Answering the Bell

by Joe Barks (editor@clubandresortbusiness.com)
August 2008
 

After 30 years, Frank Gore is retiring without any sour Notes.

You don’t have to dig too deeply into any out-with-the-old, in-with-the-new business transition scenario to unearth the inevitable grumblings: The new guys don’t understand the business, there’s nothing broken that they need to fix, they’re just making change for change’s sake, and on and on.

KSL Capital Partners has certainly not been immune to this kind of criticism since becoming the new owners of ClubCorp. The club business is still well-populated with Robert Dedman disciples who take issue with the notion that his original model may be outdated, or that well-established clubs may now need things like water parks to survive.

Someone who may be able to bring the most balanced perspective to this discussion is Frank Gore, ClubCorp’s long-time and legendary Executive Vice President of Membership, who will retire in September after 30 years with the company.

As the creator and curator of best practices that were captured and conveyed through his famous “Bell Notes”—many of which directly reflected Robert Dedman’s core operating principals—Gore says the “Notes” were never designed to be cast in stone. Instead, they were conceived from the start as a fluid management tool that would respond to changing conditions in the industry.

“We started with 28 [Bell Notes] in 1995; now we have 32,” he reveals. “More than half are the same [as the original list], but there have certainly been some that no longer apply, and others we’ve had to add, to reflect how new technology and other things have fundamentally changed how we do business.”

And as Gore compares the club industry he started in to the one he’s leaving, he’s fully on board with how ClubCorp’s new owners view the future.

“It’s dramatically different, because of the demands that are now on members’ time,” he says. “To get them to come to the club instead of staying at home, you have to have things they don’t have. Golf can be one of those things, but not the only thing. And when you do have golf, you have to do more to make it possible for the whole family to play.”