“The Charlie Rymer Golf Show”: Myrtle Beach Moves Forward

Turbulent times have not stopped the Myrtle Beach golf industry from conducting daily operations. Hear from four of the Grand Strand’s leading stakeholders in the industry as they discuss with Charlie how golf has not only adjusted effectively to a pandemic world, but looks to a future where the game will continue to be an important part of people’s lives.

Charlie Rymer:
Hi, I’m Charlie Rymer, and welcome to a special edition of the Charlie Rymer Golf Show, powered by PlayGolfMyrtleBeach.com .

Charlie Rymer:
I’m thrilled to be joined by an esteemed panel of golf industry experts here in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, the Golf Capital of the World. To my far right over here, Mr. Bill Golden, he’s the CEO of Golf Tourism Solutions. To my right immediately here, Dave Genevro. He is the general manager of Barefoot Resort, our host today by the way, an award-winning, 72-hole facility. Thank you for having us here today. And Steve Mays, who is the president of Founders Group International, a group with more than 20 golf courses here in the Myrtle Beach area. And Mike Buccerone, Well, every time I say your name, I get a little hungry every time I say that, Mike. But Mike is the president of East Coast Golf Management, a big player here in Myrtle Beach, and we appreciate you joining us.

Our show today, we’re going to talk about what’s going on here in Myrtle Beach currently, but more than that, we’re going to look towards the future, both near term and far term. Not only what’s going on with the situation here in Myrtle Beach right now, but golf in general. And certainly with this pandemic, we live in unprecedented times and we’ve all had to make tough decisions. And when I say all, I’m talking about families, businesses, industries, and not just here, but states, regions, countries, and it’s been challenging because there’s been no playbook for this. And like all crises, even this one, I think when your perspective gets high enough, you see some silver linings and we’re going to get to that in a minute.

But before we do that, Bill, unfortunately you’ve got the short straw. You’re so good at delivering bad news or challenging news, that’s one of your superpowers, but just maybe give us an update of the challenges that are facing the golf tourism industry here in Myrtle Beach right now.

Bill Golden:
Sure. When you said the word, which is unprecedented, and like any industry that relies on consumer spending, golf tourism here in the area, it was like nothing we’ve ever experienced before. And of course, for those who know or are familiar with the Myrtle Beach golf season, spring is our high season. March through May is golf package season and our courses are in the best shape. And frankly, that’s the most critical season for our golf industry and we lost it. As a matter of fact, we lost that season. Obviously, people couldn’t travel, flights were canceled and it was a really unfortunate situation around the country, but our industry, the economic impact here was considerable. And as you can imagine, from a local standpoint, from a state standpoint, the tax impact to the state, it was a significant hit, not only just on the golf side, but also tourism in general.

Charlie Rymer:
Yeah, no doubt. It’s been tough for all industries and we’re going to recover and it may not be a 100-percent full recovery where every part of every business recovers, but we’re going to do the best we can, no doubt about it. But as I’ve gone through this from my personal perspective, Dave, living here in Myrtle Beach now, I’ve been able to get out and play a lot of golf. And I’ve been to a lot of golf courses. Your facility, your 72 holes, you’ve got one of the biggest driving ranges you’ll ever see. Every parking lot that I’ve gone to to play golf during this pandemic, it’s been full of people, tee times have been full, and we’ll get you guys in a second, but I get the feeling that as we’ve gone through this horrible crisis, that people have turned to golf and they’ve come to appreciate golf maybe more than they did before. I almost feel like we’re all going through this reawakening of our love of this game of golf. Do you share that feeling?

Dave Genevro:
Oh, I do, 100 percent. The members, the locals that were here supporting the golf courses during the last couple months, it was tremendous. And they realized that there was very little that they could do during that time and coming out to the golf course in the time of the year when our golf courses are all in fabulous shape, across the board, everybody is in tip-top shape for the spring season. And the weather was perfect this spring, they had the golf courses out here, I don’t want to say to themselves, but there was less play because of the people, the travelers, the package play was gone. They came out and I think they appreciated what they had even more. They appreciated the game. The tough thing that what I saw with both our locals and our members was as much as they love the game of golf, even more than the social aspect of it, how much they miss getting together for a drink and lunch after the round. But they were willing to give that up because they still had the golf part of it.

