Plans are great and ideas are necessary, but it is time we move aggressively into the execution phase.
My club in Michigan (Birchwood Farms Golf & Country Club) opened for the season last month with two major initiatives. The first is our first “kids camp” that will start in July. It is for ages 4-12 and very professionally planned and executed. Given the demographics of our club, most of the campers will be grandchildren (including mine). But starting this camp says something about where we see we have to go.
The second new initiative is a “family area” with a huge outdoor fireplace, skating rink, sprinkler area, a possible zip line, and age-specific playgrounds. Both of these are hugely important projects for the future of our club. Simply, we must attract families and to Birchwood’s credit, they are doing something about it.
When I was growing up, I caddied. It was great money for a kid, hard outdoor work, and my first introduction to the world of country clubs and golf. What I noticed (and this was a long time ago) was that most of the people there were men. Maybe the wives showed up for dinner, but it was mostly men playing golf, hanging around the locker room, and having a few drinks. Maybe even more than a few. But there were also no kids or families, other than at the pool.
That was a generation ago and the world has changed, especially beginning a few years ago. If you attend any conference today, the dominant theme is attracting families. There is a realization that there are simply too many other choices, most of them less expensive. About five years ago, club Boards and managers recognized that given the attrition of membership, along with a dearth of waiting lists, something had to be done.
Dining was the first area to reflect this. We have sponsored an annual Chef to Chef Conference for club chefs, and through that it has been fascinating to watch the development and progression of club dining, which is now built around families and the need to be competitive not only with other clubs in the area, but specifically with family dining (fast casual) operations. Kids menus have evolved and chefs are coming up with increasingly creative ideas to make the kids want to eat at the club, and not just get dragged there by their parents.
Kids’ camps, and especially children’s golf programs, are the natural next steps, as essential for developing the next generation of golfers and by extension, the next generation of members.
Then there are the events like “dive-in movies” (movies at the pool with the kids in inner tubes, although the lifesaving implications terrify me), overnight campouts on the fairway with good ghost stories, and a host of other good, family-oriented concepts—many more of which can be found this month in our Fifth Annual Ideas Issue, which I invite you to read thoroughly.
But the key point of all of this is that it is time we move aggressively into the execution phase. Plans are great and ideas are necessary, but none of them work unless we do it! And we are running out of time.
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