Golf course marketing is a billion dollar industry and growing. New golf havens are built every month. The Golf business is getting tougher and so is golf marketing. There are too many golf courses and not enough new golfers.

Once you have all the grass trimmed just right and the menu perfected in the clubhouse with just the right blend of dishes, you still have the biggest business problem left: finding customers. Golf course marketing is the single most neglected aspect of the golfing business, and that is an amazing fact considering that most experts agree that marketing your golf course is the best way to break through from a struggling startup to having a consistently booked course.

Golf course marketing has evolved over the last several years to become one of the most important factors in determining your golf courses success. Your golf course marketing plan is crucial to the survival of your course. Golf course marketing is all about attracting new golfers through internet search marketing, email marketing, direct marketing and media relations. However, Golf course marketing is also about selling more to existing golfers and getting golfers to repeat visit. This is where golf marketing embraces the areas of customer relationship marketing.

Individuals who have no professional expertise in marketing and development of a member base operate many golf courses. This is because marketing is a specialized discipline and golf managers are experts in running golf courses - they are not necessarily marketing experts.

In the past it was expected that word of mouth would do the job of attracting and retaining golfers but now golf course marketing requires the marketing skills that are used by major brands. Golfers are consumers who have a choice of course to play.

There are agencies such as MarketingGolf.co.uk who specialize in helping golf courses implement the marketing techniques used by major brands but on much smaller budgets. For example, some of their clients are now using movie brochures as part of their golf course marketing and these brochures can be downloaded to a golfers video ipod so they can show fellow golfers where they will be playing.