Charting the Course

As the trend to golf course restorations builds, clubs must learn to carefully prepare for their effect on operations— before, during and after.

by Diana Mirel (editor@clubandresortbusiness.com)
January 2006
 

When a club is lucky enough to have a historically significant golf course, restoring and preserving the intent of its original design can add greatly to the property’s reputation and appeal. But from the beginning, these projects call for striking a delicate balance between history and modern golf.

“Making a commitment to the design of the original golf course architect will guide almost everything you do,” says a senior design associate at one course design firm. “At the same time, you must realize the game of golf has changed substantially. You have to be able to restore the golf course while still modernizing it to fit today’s equipment.”

Clubs must also be prepared for the inevitable disruptions that come with any course restorations. Given these challenges and difficulties, does embarking on a restoration pay off? Many clubs emphatically say yes.

It Takes A Village

 

Golf course restorations affect everyone at a club—from members to management. Designating from the start exactly who is to be responsible for each aspect of the project is critical, and every staff member must clearly understand how they will contribute to its overall success.

All hands were called on deck when the Cavalier Golf & Yacht Club in Virginia Beach,Va., prepared to restore its Charles Banks course. General Manager John Milleson worked directly with the club’s golf course architect and facility manager to oversee the project, secure proper approvals from the city, and communicate with the membership about progress—and disruptions. Golf Pro Keith King then worked with the architect to assess issues of course playability and aesthetics.

Maintaining member satisfaction was a top concern from the start for Cavalier. King acted as a concierge of sorts, setting up tee times for members at alternate courses in the area that allowed Cavalier’s members to golf at discounted rates. Additionally, a committee consisting of Milleson, King, and the club’s course superintendent— along with its current President, Greens Committee chair, a representative from the Finance Committee, and several handpicked members-at-large—met regularly to oversee the restoration, budget, construction progress, and effects on operations.

As this example shows, member involvement is just as critical as staff roles. Grass-roots commitments help lighten the burden of selling the idea to the clientele. At Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pa., a member survey conducted prior to restoration of the club’s H. C. Fownes course revealed strong support. “[The members] were very committed to making sure the golf course was the best it could be,” says John Zimmers, Golf Course Superintendent. “They wanted to hold national championships, and they thought it was very important to restore it to the original Fownes design.”

Beyond Memories

 

Restoring a golf course can offer much more than a trip down memory lane; it can also add new value to a club and make it more competitive in an increasingly saturated market. “If you stay dormant and don’t do much to your course, it will get to the point where people don’t want to play it,” says Dick Bates, General Manager of the Arizona Biltmore Golf Club in Phoenix, Ariz.

A restoration can also strengthen membership by enhancing existing club reputations or creating new ones—not only through the prestige of tournaments that may be attracted, but also from the daily word-of-mouth about how well, and how differently, the course now plays.

While the restoration at Oakmont wasn’t necessarily needed to help the storied course line up its eighth U.S. Open (to be held in 2007), it certainly didn’t hurt in that regard. And in the meantime, members are enjoying many new features. “When you combine new bunkers, new drainage and all these things, the membership benefits every day,” says Zimmers.

The restoration balancing act is especially tricky, though, when courses are being restored with both championship and daily play in mind. New equipment and materials continue to allow players to hit harder, farther and straighter, and courses must keep pace.While many golf courses originally measured 6,000-6,500 yards when built during the game’s first Golden Era in the 1920s, championship courses have now stretched to 7,000 7,500 yards. To preserve both the original design intent and still modernize courses to today’s standards, reinterpretation of original plans must be an option. “Putting in a bunker at 180 yards doesn’t quite get it for anyone anymore; you may need to slide that same bunker to 225- 230 yards,” notes one architect.

At Cavalier G&YC, it was clear the original bunkering schemes had to be changed the second time around. To do this while still being faithful to history, the architect studied Charles Banks’ original plans. “We tempered our decisions with the plan and strategy that Banks was trying to evoke, and then recreated what we could,” he says. Another consideration that had to be weighed was the higher costs tied to today’s more sophisticated maintenance techniques (and better- educated superintendents). As a result, one of the course’s par-five holes was “restored” with only half as many fairway bunkers. “[The original scheme] of 13 or 14 would have been too many,” the architect notes. “Plus, Cavalier didn’t want its maintenance budget to go out the roof.”

Even with these kinds of concessions, the original feel and characteristics of a historic course can be evoked by restoring classic features, including mowing patterns, bunker edges and green shapes. The Arizona Biltmore Golf Club’s Adobe course honored its original golf course architect, William Bell, by rebuilding his signature sand traps. Meanwhile, Pasatiempo Golf Club in Santa Cruz, Calif., focused on enlarging the greens into existing apron areas, to return to the original Alister MacKenzie shape.

Installing multiple tee options is another technique that can help update restored courses to serve players of all skill levels, while still maintaining aesthetics and staying true to the original designer’s intent.

Business (Not) As Usual

 

To close or not to close? That is the key question every club faces in a restoration. While there’s no getting away from the costs associated with disruption of business, some courses opt to close the course completely, and others choose to shut down only a set of holes at a time, or set up provisional greens. Either way, management’s primary goal is the same: Minimize annoyance to members while maximizing their opportunities to keep playing.

