Author: Linda Dillenbeck

Hustling to Restore Hogan’s Alley

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Imagine how the architects who were commissioned to restore the Notre-Dame Cathedral to its original magnificence felt in 2021 when awarded the project and given an ambitious timeline for its completion. Or how a surgeon feels with Tiger Woods on his operating table.

Welcome to the emotion-charged worlds of Colonial Country Club CEO Frank Cordeiro, director of agronomy Rich McIntosh and renowned golf course architect Gil Hanse when the decision was made to fully renovate one of the most historic courses in America.

Their job was to bring Colonial back to the way it played in its early days — say, in 1941 when Craig Wood won the U.S. Open over the track that came to be known as Hogan’s Alley, so named for Ben Hogan’s five wins there.

They were tasked with reintroducing a ruggedness to the landscape — a more natural look and feel — and bringing the added influence of the Trinity River into play. While the patient was on the table, why not also revamp the course’s irrigation systems?

Oh, almost forgot: They would have less than a year’s time to complete the project before PGA Tour players struck their first shots at Colonial in the long-running Charles Schwab Challenge. Under more normal circumstances, such an undertaking would require 18 months.

Hanse, whose résumé includes restorations at Los Angeles Country Club, the Olympic Club, Oakland Hills and Baltusrol, had faced aggressive deadlines before in his celebrated career. But those challenges didn’t come packaged with Texas’s unpredictable weather. The renovation’s success hinged on the course’s recently planted turf making it through the winter without significant setbacks. On that score, they surely found no comfort in the state’s recent history of record-breaking ice and snowstorms.

Nor would there be any mulligans. The timeline allowed for no adjustments — the pros would be the first to play the course, even before any members.

Intimidating? Daunting? Risky for men with their estimable reputations?

As Hanse said — and many others no doubt believed — failure was not an option. “When you have a deadline like this, you really can’t fail. There’s so much riding on it.”

Those who took on the challenge — a group that also included Caveman Construction, LaBar Golf Renovations, Heritage Links, Michael Kuhn & Associates and Colonial’s own agronomy staff — followed in the bold footsteps of Colonial founder Marvin Leonard. Some eight decades ago, Leonard envisioned a golf course and club unlike others in the Lone Star State. He wanted bentgrass greens when others warned against it. He conceived of an invitational event for the world’s best players. He persuaded the USGA to bring its national championship to Colonial only five years after it opened.

The team swung into action almost as soon as the last putt dropped in the 2023 Charles Schwab Challenge. In all, they moved upwards of 30,000 cubic yards of dirt as part of a $25 million budget.

A supportive membership surely relieved some anxiety. “The project received well over 80 percent support at the time of the project approval vote,” Cordeiro says. “Throughout the project, the members were patient and supportive. No complaints, just encouragement, support and excitement.”

By now, we know the project was successful. Reviews were unabashedly positive in the days leading up to May’s tour stop and during the tournament.

“The project was executed without a single change order. Amazing on a project of this scope, complexity, and schedule. Not possible without great partners,” Cordiero marvels.

Even some of golf’s notoriously harsh critics were impressed.

“I imagine it’s tough for a course designer to bring a course back in time, but accommodating the modern game, making it maybe more playable for an average member 51 weeks of the year, but still a championship golf course making it as or more difficult for us,” Jordan Spieth said on the eve of this year’s Charles Schwab event. “I guess time will tell over the next four days, but it really seems like he’s somehow done that, and that’s really cool.”

GGA Partner Henry DeLozier penned this article for golfcourseindustry.com. It appeared in July 2024.

3 Steps for Successful Member Retention

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In a recent study of the 4,000-plus private clubs in North America, GGA Partners™ found that almost nine in 10 clubs are full and experiencing significant wait-list growth. Certainly, the pandemic introduced by the novel coronavirus has brought unprecedented growth to private clubs. The question now is…how will clubs retain all of these members?

Here are three factors club leaders should monitor:

UNDERSTAND MARKET EVOLUTION
During the past several decades, four factors most consistently influenced demand for club memberships:

 

  1. Favorable location, as most club members drive less than 18 minutes one-way to reach their club from their homes or offices.
  2. Household income within the draw area of the club (the 18-minute reach).
  3. Employment status among the market audience, as to its reliability and growth potential.
  4. Educational attainment within the market area…more highly educated people are usually most capable of the financial requirements of membership.

The pandemic has blurred the historic lines as people have become less mobile and have found private clubs to be a safe haven for their families. Now, the market has evolved to maximize the influence of proximity; thus, proximity/location is of great significance. Current indications suggest that this reliance on clubs will endure as many professionals work remotely and have more time that was previously required for commuting to and from work.

