Southern Hills CC at a Glance
• Year Established: 1935 |
Like the property itself, after a $25 million makeover reconfigured the club’s activities profile along with its physical layout, the Southern Hills management team is now all dressed up with nowhere to go—but up. |
It’s hard to imagine there are many 70-plus-year-old private clubs that would have old-time rockers like Eddie Money perform a concert in their ballroom. It’s even harder to imagine that the electrical systems of most clubs of that vintage would be able to hold up through the first chorus of “Two Tickets to Paradise.”
But the fact that Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla., has not only had Money, but other rollicking artists like Delbert McClinton and Tulsa native Leon Russell perform on site tells you this “old-line” club has a special, youthful spirit to go with its reputation for top-rated golf (Southern Hills has hosted three U.S. Opens, and will welcome its fourth PGA Championship this August).
And the way that events of this amplitude were factored into the planning for Southern Hills’ recent $25 million renovation tells you a lot about the expansive thinking, and attention to detail, that’s exercised by the management team entrusted with the care of this storied property.
“We’ve always had a tradition of a lot of different, big-scale events here,” says Operations & Security Manager Mark Kirby. “As we got into the renovation, the staff had a lot of input into design and infrastructure issues, like power and lighting. In our new ballroom, we now have a 200-amp stage designed with quick connections; you can just bring in a distribution panel and power up in five minutes. Through the rest of the clubhouse, we have data ports and wireless and video-conferencing capabilities.
“All of these things help make a club more attractive to younger members, and at the same time it helps you do your traditional events more efficiently,” Kirby notes. “There’s nothing I hate more than to see an elegant ballroom with a strip of black duct tape running down the middle to hold wires—not to mention how unsafe that is, or how it takes a half-day to set it up that way.”
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Much More Than Maintenance
The very fact that Kirby has been on the Southern Hills staff in his capacity for 10 years also reveals much about the club’s management approach. In many clubs, operations managers are glorified maintenance engineers who’ve been given the title, but not much authority, in return for years of loyal service. But Kirby, with a background in commercial real estate management, was brought in as a new department head by General Manager Nick Sidorakis in 1997, specifically to help focus on day-to-day implementation of the developmental strategies that Sidorakis, who had come to Southern Hills two years earlier, was planning to pursue.
That proved to be a much more drawn-out and arduous chase than Sidorakis expected. But perseverance is another dominant management trait at Southern Hills, exhibited by an especially experienced management team that features the extended tenures of Head Golf Professional Dave Bryan (now in his 19th year at the club), Clubhouse Manager Robert Lupo (23 years), Head Tennis Professional Pancho Walthall (25 years) and Executive Chef Devin Levine (31 years).
Several years after Sidorakis and staff had outlined the steps needed to bring the non-golf side of Southern Hills up to the standards of its course, the needed push to get members to vote on a master plan was finally provided in 2003, thanks to the determined efforts of then-President John Frame. After approval was secured a year later, the next two and a half years brought two remarkable, simultaneous developments:
1) a complete transformation of the clubhouse area (see site map and list of highlights above) that included a rerouting of the main road to bring members to a new entrance; the addition of over 20,000 square feet of clubhouse space (from 47,000 to 70,000 square feet); full remodeling and expansion of kitchen, dining and banquet space; a new fitness facility and pool; major locker room upgrades; and countless other improvements and enhancements—inside and out.
2) uninterrupted operation of Southern Hills while all of the above took place, even though, among other things, banquets had to be held in a temporary, tented pavilion for 18 months.
“That’s the thing we’re probably all the most proud of; we did it all without missing one meal, one function, or one swimming or tennis day,” says Kirby. “But we were still able to hit it out of the park. And now we have a clubhouse to match a golf course that was always world-class.”
Christmas in April
The renovation has yielded immediate payoffs from all parts of the club’s F&B operations (overall sales up 35 percent), with the banquet business (up 30 percent) becoming an even bigger star. |
Almost as soon as the project began, the positive effects of the renovation began to quickly become evident throughout all club activities. The impact was most immediate and dramatic for a food and beverage operation that had always done remarkably well under the guidance of Levine and Lupo, but still struggled to achieve profitability because of its facilities shortcomings.
“All of our other [attempts to renovate] were too piecemeal,” Lupo says. “This was finally what was needed to be done—on a grand scale. We didn’t overemphasize one [aspect of F&B] over another; we did something for every part. For example, we still have jacket-and-tie formal dining here, and that’s been doing really well now because of the improvements we made to make the main dining room much more elegant.”
Chef Levine has major tournament experience that
Tiger Woods might envy (in addition to all of the championships he’s worked in his years at Southern Hills, he’s been invited by Augusta National to be a guest chef at five Masters). And he has always taken pride in directing resourceful operations that can deliver excellence “even if there’s no refrigeration, no heat source, or no roof above our head.” But he admits it was frustrating to see Southern Hills’ F&B business held back by its clubhouse’s limitations.
After the renovation, however, Levine’s now happy to report that his staff is actually having to learn to deal with waiting-list situations, and scrambling to find suppliers who can help keep up with demand for popular signature items such as blackened Chilean seabass (recipe available at clubandresortbusiness.com). “We can’t take it off the menu,” Levin says. “Some months we may use 200 pounds.”
So far in 2007, Sidorakis reports, food sales at Southern Hills are up 35 percent and currently project to break the $4 million mark for the year (compared to $3.3 million in 2006). Much of the boost has come from a 30 percent increase in banquet business, now that the club is out of the tent and making full use of its main ballroom (see photo, above) and other parts of the renovated space to better accommodate larger groups. “We did December numbers in April [2007]!” Sidorakis enthused near the end of May, still somewhat incredulous over how things have taken off.
Always a popular tournament venue even before its clubhouse makeover (as shown at left, during the Big 12 collegiate championships in 2006), Southern Hills is eager to debut its new look—and features—during this year’s PGA. |
Road More Traveled
While much of the increased traffic on Southern Hills’ newly configured road is now from cars bearing more diners, F&B is only part of what the club’s 950 members are now showing a renewed hunger for. Participation in tennis has never been higher, thanks in part to a popular new adult team league. Activity is also strong at the new fitness center and around the new pools, located near the club’s long-time favorite “Snug Harbor” casual dining/bar venue.
The overall excitement generated by the renovation has also had a noticeable impact on the golf side, which, of course, was not neglected or ignored during the project. The clubhouse upgrades included enhancements to the pro shop and the creation of new archival corridors that celebrate Southern Hills’ rich history.
Its view of the city skyline and signature clock tower, featured in this year’s PGA Championship logo, are just two of the things that make Southern Hills a unique Tulsa treasure. |
The club’s golf courses, including the “West Nine” that is popular with juniors, seniors and others who may not always want to face the formidable challenges of the championship 18, have also received continuous upgrades and expert ongoing maintenance. Care of the course is directed by Golf Course Superintendent Russ Myers, who came to Southern Hills last fall from Card Sound Golf Club in Key Largo, Fla., and before that cut his greenskeeping teeth as an assistant-in-training for four years at Augusta National GC.
“It’s evident that our members are now finding more reasons to come to club now, in addition to the great golf,” says Dave Bryan. “We see a lot of people we know well from the golf side who now come just to work out or use the pools or eat, even if they don’t play a round.
“I think we may have created a monster,” Bryan chuckles. “There’s clearly more activity everywhere. And the talk about all that you can now do here has spread well beyond our property—our waiting list is very healthy, and in fact longer than ever.”
And that’s before anyone hears who the next rock star might be to put Southern Hills’ new 200-amp service to the test.
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