The Hamburg, N.Y. club is preparing for its first full season under KemperSports management. Part of the strategy has involved identifying what the club does best and playing to those strengths. “It was always a family-oriented operation, and we knew that to be the cornerstone of who we were,” says Jon Cheshire, Vice President of Operations for KemperSports.

Cloverbank Country Club in Hamburg, N.Y. is getting back to basics as it prepares for its first full season under new management, and the company in charge is focused on the fundamentals, Buffalo Business First reported.

“We decided to get back to the basics, so to speak,” said Jon Cheshire, Vice President of Operations for KemperSports.

Club + Resort Business reported that the Chicago-based company was hired to manage the club in June 2022.

It’s been a tumultuous few years for Cloverbank, formerly Brierwood Country Club, Buffalo Business First reported. The previous owner, C-Bons International Golf Corp. of Arizona, announced in 2020 that the private club would become a public golf course, citing declining membership and revenue.

That never happened. Instead, C-Bons sold the club to an investment group made up of former Brierwood members, Buffalo Business First reported. The new owners renamed it Cloverbank.

“When the current ownership group decided to get involved in the operation, at first they decided they were going to try to go after it on their own,” Cheshire said. “Toward the beginning of 2022, they did reach out to KemperSports, recognizing that as individual business owners themselves they didn’t collectively have enough time, and could maybe benefit from the expertise of a management company.”

KemperSports manages dozens of public and private golf courses across the country, including Seneca Hickory Stick Golf in Lewiston, N.Y., Buffalo Business First reported.

Since taking over, the team has focused on bringing stability back to Cloverbank and restoring the club to the prominence that had “maybe eroded a little” under the previous ownership, Cheshire told Buffalo Business First.

Part of the strategy has involved identifying what the club does best and playing to those strengths, Buffalo Business First reported.

“There was a time when the club was really trying to figure out how to reinvent itself,” Cheshire said. “It was always a family-oriented operation, and we knew that to be the cornerstone of who we were.”

Cloverbank has a pool, fitness facility and bowling alley—amenities that appeal to members of all ages, Buffalo Business First reported. It will put a focus on family activities in 2023, stepping up its social programming and putting more resources into its junior golf program and swim team.

The club has seen an uptick in membership interest, Cheshire told Buffalo Business First.

“This is a great opportunity as a club. We are going to go up and up, we are going to continue to improve,” said General Manager Kevin Dudleston.

C-Bons bought Brierwood for $6.2 million in 2014, selling it seven years later for $850,000, Buffalo Business First reported. The company also sold the former Tan Tara Golf Club—now Pendleton Creek Golf Club—in North Tonawanda and Fox Valley Country Club in Lancaster.