Thousand Hills Golf Resort
Redesign Completion
Grand Opening
2020 Golf Experience Today
· In 2009 we obtained a master plan from our
architect.
· In 2010 we asked our customers, “What would
enhance your golf experience?”
· In 2011 and 2012 we combined the architects
plans with your comments and made the changes
· In 2013 we are unveiling the finished product,
the “2020 Golf Experience”
So, what is the 2020 golf experience? As we collected and analyzed information from all of the sources we
reached out to it became quite evident what the most important factor that we
needed to address, was our customer’s most valuable asset, their time. And, as we began to dig deeper into the
equation not only did we need to take time into consideration but we also
needed to look at the quality of our customer’s time. The golf course is always in great condition
and the level of customer service that we provided was second to none so how
did we implement a plan that was directed by the customer’s quality of time. We thought about what we were doing and it
did not take us long to figure out that, although we were not terribly far off
of our goal of increasing quality of time, there were definite areas that we
could improve on and certain processes we could change to align ourselves with
the golfer of today and tomorrow, the 2020 golfer. From that came our final implementation plan
that centered on our interpretation of where our customer’s values would lie by
the year 2020. The final product, the
“2020 Golf Experience Today.”
What was changed at Thousand Hills to enhance the customers time and
quality? Thousand Hills is located in
the center of the theater district in Branson Missouri
and has a unique layout that incorporates golf with the beauty of the Ozarks Mountains
so no changes were needed there. Changes
were addressed in most other areas of the golf operation. Some of the changes were subtle but some
involved major construction or equipment purchases to obtain the final goal of
providing the “2020 Golf Experience.” Here’s a list of the main changes that
were made at Thousand Hills, broken down into three categories, maintenance,
accessibility and speed of play.
Maintenance:
· A specialized mower was purchased with a contour
deck to allow lowering the height of rough by close to an inch to aid ball
locating and increase the percentage of quality shots.
· The same mower was found to be significantly
faster than initial mowing methods and allow for the rough to be cut twice as
often keeping the rough at the desired height longer.
Accessibility:
· An innovative new flag accessibility system was
implemented to allow greater access to the golf course for senior players.
Instead of a single handicap flag, an additional flag, “senior flag,” was added
to allow seniors to drive on fairways at times when normal traffic is
prohibited.
· A cart path was rerouted on an intensely hilly
green approach to allow a shorter walking distance and close to zero degree
entrance to the twelfth green.
· With the same project the distance was also
shortened and a near zero degree entrance to the thirteenth tee was created.
· A round about was added behind the sixth green
to shorten the length of walking travel to the green and add a nearly level
access point.
Speed of Play:
· The final leg of the process was to reroute the
course. This change stems from several
factors. First, the easiest (2) and
hardest (3) holes occurred back to back and very early in the round. It was decided to change the routing of the course
to move the hardest hole later in the round when the golfer is warmed up and
more able to attack one of the toughest par 4’s in Missouri. Second, the course will flow better with shorter distances between holes
and a more intuitive route.
A fourth category called fluff could be added to the list. A new fleet of Yamaha golf cars was added in
2011 and with all of the changes that were made it didn’t make much sense to
use carts that were not new. Over the
winter Thousand Hills Golf Resort staff negotiated intensively with Yamaha and
was able to put a fleet of new 2013 golf cars in place to be the “icing on the
cake,” of the 2020 Golf Experience.
When totaled, Thousand Hills Golf Resort ownership committed more than
$250,000 above normal yearly operating expenses to complete the project. Over the first week of April 2013 Thousand
Hills will be introducing the finished project with a huge event. There will be golf specials that have never
been offered before to thank customers for their patience and to celebrate the
dawning of a new golf age.
Celebrate and experience the future of golf today with
these specials the first week of April 2013
· 4/2 Tuesday: 2 for 1 all day
· 4/3 Wednesday: Ladies play for cart fee
+tax ($18.00 +tax) after 11:00 A.M.
· 4/4 Thursday: Seniors (over 55) pay only cart
fee +tax for 18 holes of golf ($18.00 +tax)
· 4/5 Friday: Four for the price of three
- Sausage biscuit breakfast
· 4/6 Saturday: Everyone pays only cart Fee +tax
for 18 holes of golf ($18.00 +tax)
o Play with Shoji foursome event
o $2,500 hole in one on 17
o Closest to the hole prizes
· 4/7 Sunday: $25.00 includes 18 holes of golf
and power cart + tax