From field to fairway
The story of the facility begins not with golf but with agriculture. At the end of the 1980s the European Union wanted to curb overproduction, keyword butter mountains, and paid farmers money to leave land fallow. Tim Steffens' father did not want to let his land go to weed, though. Out of an idea he had picked up years earlier during a stay in the USA, where he had worked on golf facilities and collected stones, a plan grew: golf. In 1989 the planning started, in 1994 the facility went into operation, in a year in which 42 golf facilities opened in Germany alone.
In parallel the in-house trout farm continued, which had already belonged to the opening of the attached restaurant in 1974. Around the turn of the millennium a small hotel with 19 rooms was added. So the farm became a triad of golf, food and beverage and hotel that holds to this day and has made the region a name far beyond the borders of Lower Saxony.
A public facility, long before the trend
What made the facility special: here you were allowed to play without a membership from the start, the only requirement was the Platzreife. At a time when golf in Germany still appeared very elitist, that was a bold step. The facility is run as an operating company with an attached club, which was originally only founded to be allowed to be a member of the German Golf Association at all. At the time a pure operating company was not allowed to be.
The hoped-for boom did not materialise at first. The family had pre-financed the facility from its own funds and via banks and wanted to recoup the money through long-term playing rights with a one-off payment. The concept did not work out and was changed in the early 2000s. Steffens speaks frankly about these troughs that belong to almost every founding. With a view to the image he soberly notes that golf remains elitist for many to this day, it never became the mass sport that was hoped for back then.
Steffens' own path into management
Tim Steffens was not actively involved in the founding process as a teenager but played the course in the woods next door before training as an industrial clerk. There followed a degree in technical business administration in Wolfsburg until 2005 and afterwards the golf business administrator at the German Golf Association. In 2006 he went to Rehburg-Loccum to an 18-hole facility near the Steinhuder Meer and worked there as managing director for two and a half years. In 2008 he returned to the home business for health reasons of his father and took over the management. Since then he has been developing the facility further.
How the facility is set up today
A golf facility ages like a good wine. Trees grow, the small ecosystem matures, and after 25 years hardly anything of the former farmland can be recognised in the vegetation. The greenkeeping consists of five permanent employees, including a long-time seasonal worker from Poland who has belonged to the team for seven or eight years. Add a marginally employed worker who also mows the sports grounds of the joint municipality and thus utilises the existing machines. In administration, pro shop and office three employees work including Steffens, plus three marginally employed staff for marshalling and caddy care.
The facility is open to new blood. Every year there are school internships, in the past they trained sport and fitness clerks and offered the further training to junior golf manager at the IST in parallel. Dual students in sport business management have also been on board. Anyone looking for a practical place in the golf business in the region finds an experienced, grown business here.
Footgolf as an invitation to the next generation
In 2018 the facility introduced footgolf, not to be confused with football golf. In footgolf a football is played over the holes according to golf rules, into enlarged holes, with as few kicks as possible. The 18 footgolf lanes lie over the first nine golf holes, the total length is around two and a half kilometres. All known elements of a golf course are used, tee, fairway, bunker, penalty areas, various mowing heights, only the hole is wider. The cups are permanently set in the ground and closed with an artificial-turf lid during normal golf operations, so that nothing stands out during play.
In two and a half years more than 350 footgolfers have already played in Deinste, many come back, plus company events that book a footgolf tournament instead of a classic golf tournament. For Steffens this is an investment in the next generation. Anyone who plays footgolf with friends today and notices how lovely such a facility is may reach for the club themselves in ten years. Planned is the expansion to 36 footgolf holes and additionally a separate football-golf facility.
What golf facilities can take away
- Open concepts such as playing without a membership lower the entry barrier
- Trend formats such as footgolf bring a young, new audience onto the facility
- Frank communication about financial dry spells is part of a founding
- Tiered fees for young members create real family offers
- Etiquette protects the course, a dusty dress code rather deters
The real problem is the image
As exciting as the founding story is, what burns most for Steffens is the topic of growth. The German golf market barely grows, in some years by around 0.1 percent. Every year the industry loses around 40,000 full members through age alone, and too little comes up behind. The only notable growth comes from remote memberships, a dangerous trend, because no facility can be maintained from a remote membership.
