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Tiger Tuesdays
By Steven Jeffress, Phil Richards
Michael
Herrick (pictured right) struck gold from the gold tees. Trying to find
a way to pump up business on the slow days of summer, Herrick decided to
capitalize on a rarely used portion of Shaker Hills Golf Club in Harvard,
Mass. - the championship tees. "We always seem to set it up so easy with the white tees up and the championship tees never out," says the Shaker Hills head professional. "We decided to do something to gather interest about playing it tough."
Hence, Tiger Tuesdays.
While playing the course from the tips combined with extra-tough pin placements may sound like more of a deterrent than a lure to golfers, Herrick says the results proved quite the opposite.
With Shaker Hills being used as an U.S. Open qualifying site in 2003, the promotion sounded more like a challenge: "Could you qualify if you signed up for the U.S. Open?"
And many seemingly wanted to find out what it's like to share tees with Tiger Woods and the other tour professionals. Even without discounting green fees, there was a 20-percent increase in Tuesday rounds during July and August, according to Herrick, who may expand the promotion to other slow months.
"So many people wanted to play from there," he says of the gold tees that lengthened the course by almost 1,000 yards. "A lot of people we never see were out here."
Herrick estimates the course played six to 10 strokes tougher on Tiger Tuesdays and produced an added bonanza. "Ball sales went up, too," he says with a laugh.
Hmmm, maybe Woods Wednesdays are in order.