Earlier this year, course operators took a break from fretting over rounds-played stats to focus on troubling data about marriages and weddings. After climbing steadily from 2010 through 2016, the number of weddings in America fell off notably last year.

Partly it’s those nettlesome Millennials, waiting so long to get hitched. A Pew Research study showed that the median age of an American marrying for the first time had reached its highest point on record — 29.5 years for men and 27.4 years for women.

Managers of public-access golf facilities back in the day didn’t care much about brides and grooms, but golf’s great infrastructure upgrade of this past generation has helped change that. Revenue from wedding receptions has become a big deal for course owners, as spacious new clubhouses have caught the eye of planners and brides-to-be.

That explains the existence of businesses like web-based CountryClubReceptions.com, which matches betrothed couples with golf venues to party in once their vows are exchanged. Brad Parker, general manager of Patriots Point Links in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, runs an operation that sounds like two businesses in one — part golf, part wedding celebrations. Of the two, golf is the one he and his team have more trouble squeezing profits from.

“We work off a very moderate rack rate and build our golf revenue through volume — about 40,000 rounds this year,” says Parker, a PGA professional who came up the golf side to his GM job. “Our indoor food-and-beverage space is tiny — it’s a glorified snack bar — but we’ve got a 10-million-dollar view of Charleston Harbor and a wedding pavilion that rents out for $4,500 a day, with very little overhead. We booked 28 receptions this year, and our wedding P&L supersedes the golf P&L more often than not.”

That point is underscored by a unique staffing quirk at the 1980s-vintage facility, now part of the Bobby Jones Links’ portfolio. Rachel Hall is a Bobby Jones Links associate who serves as the Patriots Point sales coordinator for its wedding venue; meanwhile, she also owns and operates her own wedding planning business.

“Rachel sells the venue to clients, and once that’s accomplished she helps them navigate the rest of the process,” says Parker. “It’s a little out of the ordinary, and that’s because our opportunity with this revenue stream is so meaningful. If attracting and building this line of business is best served by having her wear the two hats, that’s what we’re going to do.”

To read the full article, visit golfbusiness.com.