Club leaders and operators must remain current regarding market conditions, requirements, and expectations.

MONITOR MEMBER SATISFACTION & ENGAGEMENT
Member satisfaction is the primary metric followed closely by engagement metrics. Knowing how engaged members are with the club is a simple measure of participation in special events, dining, new concepts, and programs. Survey members regularly using brief and to-the-point member satisfaction measures.

Alarm bells should sound when members are less engaged and enthusiastic about the club’s offerings.

WATCH FOR THE “CANARY IN THE COAL MINE”
Traditionally, a live canary was used to monitor air quality in the mine and would die if the air were not safe to breathe. The idiom suggests the importance of an early warning system for the club. Three dependable “canaries” for your club are:

Member Attrition – Most clubs have historic reference points for how many members are lost each year to mortality, relocation…life. In lean times, clubs struggled to sustain a balance between new members joining and those lost. Currently, more members want to join than wish to leave. Monitor the trendline as an early indicator.

New Member Leads Traffic – Current demand for new memberships is very strong. It will cool as society evolves past the pandemic. Club leaders should consider the flow of new inquiries – people who wish to join the club – as an early indication of market change. Each club should know its own successful conversion rate and understand that it must maintain leads in excess of attrition since some leads do not convert into full membership equivalents.

Consumer Confidence – Your club should make consumer confidence a part of each member survey using such simple questions as “are you confident for the club’s future” or net promoter metrics to track. The Conference Board is the source of the Consumer Confidence Index, which you can use as a broad indicator, and it does not replace the valuable guidance available from your own members.

Members are the lifeblood of private clubs. Recruiting and retaining them is the difference between success and failure.

GGA Partner Henry DeLozier penned this article for BoardRoom Briefs. It appeared in the June 22, 2024 edition.

4 Priorities for Private Club Boards

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“When the ox is in the ditch, there is much work to be done.” In most private clubs, the “ox” is a troubling or confounding situation that could – or should – have been avoided. Noted private club attorney, Robyn Nordin Stowell of the Spencer Fane LLP law offices admonishes clients who have not called before putting the ox into the ditch. “Clubs are so well managed and led these days that after-the-fact guidance should be unnecessary,” she says.

Want to keep the ox out of the ditch at your club? Attend to four practices that reduce risk and keep your club on solid ground.

1. Execute twice-per-year legal reviews with your club attorney.
Meet with your legal advisors to anticipate emerging challenges or issues on which the club and its servant leaders should be anticipatory; Among the concerns one should voice are:

• Board Minutes – In your review of our board meeting minutes, do you see any matters of concern or legal risk that should be corrected? Board minutes should be reviewed to minimize misstatements which could pose future risks to the club or its directors.
• Membership Program and Representations – Membership demand since the pandemic has filled most clubs still using membership documents that were created before CY 2020 when most clubs were aggressively seeking more members.
• Governance and Disciplinary Practices – The board should review its disciplinary practices to ensure that those practices conform to current standards of best practice…and state statutes.

2. Conduct an annual risk assessment with your property and casualty insurance provider.
One of the most rapidly increasing costs for most private clubs is property and casualty insurance…if you can obtain it. With rates increasing as a reflection of the overwhelming risks insurers are experiencing – whether wildfires, hurricanes, and tornadoes – in addition to the usual slip/fall risks, club leaders should evaluate risks with the understanding that most insurance premiums are a factor of annual club revenues adjusted (multiplied) by a risk factor that is established across business segments. Ask your insurance representative to conduct a risk assessment that may result in savings for the club – unless your club is not in safe operating condition.

3. Meet with the club’s auditor 90 days before the scheduled annual audit.
Many club leaders dread the annual audit. Embrace this independent, third-party review of the club’s books as an opportunity to improve operational results, which may reduce financial risks throughout the club. Your auditor sees many clubs and can provide financial benchmarks in addition to sound business advice.

4. Execute an annual evaluation of your club’s cyber security.
“The cyber battlefield never sleeps,” says Joseph Saracino, CEO of Cino Limited, which specializes in cyber security for private clubs. “In today’s world, many of us are sitting ducks, waiting to become the next cybercrime victims to be publicized by the media.” If an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, take aggressive steps to ensure that the club’s members can rely upon a safe haven for themselves and their families.

Planning and acting ahead of the problem are a sure sign of effective servant leadership. Will you wait for the problem to put your club in the ditch or prevent the problem? Pretty easy choice when you think about it.

GGA Partner Henry DeLozier penned this article for BoardRoom Briefs. It appeared in the May 18, 2024 edition.

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