Paul Skelton, CCM, General Manager, The Country Club at DC Ranch, Scottsdale, Ariz.

The remarkable turnaround that he brought about after riding to the rescue of The Country Club at DC Ranch has earned Excellence in Club Management Award recognition for Paul Skelton.

“When one door closes, another opens—but all too often there is a long hallway in between.” That observation from The Ultimate Anti-Career Guide certainly didn’t apply—at least where distance was concerned—to the situation Paul Skelton, CCM, found himself in at the beginning of 2010. Skelton had been told by the developer of The Club at Seven Canyons in Sedona, Ariz., where he was Vice President/Chief Operating Officer, that the struggles caused by the recession and real estate crash had put the property, and Skelton’s job, in jeopardy.

But almost as soon as he heard that message, Skelton got another one: The Country Club at DC Ranch, in Scottsdale, Ariz., wanted to talk to him about becoming its new General Manager/COO. Skelton accepted the position, and physically, the only change when getting to work now involved “taking a left turn instead of a right.”

While the change in direction was minimal, however, the path leading to DC Ranch was littered with land mines. The club had been ravaged by the same recessionary forces, and as he reported for his new job, Skelton inherited poor operating results, a mandate to bring in a new Director of Golf, Executive Chef and Director of Tennis (among others), lingering legal issues from the club’s recent separation from its developer—and more than 130 memberships on the exit list.

Fast-forward two years, and every road leading to The Country Club at DC Ranch now glows with unimpeded, warm welcomes. And for his leadership in implementing strategies and ideas that brought about a remarkable turnaround, Paul Skelton has perhaps the most impressive achievement to add to his already distinguished 35-year career in club management (which includes two years as President of the Club Managers Association of America). He is the 2012 co-recipient of The Mead Grady Award, for Country/Golf Clubs with Fewer than 600 Full-Privilege Members, as part of the Excellence in Club Management Awards co-sponsored by the McMahon Group and Club & Resort Business. (Skelton shares the 2012 Grady Award, which is determined by judging from a selection committee of a peer group of club managers, with Eric Dietz, CCM, PGA, General Manager/CEO of Lakewood Country Club in Rockville, Md.; Dietz will be featured later this year in C&RB.)

Lessons to Work By
Looking back at the circumstances surrounding how he and The Country Club at DC Ranch came together, Skelton says   they confirm the value of abiding by two other oft-quoted axioms about career development: “Timing is everything,” and “Never say never.”

In Skelton’s case, the “never” was a vow to not get involved again with member-owned club situations. But while he says he was “absolutely concerned about a number of red flags” that were on prominent display as he looked towards Scottsdale, he also saw good signs among the directors and members of DC Ranch that convinced him they were ready to take the bold steps needed to begin to reverse the club’s fortunes—and then to let him take it from there.

The boldest involved amending club bylaws so original membership rights could be waived and a market-based membership sales program could be implemented. Like many clubs in similar situations at the time, DC Ranch had tried initiation-fee adjustments that had failed to yield desired results. But the membership stepped up to adopt the market-based program, and it quickly brought about a remarkable transformation.

“We went from 134 people who needed or had to get out, to 134 active members using the club,” Skelton says. “The issue today, in fact, is how to manage how busy we’ve become. In March of this year, we had over 4,000 golf rounds, the most ever experienced in a single month.”

Under Skelton’s direction, other aspects of DC Ranch life—most notably tennis and F&B—have experienced similar revivals, to the point where the membership is now poised to take another major step designed to lift the club to unprecedented levels. Ballots were sent out in April for a vote on a $3.8 million project, the bulk of which would be spent, Skelton says, on a “major refreshment” of DC Ranch’s signature Hacienda Clubhouse. That part of the project would add 3,000 sq. ft. and provide a significant boost to the club’s F&B operation.

“We’d redo the kitchen so its layout would be more efficient,” says Skelton. “And we’d add square footage to take advantage of the setting at our south elevation for a new dining venue.

“We’d probably increase F&B volume by 25% to 30%,” he adds. “But as we’ve said in the town hall meetings about the project, it’s not about getting bigger, it’s about getting better.”

Which is another maxim that can now also be applied to Paul Skelton’s career.

Michael A. Chase, Jr., Club Manager, The Loxahatchee Club

As Club Manager of The Loxahatchee Club, Michael A. Chase, Jr., is so dedicated to his craft that he’ll put serving members over attending dinners held in his own honor—and that’s why he’s earned Rising Star recognition, as part of the 2012 Excellence in Club Management Awards.

Hard work is said to be its own reward—and earlier this year for Michael A. Chase, Jr., CCM, that’s exactly what it had to be.

As the 2012 Rising Star recipient for  the Excellence in Club Management (ECM) Awards co-sponsored by the McMahon Group and Club & Resort Business, Chase, Clubhouse Manager of The Loxahatchee Club of Jupiter, Fla., was invited to be recognized, along with the other winners, at the ECM awards dinner in February in San Diego (“Night of Honors,” C&RB, March 2013).

But the awards dinner was scheduled for the same night as a gala charity ball at Loxahatchee. Showing the keen sense of customer perception that has already helped him advance impressively in his first seven years as a club manager, Chase quickly picked up on signals from members involved with the event that their anxiety levels would increase significantly if he weren’t on site for it. So he assured them he’d be in Florida to help everything go smoothly.

In many ways, this dilemma was Chase’s own doing. After coming to Loxahatchee as Assistant Food and Beverage Manager in 2008, he quickly began to make his mark with a steady stream of popular new ideas and programs that have filled up the seasonal club’s event calendar, to the point where there’s now rarely a date when something special isn’t going on.

“I’ve just always tried to think about what can be done that would go beyond normal club events,” Chase says in explaining how he keeps the idea machine well-primed. “It never hurts to try new things, and if it’s exciting to me and those around me, it’s probably going to be exciting to our members as well.”

Once new ideas are hatched, Chase has also become known for assuring their success by taking full ownership in how they’re developed and executed. “Our [membership] survey results speak for themselves,” says Kevin Carroll, CCM, Loxahatchee’s COO/General Manager. “Every program Michael oversees has ratings well above 4.0 on a 5.0 scale. Any time he’s seen an area that’s needed help, he’s volunteered to jump in, whether he has experience in that field or not.”

Chase and The Loxahatchee Club’s F&B team earned an invitation to be part of a select group of 100 restaurant organizations granted professional membership in Epicurean International Associates.

That inclination first became evident after Chase came to Loxahatchee from Druid Hills Golf Club in Atlanta, where he was Assistant Manager after graduating with a Tourism/Hospitality degree from Purdue University-Fort Wayne.

Chase’s first year at Loxahatchee coincided with an initial season of what Carroll calls “very loose” operation of the club’s new Activities Center.

“Michael saw a need for leadership, and volunteered to take over management of fitness, spa, tennis, retail and swimming, in addition to his food-and-beverage duties, by working a few more hours a week,” says Carroll. Those “few hours” produced 38% growth in Activities Center revenues in its first year under Chase’s direction. “He rose to meet every expectation, in both areas,” Carroll says.

“I saw a lot of things I thought I could help touch in a positive way,” says Chase, who was a varsity tennis player in college. “[Loxahatchee] is still a golf-centric club, but with the Activities Center we now had the opportunity to also be very successful in fitness, tennis, pool-related activities and other areas, and to provide additional programming for children.” Progress has come by “leaps and bounds” in all areas, he reports, with tennis showing especially strong (300%) growth.

The club’s expanded appeal—and Chase’s can/will-do-it-all abilities—has The Loxahatchee Club well-positioned for an impending management transition at the end of this season, with Carroll having been named the new General Manager of the Atlanta Athletic Club.

Chase aspires to attain a GM position himself someday, but for now he recognizes the importance, as his primary contribution to a smooth succession period, of keeping the staff focused on increasing service and activity levels

And, oh yes—amid all of this, Chase finally did get his award, when it was presented to him at the club on March 1. But of course, to Chase that was not the only rewarding part of the night. The presentation was made during one of Loxahatchee’s Friday Trivia Nights, another Chase-driven concept that he says is now in its fourth year and has become the club’s “biggest regularly occurring” event, consistently maxing out at 225 people.

And here, too, thanks largely to Chase’s influence, it’s become more than just your standard club trivia night. “We put our own twist on it and introduced wine tasting during the cocktail hour,” he enthuses. “It’s another way we’ve found to sell a ton of wine.”

Club insurance executives agree: A new, harder-to-pinpoint pattern of damage has emerged from storms that are more frequent and seem to affect club properties over a wider geographic range.

A new pattern for natural disasters that has been notable not only for its fury, but also its frequency and reach, promises to have long-standing implications for clubs’ insurance situations.

On the whole, club properties in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast U.S. that found themselves in the path of the wide swath cut by Superstorm Sandy last fall were largely spared the crippling devastation that many residents and communities in that region are still trying to recover from.

Certainly, it’s not hard to find properties that would beg to differ with that statement—like Rumson (N.J.) Country Club, which sustained significant golf course damage and took a body blow to its pool complex. And most notably, there was the case of Middle Bay Country Club on Long Island, where the direct impact of the storm on the club property, as well as on members’ homes and businesses, was responsible for the announcement in January that it would have to close after nearly 60 years of operation.

One fact about Sandy, however, applies across the board to all club properties—not only in the Northeast, but throughout the country. Everyone now stands to feel the storm’s impact to some degree and for some time to come, as insurance carriers reassess how, and if, they want to provide property and casualty coverage for the club and golf course business—and if they do, what they’ll want to charge for the protection.

“The impact of [Sandy] is very significant for all clubs in the Northeast, and there will be long-term changes in coverage and deductibles that are offered,” says one executive with a company that specializes in club insurance. “Pricing will also go up significantly.

“All insurance carriers are licking their wounds, and not just from Sandy,” this executive continues. “There has been a trend for the past three to four years of significant losses from weather-related causes that are not related just to traditional catastrophic incidents like hurricanes.”

Other club insurance executives agree: A new, harder-to-pinpoint pattern of damage has emerged from storms that are more frequent and seem to affect club properties over a wider geographic range, extending well beyond what has traditionally been considered the higher-risk, “coastal” areas. And other climate-related threats are coming into play as well.

“We never saw so many of these ‘duratios’ and ‘microbursts’ and ‘supercells’ before,” notes another club insurance veteran. “They are very hard to protect against and can do a significant amount of damage—not only from wind, but also hail, flooding and other consequences.