As we move forward ever so slowly, you see them opening back up and enjoying a little more of the social aspect with restaurants opening in a limited capacity, but it made them realize how lucky they are being here in Myrtle Beach and living in the area. How lucky they are to be members, whether it’s at Barefoot or any other golf course here within the Grand Strand, the “Golf Capital of the World” as you said earlier in the message, and seeing them come together as family and, in a way, they are our big family, all of our golf courses because they’re locals and they play here as often as they can. And we enjoy being able to have them during the time we were restricted. It was obviously helpful to all of us, in the game that they normally play once or twice a week, they started playing more. And then, talking to some of our members, they liked that. They said that we need to find more time to play golf and especially some of them retired and said, “Before I get too old, I was playing once, maybe twice a week. Now, I’m playing three or four times and I’m enjoying it. It’s good exercise. And it’s nice being outdoors.”

Charlie Rymer:
Steve, like David, are you seeing at your facilities these emotional ties to golf being reignited?

Steve Mays:
Yeah, I think, definitely. As Dave said, the locals and our members are out playing more and I think they took it as a renewal of their love for the game. It’s something they can do that when there was very little going on and they really took pride in going out and playing golf and staying and they would go out and play. Playing golf, we saw people play more, we saw people who hadn’t played that much and played golf once or twice a year, come out and start playing again. My oldest son started playing really for the first time during this time. So, a lot of people reignited or ignited that flame for golf during this time.

Charlie Rymer:
And Mike, I know a lot of folks, myself included, a lot of the things that I was doing on a regular basis I had to reevaluate all of that, and look at the resources I had and utilize those resources closer to me. And it’s been wonderful because I appreciate things closer to me, rather than getting on a plane and flying across the country, that option hadn’t been available. I’ve been maybe getting on the river and taking a cruise with the family, heading out to one of the golf courses. Have you seen habits start to change as we get into this, as it pertains to golf?

Mike Buccerone:
Yeah. Like the guys have been saying, the golf has just been … You sit back and the play has been great, but the locals coming out, the members, the one question you start to hear when you’re not walking around more is “who’s that?” These people are coming from out of their houses and they’re playing more golf, which is great, but it’s also given us an opportunity because we haven’t gone through this. We just haven’t. We could deal with a little storm rolling through, we know the prep, boom, three days it’s gone and we’re ready to roll, but this has been here and it’s showed us, maybe hit the reset button on some things on how we operate on a normal basis. Everybody gets into that mode, you come in, you check them in and go out.

But we have found ourselves… The guest service I think is even at a higher level now in our area, just for the fact of the other precautions that we’re taking for the guests and the members and the golf … going out and when the people are coming to the course, reassuring them that, “Hey, we’re really excited that you’re here,” and getting them more excited. But like Dave said, and everybody’s going to continue saying, it’s amazing how the members and the locals have embraced the golf and the staffs. Can’t forget the staffs in all of this. We’re sitting here, beautiful clubhouse and it’s our staff still sanitizing the cart rental area, they’re our front line. Not to discredit anything that’s going on in the medical field, but we’ve got employees that are out there, that are dealing with the customers and members on a day-to-day basis and it’s important that we recognize them, too. But it’s been great, Myrtle Beach looks like it’s the best landscaped area ever because people either are going to play golf now or mow their yards, that’s all I got. You see all these people, they can’t wait to go to the golf course … it’s been positive as we go through this.

Charlie Rymer:
Dave, the challenges of having your 72-hole facility here, one of the things that I’ve noticed, the lines of communication with membership, with resort guests, with daily fee guests on a bigger scale here, that communication has been vital because you’ve got to get to the folks coming to play golf. You got to let them know as we’ve gone through this, and of course we’re evolving out of it now, but all the restrictions. What have you learned as you’ve gone through this whole process of how to communicate with your membership and your guests maybe in a more effective manner?

Dave Genevro:
I think it’s just that you almost can’t over communicate. And when things really started happening very fast, we were communicating on a every other day basis. And as you said, it’s important. The toughest thing with the bigger you get is, it’s either a lack of communication or miscommunication. In talking to the staff, making sure that they’re letting the members know what you want and then, when we send something out to the members, it goes up to the front desk and it goes to everybody, all the department heads, to make sure they read it and they know when to say. And unfortunately, I mentioned this to a lot of people over the last three months, I’ve made more decisions that, after making those decisions, I wondered if they were the right decision. And that day they were, but two days later it was changed and it was something different.

