About

Forecast Golf Group:

We are a golf range development and consulting company and the industry leader in providing "real world" guidance to golf range developers and operators. The owner of Forecast Golf Group actually owned and developed two state-of-the-art golf ranges, generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash flow annually! In adddition, we are retained as a management company to manage a golf course and golf practice center. We have first hand knowledge when it comes to the planning, designing, construction, and operation of golf ranges. Only Forecast Golf Group offers you this unique blend of knowledge and expertise.

Located in Richmond, Virginia and established in 1990, our mission is to help golf range developers achieve their dream of owning a golf range. Having mastered the ins and outs of developing ranges and the many benefits of ownership (such as, the money!), we have developed products and services designed to enable you to own your golf range and experience the thrill for yourself! Nothing like enjoying your work and making lots of money at the same time!

Our products and services provide assistance to all levels of golf range developers - from the novice developer who is "just thinking about it," to the advanced developer/owner requiring assistance with their business plan. Our information and products will save you hundreds of hours of work and frustration, tens of thousands of dollars, and increase your probability of success!

Jamie Turner, president of Forecast Golf Group, graduated from Boston College and received an MBA from the College of William & Mary, in Williamsburg, Virginia.  After an 11-year career in consumer product marketing management with Fortune 50 companies like Nabisco Brands (now part of Kraft) and Warner-Lambert (now part of Pfizer), he decided that he wanted to own his own golf range -- wanting to own his own business and, if possible, be involved in the golf industry. He has applied his years of analytical and mangement training to the golf range industry.

Having left the world of corporate cubicles behind him since 1990, Jamie has been immersed in the range business as an owner and advisor, helping people to plan, develop, and operate their own ranges. He is also the publisher and editor of Golf Range Times magazine. In addition to his duties of running Froecast Golf Group, he oversees the operations of 3 golf facilities: 2 state-of-the-art ranges that he is a co-developer/co-owner of, and an upscale golf course and practice facility for which his other company (Dominion Golf Group) is retained as the management company.

We appreciate your interest in Forecast Golf Group, Inc. You owe it to yourself to learn as much as you can about owning your own facility - you owe it to yourself to own your own golf range! Let us help you get there. Take advantage of our extensive and unique knowledge to achieve your dream of owning your own golf range.

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Monday, February 15, 1999

Local golf range company perfects its game

BY JOAN EDWARDS TUPPONCE
Special Correspondent

Forecast Golf Group Inc. is finally doing what its founders set out to do when the company was started in the early 1990s.

After offering consulting services, publishing a magazine and running a real estate company, Forecast Golf now focuses on developing and operating golf ranges.

Company owners James R. Murphy, James E. Turner and Thomas A. Mathews opened their first golf range, Rockwood Golf Park, in the fall. The state-of-the-art facility is at Hull Street and Courthouse roads in Chesterfield County. Dominion Golf Group, one of several divisions
of Forecast Golf, built the park and now manages it.

Forecast Golf plans to open a similar golf range in early summer in Virginia Beach. From there, the partners hope to develop ranges throughout the mid-Atlantic region.

Murphy says the company is now able to pursue its original goal because of the credibility it gained in operating a variety of other businesses in the golf industry.

Forecast Golf was first a consulting company, then branched into golf-range publications. Later, the company started Forecast Golf Realty Inc., a real estate company specializing in golf-range transactions. The company's direction changed with Rockwood Golf Park, a $2.5 million golf and family recreation complex. The park is owned by Rockwood Golf Partners, a company that includes the three Forecast Golf partners and a financial backer, Jerry Guyant. Ironically the idea for Forecast Golf emerged when Murphy and some fellow employees were working at a golf range where the Rockwood Golf Park is today.

Murphy and his original partners planned to build and operate golf ranges. But, Murphy, the only Forecast Golf founder still with the company, said the company had to put those plans on hold because of the slow economy of the early 1990s and the group's lack of experience in the field.

Partners came and went in the early days when Forecast Golf was striving to gain recognition in the golf world, Murphy said. Turner contacted Murphy in 1991. Turner had experience in the golf industry and wanted to own a driving range. Murphy and Turner had similar goals and believed their diverse strengths would help the company grow. In 1992, Murphy and Turner teamed up as the company's only partners. They worked as consultants on golf ranges while developing the company's publishing business.

Turner and Murphy wrote a how-to manual for golf range developers and owners. They also produced a primer that provides basic information for people who are considering the golf-range business. Forecast Golf also acquired a golf range newsletter they had been sending to clients. The partners upgraded the publication to a magazine called Golf Range Times. Today the four-color magazine runs about 54 pages.

Initially, Forecast Golf published the magazine in-house. The company still owns the magazine but production and publication are handled by Douglas Murphy Communications, a contract publishing company. Murphy said the company's publications have provided Forecast Golf with valuable leads for its consulting and golf range development businesses.
"If [clients] couldn't develop a range, we might be able to come in and develop it at a later date ourselves, or partner with them," Murphy said.

Likewise, the company's real estate division, Forecast Golf Realty, was designed to help clients buy and sell golf ranges.

"Our focus is now away from the realty and on ownership and operations of our own facilities," Murphy said. That shift in the company's focus gained momentum in 1997 when Mathews
joined Forecast Golf. The other partners said Mathews added another dimension of experience to the company. Mathews had owned and operated Richmond Sports Park for nine years.

"Jim [Murphy] and I had experience and strengths in what you could call
'pre-development,' " Turner said. "It was in the actual putting the shovel in the ground and turning over the dirt, building the facility." But, Turner said, the partners lacked experience in owning a golf range.

"When clients asked, 'Have you ever owned and operated one?', there was no getting around that question. When Tom joined us, that question didn't have to be gotten around."

Combining their talents and experience, the partners developed Rockwood Golf Park. In addition to golf ranges, the 11*-acre park's recreational facilities include miniature golf courses and batting cages for baseball and softball. The park has covered areas with heaters that allow golfers to practice their swings in poor weather. Guyant, the fourth partner in Rockwood Golf Partners, describes the park as an "all-weather facility."

Bob Barrett, an owner of Sunnybrook Golf in Manassas, has high praise for all of
Forecast Golf's businesses. Barrett worked with the partners on the design of the tees at Rockwood Park. With their years of helping others, the partners "will be very successful in their new ventures," Barrett said.

Murphy said that while the company has shifted its focus to owning and operating golf facilities, its publications business remains brisk. The company has sold information-based products and services to people in 33 countries, he said.

"I would say that, since 1994, we've probably had about 25 percent growth in gross revenue each year," Murphy said.




© 1999, Richmond Newspapers Inc.