“We’re also seeing things like really destructive brushfires in places like northern Colorado, where you’d never expect to see that happen,” he adds. “It’s really hard to explain a lot of this—and it’s certainly harder to predict it, which is never a good development when you’re talking about insurance coverage.”

Keeping Score
When these events hit club properties, the consequences can go far beyond the damage caused to trees and golf courses, to also encompass damaged or destroyed equipment and structures, flooding, power failures, and loss of business as a result of the club being less than fully operational.

In the past two decades, Mother Nature has been an equal-opportunity distributor of disaster areas (red and orange on map, which does not reflect damage from Superstorm Sandy in 2012).

When claims are filed to recover for these consequences, the temptation can be strong to “cash in and get back as much as possible,” one insurance manager notes. This can lead to what are at best too-casually calculated, and at worst grossly inflated, assessments of the value of what’s been damaged or lost, and of the cost of cleanup and repair/replacement.

But insurance sources want to remind club managers that trying to maximize short-term gains in this fashion may work against them in the long run—especially in an insurance market where carriers now stand to be much firmer about what coverage they’ll provide, and to whom.

“Golf has been a fairly soft market, but there’s going to be a hardening now, and some carriers are going to get out of it,” says one insurance executive. “Those that remain are going to want to have customers that display a spirit of partnership  in working with brokers and carriers to keep exposures, and claims, to a minimum.

“We can all access the data for average claims after a storm hits an area,” this executive notes. “If one club makes a claim for loss of business that’s ten times higher than the average for all clubs in that area, that’s going to be looked at pretty closely when new coverage and rates are set. We’ll also compare tree claim data, to see which clubs have taken the initiative to do a lot of the cleanup on their own budgets and to make reasoned decisions about which trees really need to be replaced.”

Similarly, insurance underwriters now have more sophisticated tools to assess clubs’ levels of exposure to, and preparedness for, catastrophic events. “We’re using Google Earth and checking FEMA flood maps to take closer looks at club properties and see how susceptible they are to losing trees and experiencing flood damage,” notes one manager.

As Middle Bay CC on Long Island discovered, to its unfortunate demise, even states that are in the “lower-risk” portions of historical trend lines can still feel the full wrath of today’s more
unpredictable weather patterns.

So even with the inevitability of higher rates on the horizon, the prescribed best course of action to minimize their impact remains the same for club managers: Don’t treat club insurance like a commodity, but continue to work with reputable brokers and club insurance experts to forge long-term partnerships through which proper and adequate coverage can be obtained at the best possible price.

“There’s no doubt that clubs need to prepare for a period of more restrictive and higher-priced coverage,” says one insurance executive. “But those that are proactive in working with their brokers to arrange proper coverage and protections well ahead of their renewal period—and in fact on a year-round basis—can do a lot to limit the impact of how their costs will now be affected by the period of heavy claims we’ve seen over the past few years.”

Rendering of Royal Oaks CC’s clubhouse renovation.

A determined, all-in approach to strategic planning and facilities improvement paid off for Royal Oaks CC, well before the final nails had been struck.

The difference between what most clubs’ long-range facilities improvement plans look like when they’re first drawn up, and what ends up actually getting built (if anything does at all), can usually be summed up by a phrase most often associated with police blotter reports: beyond recognition.

The process of how a great (and needed) plan gets damaged or destroyed after it’s been drawn up can be every bit as grisly, too. And the primary reason that strategic plans fall apart is misguided fears about resulting body counts, as reflected by the project’s impact on membership numbers, says William P. McMahon, Sr., AIA, OAA, Chairman of St. Louis-based McMahon Group, the private club planning and consulting firm.

“We see it all over—as soon as numbers are put down for the costs of improvements related to strategic plans, and how they’ll be paid for, many clubs back off or cut the plans drastically,” says McMahon. “The fear is that announcing plans to spend money will cause current members to quit and at the same time scare away potential new ones.”

Drawing on member survey results, Royal Oaks conceived, and fully executed, a strategic plan that renovated and expanded its main clubhouse, added a new fitness center, and upgraded pool and tennis facilities, all at half the cost of building a new clubhouse.

But there are examples of plans that have been carried through that prove just the opposite, McMahon adds—with one of the most prominent success stories coming from Royal Oaks Country Club in Dallas. It’s a story that took over four years to unfold, involved serious money ($16 million) and made sweeping changes to the 1,200-member club’s campus, including a two-floor clubhouse makeover, swim and tennis upgrades and a new fitness center, which was featured in C&RB’s January 2012 issue (“Fit for Life“).

Best of all, the story had a happy ending—well before it was over. “Fifty new members joined in the first three months after the project was approved, before construction even began,” McMahon reports. “They were sitting on the fence, but decided to join—bringing in significant initiation-fee revenues—when they saw how serious the club was about improving its facilities.”

The Royal Oaks example “proves that making these types of facility improvements does attract membership,” McMahon adds. And he gives special credit to the club for going all-in and “in effect, doing everything” that was initially included in the master plan, which was conceived based on a member survey that McMahon Group conducted for the club. “You usually don’t see the full magnitude of the plan end up getting done,” he notes. “But I think that also helped to show the kind of commitment that got new members excited to join.”

Successful Sponsorship
Another key to the success of the Royal Oaks project, according to McMahon, was how it was championed by Robert Douglas, a member who stayed closely involved from start to finish both as the Chairman of the club’s Long-Range Planning Committee and as its President.

The site plan for Royal Oaks CC’s main clubhouse renovation.

“[Douglas] stayed with it from approval through construction,” says McMahon. “Seeing that kind of dedication over such a long period of time is unusual, but it reflected his love for the club and how much he believed in the value of both the plan, and what it could produce. And having such effective leadership definitely helped sustain momentum and get others excited about what it could do, and also made them want to see it all get done.”

In late 2011 at Royal Oaks, as part of a Design & Renovations Insights Seminar on the project that was co-sponsored by C&RB and CCI Club Design, which McMahon Group recommended as project architect, Douglas outlined some other key aspects of fully implementing the plan.

“We had a planning committee with a good cross-section of interests represented, and we never stopped using the [initial member] survey to guide us,” he said. “It was very helpful to be able to point to the survey results and say, ‘I appreciate your opinion—but it’s not the club’s opinion.’ ”

The 2012 winners of the Excellence in Club Management (ECM) Awards, co-sponsored by the McMahon Group, Inc. and

McMahon Group, Inc., the St. Louis-based consulting firm, and Club & Resort Business have announced the 2012 recipients of the Excellence in Club Management (ECM) Awards program, established in 1997 by the McMahon Group and co-sponsored since 2005 by C&RB.

The annual awards are selected through nominations submitted on behalf of qualified candidates by other parties.

Award recipients are selected solely on the basis of their achievements at the club they currently manage; “lifetime achievements” are not considered.

A Selection Committee comprised of a peer group of club managers conducts the judging; the McMahon Group and Club & Resort Business are not involved in the selection of the award winners.

A full listing of judges, in addition to information on past winners and on how to nominate candidates for future years’ awards, can be found at the special website for the ECM Awards program, www.clubmanageraward.com

In-depth articles detailing the achievements that led to the selection of each of the 2012 winners will appear in upcoming issues of Club & Resort Business.

The 2012 group has five award winners, because of a tie that resulted from the judging in one category.

Winner: Country/Golf Clubs with 600 or More Full-Privilege Members (The James H. Brewer Award)

Robert E. Jones, CCM, CCE, ECM

Robert E. Jones, CCM, CCE, ECM
General Manager/COO
Desert Mountain Club, Inc.
Scottsdale, Ariz.

“Fifteen years is a lifetime for the tenure of a private club General Manager,” wrote Paul Wutz, Chief Executive Officer/President of Desert Mountain Club, in nominating Bob Jones for Excellence in Club Management recognition. And in the case of Jones’ 15 years as Desert Mountain’s GM/COO, Wutz noted, that period has involved several “lifetimes” for the club, which is part of a gated residential community covering 8,000 acres that includes six Jack Nicklaus Signature golf courses, 10 foodservice locations, and serves 2,150-plus members and their families—“in essence, a small city,” Wutz said.

Serving three different commercial real estate conglomerates during his tenure as GM before Desert Mountain’s members acquired the club in 2011, Jones has “skillfully navigated his way through the oftentimes contentious waters involving the bottom-line motives of multiple, for-profit owners, versus the wants and needs of membership,” Wutz said. Through it all, he added, Jones has stood out as a “people pleaser” who has assembled a strong senior management team and extremely loyal staff, and cultivated “valuable relationships with a broad spectrum of people, from the mayor of Scottsdale to Jack Nicklaus himself.”

Since the club became member-owned, Wutz added, Jones has led the accomplishment of an impressive list of initiatives, opening a new state-of-the-art Golf Performance Center, instituting a value-pricing program in the property’s restaurants, and implementing an effective promotional sales program to attract new members. He also directed the club’s hosting of the 2012 Champions Tour Charles Schwab Cup tournament, and planned a celebration for the membership to recognize Desert Mountain’s silver anniversary.

Winner: Country/Golf Clubs with Fewer than 600 Full-Privilege Members (The Mead Grady Award)

Eric J. Dietz, CCM, PGA, ECM

Eric J. Dietz, CCM, PGA, ECM
General Manager/CEO
Lakewood Country Club
Rockville, Md.

For the first 50 or so years of its existence, wrote Jeffrey Weber, President of the Lakewood CC Board, the club was essentially run by “winging it,” leading to a “lax management style” that “focused on the rear-view mirror” and raised real doubts as to how much longer Lakewood would be able to safely navigate its future course in a highly competitive Washington, D.C.-area club market.

All that changed, Weber added, after Eric Dietz arrived from Rochester (Minn.) Golf & Country Club in 2009 to be Lakewood’s new General Manager/CEO. In nominating Dietz for Excellence in Club Management honors, Weber credited him with taking the lead in “transcending Lakewood to its current position of one of [the D.C.] area’s premier private clubs.” Changes made at the club under Dietz’s leadership have not only been well-received by the current membership, Weber noted, but have also helped the club to  “[become] a sought-after ‘home away from home’ for over 150 new member families in the last three-plus years.”

Dietz immediately provided Lakewood with its much-needed forward direction, Weber noted, by leading the development of a comprehensive strategic master plan. He also used member-driven focus groups to identify the club’s strengths and weaknesses, and set targets for closing the gaps. “As a result,” Weber said, “operational changes are occurring at Lakewood that are as ground-breaking as the physical changes the club undertook over the past four years.