So, it was evolving the entire time what we were doing, what we should do, what we couldn’t do. And I think as a destination, what I like about our destination and the guys in the room here with us, we’re looking at 40+ golf courses, our competitors. But we have such a close bond and we work together, when something like this happens, we work together even more. The amount of conference calls, phone calls, Zoom calls that we had talking about how we need to do this to make it better for our guests, for our members, for our locals. And something that Steve came up with, wow, it’s a great idea. He didn’t hide it, he shared it. He wanted us all to be taking care of these people the same way to make sure that we were keeping them safe and doing what’s right. And sometimes in a more efficient way, and maybe at times an economical way, but it’ll save us money because a lot of things changed in that aspect of our businesses.

Charlie Rymer:
In that same vein, Bill, I know you were instrumental in communicating to the authorities in Columbia (South Carolina’s state capital) about how we all think that golf through the pandemic is something that not only should happen, but is a positive. Tell me a little bit about some of those communications that you had with Columbia and also the golf community here in Myrtle Beach that was instrumental in letting us continue to play golf during the height of the restrictions.

Bill Golden:
Yeah, we can all recall that time when every hour it seemed like things were changing, right? And there were guidelines and rumors and innuendos. And we were lucky our governor had allowed golf courses to stay open after the first wave of the quarantine and the stay-at-home orders. But that came with a huge responsibility of providing a safe environment, and that’s something our golf courses are doing a phenomenal job, but hey, that’s a new (reality), so we’ve got to be sanitary to the point where we’re providing consumer confidence to come out and play golf without the threat of getting a virus. So, our golf courses mobilized overnight almost, and wrote the guidelines, put the guidelines out there and I feel like a lot of people throughout the state adhered or adapted our guidelines and of course contributed to them.

But on some level it was almost like we’re providing a customer service or a community service. Because if you think about the emotions that consumers are feeling, where people are feeling fear, isolation, anxiety, stress, uncertainty. And then, you think about what we would we say to counteract that, would be exercise outside, be outside, spend time with your friends and loved ones. That’s the tie that binds us, let’s not be so polarized. Let’s just get a common bond. It’s social interaction, right? That’s golf. So, we provided that respite for our community. And I think getting back to the point you were talking about earlier, that’s the message golf needs to carry on forward. Of all the things that we know that golf has been for centuries, we don’t need to change it. Let’s embrace it. If we learn anything from this crisis, if we’re going to take some positives from this, golf should really be part of that solution to them forward.

Charlie Rymer:
Didn’t walk on a beach pretty much any place in the country, but over half the golf courses are open. That says a lot about our game. Steve, some of the things that you learned working through this crisis, what was maybe the biggest lesson that you’re going to take away from having dealt with this pandemic?

Steve Mays:
That’s a big question, Charlie. And we learned a lot of lessons going through there, but I think to piggyback on the question earlier, and Dave’s answer, it’s communication. You have to communicate with your staff, communicate with your customers, communicate with our traveling golfers and really let them know what’s going on and make decisive decisions, and then communicate those out to everybody involved. I think that was the biggest thing that we learned going through the process is we’ve got to make those decisions and that decision may change tomorrow. But you have to make a decisive decision and communicate that out to all the stakeholders that you can and communicate that multiple times and make sure that that message is getting across.

Charlie Rymer:
I’m going to go around the horn here and Mike, this to you first. A lot of talk and I think very accurate in that we’re right now in the first steps of getting to a new normal as a society, and I feel like we’re in the same place with golf. Moving forward, what is the new normal going to look like for you and golf?

Mike Buccerone:
Well, I think from the operational side, I think obviously with the social distancing and practices, there’s more interaction and communication with your staffs, with your members, with the guests out there. Trying to let them know what we’re doing, be confident to come out here because we’re taking the lead on this. I think golf … I had an opportunity, I’ve played with some of the members at one of the properties three weeks ago, first time in five years. And you get up on the golf course, and this is great again. And I think for the new golfers coming in too, I think there’s less anxiety for somebody to come onto a golf course.

