Believe it or not, there's a golf club in Florida, Orange County National Golf Center & Lodge (OCN), that doesn't have a single house or condo on the property— and never will. This is even harder to believe when you learn that the OCN property spreads over 920 acres of some of central Florida's most desirable acreage, and is in fact only a few Big Bertha drives from the gates of Disney World (guests and players actually get free views of Disney fireworks each night).
But OCN's marketing materials make it clear that this club is about "no homes…no noise…just pure golf, in peace and tranquility…you will feel a million miles from anywhere."
And if you spend enough time with the OCN management team, you will also develop a feeling that the club is far removed from what's often found in golf-oriented daily-fee settings, because of unique features, touches and approaches such as these:
• Drainage that allows for play almost immediately after any rain, including central Florida's infamous midday downpours.OCN was built on land recaptured by the county after a severe freeze in the mid-1980s destroyed many area citrus groves. A mammoth civil engineering project, through which the area was rebuilt with special rapid infiltration basins (RIBs), was then launched to reclaim water that could help to revive the citrus industry, and at the same time stave off the impending disastrous effects on the water supply from the overdevelopment that was already beginning to threaten the region.
Because of this unique infrastructure, no residences will ever be built within the OCN boundaries, but a series of master-planned communities, developed through controlled growth, will eventually surround it (some of them have already begun to spring up). In the meantime, the OCN property will always exist as "basically a big sandbar," according to Carl Benedict, Director of Golf Course Maintenance.
• Special connections to the PGA Tour and other high-profile golf-industry events. Using its two championship courses, Panther Lake and Crooked Cat, OCN has hosted tour qualifyingschool finals. And by combining the country's largest practice facility—a 42-acre circular range with a 20,000-sq. ft., lighted putting green and nine executive holes—with its conference and lodge facilities, OCN is also well-equipped to serve as the site for huge exposure opportunities such as the PGA Merchandising Show Demo Day and the largest consumer demonstration event, Golfweek's "Golfest."
• A direct pipeline to some of the latest thinking and talent in the golf industry, through a connection with the Professional Golfers Career College, which leases space for a campus within the OCN acreage. Some OCN managers and staffers are graduates of the school or have taken continuing education courses there; others have served as instructors.
• A sophisticated technical infrastructure, including complete fiber-optic and ethernet networks, installed when the club was developed in 1997 and managed by a full-time Director of Information Services, Charles Kinard. This setup has given OCN a leg up in using systems to enhance operations management and communication, both internally as well as with customers. OCN has been especially progressive in using online contact for e-mail promotions, tee-time bookings and pro shop sales.
"Most golf courses I know of don't have this kind of network environment, let alone someone with an information background like me who's here to maintain it every day," says Kinard, who developed his passion for information systems in the Air Force and joined the OCN team as the club was being built, allowing him to oversee installation and development of the networks "from the ground up."
• An innovative and highly successful approach to pro shop management (see side bar) that is as successful on the floor as it is online, primarily by leaving primary merchandising responsibilities to vendors and then rewarding top supplier performance with premium floor and shelf space.
• An extensive F&B operation that goes "well beyond hot dogs and chips," in the words of head golf pro Jason DeWildt, to provide service such as complimentary hot breakfasts for guests who stay in OCN's 46-room on-site lodge, as well as an elaborate menu of restaurant offerings prepared under the direction of a full-time chef (to improve service, quality and capabilities, OCN switched from a contract feeder to an in-house department three years ago).
• Customer service extras for all golfers that include ice-cold, mangoscented towels delivered mid-round, chilled apples offered at the turn, complimentary bottled water in personal coolers on each golf cart, and personalized souvenir photo bag tags.
Going for the Gold
Putting all of these features together, it's understandable why members of the OCN management team feel they are sitting on a "goldmine," as DeWildt says—even without the prospect of on-property residential development that is usually thought to be essential to the success of any golf-related venture in the Sunbelt.
Still, mining that gold isn't as easy as it may look, reports OCN General Manager Bruce Gerlander. The opportunity to lease such a unique, valuable and competitively-protected property does not come cheaply, he points out, so the investors in Team Classic Golf Services, a privately held central Florida-based company that was formed to own and manage OCN, had to start out, and remain saddled with, an especially large operating nut.
A PGA professional with previous management experience at the Innisbrook and Sandestin Resorts in Florida, Gerlander says his goal since being hired by Team Classic in 1998 to be OCN's GM has been to "make steady progress" towards profitability. The OCN team has now reached that goal, he reports, primarily by focusing on maximizing the appeal of the property's unique physical attributes and capabilities th
rough these management philosophies and techniques:
• An effective staff development approach has brought many current top managers up through the ranks, after beginning as hourly employees in positions such as starters or pro shop attendants. This has helped develop versatility and a deeper bench among current management, Gerlander says, as well as fostering a better understanding of the overall business among all department heads, which makes for better teamwork.