“Lakewood is now an exciting place with a young and vibrant membership that demands excellence in all of their endeavors,” he added. “Eric has personally brought a level of pride and accomplishment that never previously existed.”

Winner: Country/Golf Clubs with Fewer than 600 Full-Privilege Members (The Mead Grady Award)

Paul K. Skelton, CCM, ECM

Paul K. Skelton, CCM, ECM
General Manager/COO
The Country Club at DC Ranch
Scottsdale, Ariz.

Every club manager confronted recession-related fears in 2010, but few were looking at as daunting a list as Paul Skelton when he accepted the position of General Manager/COO at The Country Club at DC Ranch. “When Paul started, he was faced with many challenges,” wrote William J. Kamm, Chief Executive Officer, in nominating Skelton for Excellence in Club Management honors. “We had 129 memberships on the exit list. We had poor operating results. We had to bring on board a new Director of Golf and a new chef. We had legal concerns [remaining from] our separation from the developer who created The Country Club at DC Ranch.

“Many people would have run from all of these challenges,” Kamm continued. “Paul looked at it as an opportunity, rolled up his sleeves and went to work.

“His accomplishments speak for themselves,” Kamm added. “In three years, the state of the club has improved dramatically. Paul researched and developed the market-based initiation program adopted by the members. The exit list has been eliminated. He brought a two-time PGA Professional of the Year on board as Director of Golf.

“Today, the club is without any debt, and has cash reserves that are very impressive,” Kamm said. “And Paul has positioned the club for a membership vote to make extensive improvements to [our] facilities.”

Winner: City, Athletic or Specialty (Non-Golf) Club (The Mel Rex Award)

John P. Dorman, CCM, ECM

John P. Dorman, CCM, ECM
General Manager
The University Club of New York
New York, N.Y.

There are sizable food-and-beverage operations in the club industry, and then there are programs on the level that John Dorman has directed for the past 15 years as General Manager of The University Club of New York: annual revenues exceeding $13 million; over 190,000 meal covers per year, evenly split between member a la carte and banquet service; and an average of more than one member event per day of the work week.

Beyond the volume, there’s also the service and quality expectations. “Our guest rooms and banquet activity must compete with the likes of neighboring hotels such as the St. Regis, the Plaza and the Pierre,” wrote club President Paul Leitner in nominating Dorman for Excellence in Club Management recognition. “Our dining rooms must satisfy the most discriminating palates and compete in one of the greatest restaurant venues in the world.”

The University Club of New York more than holds its own in the face of these challenges, Leitner added, because  of Dorman’s “wonderful ability to please the most sophisticated and discriminating member.”  He’s also proved to be quite the numbers whiz, helping the club go from indebtedness approaching eight figures when he arrived to now having net cash reserves of more than $20 million, even after investing $45 million in needed capital improvements.

Winner: 2012 Rising Star Award

Michael A. Chase, Jr., CCM, ECM

Michael A. Chase, Jr., CCM, ECM
Club Manager
The Loxahatchee Club
Jupiter, Fla.

The Loxahatchee Club’s COO/General Manager, Kevin Carroll, CCM, knows it’s just a matter of time before Michael Chase moves on from his staff to be a GM himself. When that happens, Carroll wrote in nominating Chase for Rising Star recognition, “He will leave a large void.” But Carroll is still glad Chase has stayed in club management, rather than almost making a move in 2011 to leave the industry and work for a developer.

“Members and fellow staff members enjoy [Michael’s] energy and personality,” Carroll wrote. “I have seen his determination in seeking constant improvement in the club, and for himself. When he saw the need for someone to manage our new Activities Center, he volunteered that he could handle the additional responsibilities, by working a few more hours a week.” Chase then proved just how capable his “handling” would be, Carroll added, by reducing labor costs, increasing revenues and adding $30,000 to the bottom line.

Celebrating In Style
In addition to presentations at their individual clubs held throughout the year, the 2012 Excellence in Club Management  winners, along with those from previous years, will be recognized at an Awards Dinner to be held at the University Club Atop Symphony Towers in San Diego on Saturday, February 9, in conjunction with the 2013 World Conference of the Club Managers Association of America.

This year’s Awards Dinner will be sponsored by Bollinger Insurance Solutions, ClubCorp, and Toro.

For more details on the ECM Awards Program, visit www.clubmanageraward.com

VNCC’s golf staff (from left: David Evans, Golf Course Superintendent; Brian Gara, Head Golf Professional; and Zack Wyman, Director of Golf) use desktop, mobile and tablet-based technology to send steady digital communication on everything from tee-sheet changes to frost delays and course maintenance plans.

From the golf course to the pool to the back office, Vermont National Country Club uses technology to the fullest to enhance members’ experiences.

Club management has always been a balancing act, and making the most of technology is no different than offering the right mix of facilities, amenities and member services—it requires careful and constant assessment of what will work best for a particular club environment. Through that approach, Vermont National Country Club (VNCC), in South Burlington, Vt., has positioned itself as a leading-edge example for using technology effectively in today’s club world—and has ridden the technological wave to display impressive growth during one of the toughest periods clubs have ever faced.

VNCC, founded in 1997 and built on 400 acres of a former dairy farm nestled between the Green and Adirondack mountains, has never skimped on facilities or services for its membership. The club features a Jack Nicklaus Signature Design championship course that is the first of its kind in New England, along with a stately $4.1 million, 13,500-sq. ft. clubhouse (see photo below), Har-Tru tennis courts, a Junior Olympic swimming pool complex, and many other amenities.

Vermont National CC, South Burlington, Vt.

Christopher Barron, one of the first employees hired when the club opened in the late ‘90s, left in 2002 to embark on a career path that took him to properties throughout the country, including Rancho La Quinta CC in La Quinta, Calif. When Barron returned in 2009 to be VNCC’s General Manager, the club had begun to use available technology to create operating efficiencies and enhance members’ enjoyment of all that was offered. Starting with implementation of a point-of-sale system from Jonas Club Management in 2005, VNCC gradually implemented additional features and capabilities, including a website developed through Jonas’ ClubHouse Online module.

As the club’s new GM, Barron was all for continuing to explore how technology could help VNCC advance toward its goals and distinguish itself in the club market. “We’re always looking to stay ahead of the technology curve,” he states.

Under Barron’s direction, the next steps saw VNCC go to electronic billing statements and enhance the club’s website to provide an online calendar and other features—and these also paid quick dividends to improve the productivity and effectiveness of the VNCC staff. “It’s not about severing the personal touch,” Barron notes. “It’s about streamlining the things that are taxing. When any chit detail from the last 13 months can be found online, accounting isn’t getting called about every $29 charge, and my controller is freed up for true financial and human resource duties. Every minute saved gives us all more time to focus on member service.”

A new mobile version of VNCC’s website has greatly enhanced the club’s ability to communicate with members about all aspects of operations.

Tapping In to Tee Times   
Technology’s real potential for saving time while enhancing personal touches was shown at VNCC this past spring, after the club rolled out new automated enhancements for an active golf    program, which sees 26,000 rounds in a season that normally runs from mid-April through October. A new mobile version of the members-only side of the club’s website (www.vermontnational.com) was integrated with existing technology, to seamlessly combine an electronic tee sheet with other administrative and communications features. The integration now starts at the bag drop, where starters have iPads providing details on the day’s players, and continues through the golf shop and to members’ computers and smartphones.

“It’s been a huge success all around,” says Barron. “Members can now get automatic, online updates and notifications within a one-and-a-half-hour window, to know what tee times are available. In the golf shop, because the phone just doesn’t ring anymore, our pros are freed up to interact with members and promote lessons and other specials—and we’ve definitely seen golf sales improve. And when players show up for their rounds, the starters address them by name, know if they’re going to ride or walk, and can provide added service.”

The new system has also helped improve communication about course maintenance, Barron adds. “We can use the online tee sheet to block times for things like spraying, and in the case of something like a frost delay, we can send an e-mail just to the members whose tee times will be affected, instead of bombarding the entire membership,” he says.

Christopher Barron, General Manager, Vermont National Country Club

“There’s just so much more efficiency,” Barron adds about the new mobile component. “And I really do believe the day isn’t too far down the line when almost everything will be done by phone only, as the way that on-the-go, younger members want to hear from and interact with their club.”

For food and beverage, nightly dinner specials are tweeted (@VermontNational), and VNCC’s banquet manager uses Facebook to help make contact with potential customers (the club has for-profit status). “Social media is a great asset; there’s really no cost, and the exposure you get is priceless,” Barron says. “In a small community like ours, we think it definitely helps give us a niche. We’ve always had a nice facility and great staff, and we think we’re now using technology to strike the right balance and make our club known as a welcoming place.”

Enhancing how it uses technology in all forms has also helped VNCC make it easier for members to make full use of the benefits of The Private Club Network (PCN), which it participates in as a Jonas user. PCN is a structured network of private clubs that extends reciprocal privileges to other participating clubs (“The Perks of Reciprocity,” C&RB, September 2011). “In this day and age, all clubs need to do everything they can to lift their perceived value, not only to help gain new members but to retain existing ones as well,” says Barron. “Adding the Private Club  Network and offering it as a complimentary part of our golf membership package allows us to add value and only enhances the Vermont National experience.”

Vache Hagopian, Jonas’ Director of Business Development, sees VNCC as the Starbucks of the club world. “Like Starbucks with its plush chairs and free wi-fi, [VNCC] has used technology to make it clear what it’s all about and why someone would want to join and use it,” Hagopian says. “Technology can be intimidating at times, but [VNCC] has embraced it and let it work its magic.”

With member statements available online, Controller Brian Hotaling and Accounting Assistant Tammy Fisher now field far fewer billing inquiries.

Adds Trevor Coughlan, Jonas’ Director of Marketing: “[VNCC] doesn’t just use technology to attract the next generation, but to add levels of service for existing members, too. It truly is tech-friendly and has built that into the club’s profile.”

Establishing that profile has led many members, old and new, to keep beating a path to VNCC’s door. When he returned as GM in 2009, Barron reports, the club had 218 golf members, and it now has 305. “We’re now pushing up against having a waiting list and actually thinking of a membership cap,” he says. “A few years ago, that was a pipedream.

“The club is growing and it’s rewarding to see the fruits of our labors,” he adds. “The mobile site was a huge home run, and we’re eager to keep working with Jonas to add other new things on our wish list, to try to stay out in the lead.”

