The Minnesota club that boasts strong ties to legendary names like Ross, Jones and Berg is keeping pace with the times through consistent planning and seamless management transitions.
It may be true that nothing succeeds like success. But even the most successful clubs will encounter critical periods when all that they have achieved can be put at great risk, if succession plans for their key managers are not properly designed and executed.
From its founding in 1909, Interlachen Country Club in Edina, Minn., just outside the city limits of Minneapolis, has always held a prominent place among the industry’s biggest success stories. It built its standing early in its history through association with the biggest names in golf: Donald Ross was hired in 1919 to completely reroute and redesign the club’s 10-year-old course; Bobby Jones then brought worldwide recognition to Ross’ gem when he won the 1930 U.S. Open at Interlachen for the third leg of his Grand Slam; and five years later, a local girl and junior member of the club, Patty Berg, established the club’s place in women’s golf, too, when as a 17-year-old she staged a thrilling head-to-head challenge against Glenna Collett Vare, the top woman player of the time, in a 36-hole final of the 1935 U.S. Women’s Amateur that drew record and highly enthusiastic crowds to Edina.
AT A GLANCE
|
All of this helped to quickly elevate Interlachen to elite, internationally renowned status in the golf world. And within the Twin Cities region and club industry circles, the property also rapidly developed a respected reputation for innovation and exemplary practices in other areas beyond golf (Country Club was part of Interlachen’s name from the start, as tennis, horseback riding and trapshooting were also established as initial activities when it opened; a report in the Minneapolis Journal in 1910 about the new club’s founding described the membership as “[viewing] the world seriously while at business, but equally as interested along lines of relaxation, in the form of pure indoor and outdoor sports”).
As Interlachen marked its first 100 years, it could rightfully and proudly reflect on a “century of excellence” (as its anniversary book issued in 2009 was titled). As a testament to the founders’ original foresight and how their successors had then built successfully on that vision, its stately, Tudor-style clubhouse still stood where it was originally constructed on the property’s highest point, and retained the same signature look after two major renovations and expansions. And from its unique vantage point—in addition to a view of the Minneapolis skyline and the city that had grown up around the club—the clubhouse provided a look at all that Interlachen now offered to members on a year-round basis. A half-dozen holes of the storied golf course can be seen in a unique 180-degree sweep around the clubhouse, along with many new amenities and activities that had been added through the years, including fitness, spa operations and winter sports (snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, curling and an active hockey league that plays on ice created by flooding the clay tennis courts as soon as temperatures permit).
Preparing for a New Era
After 2009, however, even the most established and successful properties suddenly found themselves confronting unprecedented challenges caused by the recession and the dramatic changes that were reshaping club memberships and operations. And in Interlachen’s case, another pivotal event was on the horizon—the impending retirement at the end of 2013 of General Manager/COO George Carroll, CCM, CCE.
Upon his retirement, Carroll would not only rank as the longest-tenured GM in the club’s history, having been there since 1999, but he had been inducted in 2012 to the Minnesota Golf Hall of Fame and had directed Interlachen’s most recent tournament successes (2002 Solheim Cup and 2008 U.S. Women’s Open). In total, Carroll’s career would cover over 35 years of club management, including 13 at The Town & Country Club in Saint Paul, Minn., the oldest private club west of the Mississippi, before coming to Interlachen. Along with his wife Linda, who planned to retire at the same time after a distinguished career of her own that included serving since 1988 as General Manager of White Bear Yacht Club in Dellwood, Minn., the Carrolls were synonymous with the club business not only in the Twin Cities area but industry-wide. Interlachen faced a critical transition to ensure that the value of Carroll’s direction and expertise would not be lost.
Fortunately, the club already had a wealth of successful experience to draw on for the situation. In its 105-year history, Interlachen has had just six head golf professionals, including more than 60 years of the legendary Willie Kidd (1920-57) and his son Bill Kidd (1958-93) leading that core department. The Kidds’ legacy was then carried on seamlessly first by Jock Olson (1994-2008) and now by Nathan Ollhoff, who has held the position since 2009.
There has also been similar continuity in course maintenance, where current Golf Course Superintendent Matt Rostal has held his position since 2001 after succeeding John Katterheinrich, who served in that capacity for 10 years. While records are somewhat incomplete, Rostal is listed as only the ninth superintendent in Interlachen’s history, with the last six all spending at least ten years in the role.