Pasatiempo Golf Club opted to always stay open in some form, closing two to three holes at a time. “It was disruptive,” says Dean Gump, Golf Course Superintendent. “We always had temporary greens. But we kept the golf course intact, and people were able to play 18 holes.” Maintaining honest member relations was the key to managing these efforts. “Members and guests were informed in advance and knew what they would be getting on a daily basis,” says Gump. “We tried not to surprise people, and they were gracious about it.”

While the thought of closing a course completely is understandably unnerving, many golf course architects recommend a full shutdown for major construction projects. “[Some courses] want to do three holes a year and keep everything in play,” says one architect. “But that’s going to cost them more in the end, because the contractor has to come in five or six times.”

Taking cues from the climate and offering alternatives can help make restorations less disruptive. For example, the Adobe course was closed and restored during the off-season—June, July and August in Arizona—when most members had returned to their winter homes. Additionally, the club’s second golf course, the Links, was open during the Adobe restoration. Because the two operate out of the same clubhouse, the club felt little impact on its overall operations in the already slow off-season.

Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio, closed its course for almost a year. “The most difficult thing is to tell members who love the golf course that they won’t be able to play,” says Tom Walker, Golf Course Superintendent and Greens Keeper. But the club arranged for members to play at other clubs for discounted fees, and its previous restoration and maintenance experiences gave it the foresight to plan ahead. Inverness actually began preparing for the slowdown a year and a half prior to the restoration.

“When you shut down the course, you strongly impact revenue not only for golf, but for the clubhouse, food and beverage operations, and everything else,” explains Walker. “You’re dropping from 170 to 200 players a day who come and rent carts, eat lunch, have cocktails, hire caddies, use the driving range, and so on.”

So Inverness made a concerted effort to schedule all events before the mid-August construction start date, and had a very busy first half of the season. The club also hosted social mixers during construction, to encourage members to visit the club even as it was shut down.

Worth the Wait

 

Now that it’s completed, the Inverness restoration has been deemed a sound decision, with benefits far outweighing the costs. “When you put [the temporary losses] against all the advantages once the golf course opened again, it was well worth it,” says Walker. The new drainage system—“ one of the biggest investments you can make in a club,” he notes—is already paying significant dividends by keeping the course open for more play more often, which in turn generates more revenues from other operations. The restoration has also helped boost Inverness’ capabilities as a championship course by adding yardage and improving teeing grounds. “The intent was realized: to have the finest product for the members and maintain a championship venue,” Walker says.

Forecasting the likely future of the club and its membership motivated Cavalier G&YC’s $2.9 million restoration project. Several years ago, golf membership began a steady decline at the club, and management recognized that restoring its historic course might attract new members. But it also knew that closing the course during construction could be risky with an already declining membership, and did a pro forma analysis to determine the potential effect. Although a 15% loss in membership was projected, management decided to proceed. “We needed to do what was right for the club’s future,” says Milleson. “The members who saw it as a necessity and that the club had a legacy to protect stayed and supported the project.”

Cavalier did in fact lose the projected 15%, but this did not leave it in dire straits. “It was a calculated risk, and we knew we had to bring in new members,” says Milleson. The club offered incentives and discounts to encourage current members to sponsor prospective ones, and created a special committee to recruit members and publicize the new course. “We ended up recovering the 70 members and added 30 more within a 12- month cycle,”Milleson reports. In fact, when the newly restored course opened, the club had a waiting list for the first time in years. The anticipated restoration also prompted many members to upgrade their memberships to include golf.

There was also a pleasant surprise in the Cavalier clubhouse during restoration. “We thought we’d lose revenue and income during construction, but we did not experience that,” says Milleson. “We made a strong push to get extra catering revenue while the course was down, and that helped subsidize [losses in normal] food and beverage operations.” The increased catering and banquet business brought in so much extra revenue, in fact, that the club was able to add several features to the course, including a new pumping station. C&RB

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summing It Up

 

• Restoring a golf course can make it more competitive in an increasingly saturated market, and also yield significant operational efficiencies.

• Nostalgia might be enticing, but remember that today’s equipment technology has made old bunker and tee placements less challenging.

• Closing all or part of a course will impact your revenues, so careful planning is needed. Minimize losses to keep them within acceptable levels, or promote other activities to make up for the lost golf business.

• You might lose some members during a restoration, but a well executed project can yield an even stronger membership after renovations are complete.

Capturing History, In All Of Its Forms

 

Few clubs have archives complete with a Master Plan from the original architect, hole-by-hole photos, original course maps and aerial photography. Clubs often have to dig deeply and research the history of their course and its architecture to get a vivid picture of how it once played. Plans and photographs are the most valuable pieces of information for these efforts.

 

While speaking with senior members of the club may be beneficial during the research process, do not accept everything as fact. You can get some information that is opinion or from memory, and it may be wrong.

 

If more conventional research methods don’t provide enough information, more creative detective work is necessary. When the Arizona Biltmore Golf Club decided to restore its William Bell-designed Adobe course, the historic evidence was sparse. So, the club hired Bell historian Tommy Naccarato to help guide its restoration efforts.

 

 

Source List Tom Marzolf Fazio Golf Course Designers, Inc. Hendersonville, N.C. Steve Forrest, Principal Arthur Hills/Steve Forrest and Associates Toledo, Ohio Lester George, President George Golf Design, Inc. Richmond, Va.