Mark A. Bado, MCM, CCE, General Manager/COO, The Kansas City Country Club, Mission Hills, Kan.

Integrated team management has become an essential tool for improving private clubs’ operations, efficiency and effectiveness.

By Mark A. Bado, MCM, CCE, General Manager/COO, The Kansas City Country Club, Mission Hills, Kan.

Many “how to” books have been written regarding teamwork and its benefits. But very little has been said about the implementation of the integrated management concept in the private club industry.

The Chief Operating Officer concept has taken hold at many clubs, and more governing Boards have come to recognize the importance of professional club management, especially in light of recent economic challenges. But the outdated belief still holds in many instances that each department of a private club should operate autonomously and have little interaction with one another. This has often been reflected by the attitude that “the golf pro guards the Titleists, the superintendent grows grass, and the manager is the maître d’.”

In clubs where this remains the modus operandi, each department operates autonomously and managers in each area of the operation work only for themselves. Meanwhile, the General Manager reacts to the Board’s wishes and “goes along to get along,” as opposed to being a leader for the department managers, the Board and the club as a whole.

With the concept of integrated management, the management team is recognized collectively as the primary decision-maker within a private club’s operations.  The team’s individual managers are responsible for the consistency and quality of the performance of their staffs.  In turn, the General Manager acts as the catalyst, the conductor, and the leader of the team, with his or her main responsibility being to bring all of the individual/compartmentalized pieces together, to form a coordinated blend of the operation that functions as a unified whole toward the success of the club.

General industry has long established that integrated management is the key to success in any area of business. The good news is, this has left an abundance of examples, including many that have recently emerged from the private club business itself, that can be used as guidelines to readily establish a management framework for implementing the principles of an integrated approach in a private club setting. The even better news is that integrated management is an easy concept for all levels of club staffing to understand, and there are specific tools and procedures to follow to help employees and their clubs become even more successful.

Following the best practices of businesses and clubs that employ integrated team management will result in more harmonious and interrelated direction and operation of the club, and lead to specific performance improvements by improving communications, maximizing employee potential and productivity, increasing efficiency, enhancing fiscal results and maximizing member satisfaction.

Managers vs. Leaders
A key first step for general managers seeking to implement integrated management in a private club setting is to understand, and then embody, the difference between management and leadership. While “manager” is a job title, “leader” is a job philosophy.

In a typical club environment, a manager oversees the daily operations of his/her employees, and this is the extent of his/her capabilities. But being a manager does not necessarily make a person a leader, or a catalyst for the integrated team.
Leaders look within themselves to achieve the goals of their organizations. Inwardly, leaders must tap into an array of strengths—foresight, self-assurance, results orientation, courage, personality, and integrity. Outwardly, they must use these same attributes to maximize their team’s potential through visibility, communication, attention and commitment.

Integrated team management positions the GM as the hub of an approach through which all parts are unified to work together as a whole, move the organization forward, and present a complete product to the Board and membership.

When a leader creates a true team, others on that team can carry out the mission, even when the leader is not there to oversee the operations directly. Leaders instill a sense of commitment, a sense of self-confidence and a sense of trust among all members of the team. In turn, this instills a sense of accountability and responsibility in the team members even when they are not directly supervised, ensuring that the club can always continue to operate with a high standard of excellence.

The real test of the effectiveness of an integrated leader, and of how well the integrated management concept has been established for the club and its team, surrounds the operational challenges that continually and inevitably arise as part of a club’s ongoing operation.

For these situations, there are three phases: facing the storm, being in the storm, and coming out of the storm. How well any storm is weathered is a direct testament to the strength of the leader, and of the team. The courses taken during all phases of a storm will be determined by the team’s preparation, commitment, strength and flexibility to deal with unknowns—all of which are made easier when a leader is able to instill and foster an innate sense of trust in the team.

Out of the Boxes
It can be easy to be fooled into thinking all private clubs already have integrated management teams, because everyone works for the same club in the same location. But common employers and workplaces are not enough on their own to achieve the benefits of becoming a fully functioning team.

Many human resources departments are familiar with the typical organization chart (above) of a private club management staff, where there is no interaction among departments, and direction flows only from the top down, with the General Manager in the middle of the pipeline. An integrated team management approach redraws the relationships to position the GM at the center of a wheel that is interconnected with the spokes, so all parts are unified to work together as a whole and move the organization forward.  This integrated team can then present a complete product to the Board, committees and the membership, so they can interact with the team as a unit, rather than as individual departments.

The concept of integrated team management is built around Henry Ford’s operational philosophy that “Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.”

How does this benefit the club? With consistency in effort by all participants, integrated management ultimately leads to increased satisfaction from members who want the total package from their club. As private clubs continue to evolve and attempt to attract an increasingly selective “buyer,” the integrated approach unifies the management team to represent a club in its entirety, and not just department by department.

As a result, the golf shop can help members with fitness questions. The pool staff can inform members of changes in the golf schedule. The course and grounds crew can tell members if aerification activities will interfere with a planned outdoor reception. As private clubs come to no longer be perceived as “Dad’s getaway” and instead as destinations for families, it is more critical than ever for an integrated management team to be able to provide a “whole club” experience in a much more seamless and effortless manner than could be achieved through previous operating styles.

A beneficial by-product of this management technique is the synergy created among the department managers that fosters deep levels of responsibility, accountability, accessibility and knowledge. The “ownership of actions” comes from following several basic goals of the integrated team management philosophy, each of which has deep-reaching effects among the club’s employees and also branches out to the membership, committees and Boards. These goals are:
1.Organize managers to stimulate action toward a common goal.
2. Convey key information back to employees and managers.
3. Influence or reinforce another’s thinking about important matters with structured debate.
4. Maximize the membership’s satisfaction and experience with the club.

An outmoded organization chart provides no interaction among departments and only “top down” direction, with the GM in the middle of the pipeline.

Walking the Walk
A survey of 46 private clubs that have successfully implemented integrated team management revealed four key principles and qualities that must be fostered by the leader and then built upon to create an effective team. These include: teamwork, communication, accountability/commitment, and visibility.

It is not easy to fully integrate a management team. Obstacles include individuals’ lack of self-confidence and trust, ego, fear of change, and selfishness. But these should be seen as learning opportunities, not permanent barriers.

Once an integrated system is in place, a club’s operations will run more smoothly, as improved communication and teamwork help to address “issues” before they become “problems.” The approach will ultimately create a more satisfied membership that, in turn, will engender easier operations. At a time when all clubs are looking to increase efficiencies and elevate staff morale as well as member satisfaction, integrating the club’s operations is a logical, fiscally responsible solution.

Access Bado’s full monograph here by clicking “Monograph in PDF Format”

Mike Woods, PGA Director of Golf, Haggin Oaks

A reliable, versatile and efficient fleet of golf cars helps to keep the healthy operation at Haggin Oaks in the pink.

For Mike Woods, like many golf industry veterans, “busy” has become a relative term. Woods is the PGA Director of Golf at Haggin Oaks, the storied municipal complex in Sacramento, Calif., that boasts two championship courses, including an Alister MacKenzie masterpiece, and has a rich, 80-year history associated with countless celebrities and golfing greats (Ben Hogan won his first professional check at the course).

When Woods first started working part-time in the early ‘90s as a starter at Haggin Oaks, rounds were being played on each course at a 100,000-per-year pace. Today, reflecting the trends that have brought unprecedented business challenges to clubs and courses throughout the country, play has subsided from those lofty levels; Haggin Oaks’ two courses combined will see 110,000 rounds this year.

But that doesn’t mean “busy” no longer applies—especially for equipment like golf cars, which must now provide even greater value to help make the economics of the golf business still work out.

Customer satisfaction with golf cars is especially critical at Haggin Oaks because of the high rate of repeat play, with many of the same players returning week after week. Golfers responded positively from the start to the smooth ride and braking of the RXV.

At Haggin Oaks, Woods says, the fleet of 144 cars that the property leases every four years is expected to not only perform reliably for what are still very-healthy levels of play at the two courses, but carry out a variety of “off-duty” responsibilities as well.

“We have 250 employees, and golf cars here are used constantly, well beyond how they’re used for play,” he says. “We have 15 assistant golf pros and a huge junior program. We have weddings all the time where guests need to be taken around the property.

“You have to factor all that [additional use] in when looking at what car will work out the best for you over the length of your lease,” Woods notes. “You can’t just do the math based on the number of rounds times the percentage of players who use carts.”

Easy Choice?
Woods has been through several golf-car lease cycles since becoming the third Head Golf Professional in Haggin Oaks’ history in 1997. When renewal times have approached in the past, he says he’s made it a point to “be a smart shopper” and check out what all the major golf car manufacturers have to offer, to make sure he is making the right decision for such a critical purchase (in addition to the cars needed for Haggin Oaks’ 36 holes, the lease also covers another 140 needed for two other courses operated by Haggin Oaks’ management company, Morton Golf).

As Woods begins to prepare for the next lease renewal in May 2013, he will once again plan to review all options—but he acknowledges that his current golf car supplier, E-Z-GO®, may now have a big leg up as a result of Haggin Oaks’ overwhelmingly positive experience with the electric model of the RXV® that’s been used during the current lease cycle.

Haggin Oaks, Sacramento, Calif.

That experience, Woods says, has been “wonderful” in all aspects, from the moment the new fleet was delivered.

Customer satisfaction is especially critical at Haggin Oaks, Woods notes, because “as a municipal course, we get a lot of repeat play, with many of the same people coming week after week.” As soon as the RXVs arrived, he says, “we got a lot of really positive comments from our golfers right away. They liked how it looked and how smooth the ride was, with the AC drive and the automatic braking feature.”

Pleasing the “Other” Customer, Too
But in today’s golf business, owner/operator satisfaction is equally critical—and here, too, the RXV earned early and lasting approval.

“We’re really happy with [the RXV’s] performance,” says Woods. “Almost instantly, we found that our electric bill went down about 35%, because of how much more efficient the charging process is—once it’s fully charged, it stops charging, compared to the older vehicles, which would keep clicking on. And it holds its charge longer, too, which not only adds to the energy savings, but also helps us know we can keep the cars out on the course and property longer.

“While our electric rates have gone up [over the life of the lease], that 35% savings [versus previous cars] has held up each year,” Woods adds. “And that’s an apples-to-apples comparison, measuring yearly electric power use in the cart building over periods where course activity was the same. For a fleet of 144 golf cars, that’s a tremendous savings.”

