Is golf course business lucrative?

[Aether Multimedia]

One of the Photography courses I took was from a National Geo photographer and he insisted that he only shot during the golden hour, I learned a tremendous amount from him. I have always wanted to shoot Pebble Beach from the air. I love that course so much I would do it for free unless they wanted to buy the photos, problem is Monterey seems very anti drone.

Can you tell me more about flying in Monterey? What makes them anti-drone? I am bidding on a job there, but I don't know the area.

 

[Newton Ware]

I always thought it would be but have not tried yet. Actually, I though it would be a great idea to get a group of Golf Courses to participate in an online website for golfers to visit, view hole layout and and offer discounted rounds of golf by participating courses??? There you go. Feel free to use my idea free of charge. No royalties necessary .

PS try to offer a free hole or two to a local club and see if you get an traction....

You just described Golf Now! And several other marketing groups. They offer satellite shots,flyover when available and such. They are mainly trying to sell rounds of Golf though. Any photo or video is just to support that endeavor. Please understand, golf is not a growth market. I’ve been in the business 15 years. The club house managers want you to give them a detailed hole-by-hole flyover with zoom features, music and special effects for a few hundred dollars. Basically the cost of a few green fees for days or even weeks worth of work. And I have recently ran up on a situation where I offered to do some work for a small course under construction and I was told, “the architect has got his own drone and he is doing all of that for us”. And I am willing to bet a dollar to a donut that he doesn’t have any form of license at all. And sees no problem, just like the real estate folks. But lord help if you want to operate in their field with out the proper licenses.

 

[karaemurphy]

Great thread. Our team did a project for the 2017 US Open held at Erin Hills in Erin, WI.

Such a beautiful course. Lots of study hours went into this project for the ultimate lighting/shadows as this course has stunning color in its green fairways and golden fescue.

Here is the first hole at Erin Hills. Be sure to watch until the end and spot Mama Deer and her fawn

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You can read a bit more about the project here: Erin Hills 2017 US Open Drone Flyovers

I've included a few additional shots from Erin Hills that were used in US Open marketing by Erin Hills, FOX Sports, the USGA, Golf Magazine, Golf Digest and a few others. Mainly shot with the Inspire, some shot with the M600 – all images are from an X5. (Edit: There are a few from an X3 when we did some original testing at EH in 2015)

Unfortunately the beauty of this course wasn't necessarily seen the week of the tournament and weeks leading up and following as it was covered by grandstands and tents, and the fescue was so trampled by spectators, but if you're a golf fan or you golf destination courses, you've gotta see/play Erin Hills.

Hope you enjoy the below shots and course flyovers! There's also some more discussion over on this original thread from a few months ago: US Open (Golf) this week at Erin Hills! - Drone flyovers

–The Advexure Team

Beautiful photos!

 

[karaemurphy]

Have you considered branching into mapping courses. Identifying problem areas and measuring overall health of the courses and putting greens?

 

[Newton Ware]

C

Have you considered branching into mapping courses. Identifying problem areas and measuring overall health of the courses and putting greens?

That’s exactly what I want to pursue. Much more in line with my work as an agronomic sales rep

 

[Rodger]

View attachment 222 View attachment 222 I’ve been in the agronomist side of Golf for 15 years. They are some tight dollar folks out there. Many superintendents have drones now. So it is tough to get into. And I did some flyover work for a course in Evans, Ga and put together a short 2-3 minute movie of each hole. My God, the post production time.

I am looking for opportunities in addition to the beauty shots. I want to tie my Drone services to plant health. That’s where I want to go.

Any idea as to the Superintendents being licensed?

 

[Orange Bird]

I have done it as a courtesy. I'm a low voltage contractor (video surveillance, access control, structured cabling, audio, etc) and have done golf club courses and provided course videos (actually fly the 18 holes) at their request for customers I've provided the above services at pools and clubhouses. What I might suggest is to offer to give them free shots (or videos) of all the holes in exchange for a contract for monthly course maintenance surveys. This might seem odd but what seemed to appeal to them the most was that from the air they can best see needs for better fertilizer and watering which is less apparent just driving a cart around. So maybe you should get the grounds guy/girl excited first. Besides, you have better luck getting in the grounds maintenance budget than in the marketing budget. From your own experience, which is an easier expenditure decision - drone maintenance and repair or drone services marketing? Most of us have spent almost $0 on our own drone marketing so that's the last angle I'd take. The exception might be real estate when marketing IS their product.

The nice thing also about your product (low cost aerial video) is it is an easy way for grounds management to validate what the grounds people are telling them.

Good luck.

I like the idea of monthly maintenance surveys. Flying the entire course every month could be fairly lucrative.

 

[Newton Ware]

Any idea as to the Superintendents being licensed?

None that I know of, and I know of one high end golf course architect that is using his drone in his work and I strongly suspect he is not licensed.