A Survey of Professionals to Explore Procurement in the European Golf Course Development Industry

The sports industry has been notorious for delivering its construction projects with both cost and time overruns. Recently there have been some high profile success stories but the golf sector has remained isolated from the cutting edge thinking implemented on such projects. A dissertation submitted by John Bowden in partial fulfillments of the requirements for the MSc degree in Construction Project Management. John was a former student on the EIGCA Diploma Course.

It was the aim of this research to break the current inertia surrounding procurement in the European golf course development sector. An electronic survey with high level endorsement was conducted of the perception of industry professionals on (i) the factors influencing the assembly of the golf course development supply chain, (ii) the effect of the different procurement systems on project success and (iii) the effect of different cultural variables on procurement in a European context.

The findings indicate that projects within the sector are executed by a disparate fragmented group of male dominated small businesses, largely affected by the culture of their native construction industries. There is reliance upon lowest price criteria to award contracts, which fosters an adversarial culture rather than the development of long term relationships.

The findings inferred themes for further research since current procurement strategies are wildly unpredictable. There is a need for increased education of both clients and project stakeholders in procurement best practice, if the sector is to deliver assets that are more economically sustainable.