Haggin Oaks, Sacramento, Calif.

The RXV has also generated savings for Haggin Oaks in the form of valuable freed-up time for the course mechanic. “He loves it because really, nothing goes wrong,” says Woods. “His ‘job’ in maintaining the fleet has just been checking water levels and other routine things.

“That’s been great because he has a lot of other equipment to take care of here, everything from forklifts to limo cars to tractors and F&B equipment,” Woods adds. “It’s nice not to have him tied down with cars.”

When one service issue did arise involving the gas pedals on some cars, E-Z-GO responded quickly and thoroughly, Woods reports, arranging for a team of service technicians to come on site, check the entire fleet, and replace parts as needed.
But that proved to be an extremely isolated instance—because for the most part, from day one, the RXVs have become known at Haggin Oaks for just running, running, and running some more.

“The [lease] warranty is for 21,500 amp hours, and we’re at between 23,000 and 25,000 for most of the cars, with still six months to go,” Woods noted in November. “I really think we could hit 30,000 with some of them before we turn them over.”

By any definition, that’s getting—and staying—busy.

Milwaukee Athletic Club

The thought of cooking sirloin steak for a 300-person banquet can make many chefs cringe. But not Zac Licau. In fact, the Executive Chef at the Milwaukee Athletic Club (MAC) has steak for 300 down to a science, thanks to a high-tech plate retherm system now being used at the private club in Wisconsin’s largest city.

When the MAC, which was founded in 1882 and has occupied its current, 12-story building in downtown Milwaukee since 1917, was renovating its kitchen seven years ago, Chef Licau started looking for new ways to work better and smarter. He wanted a leaner, more efficient kitchen to control costs while also improving food quality.

This goal was particularly geared toward banquets, which produce a significant portion of the club’s food-and-beverage revenue. “We looked at new trends and what equipment we could buy that would make things easier in the kitchen,” says Licau.

Enter plate retherm—a process where food is cooked, chilled and reheated to serving temperature. All of the preparation, seasoning and cooking can be done a day ahead of time. On the day of the event, the kitchen staff simply has to reheat the plated food.

Zac Licau, Executive Chef, Milwaukee Athletic Club

The technique can significantly cut down on time, stress and staff within the kitchen—and while the MAC had never used a retherm system in the past, Licau and the club’s other chefs and staff quickly became believers when they were introduced to a state-of-the-art plate retherm system provided by Alto-Shaam, the Menomenee Falls, Wis.-based manufacturer of foodservice equipment.

Proven At All Levels
To get familiar with the process and how a plate retherm system could help meet Chef Licau’s new objectives, the MAC’s culinary team first toured Alto-Shaam’s corporate kitchens and then also visited the kitchens of several Alto-Shaam customers, to see a plate retherm system in action and get honest feedback from other chefs about their experiences with it.

“When we started talking to Alto-Shaam, they invited us out there to see everything they had, gave us a walk-through and showed us demonstrations,” says Licau. “We weren’t walking into it blindfolded. We got an inside look at the system.”
After seeing the system at work, the Milwaukee Athletic Club staff was sold. The club purchased two 20-20es gas combitherm ovens, a blast chiller, five hot boxes and a smaller oven for a la carte dining.

The new equipment met the club’s need for mobile, yet sturdy and dependable equipment. MAC’s main kitchen is located on the fourth floor of the club, next to its Grand Ballroom. Banquets are also served on the second floor, third floor, eighth floor and rooftop, with each floor housing a small satellite kitchen.

“Everything in my kitchen is on wheels,” says Licau. “We move tables and equipment around on a daily basis. We needed to be able to take the hot boxes to all the different floors and set up and break down quickly, to move to another floor right away.”

The system has had a significant positive impact on MAC’s banquet business, Licau reports, by simplifying preparation and presentation, while also expanding menu possibilities and improving quality.

The Alto-Shaam hot boxes passed the test. “Hot boxes are big and not the lightest equipment in the world,” notes Licau. “But these hot boxes move with us and move well. We don’t need a gigantic person hauling them around. They do everything we need them to do.”

The Learning Curve
One challenge the MAC chefs faced with the new system was re-teaching themselves how to cook. “After so many years, you know how to do things one way,” says Licau. “But it is nice to learn a new way to cook and to start thinking outside the box. We were both nervous and excited to take on this new challenge.”

But the chefs at the club were not left alone to figure things out. Once the system was installed, a team from Alto-Shaam came to the club to work with the kitchen chefs to help them get acclimated. “They were here every day, working side-by-side with us for as long as we needed them,” says Licau.

This training and support, provided at no additional cost, was critical for a seamless transition, he adds. “We were nervous because we still had to operate as usual. You can’t stop serving just because you got new ovens,” says Licau. “Once the nervousness passed, we jumped in with the new system, and it was easy.”

It took the kitchen staff about a month to get fully acclimated to the new setup. Now, seven years later, Licau and his sous chef still experiment with what they can do with the system. “We still work closely with Alto-Shaam,” says Licau. “They come here and show us new stuff—and we teach them things, too.”

Less is More
The system has had a significant positive impact on MAC’s banquet business, Licau reports, by simplifying preparation and presentation, while also expanding menu possibilities and improving quality. With its previous system, he says, the kitchen staff would spend two to three days prepping for a large event. Then, during the event, an army of cooks hustled to get plates through the line.

Milwaukee Athletic Club

“Everything had to be cooked and then the food sat, waiting to be served,” says Licau. “If you left it too long, it tended to overcook. If you sauced it ahead of time, the sauce might dry out and the plates wouldn’t look appetizing.”

Today, the kitchen can do all the event prep in one day with less staff. “When I first started here 10 years ago, we had eight to nine people always working in banquets alone,” says Licau. “Now I have two people. That’s not due to cutbacks; I just don’t need any more people than that with this system.”

And with less staff—and less stress—the kitchen is calmer. “I’m not pacing around worrying that the food is getting overcooked,” says Licau. “As long as I know 10 minutes in advance, I can make the plates hot and they can sit in the hot box for up to an hour without me having to worry about them. As a chef, I can breathe more, instead of saying: ‘Make them eat, make them eat!’ ”

Additionally, Licau can now pay more attention to the food itself. “I have more time to focus on the flavors, garnishes, plate presentations and all of the very important things that make a chef a chef,” he says. “If you can’t take a picture of the plate, it doesn’t leave our kitchen! It has taken us to a whole new level.”

With the help of the Alto-Shaam system, the MAC now offers menu items that are not typically served in such large banquet quantities, such as perfectly cooked, flavorful sirloin steaks, scallops and even lobster.

“We get to work with more fresh fish and more delicate meats now,” says Licau. “We can use the meats that we would typically only serve in individual servings for large events. It is very rewarding when people say, ‘I’ve never had that at a banquet.’ ”

Superintendent Bill Davidson took charge of ensuring successful installation of the new clock, so it can stand tall “‘til the cows come home.”

The old saying is that time flies when you’re having fun. At The Country Club of Naples in Naples, Fla., time—in the form of a distinctive, prominently positioned, four-faced classic-style clock—now also serves as a constant reminder of the fun, and good experiences, that members and guests can have while on the property of what was founded in 1966 as Naples’ fourth golf course and first private, full-service club.

The clock was installed two years ago at the equity club, according to Superintendent Bill Davidson, CGCS, “as sort of the cherry on top, after a complete golf course renovation.”

A group spearheaded by then-Club President John Sampson and Chuck Feeny, one of two current Vice Presidents, led the effort to purchase a clock as a culmination of the project, which marked the first time the course had been shut down for a restoration (greens and tees had been rebuilt in 1997). Florida architect Gordon Lewis, ASGCA, was brought in to lead the complete rebuild of the original Bill Diddel design, which extended the course to 6,772 yards from the tips and created six sets of tees for all levels of golfers.

It was decided, Davidson says, that a clock could serve as a good central focal point for the club’s new-look grounds, as something that could be seen from all directions.

A Lasting Farewell
Sampson saw the project as the last contribution of his two terms as Board President, which concluded just before the clock was installed. “I went to four fellow Board members and to Chuck [Feeny], who was not yet on the Board, and asked each of them to contribute their equity in the club, as I would, toward the clock project,” he says. “They didn’t hesitate, and we started to work to make it happen.”

The project also afforded Davidson an opportunity to help correct some issues surrounding the golf course’s first hole that needed to be addressed as the course reopened.

The Country Club of Naples’ renovated course and new image helped it be selected for U.S. Open qualifying play this year.

“During the renovation, I came up with a plan to fix a major problem regarding flow towards the first tee,” Davidson says. The system in place prior to the renovation didn’t allow a smooth flow from the practice tee to the first tee, he explains, and golfers had to leave the practice facility to putt.

“Now that we could contain the golfers around the first tee and practice facility, it made perfect sense to put the clock there as well,” he adds.

“That’s why we went with a four-faced clock and [decided to] put it by the new range/practice putting green and first tee,” he explains. The clock’s location would allow it to be seen from the clubhouse, practice range, first tee and the 9th green.

Admiring from Afar
But not just any clock would be worthy of such a prominent position. To make sure that a truly signature timepiece would be commissioned to properly mark the start of this new era for The Country Club of Naples, Sampson led research into several possible suppliers. That led to the selection of The Verdin Company, a six-generation, Cincinnati-based family business that has been making cast bronze bells, carillons, tower and street clocks, and other streetscape furnishings since 1842.

“We felt their quality was unmatched,” Sampson says.

Jeannie Caldwell, Product Manager for Verdin, says The Country Club of Naples’ interest in a clock was typical of clubs that have made major improvements and then look for “different ideas to enhance the work they’ve done on their golf course and property.”
Sampson and others from the club held several conference calls with a Verdin team led by Caldwell to discuss different options for the type of clock they were looking for.

Clock by the Verdin Company at Country Club of Naples (Fla.)

“Once we got an idea of what they were considering [with a design for the clockface that would include the club’s logo of a signature tree in front of a lake], we took a photo of the area where the clock was going to be installed and prepared a rendering that showed the clock in place, to give a clear idea of how it would look once it was installed,” Caldwell says. “This really assisted them in making the final decision.”

