How to Start a Driving Range

FORE!!!!  Are you a avid golfer?  Do you prefer spending your free time swinging a golf club?  Then why are you sitting at a desk counting beans all day?  Confucius once said, “If you love what you do, then you will never have to work a day in your life”.  I think that is one of the most true quotes out there!  So why not pick a business you are going to love doing!

Driving ranges are just a open field that golfers use to practice their swing at.  They are very popular, and if you live in a town that doesn’t already have one, than they can be very profitable too.

How to get started:  The first thing you need to do is find your land. You can look for anything from one to 35 acres, but there is a few things you want to take into consideration. First, write a list of your long term plans for the range, do you plan on adding any buildings in the future?  Would you like a mini golf course, or batting cages?  Would you like a pro shop?  The reason you want to figure all of this out before you purchase or rent your land is for zoning and licensing purposes.  There are several different routes you can take in this start up; here are a few ideas:

• The cheapest, and easiest route to take to get started is to either rent or purchase farm land, and set up your range there.  You will be zoned agriculture, and most jurisdictions will approve your request for the zoning of your range.  Now, the major downfall to going this route is, in most cases, you are not allowed to have any structure placed anywhere on the property.  What I mean by structure is anything that is fixed to the property, like a building, or permanent lights, or even decking for your range stands.  Now there is ways around this, like portable lighting, and a mobile home for your pro shop.  As you can see, this is the easiest and cheapest route to get started, but there is a lot of luxuries that you can’t do with this option.  Now, if you have a great eye for urban development, this could also make you a multi-millionaire without ever spending a dime on your investment.  The perfect scenario would be, that if you noticed that major developers are starting to creep into your town, and you see a nice plot of land that you think they might be interested in, in the near or even distant future, you could just buy the land, and use your driving range to generate income for five or ten years, even if it is just enough income to cover your expenses, by the time those big bulldozers are ready to move in and turn your land into subdivisions, or a urban sprawl, you will probably have paid off the land, and they will probably be offering you millions to let it go!  Hopefully just in time for your early retirement.  This is how Donald Trump became a billionaire.
• Option number two would be if you are really planning on growing into a large profitable one stop shop for sporting practice.  You are going to want to find land that is either already commercially zoned, or land that you think you can get zoned commercial  (hopefully you have some political pull on the local level).  This land is going to be much more expensive, but it will give you the options to go with much more elegant planning and design.  You can really pull off a lot better driving range with a lot less land if you go this route, because you will be able to put up retaining nets, and build double tier or even triple tier stands for your golfers to swing from.  This will also afford you the option of having other money making options from your land, because as you grow, you can add things like a mini golf course, a batting cage, or even a pub/restaurant for your customers.  If you know of a parcel of land that would be perfect, but it is not zoned correctly, don’t be to shy to take your business plan to the zoning department and ask to have the land rezoned.  This will cost you a bit in surveying, and licenses, but it will save you money from the price of land.  A lot of local government would be willing to help you with this, because in the long term, it looks good on them to promote local businesses, and it brings the city or town a lot of tax money!

Next step: Now you have a great plot of land with unlimited potential, but you have to develop it into a great driving range.  The most important part about this step is planning.  You want to get it open to the public as soon as possible so you can start bringing in some income, so you can take a lot of shortcuts, and just throw some yardage markers out in the field, and give it a good mowing, but you will want to make sure you are planning for what you want to do in the future.  Make sure you leave room for your buildings, and other options you plan to include down the line.

Some other ideas to think of:

1. Hire a pro to give lessons, you don’t have to pay them, they will just have a hourly rate for their clients, and that is how they get paid.  This offers your customers something extra.
2. Have a golf club repair station to supplement income during slow times.
3. Find sponsors.  A lot of golf apparel and supply companies will give you free stuff including clubs and range balls if you only use and advertise their products at your range.
4. Vending.  There are a lot of vending machines available for this industry, and the more you get that is accessible by vending machine, the less wages yo have to pay employees.  Automate as much as you can.
5. Putting greens are great for practice, so think about having a couple for your customers free of charge.  They still have to buy the balls from you, and this gives them another reason to come out and practice.
6. Heated driving area.  If you live in a area that has harsh winters, think about having a few heated bays, so that you can still produce income in the cold season.  No golfer wants their swing rusting up during the winter.
7. Swing analysis machines, and indoor driving simulators.  There are a lot of virtual swing machines and indoor virtual golf courses available, and by offering these luxuries, it differentiates you from all other ranges.  If someone is having a terrible time correcting a hook or a slice on their swing, they can just come down to your shop and swing through the simulator and figure out what they are doing wrong……for a nominal fee, of course!
8. Offer your customers video taping for their session so they can take it home and watch what they are doing wrong.  There is even equipment made that you can put into each bay that will automatically record their swing, and if they want the digital copy, they have to buy it from you.

Marketing:  If you build it, they will come.  Okay, not exactly, but if you can find a location that doesn’t have any competition, they most definitely will come.

There are a lot of great and creative marketing ideas out there for bringing traffic to your range, here are a few ideas:

• Have a long distant drive contest.  This is great for bringing the community together, and it usually brings in a lot of great press from your local media.  You can usually pull this off with out spending a dime, just call all of your suppliers, and ask them to sponsor it.  Callaway or Top Flight would love to sponsor events like this, because they can get their products right in front of the consumers eye.  Offer first, second, and third place prizes.  Your sponsors will usually donate the prizes.
• Start a lottery system.  Give every customer one special colored ball, and put a small basket or net out in the field.  If they make their ball in the net, give them a cash prize.  For every day that goes by that nobody makes the shot, increase the pot.  This will generate a huge buzz, and as the pot gets bigger, so will your sales.
• Invite the local golf teams from the High Schools and Colleges to play at a discounted rate.  This will bring in traffic, and get you income that you can always count on.
• Offer free clinics every other month.  Sure you will lose money at first, but you are really getting more and more people involved with the sport, which will ultimately grow your bottom line.
• Start a competition.  Call out your local politicians.  Get the city council or if it is voting season, have the potential democrats compete against the potential republicans in a long drive contest.  You can guarantee that the local television and radio channels will want to cover this.  If you can pull it off, you might even start a tradition.  This will bring nothing but a positive buzz to your business (There is already enough mudslinging during an election, this would actually be a breath of fresh air).

These are just a few ideas, there are so many more out there, and if your creative enough, you can really market you new business without spending a dime.

Summary:  A driving range can be as simple and as small or large as you want to make it.  You can earn anywhere from 50k to millions a year, it all boils down to what you want!  If you truly love golf, what would be better than driving to your business everyday, and doing what you love?

Resources:

Wittek:  Supplies for ranges, courses, and miniature golf.

Doyle Golf:  Range supplies

Eastern Golf:  Range supplies including mini golf.

Golf Range Association of America:  This is a association for golf range owners, they also have a monthly magazine on the industry.

GolfCourseEquipment.com:  They have lists upon lists of suppliers.