I could be wrong, but playing the golf course right now, we don’t have any rakes. So, the person’s not freaking out if they have to go rake the bunker, did they rake the bunker right? You get to the green, and I’m smiling, but they don’t have to worry about the flag stick. Do they lay it down and put it down? Do they even touch it? It’s there. Now, we have noodles. The floaters that are in the pools, we’ve got a little noodle that’s in there. So, there’s so many things … I think that people walk away and it’s like they’re wanting to give it a try or play more golf like Dave and Steve were saying, so there’s going to be some practices with regards to sanitizing additional more or not. Actually, at the end of the day, you look … it’s all great. It’s all great moving forward.

Charlie Rymer:
Yeah. I got a haircut for the first time in a long time yesterday, and it was amazing. I was looking rough, but the sanitation practices that they went through, I was watching the stylist do it. And I’m thinking, “We should have been doing this all along.” A lot of it is common sense, but do you see some practices that we picked up on when the restrictions were their highest sticking around, Steve?

Steve Mays:
Yeah, I do. There’s a lot of great practices. We had to reinvent ourselves and figure out how we can provide a better service for our customers, a safe service, a safe environment for them. So, I think a lot of those things will stay in place that we were doing. But I think, too, the thing that will stick, and Bill knew this, too, early or earlier than we’ve been talking about this, is reenergized for golf and that golf is great exercise and it’s where you should be. To be out there and see a lot more people walking and enjoying really what golf is all about, that’s the part we hope sticks is that energy for golf and that appreciation that golf is not just we’re out there riding around a cart, drinking a bunch of beer, and that’s not what golf all about.

Charlie Rymer:
(Laughing) Is there a problem with that?

Steve Mays:
It’s not a problem. I don’t exactly have a problem with that, but that’s not what it’s all about. You want to go out and get good exercise and have a great time and enjoy spending time with your friends and family-

Charlie Rymer:
That’s fine, too.

Steve Mays:
… that’s just a great way to do it.

Charlie Rymer:
So, you bring up a point there about the revenue model is going to have to change, and to go out and play a really good golf course, they’re expensive to build, expensive to maintain a lot of staff. There’s a revenue component to that, and a lot of times unfortunately, getting in a golf cart, paying the rental fee for the golf cart, that’s a big part of the revenue equation. Moving forward, I think we’re going to have more people wanting to walk. How do we deal with that as an industry? And this is not an easy question, but as an industry a big part of our revenue comes from golf carts, but we’ve got a lot of people now that are going to want to walk. That’s going to be a tough puzzle to figure out isn’t it, Steve?

Steve Mays:
Yeah, and it will be, but I think that’s one of the things we need to figure out as an industry. How can we encourage people to come out? If they want to walk, walk. It gives us great exercise, and we have to figure out how those revenue models work and we’ve got to figure out ways to do that and still be able to make money, encourage them to come into the club houses and figure out what that model is to encourage golf, and to encourage people to walk when they’re out there playing.

Charlie Rymer:
Dave, as we get into summer and fall, I think we’re going to have a huge summer and a huge fall in golf. People all over the country, they are fed up with being at home and they’re wanting to get out and safely do so and drive to a lot of places. We’re very drivable here, so I think we’re going to have a lot of volume the rest of this year, but Barefoot, the 72 hole facility, how is it going to maybe look a little bit different, feel a little bit different after having gone through this pandemic?

Dave Genevro:
Well, one of the things I touched on is we changed our maintenance schedule. We’re usually doing maintenance in the summer. We did maintenance during the last three to four weeks to be able to have the golf courses ready and available this summer, anticipating what you just said, that we could possibly be busy. And we don’t want to have the courses not in good condition because of doing the normal maintenance practice. Now, we’ll probably go back to that next year, but we took advantage of the slower times, having the four courses and being able to isolate one of them and do some maintenance on them and absorb the play onto the other three. So, we’re excited that this summer that the courses are all going to be in good condition. We’re going to continue on, as the others have mentioned, with the sanitation.

We want to make sure that if they are here, that they feel comfortable when they do get here. Both outside on the carts and also inside of the clubhouses. We have some people that … And other changes, especially in the county department administration, having the ability to have your people work from home. That’s something that I think we’re going to see change, not just in the golf world or in certain aspects of the golf world. I think we’re going to see that change nationally across the country. A lot of people finding that their employees can work at home and it’s going to be beneficial for them to continue to be able to do that, and it works out for their families also.