Ready for the Worst
The renovation at The Country Club of Naples was completed, and the order for its new clock was placed, in May 2010. While actual installation of the clock only requires about four hours, it was not installed until the end of August 2010, because of advance preparations needed to give it proper and permanent stature. To prepare for the worst storms southwest Florida can bring, Davidson had an engineer design a steel-reinforced concrete base that, he says, will help keep the clock standing “ ‘til the cows come home, as my dad would say.”

And when a Verdin installer came on site for the installation, a lift was rented to help stand up and set the clock. “There’s no way to do it with ladders, and with this type of clock, you don’t want to take a chance,” Davidson says.

Another concern was being able to see the clock from the clubhouse at night, so a photo eye was installed to turn on internal lights.
General maintenance that’s required now that the clock is in place includes dusting and cleaning outside fixtures as needed. Davidson also did a slight modification of the irrigation system, so the high-salt, effluent water that the club uses hits the clock as little as possible.

Founded as the city’s first private club in 1966, The CC of Naples marked a new era with a full course renovation, and new clock, in 2010.

A Permanent Beacon

As the most prominent sign of how the course overhaul, and clock installation, have helped to raise the club’s profile, Sampson reports that the United States Golf Association selected The Country Club of Naples as a qualifying site for this year’s U.S. Open. “That was a real honor,” he says.

In addition to now being the landmark that Sampson says generates “more compliments” than any other feature on the course, the clock has proved to have practical benefits, too. “One big benefit is that during a shotgun start, everyone can see the time,” Davidson says. “When we opened back up and people saw the clock, they all said, ‘Now that’s a clock.’  I have to admit, it’s impressive. It is definitely a statement.”

Under the direction of Brodeur, TPC Boston course maintenance crews can perform a variety of needed tasks with just two types of John Deere mowers.

The most important golfers in the world play at the TPC Boston every week. And for a week beginning in late August every year, some of the best golfers in the world tee off at the Norton, Mass., course for the Deutsche Bank Championship, one of only four PGA TOUR Playoff events for the FedExCup.

Whether professional golfers, members or guests are standing on the first tee at TPC Boston, Golf Course Superintendent Tom Brodeur knows he has to have the golf course in top shape for each one of them.

“As one of the people [on the management team] who is ultimately responsible for ensuring the business is successful, every golf course superintendent is challenged to balance the needs and wants of players at every level, ” Brodeur says. “Here at TPC Boston, we have an especially wide range of player ability levels, which provides an extra challenge.”

To help meet the challenge of keeping the course in pristine playing condition year-round, Brodeur and his staff get a big assist from John Deere equipment, including two types of Deere mowers—2500 E-Cut Hybrid riding mowers, and 180-B walk-behinds with 18-inch cut widths—that are used to maintain all of TPC Boston’s short grass, including fairways, tees, greens and approaches.

“TPC courses use John Deere equipment exclusively, and the majority of them use the 18-inch-wide mowers,” notes John Deere product manager Tracy Lanier. “They mow at tournament levels. They’re small, light and do a great job.”

Golf Course Superintendent Tom Brodeur, TPC Boston

Brodeur, who has worked at TPC Boston since the 2001 construction and grow-in of the course, agrees. “The PGA TOUR has a valued relationship with John Deere that we embrace to the fullest,” he says. “Both [the 2500 E-Cut and 180-B] are reliable, operator-friendly, and simple to maintain by modern standards.”

The 2500 E-Cut has a light footprint that is good for bentgrass fairways, Brodeur notes. In addition, he likes the versatility of the machine, which the staff also uses for vertical mowing of tees, greens, approaches, target greens and step cuts, as well as for spiking and brushing greens. Because the mower has hydraulics only for the drive and reel-lift components, he notes, the potential for hydraulic fluid leaks is reduced.

“That’s because the reels are run electronically,” explains Lanier. “Operators can also lower the engine RPM to reduce the sound levels and fuel usage, which are huge benefits for golf courses in these times.”

Brodeur is just as pleased with the well-balanced, operator-friendly 180-B units.

“Because they are 18 inches wide, they conform to even the smallest undulations in the putting greens without scalping,” he reports. “They truly bring out all the nuances of the green surface—and because they have an ideal amount of down pressure in front, they provide a true cut each time.”

Long-term Arrangements
TPC Boston, which leases its front-line equipment from John Deere on a four-year basis and some of its larger, lower-hour pieces on a seven-year plan, leases 20 of the walk-behind mowers and six of the 2500 E-Cut models.

“We’ve used these mowers for four years in some form or fashion, and we’ve used them exclusively for the last two years,” notes Brodeur.

During the last lease cycle, he reveals, a PGA TOUR-managed property had to dispose of several 180-B units after it was sold. Brodeur was asked if he could take the walk-behinds in his lease, and he was happy to oblige, because TPC Boston has “used 180-Bs on the greens since day one.”

TPC Boston in Norton, Mass.

The quality of cut is not the only attraction of the mowers. By rotating out key pieces in the four-year lease cycle, Brodeur reports, the property has been able to contain the operating costs of the machinery. TPC Boston’s repair parts budget has increased by only about $4,000 since the property opened 10 years ago.

“That’s due in part to the quality of the equipment, fair pricing, and quality equipment managers,” he explains. “A big factor in managing operating costs is the excellent reliability of the machinery, which limits our downtime and minimizes member inconvenience.”

He also cites fuel efficiency, especially of the diesel-powered machines, as an added benefit of the equipment. This is particularly important on a large, spread-out property like the nearly 400-acre golf course at TPC Boston, he notes.

Common Knowledge
Brodeur also believes that relying on essentially two pieces of equipment simplifies staff training.

“In a normal season, basically all staff members are capable of using a walk mower, and probably 80 percent can operate the triplex mower,” he explains. “In the shoulder season, 100 percent of the staff can operate both machines. Scheduling and planning are more easily managed when most employees are trained on the basic mowing tasks.”

For the repair, parts purchasing and parts inventory aspects, Brodeur continues, having only two types of machines to maintain makes life easier for the equipment staff as well.

“We basically only have to set up two types of reels on our grinding equipment, and we have just two machine types to stock parts for,” he says. “Our equipment maintenance staff finds diagnosis and repair to be relatively easy, due to considerate engineering. The equipment feels open and uncluttered, so getting at things is reasonably easy.”

With their simplicity and accessibility, the standard controls on the 180-B walk mowers make them easy for even inexperienced crew members to operate as well.

“Anyone just has to move a switch forward to perform a function and release a bail to stop a unit,” Lanier says. “Anyone who has ever mowed a green can pick it up quickly.”

By using only two mowers on the short grass, tournament volunteers who come from other courses and through internships are also able to quickly jump in and contribute to mowing operations. “Our tournament success depends on incorporating volunteers into many of the basic mowing tasks,” Brodeur explains. “We basically need double the staff during the days of the competition for what we feel is required to make a solid presentation for a high-level competition. Anyone with experience with course maintenance equipment seems to be able to acclimate [to the Deere mowers] in just a few minutes.”

All Hands on Deck
The TPC Boston property, which sees about 20,000 annual rounds, closes on the Friday before the Deutsche Bank Championship week starts, to intensify tournament preparations. During the FedExCup event, Brodeur adds, the crew double-mows the greens in the morning, and rolls and mows the putting surfaces in the evening.

All hands—and equipment—are on deck at TPC Boston during the Deutsche Bank Championship, when 20 to 25 people are needed per nine holes for both morning and afternoon shifts.

The maintenance crew lowers the height of cut on the greens by 10/1000 or 15/1000 of an inch the weekend before the event. Depending on the weather, the final cutting height on the greens is .120 or .115. However, fairways, tees, collars, aprons, and step cuts are maintained at the same cutting height year-round.

“Rough height is raised half-an-inch to an inch a couple of weeks before the event from our normal membership height, again depending on the weather,” Brodeur adds.

Tournament staffing changes include the addition of two to four staff members from other TPC properties the week before and the week of the event. Local superintendents, assistant superintendents, spray technicians, and interns are always willing to lend a hand.

“We face the same challenges everyone in the northern half of the country does with summer help—so as hard as we try, we are likely to lose one or two staff members before Labor Day weekend,” reveals Brodeur. “For us to prepare for a PGA TOUR event, we need 20 to 25 people per nine holes for a morning and afternoon shift each day during the event.”

John Deere and its local dealer, La Corte Equipment, also provide extra support during the Deutsche Bank Championship.

“We get a daily call in the weeks leading up to the event, to make sure we have whatever we need to ensure the job gets done,” Brodeur explains. “The additional equipment they provide for the event is always in good condition and delivered in a timely fashion. On top of that, there is virtually always a service staff member on site to assist in preparing equipment and making sure problems get resolved quickly.”

Assistant General Manager of Food and Beverage Michael Redmond

Established in 1863 by six officials of the U.S. Treasury Department during the height of the Civil War, the stated objectives behind the formation of The Metropolitan Club of the City of Washington, D.C. included “mutual improvement and social purposes.”

With the club on the verge of its 150th anniversary, those goals are now met for 2,440 members (including over 770 non-resident members) who enjoy a wide variety of services, amenities and activities in an historic, 104-year-old, 75,000-sq.-ft. building located just a short walk from the White House. And behind The Metropolitan Club’s latest period of growth and development lies an interesting tale of  “mutual improvement” from a club management perspective.

Achievements AT THE METROPOLITAN CLUB OF THE CITY OF WASHINGTON, D.C. WITH MICHAEL REDMOND’S INVOLVEMENT/DIRECTION The Metropolitan Club of the City of Washington D.C. clubhouse. Wine inventory program built from ground up to accurately count and sort over 14,000 bottles. Food/Dining Committee developed to implement desired improvements based on member input and feedback. Comments made in a centrally located book are copied and supplied to House Committee for review, and committee chairman responds by letter to each comment. Catering software implemented to create master event calendar, banquet event orders and real-time forecasting of private party sales. In conjunction with Assistant General Manager of Human Resources, New Employee Orientation program developed and implemented that includes all department heads from all areas of the club. “Gold Chip Program” created for employees who overachieve in providing member service. Supervisors submit written reports to Human Resources for employees to earn gold chips, and earning three gold chips qualifies employee for a paid day off.

When Reinhard Danger, CCM, CCE, CEC, became The Metropolitan Club’s General Manager and Chief Operating Officer in 2006, he identified a need, as part of revamping the club’s management structure, to create a new position of Assistant General Manager of Food and Beverage. This role, as one of four assistant GM positions (along with Controller, Operations, and Human Resources) would oversee the club’s largest department, with a staff of 70.

