PORTLAND — It was a cool mid-February Saturday morning outside the Oregon Convention Center.

Inside the line of folks waiting to get in to the Portland Golf Show was substantial — maybe 1,000 or so, all looking for great deals on golf merchandise, free rounds, instruction tips and more.

The doors opened at 9 a.m., and greeting those attending were representatives from several Central Oregon courses, in a row of booths grouped together right inside the door.

The packed exhibit hall featured large caches of discounted merchandise, from clothing to clubs and everything in between and about 10 hitting bays to try out new clubs. A putting and chipping practice green and row after row of booths from courses all over Oregon, Washington and beyond also greeted the thousands that made it to the show that day.

It was a busy day for those manning the booths, as a constant stream of golfers stopped by to chat, enter the drawings for various prizes and check out what golf in Central Oregon has to offer.

Battling perception

Representatives from Widgi Creek, Aspen Lakes, Black Butte Ranch, Tetherow, Sunriver and Pronghorn all made the trip for the three-day show, paying $1,000 for a booth space. Many of the pros split time between their booths and the booth sponsored by the Central Oregon Golf Trail, a golf discount card presented by the Central Oregon Visitors Association that includes play at 19 courses across the region. All were there to promote their courses and Central Oregon golf to golfers from the largest market in the state.

Widgi Creek, Aspen Lakes and Black Butte Ranch have maintained a presence at the show for years now. A battle with the perception of Widgi Creek and Aspen Lakes as private or semi-private courses keeps them going back.

“For Widgi, we started coming here in 2005, and at that point in time everybody thought we were essentially private,” said Brad Hudspeth, general manager of the Bend course. “Everybody eight or nine years ago thought they couldn’t play our course. Now they all know they can play it.”

Aspen Lakes director of golf Rob Malone said efforts to change that perception continues at the course outside of Sisters.

“We still have to educate people that we are a privately owned, public course,” he said. “We’ll have people come tiptoeing into the shop and ask in a whisper, ‘Can I play here?’

“So it’s still an ongoing issue for us.”

Going to the show helps to combat that misperception about Aspen Lakes.

“It gets the word out more,” Malone said. “For us, it’s about reconnecting with a significant portion of our player base — 30 percent of our business comes from the Portland-Vancouver (Washington) area.”

Widgi’s percentage of players from the Portland area is not as large, Hudspeth said, but “certainly it’s our biggest base of players outside of Central Oregon.”

Black Butte’s head professional, Tom Baker, said his course goes to the show to reconnect with residents who have summer homes at the resort northwest of Sisters.

“Portland and Eugene is a very big base,” Baker said. “The Willamette Valley is where a majority of our homeowners live and our guests come from, so we come to represent, along with the other courses in Central Oregon, to let people know to come over to the sunny side of the mountains.”

While many of the golfers attending the golf show were there “just for the freebies,” Hudspeth said, “a significant part of them are the ones who are going to make it to our courses.”

“A certain percentage are making up their mind where they are going to play this year,” Malone said. Grouping the Central Oregon courses in the same aisle at the show has been a plus, he noted. For many years the Central Oregon course booths were scattered across the convention center floor.

“It didn’t used to be an all Central Oregon row,” he explained. “Now people come and their faces light up because they see all the courses they like to play in the summer, they think ‘vacation’ and that Central Oregon is a fun place to spend some time.”

Golfers at the show had a chance in the drawing for stay-and-play packages at Aspen Lakes and Widgi, which work with lodges near the courses for the prizes. Golfers who stopped by the Widgi Creek booth also received coupons for special rates to come and play golf this season, while Black Butte was selling punch cards for discounted rounds at their Big Meadow and Glaze Meadow courses.

“The cards give golfers a $45 rate through June, when our fees go up to $69, so it’s a good value,” Baker said. “The biggest thing is get them to come over to Central Oregon.”

This year was the first in which Black Butte Ranch was offering the discount cards at the show.

While more Central Oregon courses attended the show in previous years, area courses not represented nevertheless got a boost from the Central Oregon Golf Trail booth.

A couple of courses that have had booths at the show in the past, but did not get a booth this year, said they were choosing to spend advertising dollars elsewhere.

“There used to be a lot more of us at the show,” Hudspeth said. “But we (Central Oregon courses) have more of a presence with them (the Central Oregon Golf Trail) here, because all of us are a part of that.”

Attending the show keeps the courses in the minds of golfers from the Portland area.

“We’ve been here so often they expect to see us here,” said Aspen Lakes’ Malone.

“It’s the presence,” Hudspeth said. “We want people to see that we’re here and that they know we’re an option in Central Oregon.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7868, kduke@bendbulletin.com