Through an unprecedented period of tournament-and renovation- related challenges, the team at Oakland Hills Country Club has learned to meet major expectations, day to day and year to year.
Normally in the club business, the fact that people who aren’t on your staff have been working out of a trailer on your property for seven straight years would probably be a sign of the most poorly run construction project in history, and not a testament to your operational efficiency. But in the case of Oakland Hills Country Club, this fact may serve as the best proof of why the 92-year-old private club in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. (suburban Detroit) stands as one of the most exemplary club management organizations.
Oakland Hills CC AT A GLANCE
• Location: Bloomfield Hills, Mich. (suburban Detroit) |
The non-staffers who occupied “temporary” offices for that long at Oakland Hills, until they finally picked up and left last month, were officials of the Professional Golfers’ Association of America (PGA). They had first set up shop there in 2001, to prepare for the 2003 Ryder Cup (which was then postponed a year to 2004, because of added security issues related to 9/11).
Once those matches were completed, many of the same PGA crew, headed by Tournament Director Ryan Cannon, stayed on, in the same “cozy” quarters, to immediately start preparations for this year’s 90th PGA Championship at Oakland Hills (August 4-10). It was the first time in the history of the nomadic-by-nature PGA, Cannon says, that the organization had ever kept a team in place at the same site over such a long period.
As the end of his prolonged assignment approached, it would certainly have been understandable if Cannon, a Knoxville, Tenn., native, was more than ready to finally move on. But even with the buildup for the Championship in full crescendo, he was glad to take time in July to discuss his seven years in Michigan. And when he did, he said he felt “fortunate” for having been able to stay at Oakland Hills for so long.
Even for a club that has so much major tournament experience, the Oakland Hills team dealt with plenty of new challenges at this year’s PGA, including a duplicate ticket snafu and particularly untimely and pervasive weather-related disruptions. |
Further, while having such an extended, “inside the gates” perspective would have made it easy for Cannon to learn if the club’s reputation—even at a place as storied as Oakland Hills—was really all it was said to be, he made it clear he was leaving even more impressed than when he had arrived.
“Any time you add a major tournament on top of a regular club operation, it creates a massive bubble of work that’s not easy to absorb and that challenges everyone in the organization,” Cannon says. “And it’s even bigger when you do it at a club with the size [just under 1,000 members] and level of service that Oakland Hills has always had.
“But from the moment I got here,” he adds, “it’s been clear that [the management team and membership] doesn’t see [the added tournament work] as a burden, but rather as a challenge. When you see it that way, and have the dedication, passion and enthusiasm that’s needed to successfully take it on, that’s why Oakland Hills has become known as one of the best tournament venues in history, as well as one of the top clubs. And believe me—as someone who’s interacted with everyone here multiple times every day for seven years—that’s not something you can fake or coast your way through.”
A new pool and tennis facility was a final piece in “bringing the club together”; a renovation/expansion boosted annual sales in the pro shop to over $1.3 million. |
For all the time he spent at Oakland Hills, though, Cannon still really didn’t know, or experience, the half of it. When Padraig Harrington pumped his fist to celebrate sinking the 18th-hole putt (see cover) that earned him the right to hoist the Wanamaker Cup as this year’s PGA Champion, it marked the end of a dizzyingly active period that actually started when the club hosted the 1996 U.S. Open. That championship, says Chief Operating Officer Rick Bayliss, who was on site for it as he prepared to become the club’s new top manager in 1997, started what he now calls “an unprecedented run, with a level of activity that few clubs will ever see.”
In addition to the pace that comes with serving just under 1,000 members, overseeing 55,000 annual rounds of golf and managing everything else involved with a $15 million enterprise, that “level of activity” also included hosting four major tournaments (including the 2002 U.S. Amateur, in addition to the ‘96 Open, 2004 Ryder Cup and this year’s PGA). Oh, yes—there was also the small matter of nearly $30 million spent during that period on the various parts of what was perhaps the most comprehensive, and challenging, property-wide renovation ever undertaken by an established private club.
Head Golf Professional Pat Croswell (far left), Golf Course Manager Steve Cook (second from left) and Chief Operating Officer Rick Bayliss (sixth from left) joined fellow Oakland Hills Championship Committee members and this year’s PGA Champion, Padraig Harrington, to savor the club’s latest major tournament success. |
That renovation culminated with the recent opening of a new pool and tennis facility, which Clubhouse Manager Sean Miller cites as a final key piece in “bringing the club more together” (not to mention providing a healthy boost in F&B concession sales). The renovation plan also created a new learning facility complex that includes a larger driving range, sheltered instruction facility and new short-game practice area, all of which add up to what Head Golf Professional Pat Croswell calls a “home run for members.” Even more significantly, just under $2 million was put towards narrowing fairways, redoing some of the 135 bunkers and lengthening the Donald Ross-designed South Course (where all tournaments are played) by nearly 500 yards.
“That was new territory for all of us, because we were retouching a national treasure,” says Golf Course Manager Steve Cook of the work done in 2006 on the course famously dubbed the “Monster” by Ben Hogan, after he won the 1951 U.S. Open and expressed his joy over “bringing it to its knees.”