And as he sketched out the details of the position, which includes direction of the Executive Chef, Director of Catering, Banquet and Beverage managers, as well as the club’s maitre d’, Danger continued to think of one person as the perfect fit for bringing the role to life: Michael Redmond, who had worked with Danger for seven years as Executive Chef of the Genesee Valley Club while Danger served as General Manager of the Rochester, N.Y. city club.

While Redmond had always held chef positions through that point in his career, Danger knew that “he had taken on many of the duties of the position [of Assistant GM of F&B] previously, and had all of the practical skills necessary to perform those duties.” So it quickly came to pass that Redmond agreed in 2007 to relocate to the nation’s capital and be reunited with Danger, to begin a new chapter of “mutual improvement.”

Everything’s Looking Up
Five years later, the payoffs from this latest collaboration are already well in evidence for both the club, and for Redmond. The Metropolitan Club of the City of Washington, D.C. continues to climb higher in city-club rankings while remaining healthy financially and from a membership standpoint, with a true wait list of over 100 people, and a 14-month waiting period.

Much of this success and appeal can now be attributed not only to growth in F&B revenues and improvement of operating margins under Redmond’s direction, but also to how he has helped to raise The Metropolitan Club’s profile for culinary distinction in one of the most demanding and competitive cities for dining preference.

And for those achievements, Michael Redmond has earned recognition of his own, as the 2011 Rising Star Award recipient of the Excellence in Club Management (ECM) Awards co-sponsored by the McMahon Group and Club & Resort Business.

Upon assuming his new position, Redmond worked with Danger and other department heads to identify barriers that were preventing the club from realizing its full F&B potential. These obstacles were equally divided between the fact that the club’s facilities were not being fully used to develop more compelling F&B events for the membership, and the need to smooth out some back-of-the-house operating issues.

“It was a classic old city club situation,” Redmond says of the F&B atmosphere that he found after arriving at The Metropolitan Club. “An average night would be 15, maybe 20 covers for dinner, and that’s a self-defeating scene all-around—who wants to be in a dining room, whether you’re eating, cooking or serving, that’s only doing that much business?

Danger (standing, back left) and Redmond (back right) have joined the club’s Executive Chef, Vincent Horville (seated) to showcase their culinary talents as part of special events at The Metropolitan Club.

“And it wasn’t a case where we needed to get to 150 or 200 covers,” he adds. “The sweet spot would be to just get things up to around 50 or 60 covers a night, which we could easily accommodate—and didn’t have to, or want to, strive to exceed, because more isn’t necessarily better.

“Just creating a proper structure for all that F&B involved, so there were clear lines of organization and responsibility, and clear ways to address both the large and small issues that are always coming up, went a long way towards getting us focused and pointed in the right direction,” Redmond adds. “And from there it didn’t take long to begin to build momentum that took us to the level of activity that got everyone—members as well as staff—reenergized about what the club could offer through its dining programs.”

Tapping the Talent Pool
In addition to the new program ideas and management practices that the club began to develop and implement under Redmond’s direction, including many that involved innovative and full use of available technology, a big part of the F&B revival at The Metropolitan Club came from fully utilizing all of the culinary knowledge star power within its walls. This started with Danger, a Certified Executive Chef, and also included Redmond, an Honors graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, and Executive Chef Vincent Horville, who has wowed attendees at two of C&RB’s Chef to Chef Conferences with his creative demonstrations (Redmond also presented on management and recruiting issues at the inaugural Chef to Chef Conference in Las Vegas in 2008).

While at the Genesee Valley Club, Redmond was one of the first club chefs to develop the guest-chef concept as an exciting way to present special culinary opportunities to members in an exclusive-event format (see “Platinum Idea,” C&RB, September 2006). Similar events have proved to be equally appealing and successful at The Metropolitan Club, including a “three chefs dinner” that has featured friendly in-house “competition” between Danger, Redmond and Horville.

Ideas IMPLEMENTED SUCCESSFULLY AT THE METROPOLITAN CLUB OF THE CITY OF WASHINGTON, D.C. WITH MICHAEL REDMOND’S INVOLVEMENT/DIRECTION Regular employee soccer games, organized for Fridays during the summer on the Ellipse behind the White House (and Metropolitan Club), proved valuable for team-building and morale. Younger members’ use of club increased through monthly social hours themed around sporting events, such as the World Series, Masters golf tournament, Monday night football, etc. Lobster special introduced in dining room in August, typically the slowest month of the year for the club, significantly increased evening covers. Spa cuisine menu introduced in fitness and athletic department increased sales in that location by double-digit percentage. Complimentary oysters on Wednesday nights from 5 to 7 p.m. created new revenue stream for second-floor bar. Successful golf outing for members to local country club has been established as an annual event. Regular employee soccer games, organized for Fridays during the summer on the Ellipse behind the White House (and Metropolitan Club), proved valuable for team-building and morale.

Other special events that have been implemented at The Metropolitan Club as a result of the enhanced F&B focus created by establishing Redmond in the Assistant GM role have included themed dinner-menu concepts, such as Belgian cuisine paired with beer and wines of Burgundy, and home-style cuisine with American wines. New farm-to-table concepts were also brought to The Metropolitan Club’s dining rooms, with prix fixe menus using locally grown and raised products to spotlight cuisine and wines from the nearby states of Maryland and Virginia.

Redmond has also worked with the club’s Wine Committee and his beverage team to produce monthly wine events featuring many notable winemakers; these events, in turn, have promoted further growth of The Metropolitan Club’s already extensive and impressive wine list and cellar (now totaling 14,000 bottles, and counting).

On the more casual side, F&B under Redmond’s direction has seen significant growth in participation among the club’s younger members through special tailgate parties arranged around Washington Redskins football games, and monthly social hours, usually themed around televised sporting events such as Monday Night Football, the Masters golf tournament, or the World Series, where complimentary light bites are served (but beverages aren’t discounted).

F&B now also has a closer connection to The Metropolitan Club’s fitness and athletic activities, through a spa cuisine menu that has generated double-digit percentage sales growth, and foodservice and promotion coordinated with squash tournaments (the club’s dominant sport) and juniors swimming programs and lessons.

After five years in the Assistant GM position, Danger says, “I have seen Michael grow as a result of his work with committees and our Board of Governors, as well as emerge as a leader of The Metropolitan Club’s management team. The entire staff, not only his fellow managers, respects him and seeks him out when issues arise.”

Many dog-friendly golf courses eschew set-in-stone rules like requiring leashes, and instead trust players to keep their canine companions under control.

San Geronimo (Calif.) Golf Course and Indian Valley Golf Club in Novato, Calif., both located in picturesque Marin County in the north San Francisco Bay Area, are among the growing number of golf courses throughout the country that now “throw a bone” to their customers by allowing them to bring their dogs along for their rounds.

Steve Snyder, the head pro at Indian Valley for nearly a decade, said the club has been “dog friendly” for as long as he’s been there.

“I do think it leads to happier golfers,” he points out. “People who want to bring their dog along can still get out on the course and play.”

Other than requiring owners to clean up after the dogs, Indian Valley is “pretty rules-free,” Snyder says. “We don’t have a leash rule. They just need to keep them under control.”

At San Geronimo Golf Course, Executive Director Jennifer Kim says the course has had a dog-friendly position for eight years, and it became official three years ago under new ownership.

Officials at courses with dog-friendly policies say it leads to happier customers. THE GOAL: To create a more enjoyable experience for regular customers and attract new ones, some clubs are allowing dogs to make the rounds with their masters. THE PLAN: Institute “dog-friendly” policies with some guidelines in place. Clubs require that owners clean up after their pets, including raking traps if their dogs walk through them. Dogs also have to be kept under control, though not necessarily on a leash. Providing access to water and shade also adds to the courtesies extended to players’ best friends. THE PAYOFF: Officials at courses with dog-friendly policies say it leads to happier customers—and many times, better scores.

In April, both courses’ dog-friendly policies were featured in the Marin Independent Journal. In the wake of that story, Kim says she has seen some new faces around the course, with their canine companions in tow.

“I have seen one or two new people each week that came because they now know we are dog-friendly,” she says.

Most of the members of the staff at San Geronimo own dogs, Kim adds, and they even bring their pets to work. So it was only natural to welcome dogs to the course.

“We feel they are part of the family,” she says. “It’s better to let them go along with their owners than to be left at home or even left in the car.”

Liability isn’t a concern at either facility, as neither has had an issue with a dog at the course. The only complaints Kim has received have come when dogs were not leashed.

“If we get complaints, we would ask the owner to leash the dog. If we were to get multiple complaints, we might have to ask the dog be removed. That has never happened,” she says.

Courses that allow dogs make accommodations for their canine clientele, including access to shade and water.

On the other side of the country, Belgrade Lakes Golf Club, a daily-fee property in Belgrade Lakes, Maine, that has received both regional and national accolades, has been allowing dogs on its course for years. Maggie Evans, the club’s Manager of Events and Services, says allowing dogs on the course is just one more way to ensure that customers enjoy their visit.

“Our guests are often traveling, on vacation, and their pets accompany them,” says Evans. “When we first found a dog in a car in the parking lot, we knew we had to adopt a different approach. This also was aligned with the owners’ philosophy to create and operate a first-rate golf course, but not necessarily follow modern constraints of thought.”

At Belgrade Lakes, dogs must be under control of their owner.  That does not necessarily mean leashed.

“Each dog is different, and we find that dogs traveling with their families are by-and-large very well-behaved,” Evans explains. “We have had no problems with waste being left behind. Owners have showed great respect for our course and are conscientious of cleaning up.”

Officials at courses with dog-friendly policies say it leads to happier customers.

All three courses make accommodations for their canine clientele, including access to shade and water.

“We have a restaurant and bar, and while California code prohibits dogs from coming inside, we do have tables outside where golfers can have their dogs,” Kim says.

Dog owners have appreciated being able to share this experience with their pets, Evans points out.

“It’s hard to know how many rounds we lost because golfers were not able or willing to leave their pets in a rented cabin, hotel room or camp site,” says Evans. “But anecdotally, we know we have guests who otherwise would have passed by the opportunity to golf.”

Neither Snyder nor Kim can be sure if their policies on dogs translate into increased play, but Kim says the dogs’ presence could very well lead to lower scores.

“A lot of people say it calms them when their dogs are there,” she explains. “Golf can be a stressful sport and when golfers are more relaxed, it can work to their benefit.”

