Many private golf clubs are stuck in the rough.
Locally, Ridgeway Country Club in White Plains and Hampshire Country Club in Mamaroneck struggled financially and were bought out in recent years. Nationally, a significant percentage of clubs have been hitting double and triple bogeys.
According to a survey by the National Golf Foundation, up to 15 percent of the roughly 4,400 private clubs nationwide are having serious financial problems. Some observers say the actual percentage of suffering private clubs is much higher ”“ it”™s just that clubs don”™t want to admit their problems.
One local establishment is bucking the trend. Brynwood Golf & Country Club in Armonk, formerly known as the Canyon Club, was acquired in 2009 by a group of investors and has undergone a multimillion-dollar capital improvement program. It opened its doors in April 2010. It also hired Troon Golf, a worldwide luxury golf course management company, to manage operations.
How is the place doing under new management? “It”™s certainly exceeded the owner”™s expectations and the expectations of our many members,” said Jack Hrad, Brynwood”™s general manager. “We had a waiting list all year long. There were people who wanted to join but never could. And they were invited to join this year. Most of them have.”
A different business model
Brynwood is offering a family-friendly approach to country club living and moving past the male-dominated, golf-only business model.
“There were only 130 members before and they were mostly males who were golfing. And very few children or families were involved,” said Hrad, a 35-year industry veteran who has spent his last 11 years with Troon. “Now, Brynwood, in our first year, had more than 400 member families. It was very much a ladies”™ and a children”™s and a moms”™ kind of country club ”“ not just dad”™s ”“ with a very active tennis program and a swimming pool program.”
Hrad added, “We”™re attracting younger and more family-oriented members who want a country club experience that feels like a five-star resort hotel. Brynwood has become the place to bring the whole family, whether it”™s to play golf and tennis, lounge around the pool or play video games or watch movies in the kid”™s entertainment center.”
The renovated club features nine tennis courts, an outdoor swimming pool and a clubhouse with a ballroom. It also has a health club and a business center, along with a children”™s game room with a movie theater and video games.
Troon Golf also created a category called Young Executive, in which executives or any qualified person under the age 40 could join at an attractive rate. “We are repositioning and focusing on a new target market,” Hrad said. Thousands of private clubs around the country have to become more inclusive rather than exclusive, he said.
The Brynwood general manager said he and Troon Golf believe the traditional clubs, those that are male-oriented and golf-centered, have been ”“ and will continue to be ”“ slow to change.
“That”™s because they are still run by committees who don”™t understand the shift in the market and the demographics,” he said. ”They don”™t realize that the future club member is very different from what we were 10 or 15 years ago. Many private clubs, controlled by committees who have been very comfortable in their club for years, are a bit out of touch with reality. Women now make up more than 50 percent of the U.S. workforce, including many mothers, and too many traditional clubs are still male-centered.”
He added that nationwide, the only growth sectors in golf are women and children. “This fact lends credibility to Brynwood”™s commitment to member families, every day and through our Junior Golf and Tennis Summer Camp, which is open to non-members as well, as we want to teach all kids, and their mothers, to love golf.”