While these parts of the overall renovation were certainly ambitious and challenging enough on their own, they still pale compared to what Oakland Hills had to do with its iconic, “Mount Vernon-style” clubhouse. As the new millennium dawned, the building was showing its age so much that a complete raze-and-rebuild was more than justified. But the clubhouse’s place in not only Oakland Hills’ history, but golf’s, posed too many objections, and obstacles, to that option. So instead, a down-to-the-studs gutting was executed, during which the facade of the clubhouse was literally propped up, Hollywood-set style, to shield the complete makeover taking place behind it.
(For a detailed account of the clubhouse renovation, including before-and-after photos, see “Oakland Hills Gets Set to ‘Make the Turn’ at 90,” C&RB, May 2005.)
The clubhouse renovation was so extensive, Bayliss reveals as he leads a tour into the deepest reaches of the massive, 100,000-sq. ft. building (the second-largest wooden frame structure in Michigan), $4.5 million was spent just to revamp and upgrade the building’s power and utility infrastructure. And the work still isn’t quite finished, with an expanded men’s fitness center now in the works, as well as a new full-service snack bar for the South Course.
Executive Chef Brian Walsh, his wife, Pastry Chef Mitzi Walsh, and the Oakland Hills F&B team scored another winner with the Swedish-themed menu that Tiger Woods requested for this year’s PGA Champions’ Dinner. |
While all of this was going on, Oakland Hills also had to adapt to huge changes in the nature of the major tournaments it was hosting. In the 12 years between the ‘96 Open and this year’s PGA, requirements have “easily doubled” for what’s now needed to accommodate the crowds, media, sponsors, hospitality needs and many other crushes that come with having such huge events on site, Bayliss says.
“It’s become the quintessential ‘moveable feast,’ with over 400,000 square feet of ‘temporary’ space that now needs to be constructed and integrated with your existing infrastructure,” he chuckles. “It’s also become far more elegant and elaborate—tents, for example, are now called ‘chalets.’ ” All told, Bayliss says, the undertaking has become so massive, it “tests even the most actively engaged and well-prepared properties.”
“There’s an amazing energy behind these events,” he adds. “For each championship, you start approximately three years out, and a point always comes where it becomes a freight train moving in one direction, and nothing can stop it. But there are always adjustments you have to make, right up to the end.”
For this year’s PGA, the last-minute hurdles that the Oakland Hills team had to deal with included an administrative error, as orders were being fulfilled, that resulted in some 9,000 duplicate tickets being sent out a month before the championship. Then there was the volatile weather that roared in once play actually began, which sent crowds scurrying for cover on Saturday and organizers scrambling to stage a final, 16-hour Sunday on which most golfers had to play the better part of two rounds.
But the Oakland Hills staff met these challenges as they’ve fielded everything else that’s come at them over the past, extremely eventful 12 years. In fact, while Executive Chef Brian Walsh had no prior experience with Swedish cooking, he and the club’s F&B team (which includes Brian’s wife, Pastry Chef Mitzi Walsh) even handled the curveball (meatball?) thrown at them by Tiger Woods’ request for a Champions’ Dinner featuring his wife’s home-country cuisine (see menu, opposite page).
While Woods’ injury prevented him from attending, “the dinner went off without a hitch,” Walsh reports. “The reviews were great, considering the unique menu selections,” he says. “Some were surprised how much they enjoyed the Swedish foods.”
“Caramelized” Cuisine
While executing its latest tournament success, the Oakland Hills staff also continued to serve its membership in new and expanded ways. “We’ve actually seen our [regular] business increase this year, partly because of the stay-at-home trend, but also because we’re now starting to get real payoffs from all that we’ve added here for members,” says Bayliss.
The results of its sweeping facilities upgrade, plus the momentum gained from its successful hosting of major tournaments, have certainly been big contributing factors to the added activity. But Oakland Hills’ ability to keep expanding its business in an economy that has been especially tight in Michigan is also due to something that hasn’t changed—the staff’s long-standing focus on striving to do whatever is needed to ensure member satisfaction at the individual level.
In fact, while many clubs have cut back menu options as a belt-tightening measure, Brian Walsh reports that “we’ve expanded ours, to try to make sure every member has the opportunity to always get exactly what they want. And if it’s still not on the menu, our approach is to make sure members know that the policy in our dining rooms is the exact opposite of ‘no substitutions’—instead, we’ll do whatever it takes so they can always get what they want here.
“Sure, it’s more work for us,” Walsh notes, “but the response has been phenomenal, so we know it’s the right way to go. We’re seeing people eat here regularly now who we used to not see for months at a time. ”
A trip into Walsh’s renovated kitchen reveals just how far this flexibility can extend. The walls above the cooking and prep stations are covered with step-by-step instructions, with photos, for how to prepare dozens of special dishes named for individual members—including one “breakfast entree” that Walsh fondly calls a “highly
caramelized, ca
rbon-dated” English muffin, with two slabs of whole butter, that requires “two runs through a conveyor toaster at its slowest setting.”
“Note,” the instructions say. “The toaster may begin to smoke on the second go-round; do not be alarmed. Douse with whole butter; serve immediately.”
“It’s not exactly perfect culinary form,” Walsh smiles, “but it gives a good illustration of what we try to be—all things to all people, giving them exactly what they request.”
Including anyone who may have been hanging out on the property in a trailer for seven years.
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