Golf, Recreation & Fitness

Offering the right apparel to customers can go a long way toward making a sale—but for it to really pay off, club’s pro shops need to take distinctive approaches to providing value and special services.

Pickleball may be the fastest growing sport in America, but club professionals are keeping members active on the tennis and platform courts as well. For many, it’s as much about socialization as competition. 

Clubs’ aquatics offerings are expanding to not only add more to traditional programs and swim teams, but also to introduce intriguing new offerings, such as stand-up paddleboard and scuba classes. 

An open spot at the back of the range at the Country Club of Lincoln proved to be the ideal spot for a new Golf Performance Center, while Destination Kohler looked to a nearby retail center to expand its instructional footprint and services.

Sporting clays and other shooting options are becoming popular at many club and resort properties, as an activity that can be added in a relatively simple and cost-effective fashion. 

With an eye to both the present and the future, general managers and activities directors are finding new ways to keep kids active and engaged year-round through a broader range of athletic endeavors. 

Woodfield Country Club in Boca Raton, Fla. offers more than 10 yoga classes every week, including vinyasa, yin and restorative. While the club has an active membership, men rarely participated in these classes. But when a member suggested a male-focused yoga class, “Yoga for Bros” was introduced. “The goal was to create a class that…

Every four years, even less-than-casual fans turn into fanatics when curling takes the spotlight at the Winter Olympics.  Beacon Hill Club’s General Manager Alex McDonald thought the sport would jibe nicely with the Summit, N.J. club’s newly renovated ice rink—and the idea of a Curling Bonspiel and Social came to light. “I wanted to create…

Youth camps, for both sports and a variety of other activities, are proving to be an especially attractive way to please younger members—and their “paying customer” parents.

Yoga programs in many forms are taking hold in all types of club and resort properties—and proving to be one of the most flexible ways to attract, and retain, a wide range of devoted participants.

Club and resort properties are developing a variety of new aquatic facilities to maximize their appeal to water-loving members. Water. Humans love it, and not just because it makes a refreshing drink on a warm day. We enjoy exercising in it, splashing in it for fun, gliding across it on boats and just listening to…

The Kid’s Triathlon at Myers Park CC starts with swimming pool laps, followed by a bike ride through the golf course and then a running segment that ends at an inflatable finish line set up on the 18th hole. At Myers Park Country Club in Charlotte, N.C., a Kid’s Triathlon has been held each year…

To keep kids and families engaged with its 4th of July celebration, River Oaks Country Club organized a race for which participants made their own boats, using just cardboard and duct tape. Like most modern clubs, the members of River Oaks Country Club in Houston, Texas are skewing younger and younger, with more families joining…

Though tennis will always be a standard club amenity, racquet sport variations are catching on as complementary offerings. At the 10th Annual Tennis Industry Association Tennis Forum in August 2017, Kurt Kamperman, the United State Tennis Association’s Chief Executive, Community Tennis and USTA National Campus, stated that “we live in a sedentary society,” in which…

When tailored to the interests of younger members, club camp programs can instill the physical and social skills they need to flourish.