush to remove residual debris.
Collections and Custom Golf Course Design
Prestwick Golf Group Tribute Collection
Understanding that attention to details translates intrinsically to the perception that a course is a thoughtfully and meticulously maintained property, but that needs and budgets vary, Prestwick Golf Group offers individual pieces, curated collections and custom designs.
Whether a product is intended for on course use, the clubhouse or the practice facility, it will feature Prestwick’s signature style, the contrasting colors you pick from the provided color palette, distinctive arched accents, signature panel designs and durable post-to-panel construction. When you opt for products from a curated collection, either hardwood or Forever-nu recycled plastic, you gain coordinated components with high-end design through a simplified selection process.
For many facilities, however, extending distinctive course branding elements across the board to all course fixtures is the obvious best choice. The design team at Prestwick makes it easy for committees, club members and staff involved in the selection process to envision custom products by offering site visits from company representatives, presentations and helpful design visuals.
Personalize or unique items can be constructed from solid hardwoods, hardwood and plastic combinations or exclusively from plastic. You can choose the colors (including custom colors) and design elements. Because logos place such a unique role in golf course branding, Prestwick offers a variety of options for logo customization, including overlays, engravings, laser cut metal, cast metal, plaque overlays and laser engravings.
Time is On Your Side
No matter which products you choose, Prestwick Golf Group already knows that you’d probably like to receive it yesterday. The team at Prestwick has automated production times to deliver products as quickly as safe production and fulfillment practices allow. Although seasonal demands and order complexity create variances, in many cases, orders are shipped, on average, within fifteen business days of artwork approval.
To find out more about how you can boost both the functionality and the memorability of your golf course, visit www.prestwickgolfgroup.com.
