Already in its 30-year history, The Polo Club of Boca Raton has experienced highs, lows and many changes—and it’s now soaring again, with renewed facilities and a revived management and membership spirit.
Since opening its gates in 1986, The Polo Club of Boca Raton (Fla.) has already experienced a series of significant identity changes. To begin with, its connection with the sport from which it took its name has long since disappeared—only a few horses were ever on the property, and other than the fact that one of the club’s two 18-hole golf courses is called the Equestrian Course, and that an old bridle path still rings the edge of the grounds, anything relating to polo can no longer be found.
The property’s original status as a developer club also quickly changed, with a transition to being member-owned in its first decade. The club has also transitioned from the time when it was well-known as a prominent site for professional tennis; the stadium court that once held crowds of 7,000 for Virginia Slims Tour events and the televised professional debut of 13-year-old phenom Jennifer Capriati was repurposed as the new millennium began.
Currently, The Polo Club is preparing to launch a national marketing campaign to make sure everyone knows about its latest identity change. After completing $26.5 million in renovations last year that dramatically transformed its clubhouse and spa, and adding more top talent to its management team such as new Director of Culinary Operations/Executive Chef Edward Leonard, CMC (see “Passion Play”), the new story that The Polo Club now wants to tell about itself through billboards, television ads, social media and other means has a clear message: We’re the place where you should come to experience an all-encompassing resort lifestyle.
Beyond the Country Club
It was only a few years ago, though, that The Polo Club was at a point in its history when it was showing the effects of not having much of an identity at all. “The club had grown tired and wasn’t changing with the times, and was in danger of being left behind,” says Brett Morris in describing the profile of the organization that he took over after being named The Polo Club’s new General Manager/COO in 2012.
Morris hadn’t been looking to make a career change, after 10 years in the top position at the historic Fresh Meadow Country Club outside of New York City. “I could have retired there,” he says. But Morris began his career as a chef, and after earning a degree from the Culinary Institute of America, he had an externship at Disney World, and had always kept an interest in perhaps someday returning to Florida in the back of his mind. He was also someone who was drawn to new challenges—and it was easy to see how going to The Polo Club would present those to him.
“I had never managed a gated community before,” he says. “That in itself made it a big new challenge, because even though people in the Northeast are very emotional about their clubs, it’s still not the same as when people live [on the property], so you have to bring your A game every day.”
Shortly after taking his new position, Morris ran head-on into a more immediate challenge. The membership was not enthusiastic about a master-plan proposal for capital improvements that had been put forth by the long-range planning committee. During the discussions that led to his hiring, Morris had stressed that the Board would need to allow him to have true Chief Operating Officer authority to effect the change that was needed at The Polo Club, in accordance with policy directives set by the Board. Now he was on the spot to demonstrate just how that would work.
After making the bold pledge that he and his team would not only plan and direct a comprehensive facilities renovation that would result in the membership coming to view, and use, the club as “an extension of their homes,” Morris added that it would all be done on time (two years) and within budget.
And then last December—a full year ahead of the promised completion date—3,000 Polo Club members and guests were welcomed into the renovated clubhouse for “The Big Reveal.” Those attending the event were escorted throughout the building for a dine-around that highlighted how each of the clubhouse’s culinary venues were being rebranded as distinct, restaurant-style destinations, all with different themes reflected through their menus, decor, and atmosphere, right down to unique glassware, china and server uniforms in every location.
The event’s dine-around format was the best way to “show how we had become current and were changing how we would do business,” Morris says. Further, it showed how the mandatory club membership that is part of owning real estate within The Polo Club’s borders would now provide the value of a much greater variety and quality of dining choices, all of which could be accessed without having to drive beyond the gates and into Palm Beach County’s vexing traffic. At a property that is large enough to qualify as a census-designated place, with over 1,700 houses spread through 24 different communities, that may prove to be the greatest benefit of being an “extension of home.”
Keeping Things Humming
In the first full year of operation after the unveiling of the renovated clubhouse, The Polo Club staff has shifted its focus to another, more fundamental aspect of club operations. As Assistant General Manager Ryan Artim says, “The renovation of facilities is nice—but at the end of day, distinguishing your club and consistently providing a great experience for members will always come down to service.”
Artim—also a former chef, who then came to The Polo Club with extensive experience at Ritz-Carlton properties—notes that the renovation did offer the opportunity to make adjustments for eliminating physical obstacles and streamlining servers’ steps to and from kitchens and stations. While this has helped to improve service speed and quality, Artim and a management team led by Food & Beverage Director Marius Ilie remain constantly on the watch for new opportunities to take further strides in their constant pursuit of exceptional performance, especially in the area of customer touch points.