The club’s formula for succession plans that won’t imperil its established success has been built around two guiding principles: 1) avoid becoming too in-bred and stay open to bringing in new outside talent as it presents itself, and 2) once it’s in the fold, make sure that talent is not only allowed, but encouraged, to find new ways to make its mark, while still building on all that has served Interlachen so well for so many years.
Through that approach, Ollhoff has drawn on the experience he gained as an assistant pro at two of the country’s most exemplary operations—The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., and Seminole Golf Club in Juno Beach, Fla.,—to help enhance Interlachen’s golf operations in areas including the pro shop, where revenues have increased over 60 percent in Ollhoff’s first five years, and the club was named a Top 100 merchandiser in 2013 for the first time in its history. Ollhoff also worked with the club’s online tee-time reservation system vendor on a pilot program, implemented in 2011, to develop an add-on component for caddy availability that has helped to boost annual caddy rounds from 7,500 to well over 11,000.
“It’s been great to come into a situation where the existing models weren’t broken,” Ollhoff says. “For me, it’s been a matter of identifying and quantifying potential new opportunities, while keeping everyone on the staff full of drive and passion, to continue to build on what’s made the club so great.”
Rostal, meanwhile, draws on his original education (he got a finance degree before deciding, after a market crash, to change careers and go back to school to study agronomy) to constantly look at the “bigger picture” when making course-maintenance decisions. In addition to helping to maximize cost-efficiencies for daily operations as well as the series of major renovation and improvement projects he’s overseen during his tenure, Rostal’s financial acumen also helped him show Interlachen the value of building a new maintenance equipment building, designed to match the clubhouse and blend in unobtrusively with the course and property, that opened in 2011.
“We’re always trying to find the latest tool—whether it’s equipment or something that can help us manage better—to improve on what we have,” Rostal notes. “And we continually maintain and update a realistic list of [course] priorities, and then stick to that as our primary guide for what we need to do over the next two and five years to stay relevant.”
Advance Notice
To help ensure that Interlachen’s General Manager transition would be as seamless as those the club had successfully undertaken in other key areas, George Carroll made it a point to have his last contract set up in a way that made it very clear when he would resign.
“I wanted to give the club plenty of time to realize that I would be leaving at a certain point,” says Carroll, who is now an honorary club member. “The Board has always been easy to work with and has always had good vision, so I knew that would help with a smooth transition.”
Carroll’s ample advance notice gave Interlachen the time to conduct an extensive search that eventually led to the appointment of Eric Dietz, CCM/PGA, as the club’s new GM/COO. Dietz, most recently General Manager/CEO of Lakewood Country Club in Rockville, Md., could offer previous experience in Minnesota, as GM/COO of Rochester (Minn.) Golf & Country Club, as part of why he would be a good fit. But just as importantly, he brought the distinction of being one of just a handful of PGA professionals who have also earned Certified Club Manager certification, as well as being a recipient of the 2012 Excellence in Club Management Award (“Everyday Thrills,” C&RB, July 2013).
Not surprisingly, given those credentials and perspectives, Dietz hit the ground running upon arriving in Edina, to begin to pursue new initiatives for building further on Interlachen’s legacy and engendering future success. He has been working with the Board to revisit governance and master planning at the club and redirect them as needed, to ensure the club’s continued growth and relevance. He has taken steps to continue to elevate the club’s profile as a candidate for future golf tournaments, including possible majors, that would add new chapters to its rich history.
Dietz also worked with his staff to establish a “Team Committee,” made up of front-line employees from a cross-section of departments that now meets regularly to develop ways to ingrain the club’s culture throughout a staff that can grow to over 270 in season, and also recognize top performers.
“We want to ensure that all team members are always thinking about how they can deliver the ‘Interlachen experience’ to everyone who comes onto our property,” Dietz explains. “We’ve all been entrusted with a real jewel here, and we need to make sure we establish, and always try to achieve, a level of ‘Interlachen excellence’ for everything we do—be it a policy, an amenity or turfgrass quality.
“The club has become what it is because it has always tried to be visionary and stay one step ahead,” he says. “We have to continue to make sure that, while we’re very aware of what’s worked in the past, we don’t ever lapse into being caretakers of the status quo, or operate with a ‘copy-and-paste’ mentality.
“There are always challenges involved with [general manager] transitions, especially when it’s after someone like George,” Dietz notes. “But I think the club has always taken the approach that these are also opportunities to look at things through a fresh lens and get the benefit of new managers’ different ideas and areas of experience.
“Seen in that way, it’s really a chance to enhance a great foundation and keep growing the club, and ensure its relevance, for the generations to come.”
Tell Us What You Think!
You must be logged in to post a comment.