Charlie Rymer:
For your members and resort guests that show up and maybe they’re at risk for whatever reasons. They want to play golf, they’re not comfortable with hopping in a golf cart with someone else. There’s a lot of potential solutions out there with single-rider vehicles, some of the GolfBoards and (Finn scooters) motorcycles, all that stuff. Will you look more to innovate in that regard now that we’ve gone through what we’ve gone through?

Dave Genevro:
Yeah. I think as a destination, we’ll look at innovation there, looking at different ways to accommodate those. But as of right now, if we have somebody that walks in and they come up and they talk to us and they have an issue, we take care of them.

Charlie Rymer:
Work with them.

Dave Genevro:
I think we work with them across the board at all the golf courses. Last thing we want to do is have the customers excited to play golf and when he walks in, and he has an issue where there’s health issues, a lot of staff health issues, and not accommodate him. We’re going to do everything we can to accommodate him. If he calls us in advance, it might be asking him to, “Well, we can accommodate you, but we might not be able to accommodate you right at 8:00. Can you play at 9:30 or 10:00?” We’re going to work with them, and hopefully they’ll be able to work with us. But I think across the board, working with the Golf Course Owners Association here locally, in the state level, we’ve communicated these types of things and we want the customers to come. And if we don’t work with them, they’re going to find someplace else that will.

Charlie Rymer:
Or something else to do. Yeah. So, we definitely have to make our customers and members and all the local folks feel comfortable coming out to a golf course. Really easy to do when we’re all working together as a community, even though we compete against each other in so many situations. But Bill, I want to finish up with you because you’re the person who’s in charge of the messaging that’s coming from Myrtle Beach, going to the rest of the country and the world. The tone of that messaging, what are your views on what we need to get out to folks that are interested in coming to play golf at Myrtle Beach right now?

Bill Golden:
Yeah, I think there’s almost … We’re looking at it two different ways. If you look at it just from a golf standpoint, when we see the reasons why people don’t take up the game or why people have fallen away from the game, the amount of time it takes tends to be one of the top two or three reasons why they don’t participate in the game. But as we sit here today, will the appreciation of time and the gratitude that we have and taking advantage of the relationships we have, friends, family, business relationships. Why is it a bad thing to spend four to five hours on the golf course, right? We should embrace that, not hide from it. We don’t have three-hour rounds. We don’t need … It should be okay. And like you said, that during this time period, it’s like all of a sudden we’ve slowed down and I’ve seen neighbors I hadn’t seen in a while. Lots of people are riding around on bicycles. The golf course is full. It feels like the late ’90s on the golf course. People are walking and there’s people hitting balls on the range. It’s just there’s an excitement about it.

So, I think that’s one side of it on the golf side is let’s embrace that. In Myrtle Beach, what better place could you find than to come to Myrtle Beach to have that experience? Again, with your pals, with your families. You’ve got all the great activities down here, so we need to be careful as we wait out this virus and how it’s going to continue to progress. Hopefully, it’s on the way down, but at the same time, we need to be present in people’s minds that this is a destination that’s open, we’re adhering to all policies, we’re delivering a safe environment. It’s drivable, obviously, so it’s not only maybe an option that maybe a new option for somebody who typically used to fly to the West Coast or to Arizona, they can come to Myrtle Beach. But everything that we need as humans exists right here in Myrtle Beach right now.

Charlie Rymer:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Bill Golden:
Relaxation, weather, ocean, a respite from the news, spending time with people that we enjoy and getting out and doing some fun things and I think golf will play a critical role in that.

Charlie Rymer:
Yeah, and we’re certainly capable of doing all of that and following the appropriate safety protocols. So, gentlemen, I appreciate your time today.

My takeaway from being here with you this morning is number one, golf is good. It’s been good for right at 500 years. It’s going to be good after we’re all dead and buried, which hopefully will be a long time from now. And the other thing is, as an industry here in Myrtle Beach, we’re open, we’re prepared, we’re ready. Come down and check out Myrtle Beach, you’re going to like what you see right now. So, thank you very much for your time.

Appreciate you guys being with us on the Charlie Rymer Golf Show. We’ll see you next time.

Thanks for joining us. I’m Charlie Rymer. We’ll see you next time on the Charlie Rymer Golf Show powered by PlayGolfMyrtleBeach.com.