To that end, a rollout of the Humm instant customer feedback application was scheduled for mid-October. With this technology, tablets are provided as part of check presentations on which diners can complete a quick touchscreen survey on food and service quality.
While Humm can also be used proactively to promote specials and events, its most powerful feature is the ability to send cell-phone alerts to managers whenever any negative feedback may be received. As part of the rollout, Artim and Ilie planned to be at the ready to try to respond in such cases, whenever possible, before a customer had left his or her table. “Our goal is to be able to get right out and say, ‘Before you leave, how can we rectify things and make you happy?’” Artim says. “If we can’t do that, we’ll make sure to follow up with a personal call.”
The Polo Club’s management has found that it needs to be more vigilant in ensuring that everyone stays on top of their service games at all times, because the club’s operation continues to have less-dramatic seasonal swings.
Management says it’s now close to a 50-50 split among those who come for the traditional November-to-April period and those who stay on property and use the club year-round. “I was especially surprised last year at how many stayed and came here during the renovation, even during one period when we were operating entirely out of tents,” Artim says.
In recognition of this trend, new summer features like “Thirsty Thursday” happy hours have been introduced, with resounding success. “The summer ‘happy’ hour has grown from a few people having glasses of wine in a typically boring scene, to 400 people enjoying half-price drinks and dancing to live music,” says Ilie.
And when the rest of the membership arrives on the scene, The Polo Club team is further energized to provide bigger-and-better versions each year of its most popular events—including its end-of-year Street Fair that has grown in just three years (this December will be the fourth) to attract 2,500 people to its full complement of carnival rides, attractions and other features, including marching bands, zip lines and trolley rides throughout the community.
“[The Street Fair] gives our members a great opportunity to showcase the property to their friends,” says Artim, who had an impressive video, featuring shots from a drone flyover, produced from last year’s event that has been posted on YouTube and will now be used as part of the club’s new marketing campaign. It’s even more impressive that the staff is able to set up and break down the entire Street Fair scene within three days, even as it’s grown to such proportions.
Overall, The Polo Club has experienced a “day-and-night difference in its social activities,” says Ilie, who has been with the club for two-and-a-half years. “There’s a much more vibrant, upbeat and positive feel because of how the members are now enjoying the property, and that’s changed the service paradigm, because the staff feeds off the new energy and is excited about finding new ways to keep taking things to the next level.”
Adds Morris: “It’s a success story that shows how things can work well when there’s clear division of roles and duties. None of this would have been possible without the support of our President, Stanley Goldberg, and the Board of Governors, but it was also important that management be properly empowered to run the daily operations of the club.”
Pillars of Strength
A challenge that often arises for new general managers as they seek to effect real and rapid change is getting long-tenured department heads that they’ve inherited to buy into and fully support the pursuit of their new objectives. This can be especially difficult in core departments like golf and tennis, where well-entrenched professionals who have built their own loyal followings may elect to keep to their own agendas and ways of doing things, remaining secure in their positions as they’ve seen a succession of new GMs come and go.
At The Polo Club, however, Morris had the great fortune to find the completely opposite situation. For both tennis and golf, he was able to gain immediate support, and benefit from the expertise and popularity, of charismatic long-time department leaders who retained great passion for the club, still had a thirst for finding innovative ways to improve their operations, and remained open to new management direction.
At the head of the tennis department, in fact, Morris found the most valuable resource of all—someone who had been on the scene for every day of The Polo Club’s history. Director of Tennis Jean Mills was the club’s original employee, taking the job in 1985 before any model homes had even been built. “There was just a golf course, some tennis courts, a few horses and about 100 non-resident members,” Mills recalls.
A standout junior and collegiate player who then became the first women’s tennis coach at the University of Alabama, Mills was brought to The Polo Club by its developers who wanted her to help “build the club on tennis” in the fashion of other popular resorts that were springing up throughout the Southeast in response to the sport’s booming popularity during the ‘70s and ‘80s.
Mills certainly did her part to have the game help to quickly establish a strong foundation for her new employer and property, drawing on her connections with top professionals like Chris Evert and Steffi Graf to shine a national spotlight on Boca Raton. While the sport’s prominence at the club has since subsided from the period when it drew the big crowds to the stadium court and had 800 tennis members, it remains an instrumental pillar of the operation, with 27 Har-Tru clay courts, 585 tennis members, and a still-elite reputation (in 2010, The Polo Club earned recognition as the world’s top private facility from the Professional Tennis Registry).
