By Idayu Suparto

SINGAPORE – Since opening its doors at Club Street in 2007, Urban Fairways has seen the arrival of similar establishments offering indoor golf through simulators in a lounge setting.

But although the choice in such venues has grown, what surprised its founder Dilip Ghosh was how long it took for the concept to take off in Singapore.

 

 

'It surprised me that it took on here so late,' the 47-year-old said. 'I was already open for two-and-a-half years before the first one (of the other venues) opened.'
Part of the reason for the concept's slow start in Singapore, he said, is the tricky task of providing a good experience with golf simulators that would make playing in the bar comparable to being on the course.

Learning from the golfing bars which were already popular in Korea, he set out to introduce the experience here. 'The No 1 thing you need to have is a good golf simulator. A lot of people were looking at it but they took a while to do it, and I think the reason was that they didn't understand it,' Mr Ghosh said.

He knew that he needed to focus on a specific target audience consisting of golf aficionados serious about improving their performance. But the lack of interest and awareness of simulators here meant that it would take some convincing for even the niche crowd.



Helping them understand the rules of the game and allowing for more productive practice sessions then became important means of attracting customers.
'In Singapore, they don't really care if they become good. They just play, to play with their friends. So I also explain to people that the simulators are very good for practicing, very good for obtaining feedback on how their shot is progressing or not, and a very intensive lesson,' said Mr Ghosh, who is also Urban Fairways' managing director.

The number of golfing bars has since risen to four, but although he was the first to set one up here, Mr Ghosh said that, in the early stages, he was a sceptic too.
'I didn't think it would work in Singapore and I grossly overestimated two things: one, the weather, and how much people like to be in the cool; and two, the extreme lack of time. If I asked anybody 'Do you play golf?', they always say 'Yes, but I've got no time'. So time is a key factor in attracting business.'

One of the advantages of having entered the market earlier was the ability to set pricing. He said: 'As competition comes in, your prices narrow but, by the same token, all of the people who are there increase the awareness. So then you don't need to do advertising and marketing because they are all doing it.'

Three years after running the business at Club Street and with traffic to the venue being impeded by ongoing roadworks nearby, he decided to move to a different location - landing upon the Capital Tower space it now occupies, which is triple the size of the previous site and brings it closer to the offices where its customers work. The number of simulators, each costing about US$65,000, has also tripled, and from the team of four that it began with, Urban Fairways now has a staff of eight.

'Within 300 meters of this location, there are so many offices of our target audience. We also moved here for economies of scale. In the old place, if we wanted more people to come in, only four people could come in. Here we can have 12 or 24 playing at once.'

Urban Fairways also provides golf event management, golf education and handicapping, and merchandising, and organizes golf trips and tournaments for both individuals and corporate clients.

The Club Street outlet was started with S$150,000, and Mr Ghosh says annual revenue now comes to S$1 million a year.

The avid golfer moved into the business after leaving his 16-year investment banking career at Bankers Trust the same year he started Urban Fairways, with 12 other investors, of which he is the majority shareholder.

It was through his investment banking job that he first came to Singapore on a business trip and acquired the golfing experience that would, nine years later, come in handy for Urban Fairways.

'I started to see when I was working that we were playing golf a lot, for business. So I started carrying my golf clubs anywhere I had meetings with all these international hedge fund managers and central bankers.

'I realized it was easier to ask them for a game of golf than to talk about business. Then I thought,' well, golf is probably relatively easy to sell,' he added.
Lessons gained over the past four years will be important for Urban Fairways' next phase, Mr Ghosh said. Like many other businesses, it faced a tough period during the recent recession, which it weathered by sharpening its focus on its main customers. 'We were stable the whole time. What we realized is that, even during a crisis, people still want to go out and have fun.'

In the next three years, the company is eyeing a launch into regional markets, where some of its shareholders are based, through joint ventures rather than franchises.
'Once we get this one really under control, we'll look to open up slowly in other locations. Definitely, I think we'll open in Dubai, once we've done our research, and then India and Thailand,' said Mr Ghosh.