The biggest entry barrier is long since no longer the money, but the time. A full round of golf simply takes many people too long. Compared with equestrian sport, skiing or a sailing yacht, golf is not an expensive sport but lies in the middle. Steffens therefore demands more flexibility from the organisers. If a nine-hole round can count towards the handicap, why not also six or three holes. The industry still has a lot of room upwards at this point.
Golf is simply sexy. We have to grow the cake and not fight over the crumbs.
What facilities have to change
His appeal is clearly directed at those responsible at many facilities. Anyone who is run in the classic volunteer model by a board of a lawyer, a dentist and an ear, nose and throat doctor, without a professional club manager, runs the risk of carrying on with everything as it always was. The staff in the office have no decision-making power, the strategic course is set elsewhere. Steffens demands a rethink: away from the high horse, towards offers that really reach young people and families.
In practice he lives this with his fee structure. Up to the age of 26 you pay a very manageable fee with him, from 26 to 33 there are two stages in which the fee grows in tiers before you slide into the full membership fee. Anyone who is just starting working life after their studies is rarely a top earner straight away.
Etiquette yes, dusty rules no
On the topic of etiquette Steffens distinguishes clearly. Rules of conduct that protect the course are not negotiable for him. A pitch mark that is not or wrongly repaired is a gateway for fungal infections, the green is the most valuable asset of a facility. There he reacts rigorously, this is checked, and violations are addressed.
A strict dress code, by contrast, he considers outdated. Jeans and a T-shirt are welcome with him, he only draws limits at muscle shirts and topless. What matters more is that the guests feel comfortable and gladly come back. Even he, who privately wears almost only jeans, would not put them on to play, because they are simply impractical. The better arguments come from practice than from old conventions.
Platzreife: learning yes, an exam not necessarily
To the suggestion of dispensing with the Platzreife entirely, Steffens reacts sceptically. Golf has to be learned, for safety and insurance reasons, and a sliced shot must not land unbraked in someone else's area. Etiquette and fast play belong firmly in this learning phase for him. The form of the final exam can, however, certainly be reconsidered. Even the word exam creates pressure for many people, and exam anxiety has no place in hobby sport. Mentorship models in which an experienced member accompanies a beginner for a while he considers a sensible alternative.
Plans for the future
In the original planning 27 golf holes are approved and stand in the development plan to this day. Because of the cautious start only 18 have been built so far. Steffens' long-term goal remains the expansion to 27 holes. That brings enormous operational advantages, such as being able to close nine holes for maintenance phases and offer 18 in parallel. Alongside this the footgolf offer is to grow from 27 to 36 holes, and in perspective a separate football-golf facility is planned. A new operations hall is to lower energy consumption and fuel costs and align the facility more strongly with renewable sources.
What keeps him up at night
Two topics occupy Steffens. On the one hand the pandemic, whose lockdown has left visible traces among members and in communication. His local market is narrow, 63 percent of his members live within a radius of ten kilometres, 91 percent within twenty. With a golf penetration of around 0.85 percent in his region, the mathematical potential in the surroundings is almost exhausted, winning new members thus becomes a permanent task.
On the other hand the behaviour of customers in the everyday service business occupies him. Anyone who is addressed about etiquette or rule violations reacts more and more aggressively, "I pay so much money" has become a standard argument. These so-called problem cases are increasing, and dealing with them costs energy that would be better used elsewhere. Where that leads worries him less as an operator than as a person.
Conclusion
The facility in Deinste shows that a golf facility can be more than a club for the few. Anyone who is open to new formats, deals frankly with their own numbers and actively improves the image of the industry creates the basis for golf to reach the next generation too. Steffens' sober optimism and his clear language make you want to help build on this task instead of settling into the status quo.
