An Ace that Really Pays

Monday, April 18, 2005

Provided by Crain's Cleveland Business

As if Manakiki Golf Course, the Cleveland Metroparks gem in Willoughby, didn't offer enough amenities to daily-fee players, now it pays a cool grand when players ace No. 7, the downhill par 3 that plays around 150 yards.

Last year, on one of the first days of the program, a player aced the hole and won a thousand dollars. If the player had purchased an upgrade ticket for $1, his shot would have won him a trip to Las Vegas and $500 worth of golf at Manakiki plus a Nike bag with Nike sticks. The package had a value of $2,500.

If the upgrade would have been for $2, the prize package had a value of $5,000 and included a trip for four to Orlando, Fla. Two more upgrades brought even bigger prize packages until the $5 upgrade: ace the hole with a and the winner drove away in a new Hummer and continued to enjoy it for two years.

This year, the prizes will be better.

At the bottom of all the loot is technology, a surveillance system that allows management to see whether you hit it into the cup or not. It's all part of Charitee Golf Hole-In-One Monitoring System, the brainchild and product of Mike Burkons, 29.

Although shooting for vacations, Hummers and cash sounds like an attractive bet, it isn't a bet. One of the first flags raised at Metroparks offices concerned gambling. Is it or is it not? Not, according to four state supreme courts who recognize the effort to hole the tee ball to be skill, not luck.

Furthermore, it's a marketing device to lure more players to Manakiki. And it's also a charity. At the Manakiki installation, 10% of all upgrade revenue goes to First Tee of Cleveland. The camera unit is installed without charge to the course. Burkons makes money on the upgrades and sponsorships.

The program was sent out for a trial run last year. Lots of kinks were worked out over the course of the season (there were no other aces on that hole) and this year the new, improved version goes up at No. 7 and at one hole each at Briarwood at Wiltshire in Broadview Heights and Little Mountain Country Club in Concord Township. Burkons said there are 12,000 daily-fee courses in America and three times that number in the world.

He's looking at a big market. The number of rounds of golf played has increased, but the number of rounds per course has dropped 14% since 2000.

M.J. Christyson, Metroparks spokeswoman said, "In today's competitive golf market everyone is looking for an advantage. You have to have great customer service, outstanding course conditions and a fair value - that's a given, but now you have to deliver even more," she said. "Programs like Charitee Golf add to a golfer's experience and increase the likelihood that a golfer or event organizer will choose your course over another."

The linchpin is a camera system that looks more like a birdhouse than a surveillance device. It includes a screen and keypad. Upgrades can be purchased in the clubhouse or charged on credit cards. Add a few bucks, win far bigger prizes.

By using a camera to monitor both tee and green, watching the entire shot on screen is a simple matter. Cost to manufacture and install is approximately $16,000. Burkons' goal is 50 installations within the next year.

Burkons is a graduate of Connecticut College, in New London, Conn., and Cleveland State University Marshall School of Law. For a few years after graduation from Connecticut, he worked for Bar Management Group, of Charlotte, N.C., opening new bars and restaurants for the company, and his work included installing surveillance cameras.

As an amateur player, he had often seen the automobiles offered at golf outings for holes-in-one. He wondered how to apply surveillance technology to the game, allowing it to be part of a course year 'round. And in 2003, he won second place honors and $3,000 in the COSE Business Plan Challenge, a competition sponsored by the Council of Smaller Enterprises, the small business arm of the Greater Cleveland Partnership.

"That was confirmation that I'm not crazy," he said of his showing.

A number of organizations in town guided Burkons, among them COSE, the Cuyahoga County Economic Development Department, Metroparks and JumpStart Inc.

"They've been invaluable to me," he said.

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