And Mills’ enthusiasm and willingness to continue to take on roles and responsibilities that can help to enhance the membership’s experiences, both through tennis and in other ways, has certainly never waned. She’s directed the growth and expansion of the tennis shop to include specialty retailing, with a wide product line that now includes fashion merchandise and jewelry, and has become a half-million-dollar enterprise. And five years ago, after the need for someone to coordinate and direct kids’ activities became apparent, Mills was tabbed as the natural choice, to give that important area for future growth the same kind of kick-start she had provided for tennis, and The Polo Club, in its earliest days.
Mills plunged into her new role with the same characteristic can-do attitude and hunger for finding and embracing fresh ideas. She helped to develop a new family resort complex that included conversion of one tennis court into a versatile sports court that can now be set up for volleyball, basketball or pickleball. She put an emphasis on programming geared to activities that children and grandparents can do together (“That’s the best way to get the number of people using the club from 3,000 to 10,000,” she says, only half-kiddingly). And as another nod to how the property now remains active year-round, Mills has directed the development and expansion of summer-camp programs that include popular activities like the “Polo Safari,” where kids and counselors traverse the property in golf cars, searching for wildlife, exotic plants and other attractions.
“Everyone has a child in them,” Mills says in describing the approach she’s encouraged among her staff. “It’s all about finding ways to make the ordinary extraordinary, and challenging yourself to be better tomorrow than you’ve been today. Even if you had a great day where you made a difference in five people’s lives, you should come back and try to make it six tomorrow. And one of the best ways to do that is to keep everyone guessing about what you might do next.”
Endless Learning Curve
Shortly after The Polo Club’s transition to member ownership in the early 1990s, Tom Haase and Mary Beth Corrigan became co-directors of the club’s golf operation. In the 20-plus years since, they have also seen significant change in their department and its activity. But instead of looking at the way things once were, Haase and Corrigan have also made their mark as leaders who have kept another core department for the club moving forward with innovative approaches and engaging attitudes.
“I think we might have actually been too busy back in the ‘90s, when we were doing 70,000 rounds,” says Haase. With the club having now settled into an annual pace of about 60,000 rounds that are split evenly between its two courses, he explains, the golf department can focus more sharply on a variety of initiatives that it has instituted to maximize players’ understanding and enjoyment of the activity.
“At The Polo Club, golf is a sport now, not a game, and we treat it that way in everything we do,” Haase says. “We’re interested in your overall well-being as it relates to golf.”
To pursue that objective, Haase and Corrigan have put a premium on fitness- and instruction-related training for everyone on the staff. “All of our assistants are TPI-certified,” he says. “We also try to learn about every type of new technology and technique that we can, by getting to every possible seminar and webinar.”
The emphasis on expanding the staff’s knowledge base, Haase says, is driven by an overall objective of helping players “recapture their youth by being in shape.”
“It’s all about getting members to play longer,” he says. “When giving lessons, we don’t want to hurt people or have them do something they just can’t do physically. We want to make real assessments of what might be holding them back or causing a specific swing or shot issue, and then find a way to address and fix that first.”
At the front end of the player life-cycle, The Polo Club has spurred increased interest and enthusiasm through a Junior Club that encourages play through special six-hole course setups, using pee-wee tees on fairway mats.
“The kids can play for a dollar a hole and they get special scorecards, towels, caps and balls,” Haase reports. “We also have junior camps on every conceivable holiday and throughout the spring-break period. Seeing how the airlines are now charging for [transporting golf bags], we also bought 75 sets of junior clubs that we rent out for two dollars, and that’s really helped to overcome a barrier that was keeping a lot of kids from playing when they came down here.”
Everyone on the Polo Club golf staff is also required to be trained for and participate in Juniors instruction, Haase reports. “We think it’s especially important for kids to get taught by the most experienced professionals,” he says.
Haase and Corrigan also have taken a refreshing approach to pro shop management while building it into a million-dollar business. “I’m one of those guys who doesn’t complain about the big-box stores,” Haase says. “We carry all the big brands for apparel and every major manufacturer for hard goods, which account for about half of our sales. We don’t have left-handed ladies’ one-irons, but if they made them, we would sell them. We even sell 700 pairs of shoes each year.
“We see this as more of a service than a pro shop,” Haase adds. “We run an 80 percent cost of sales and are committed to having plenty of inventory year-round. And we make sure our training includes keeping everyone knowledgeable about all that’s in the shop, too. If someone has a question, they don’t deserve a stupid answer—they can get plenty of those from the Internet.
“Every day’s a survey,” Haase says in summarizing the approach that have kept him, Corrigan and The Polo Club golf department energized through the years. “We’re not obsessed with always having original ideas—but we do want to try to take every member’s comment or complaint and see if we can find a way to turn it into the next great idea.”
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