Central Coast Golf Trail offers 10 courses

By Raven J. Railey
rrailey@thetribunenews.com

Last weekend, Tom Barker stayed at the Spyglass Inn while he and some friends played a round at Sea Pines Golf Resort in Los Osos —and a round at Chalk Mountain in Atascadero and another at Avila Beach Golf Resort.

He would have played Morro Bay Golf Course, but it was booked.

“Now that I’ve been down there, I might have to come again,” said Barker, a parts manager for a John Deere dealership in Salinas. “It’s not nearly as crowded down there as up in our area. It’s a whole lot cheaper for greensfees— Pebble Beach is like $500.”

That’s exactly the kind of feedback local golf courses are hoping to hear.

“We do rely heavily on the ‘golf tourism’ business,” said Bryan Wunsch, event coordinator at Cypress Ridge Golf Course in Arroyo Grande. “There are only a limited amount of golfers in the area and many options to golf.”

Ten of the dozen or so courses on the Central Coast have been working together as members of the Central Coast Golf Trail to attract more golfers, tournaments and groups. They are also working with hotels and restaurants to offer multicourse golfing packages.

“Golfing itself has had a big explosion in the last 10 years,” said Ken Campbell of Campbell Golf Partners, the marketing firm that represents Central Coast Golf Trail. “A lot of golf courses have opened up on the way to the Central Coast, closer to L.A. and the Bay Area.”

Competing with regions such as Monterey, Santa Barbara, Palm Springs, Lake Tahoe and Las Vegas, local managers are optimistic that the region has what it takes to entice golfers from California and other states.

“Cost is the biggest thing,” Barker said.Most Central Coast courses charge less than $100 for a round of golf. At Pebble Beach, a round can cost as much as $475.

Local courses also offer a good challenge, Barker added—and it’s easier to book tee times compared with courses closer to home.

The Central Coast Golf Trail hopes to spread the word about the area, but those in the business know that it takes time, money and patience.

“Just like this region is known for wine and downtown — it didn’t happen overnight,” said Gary Setting, Sea Pine’s general manager and co-owner. “We have the potential to be a great golf destination.”

Visitors as well as locals

No one measures what percentage of Central Coast tourists play golf, but those who work in the industries say it’s still fairly low.

At Sea Pines, the only course in the county with lodging on site, only 20 percent of the hotel guests hit the course, Setting said.

“I call it my 30-acre swimming pool,” he laughed. “It’s an amenity. But what would we do without that other 20 percent?”

To expand that small percentage, local courses and the county Visitors and Conference Bureau created the Central Coast Golf Trail about two years ago.

Membership dues pay for advertising in Greenskeeper.org and the Southern California magazine Four. The golf trail Web site has had almost 30,000 visitors, Campbell said. The group is also mailing to those who register.

The golf trail group is also collaborating with Martin Resorts, the Boutique Hotel Collection and Embassy Suites to offer hotel-and-golf packages that can be booked online or by phone. Currently, Sea Pines staffs the Golf Trail 800 number and books these packages.

Individual courses are increasingly working together and with hotels to offer multi-course packages.

But they’re not just targeting golf enthusiasts. With the visitors bureau’s help, Golf Travel brochures are available at local hotels, and information is included online and in print ads aimed at the general tourism market.

“Simply put, for every hour that it takes a visitor to get to your destination, you need four hours of activities just for them to make the trip,” said Jonni Biaggini, quoting one of the rules from Roger Brooks’ book, “The 25 Immutable Rules of Successful Tourism.”

“So, if we are trying to attract visitors from L.A., three and a half hours away by car,” she said, “we need 16 hours of activities.”

Courses want golf to be one of the activities tourists consider.

Not enough lodging

But lodging has proved a challenge for some golfers, course managers say, particularly on summer weekends and during special events such as the Paso Robles Wine Festival or Cal Poly graduation.

“It’s easier to sell packages on the weekdays,” said Hunter Ranch Golf Course vice president and manager, John Carson. “We’ve lost business for the area because groups couldn’t find a place to stay on the weekend.”

Rob Rossi, who co-owns Avila Beach Golf Resort and Black Lake Golf Resort in Nipomo, said accommodations can be a tough component when trying to book a tournament with 144 golfers and their families.

“We’ve lost about half of the tournament business we used to have,” Rossi said. “The good news is the local hotels are generally busy. But we believe both Blacklake and Avila will benefit from having control over accommodations.”

Blacklake once had lodging, he said, but it was sold as condominiums. He hopes to solve the problem by building more accommodations.

Blacklake has a three-phase plan for a new clubhouse and 60-room hotel, course-side bungalows, meeting facilities, dining, 30 time-share units and 60 three-bedroom villas.

In Avila, Rossi has plans for 50 cottages next to San Luis Bay Inn.

If approved, the Blacklake project could break ground in 2009 and the Avila resort as soon as 2010.

Still, most courses say very large groups aren’t as common as the couples, small groups of friends or workers and golfing associations that tend to come to local courses.

“Our target market is two up to 24, not 60-to 100-person events,” said Campbell. “Larger groups don’t travel as far.”

Is the marketing effort working? It’s hard to measure, managers said, but almost all of the county’s courses reported a slight increase in rounds played this summer versus last summer.

Considering how high gas prices are, Carson said, most would expect business to be down.

“It it’s slightly better than last year,” he added. “We’re doing some other marketing things right.”