Off-season marketing generates $50,000 for golf course

A marketing plan launched in December at Sierra Sage Golf Course generated $50,000 for its new management team during a time the snow-covered course is closed.

Cal-Mazz Golf Management, a partnership between longtime golf superintendent Cal Swanson and managing partner Mike Mazzaferri, took over operation of the formerly Washoe County-owned course on Nov. 1.

Cal-Mazz Golf in December offered $10 rounds of golf and quickly sold out the 5,000 rounds it made available.

More important than the revenue was the number of new golfers attracted to the course, says Mazzaferri, who ran the Rosewood Lakes and Brookside golf courses for nine years.

The $10 vouchers were limited to 10 per household. About 460 new names were added to the course's customer database.

"Our big thing was we wanted to throw some marketing at it a lot of people didn't even know the course was there," he says. "We were trying to get some new faces, and we got quite a few regulars who bought them, but at least half were new faces."

The course's customer database is more than 1,000 names strong, Mazzaferri says, and future marketing plans include offering a free birthday round of golf to those customers.

"We are trying to create relationships with customers," he says.

The duo, which is leasing the course from the county on a two-year agreement and hope to secure a long-term deal, also is working hard to change golfers' perception of Sierra Sage, a perennial money loser under county management. As the course continued to lose money, Mazzaferri says, its conditions deteriorated, which led to even larger declines in play.

Cal-Mazz Golf Management lowered greens fees to 2007 rates, and is improving the course's playability with extensive grounds care.

Marketing is a new concept at the course. Mazzaferri says he's got several more ideas in mind but didn't want to tip his hand. The goal of the management team is to get golf community to view Sierra Sage as their affordable home course, much as Brookside was to hundreds of senior golfers before it closed.

"The solution to a budget crisis is to create more rounds you can fix a budget crisis with more revenue," Mazzaferri says. "If we lose $200,000 it is coming out of our pockets. If we can make the business work and get this course back online, it will be an asset the golf community can use again."