After struggling through the downturn, the Rocky Mount, N.C. club with a Donald Ross-designed course is now on sound financial ground with membership again trending upward, according to General Manager Michele Benton. The club, which elected its first female President this year, is scheduled to host the N.C. Senior Women’s Golf Association tournament in the fall of 2019.
Benvenue Country Club (BCC) in Rocky Mount, N.C., is hosting several events during the week of September 18th to celebrate its 95th anniversary, the Rocky Mount Telegram reported.
The club was established along with its Donald Ross-designed golf course in 1922, the Telegram reported. Kate Honey, who was named the Benvenue’s first female President for a one-year term in February, told the Telegram that the club is independently owned, operated and paid for by club members.
Michele Benton, the club’s General Manager for the past four years, told the Telegram that Benvenue has 400 members and serves about 1,100 people. The club is on sound financial ground and membership is again trending upward, she added.
“We’re very proud to have a loyal and generous membership that has been willing to do what it takes to keep Benvenue not only open, but debt-free,” Benton told the Telegram.
Honey did acknowledge to the Telegram that the club had gone through some struggles. “We really had a big decline in memberships, which unfortunately was through deaths and people leaving the area because of the downturn in the economy,” she said.
Bruce Lea, a longtime club member, told the Telegram that both his parents and grandparents were members of Benvenue. Lea moved back to Rocky Mount in 2013 after being away for 40 years.
As an avid golfer, Lea said, the status of the club was a major concern when he thought about moving back to the area, because of the economic struggles affecting Rocky Mount and the surrounding region.
“Throughout eastern North Carolina, a number of private clubs have closed because the region has suffered economically in the past 25 years,” Lea told the Telegram. “Golf in general has had a decrease in play and interest over the years, [partly as a] result of private clubs that have struggled; many have either closed or have been bought out by different groups that own multiple clubs.”
Lea credited Benvenue’s leadership for taking a business-like approach to get the club going back in the right direction and not allowing it to fold.
A group of business leaders in the community got together about four years ago, General Manager Benton told the Telegram, to put a plan on paper for what Bevenue needed to do to sustain operations.
“In 2015, we were led to make many operational changes that have enabled BCC to make it through a tenuous period,” she said. “We’ve been innovative with changing our service offerings and flexible in trying new things to make Benvenue more family-friendly and attractive to the community.
“BCC has a long history of serving many of the civic groups in Nash County,” Benton added, “and we’ve made it easier for the entire community to use the facilities.”
Bevenue will continue to look for ways to increase awareness about its 4,679-yard golf course, which has been one of the host sites over the past several years for the Carolinas Golf Association’s U.S. Amateur Qualifying Championship, the Telegram reported. The club is also scheduled to host the N.C. Senior Women’s Golf Association tournament in the fall of 2019, which will bring more than 100 golfers to Rocky Mount.
One of the club’s more risky and cutting edge moves was when it decided to convert the course’s greens to Champion Bermuda grass in 2006, Benton told the Telegram. And Lea added that it has proved to be the smartest decison the club has ever made.
“That saved a lot of money over the other kind of grass that we had, and it produces a far superior putting surface for golf courses in the South,” Lea said. “We kind of got out in front of it, and now every major club in the South has converted to either the exact grass we have or one like it — so again, I applaud the leadership of the club.”
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