When it comes to country clubs, aesthetics are par for the course.
While general managers are busy trimming the fat from their budgets ”“ squeezing vendors for better prices and even in some cases laying off employees ”“ they”™re not looking to skimp on their clubhouses or golf courses.
“We have to maintain high standards with regard to the property and the buildings,” says Brian Gillespie, general manager of 81-year-old Tamarack Country Club in Greenwich, Conn., which launched its completely rebuilt clubhouse in July of 2007 ”“ three months before the stock market peaked at 14,000.
Even as the economy struggles to recover from the market collapse, clubs continue to upgrade their facilities. A case in point ”“ Brae Burn Country Club in Purchase, which is refurbishing its entire clubhouse. (The 46-year-old club redid its course, marked by natural brooks and ponds as well as an old elevated railroad bed, in 2000.)
Though it may seem counterintuitive in this financial clime, Eugene Peterson, general manager of the Orange County Golf Club in Middletown, says renewal is imperative. His club undertook an $800,000 capital-improvement project in the winter of ”™08-”™09 ”“ the darkest months of the current recession ”“ making significant modifications to the golf course and adding two new swimming pools.
“We knew what was going on,” he says. “But in the private-club industry, we also know that the way to maintain membership is not to shortcut the course or the clubhouse. You want to continue making improvements.”
This determination to strive in tough times is in keeping with the history of the club, which was founded in 1899 amid the verdant hills along the Wallkill River in what was then Midway Park (between the village of Goshen and the city of Middletown.) During the Great Depression, the club transformed its course from nine to 18 holes.
“You evolve or you die,” says Alan Daniels, a member of the board of the Dutchess Golf & Country Club in Poughkeepsie, who is responsible for that club”™s marketing. “When the economy is slow, it is the ultimate opportunity to leap-frog the competition.”
Founded in the late 19th century, the Dutchess Golf & Country Club was originally designed by a member of the Park family of Scotland, birthplace of golf. Recently, club officials spent some $14,000 for a road-side sign featuring the club”™s magisterial lion logo and $5,000 to spruce up the pro shop and showcase more merchandise. Beyond that, they decided to get innovative.
The club hired Bonura Hospitality ”“ a catering firm owned by club member Joseph Bonura Jr. ”“ to service its dining areas as well as provide meals for special dining on the golf course itself. (These golf-course dinners, to be held at various holes, will be available for no more than 50 people at a time.)
The venture is a win-win situation: Bonura Hospitality gets to cater weddings at the club for members and affiliates and in turn paid to refurbish portions of the clubhouse, adding chandeliers and new carpeting in patterns of earth tones and making intimate changes to doorways and entrances to ensure that golfers don”™t become wedding crashers.
Says Daniels:Â “It”™s all about figuring out what you can do now and in the future.”