Under the new supply-and-demand tee-time pricing system at the Quarry GC, the sooner a golfer reserves a tee time, the better the rate will be.

What happens in Vegas doesn’t always stay in Vegas—and sometimes that’s a good thing.

When Dustin Burell, General Manager of The Quarry Golf Club in San Antonio, read an article about a Las Vegas golf course that based its tee-time prices on the airline industry’s model of the sale of available plane seats, he decided to export the plan to the Lone Star State. Six months after implementing the system at his upscale daily-fee course, Burell endorses it with no reservations.

And for good reason. While the number of golfers has remained the same (in the 36,000-40,000 annual round range), The Quarry GC has seen a 25 percent increase in the average rate per player since the beginning of the year, Burell reports, and a 21 percent increase overall. “It’s a constant supply-and-demand battle, but we watch peak times to get higher rates, without affecting player count,” he explains.

Tee times at The Quarry are set at 10-minute intervals, and the property changes the rates, which are based purely on demand, every hour on the hour. Peak hours are more expensive, while off-peak hours are less costly.

“It’s like fishing where the fish are,” Burell says.

Prices increase during prime times such as spring days and Saturday mornings. The property also lowers rates to steer golfers to less-popular time slots, such as early-morning hours during the winter, or holidays like Mother’s Day.

The Quarry Golf Club in San Antonio THE GOAL: Drive traffic and increase revenue at The Quarry Golf Club by implementing a tee-time pricing system based on supply and demand. THE PLAN: Use a pricing system that follows the airline industry model—the sooner a golfer reserves a tee time, the better the rate will be. The property, which changes its rates every hour on the hour, tries to book at least 80 percent of the available tee times every hour. Once that goal is achieved, rates for the remaining one or two tee times are increased. The property makes its tee times available 60 days in advance for individuals, and golfers only see the tee times that are open. THE PAYOFF: Since implementing the new pricing system in January, The Quarry GC has seen a 25 percent increase in the average rate per player, and a 21 percent increase in overall revenues, while the number of golfers has remained the same.

“We can put 20 people on the golf course every hour. I monitor it daily and hourly,” notes Burell. “The instinct is to discount prices to get people on the golf course. But we can get out of the $40 to $50 range, and the municipal courses can move into it, because they need to.”

Tee times are posted 60 days in advance for individuals, who can reserve their spots with credit cards, while corporate outings and other golf events can be booked two years ahead of time. Just as airlines price tickets based on seat availability, the golf course sets its rates based on available tee times. Burell says about 35 percent of tee times are reserved online.

“We try to book 80 percent of every hour. Once we reach that goal, we raise the rates for the remaining one or two slots,” explains Burell. “We raise the prices as we approach the day. This gets people to commit earlier, instead of waiting for a fire sale. If the demand is low, we make [the price of] that tee time lower, to sell 80 percent of tee times.”

The pricing system has boosted the golf industry in the San Antonio community as a whole, he notes.

“We’re not competing with other local golf courses, but they can raise their prices and still be lower than us. It helps the entire golf community,” adds Burell. “We’ve seen other courses slow down [their promotional] e-mails and raise prices. The bellwether golf courses in every city should move up pricing so others can, too. We need higher-end golf courses to be more demand-based. It makes the whole golf industry healthy.”

Thanks to the success of the new pricing system at The Quarry, fire sales and e-mail blasts are a thing of the past for attracting golfers to the 20-year-old course, about 80 percent of whom are tourists. And while the article on the Las Vegas course may have sparked the idea, Burell and Kyle Cole, managing partner and one of the course owners, researched two decades of historical data and tracked the schedule of event traffic in San Antonio, a top tourist destination in the country, for about six months before implementing the system in January.

Like many golf course properties nationwide, The Quarry Golf Club had struggled in recent years. According to Burell, the golf course, despite its appeal of a Keith Foster design with a back nine that dives in and out of a 100-year-old quarry pit, saw a 15 percent decrease in rounds in 2008 and 2009. The numbers did not improve in 2010.

“It’s like fishing where the fish are,” Dustin Burell, General Manager, The Quarry GC said.

“We backed off golf course maintenance, etc., to save money,” says Burell.

However, the property did an about-face in 2011, when management decided it needed to make a change to try to bring the number of rounds—and revenues—back up to par. Although The Quarry is the bellwether daily-fee facility in San Antonio, the owners realized that any changes would have to start with improving the property’s overall experience for golfers. To enhance The Quarry experience, $1.4 million was invested in the property to improve its assets and services.

Improvements to the golf course have included bunker renovations, additional rock features, the replacement of four bridges, installation of new drainage structures, new pumps to create creeks on the front nine between lakes, coverage of several acres in native areas with wildflowers, new cart paths, resodding of several fairways and adding three full-time course maintenance staff members. The property also got new course maintenance equipment, and increased its fertilizer and chemical budgets.

“We raised the bar on the golf course, and we did the same thing in the food-and-beverage and service areas,” says Burell. “We had to enhance the assets immensely to justify and succeed at the higher [average] rate.”

In addition, he reveals, “I can handle staffing differently, because I know people are coming to the golf course.”

The new tee-time pricing system also has helped The Quarry keep resellers from cutting into profit margins. “Resellers have no expense of owning or operating a golf course, and they can sell the entire country. Weather isn’t an issue for them, because it’s always sunny somewhere,” Burell explains. While some courses need to make use of reseller programs, he acknowledges, The Quarry stopped participating in all but a select few of them in the spring of 2011.

Armed with research data to support the new system, management personnel then had to decide when it felt comfortable raising the price bar. The property improvements, along with January’s closure of San Antonio’s historic Pecan Valley Golf Club, contributed to The Quarry deciding to introduce its new rate system at the start of this year.

Burell notes, “We had a fantastic November and December. We did an aggressive customer survey of people who had played in the last 90 days, and got an overwhelmingly positive response.”

The reaction has been just as positive since the new tee-time pricing system, which Burell says was implemented through the club’s existing point-of-sale program, has been in effect.

“The golfers understand we have a product that’s in demand,” he says. “[The pricing system] takes time and energy—but it’s producing results that are significant.”

Rich Conwell instructs one of his many new students at Blue Ridge Country Club in Palmerton, Pa.

Blue Ridge Country Club’s announcement in April of this year that it had hired a new head golf pro wasn’t all that headline-worthy—until you took a closer look at the context. The Palmerton, Pa. property, which has had nine holes of golf since the club opened in 1915, and expanded to 18 holes in 1989, hasn’t had a full-time pro since the late 1940s.

To be fair, General Manager John Rehus says, the private, member-owned club did employ head golf pros for brief, two-year stints in both the 1960s and 1970s. Still, most of the club’s first century has been marked by having high school and college kids staff the pro shop, and a lack of members clamoring for golf lessons.

But like many clubs, Blue Ridge had to take a fresh look at how to bolster membership after the financial challenges of the past few years. The club hired a membership consultant who conducted town-hall meetings with members, to determine what they valued at the club. To not only help sell memberships, but also boost revenues through clinics and lessons and get women and children more involved with club activities, the consultant recommended that Blue Ridge hire a golf pro.

How do you go about finding a golf pro, and establishing a golf department, for a club that’s offered the game for nearly 100 years, has 210 golfing members and sees 20,000 annual rounds? Rehus looked for two things in his search through the PGA CareerLink system: previous head golf pro experience, and ideas to increase membership and rounds.

Enter Rich Conwell, who had previously worked at the Uniontown (Pa.) Country Club, the Country Club of Culpeper (Va.) and Quicksilver Country Club in Midway, Pa.—and who Rehus says emerged as the “hands-down” best choice.

Rich Conwell and General Manager John Rehus THE GOAL: To bolster membership, boost revenues and increase rounds by engaging the community surrounding Blue Ridge Country Club in Palmerton, Pa. THE PLAN: After nearly 60 years of getting by without one, Blue Ridge found a head golf pro in Rich Conwell (left in photo at right). Conwell’s proactive efforts have included renewing the pro shop, enticing local businesses to join, reaching out to high schools and organizing golf outings. THE PAYOFF: General Manager John Rehus (right, photo above) says excitement about Conwell’s presence is palpable, and golf lesson requests are buzzing.

Now that Conwell is on board, Rehus says the enthusiasm among members—as well as the Blue Ridge staff—about his arrival is palpable. “I wouldn’t expect overnight success, but we have seen overnight positivity and a new attitude,” Rehus says.

Inquiries about golf lesson, he notes, are already buzzing.

Conwell admits there can be both positive and negative aspects to wading through the uncharted territory.

“It’s almost like I’m Lewis and Clark,” Conwell says. “If I make a wrong turn, I’ll know before anyone else does. The downside is there’s an amount of expectation when you’re setting the precedent. We have to be cognizant of what we do.

“It seems to me that if you work pretty hard, they forgive you quickly,” Conwell adds.

Conwell’s plan is to be “Mr. Golf” not only at Blue Ridge, but in Palmerton, which is in the east-central part of the state, with access to the greater Allentown area. By expanding the club’s golf program to include junior golf, golf lessons and update the current tournament program, Conwell hopes to grow membership and offer programs that are attractive, rather than where members are expected to participate.

“Twenty-five years ago, [golfers] had no choice. You could play here or in a private club or suffer through less-than-stellar conditions at a public facility,” Conwell says. “But those [public] facilities are so well-managed and well-groomed, we have to basically catch up—and our goal is to surpass them.”

Rehus credits Conwell with already reorganizing the club’s retail offerings by moving older inventory out and bringing new inventory in. Conwell has taken over golf tournaments and is even creating a deal to entice local businesses to join.

“You don’t want to change too much too fast, because people could become disenchanted, but I have a lot of leeway,” Conwell notes. “I can try programs here that I couldn’t do somewhere else, because they haven’t seen it before.”

Part of joining a well-established team in a new position is learning to be diplomatic and work within the structure that already exists. A month into the job, Conwell has tried to become as knowledgeable as he can about other departments, particularly food and beverage.

“Food is a huge part of golf outings,” he notes. “It’s hard for me to admit this professionally, but it may be even bigger than golf. So I’ve spent a lot of time with the food and beverage manager, because you have to maintain a status of equal departments. I wouldn’t exist as well without food and beverage or without the social committee. We have to make sure we’re on the same page.”

Despite his newfound local celebrity, Conwell acknowledges that where the club is concerned, he’s still the “new guy,” and approaches his role with humility.

“I treat it like I’m the least intelligent person in every conversation about Blue Ridge,” he says.