• The promote-from- the-front-lines approach has also helped ingrain, and retain, a strong customer- service orientation throughout the OCN operation. This is reinforced on a daily basis through comment cards and other means—staffers not only solicit feedback at all the usual places where they encounter guests, but also seek out patrons in the lounge and offer 2- for-1 drink coupons if they'll complete a brief survey. The survey asks for ratings from 1 (did not meet expectations) to 4 (exceeded expectations) on all aspects of the OCN experience, including making a reservation, cart and player service, condition of the course and practice facility, and golf shop and F&B service.
"We try not to be so overwhelming that it gets in the way of letting our guests enjoy being here," says DeWildt. "But at every guestencounter point, from when they get out of their car, to when they check in at the golf shop, to when they're being served in the restaurant, we want to give the clear impression, without being pushy, that we want to know if they need anything or have ideas of how we can do better."
• OCN also makes extensive use of proactive individual marketing techniques, including couponing and rechargeable gift cards, along with aggressive group sales efforts, on a wide-ranging basis, to targets such as college golf teams and athletic conferences, foreign national golf teams, club pros who can bring groups of their members for instruction, senior groups, corporate outings, and alumni or fraternity associations.
"Orlando is running one-two with Las Vegas as a convention and conference center, so there's a huge base of groups we can target who are already planning to come to this area," notes Sales Associate Aaron Hosman. "Beyond that, with our practice facility and lodging capabilities, we can have special appeal to groups like the college teams. We are really trying to establish, for example, that if you're in college golf, this is the place to come—where else can a coach find the opportunity to have everyone on the team stay and practice together in such a concentrated way under such ideal and affordable conditions?"
For these reasons and many others, the Orange County National management team is excited and confident about the many ways it plans to move forward to take advantage of its unique status and maintain an edge, even in a crowded market that includes formidable competition from Disney properties (the "free" fireworks notwithstanding).
"This place will be the last of its kind in Florida, and maybe anywhere," says Benedict. "I don't think you'll ever see another OCN." C&RB
Making A Counter Much More Productive
Bruce Gerlander was getting tired of having moments that made him stop and wonder if what he was actually doing in his job really matched with what had gotten him excited about working in club and resort management in the first place. And when Orange County National’s GM analyzed things further, he realized that most of these moments were coming while he was mired in trying to make merchandising decisions for OCN’s pro shop. “It just finally dawned on me how much time I was spending sitting in [supplier] vans and talking about how our logo would look on every garment,” the OCN general manager says. “And if it wasn’t me, it was other people on our staff, which was taking all of us away from a lot of other things we needed to do.” This wouldn’t have nagged at Gerlander so much if the club’s pro shop results were showing it was all time wellspent. But while the OCN clubhouse had been built to give the 5,000-sq. ft. shop front-and center position and ample display and storage space, performance was average, at best, compared to any industry benchmark that was used. “We just decided we weren’t going about [retailing] in a smart way, given the many other priorities we had for the property,” he says. To get smarter, he adds, the OCN team decided to follow the leads of other retail segments—specifically, supermarkets and department stores. “We took a grocery-store mentality in that we decided to say to a more select group of vendors, here’s what you’re getting for shelf and display space,” he reports. “Then we told those who [made the cut] that they should treat [the space] we’re giving them like a department store—you decide what fixtures to bring in and what signage to use, and you take the burden of responsibility for maintaining the stock and how it’s displayed.” Gerlander made it clear that he wanted all vendors to manage their space with the entirety of the OCN pro shop in mind, so the place wouldn’t end up looking like a mall. He also made it clear that those who performed best would get the most space and the most prominent positions on the floor—and that those who didn’t perform could lose their spots entirely to any other vendors that OCN might want to bring in. Almost immediately after this approach was instituted, “business took off,” Gerlander reports. Annual sales in the shop more than doubled, to their current level of $1.3 million. Inventory turns jumped from the industry average of 2.5 per year, to 4.5. Other key benchmarks, such as shop spending per round and gross profit margin (now at 52%) also showed significant improvement. Most interestingly, some of the vendors delivering this performance aren’t often front-of-mind as best sellers in club and resort retail settings. “Tommy Hilfiger is number one in this shop and Ashworth, Oxford and Adidas are also to Using reports from OCN’s POS system, Gerlander stays active in regularly reviewing sales activity with vendors, along with head golf pro Jason DeWildt and OCN’s on-staff merchandiser, Jeremy Craft. But it’s much more of a business analysis function for all of them now, rather than a research and decision making burden. With individual vendor merchandisers now coming in regularly to freshen stock and displays, the OCN staff can focus on customer-service issues—especially critical in this shop, where the front counter also serves as the primary greeting point and administrative pulse for golf and lodge operations. |
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