Back on Court

As tennis makes a comeback, facilities are getting creative with their programs to help the sport flourish again.

by Diana Mirel (editor@clubandresortbusiness.com)
January 2007
 

Tennis hasn’t always played second fiddle to golf at clubs and resorts. In the 1980s, tennis was on fire as celebrity players such as Andre Agassi, John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors did wonders to raise the visibility of the sport.

“People thought tennis was the hip thing to do,” says Mike Casey, Director of Tennis & Fitness at La Quinta (Calif.) Resort & Club. “But when the Tiger Woods era came to be, a lot of young boys, girls and women started playing golf, and tennis went into a bit of a nose dive.”

In the past few years, though, tennis has made a strong comeback, due in large part to the country-wide fitness craze. Clubs and resorts are taking advantage of this renewed interest by combining tennis with other activities and establishing fresh programming. Golf may generate more revenue, but a strong tennis agenda can give properties an edge in today’s competitive market.

“[A good tennis program] gives you a balance,” says Casey. “It is vital to have a golf course, a tennis facility, a pool and a good restaurant. That is the formula for total success.”

The Fitness Factor
At the Grand Traverse Resort & Spa in Acme, Mich., Director of Tennis Chris Michalowski credits the fitness benefits for much of tennis’s popularity. “You can burn more calories in an hour playing tennis than you can in-line skating or doing low-impact aerobics,” says Michalowski.

Tennis also lets players feed their competitive spirits while pushing themselves physically. “When you come out to play tennis, you can’t go easy,” notes Michael Moyer, Director of Tennis at the Glenmore Country Club in Keswick, Va. “It’s great cardio, it keeps your strength up, and im-proves balance and agility.”

Adding fitness-focused tennis programs into the mix can also breath new life into existing programs. The one-hour, action-packed Cardio Tennis class at La Quinta begins with three to five minutes of tai chi/yoga stretches, followed by hitting drills, court play and off-court sideline drills using medicine balls, jump ropes and stretching bands. Participants spend the last five to eight minutes playing structured games.

“Cardio tennis gives more people a chance to come out and try tennis again,” says Casey. “It’s a hard sport to play, but if you can make it creative and fun, they’ll start to enjoy it on a regular basis.”

Another reason for the increasing popularity of tennis is the minimal time commitment compared to golf, notes Will Hoag, Director of Tennis at Coral Ridge Country Club in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The club’s tennis director for 33 years, Hoag has adjusted his programming to appeal to time-crunched members, cutting down on lengthy tournaments and increasing league play instead.

“If you sign up for a tournament, it owns you for the entire weekend,” he notes. “It is all about time now; people want to have more control.”

Mike Casey, Director of Tennis & Fitness at La Quinta Resort & Club (left) draws crowds with his holiday celebrity workshops featuring sports and fitness stars, such as tennis pro Tracy Austin (middle) and fitness expert Scott Cole (right).

Oh-so Organized
When organizing tennis activities, directors must also be savvy about setting up quality matches. “When I first got here, casual tennis was big,” says Steve Tidball, the Director of Tennis at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md. (C&RB, October 2006) for 25 years. “People would sit on the patio all morning and early afternoon, waiting for a second and third match. That doesn’t happen anymore. People want to be in and out, so things have to be more organized.”

idball now uses e-mail to create matches and clinics around each member’s skill level. “I use the responses to match people up,” says Tidball. “I organize every single match, and I have to make sure the quality of the matches is good.”
Largely because of this approach, Congressional has seen a steady increase in its number of tennis players in recent years. Tidball estimates that 25 percent of the club’s overall membership of 3,000 now plays tennis at least some time during the course of the year. “Women’s tennis has increased quite a bit,” says Tidball. “In the last three years, junior tennis has tripled, and that is starting to bring some of the men back to tennis, as well.”

Doug Browne, Director of Tennis for Hideaway Beach in Marco Island, Fla., is another pro who agrees that organizing competitive matches is crucial to the success of a tennis program. “Match-making is the most important part of the club business,” he says. “We arrange all the games, we set all the pairings. We’re not golf; there is no handicap system. So you’d better have good pairings, or people won’t enjoy the sport.”

Beyond the Squares
Creative programming is also needed to ensure the long-term success of tennis. “If you’re not thinking out of the box, tennis will die fast,” warns Browne.

That extends to how club tennis directors and pros themselves get involved with members and make themselves visible to players and non-players alike. “If people walk by your facility and you’re doing something that looks like fun, they’ll have a tendency to say, ‘I want to do that, too,’” says Browne. “Conversely, if you’re uptight about things—just teaching a few lessons here and there, and touching very few hands—people may not be attracted by your coaching. Most importantly, if they see empty courts at an otherwise busy time at the club, it’s a great turnoff.”

To keep courts busy and enthusiasm high at Hideaway Beach, Browne constantly mixes up his programs and hosts special events. For example, he recently ran the Naples Pro League, where members watched dozens of great players compete. The club offered free beer and wine for the event and held a $10 raffle for members to win a new racquet.

Browne also likes bringing in guest pros to host clinics, and let members shine on the court. “I like to do exhibitions where we pluck out a few members to play so they can be seen, and they get to play with the pros,” says Browne. “It piques their interest to want to play better, so they might want to do more lessons and clinics.”

Tennis directors can also benefit from building on the game’s strong social element. For example, Coral Ridge Country Club hosts monthly themed tennis social events, such as a Margarita Mixer, where members play casual mixed doubles and enjoy margaritas and hors d’oeuvres during short breaks. “Usually at the social events I don’t keep score and I don’t give prizes, which gets people to come out and relax,” says Hoag.

La Quinta also has monthly themed round-robin tournaments, where members play tennis through the day and then meet for dinner and cocktails in the evening. These events are designed for players of all skill levels to mingle, so members get to know different people.

Getting Along with Golf
When clubs and resorts try to build their tennis offerings, that doesn’t mean members and guests have to give up golf. The two sports can, and should, coexist. At Hideaway Beach, the golf and tennis staffs have offices in the same facility, and work together constantly.

To try to bring the games together, Congressional CC hosts an Iron Person Competition, where members golf, play tennis and bowl as part of a day-long triathalon.

At the Glenmore CC, the tennis and golf departments share their calendars at the end of the year and have monthly meetings with the president to discuss each department’s activities, problems and upcoming events, so everyone is on the same page.

“The golf pro should be one of your best friends,” says Hideaway Beach’s Browne. “It looks really bad to members when your golf pro goes left and the tennis pro goes right.

“We promote golf as much as tennis,” Browne adds, “because we’re smart enough to know it’s also a great game. We want our members to get a full education in both, as part of a full life.”