Golf Club Management Challenges towards Sustainability: Opportunities and Innovations during and after the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Perspective

Abstract

Golf is among the top five sports practiced in Spain because sport tourism is one of their main lines of income. During the COVID-19 pandemic, all golf clubs had to shut down and thus enter a situation of economic uncertainty. The main objective of this study was to assess the sport management challenges that general managers of golf clubs have had to face before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic, and how they dealt with these issues. In this qualitative case study, management challenges and strategies were explored by subjecting five golf club managers with at least 5 years of experience to semi-structured interviews. Managers described that they went from a pre-pandemic situation of economic growth to having to deal with different challenges such as a lack of tourism, increased costs, and a need to install new safety and maintenance protocols. All participants highlighted the importance of constant communication with and transparency among stakeholders (clubs, government bodies, federations) during and after the lockdown period. Management during the pandemic expedited the digitization of golf clubs, and this was considered one of the main upsides of this period. Exploring the strategies used could help managers of this and other sports facilities to design sustainable management protocols to deal with possible future health or economic crises.