To attract and keep new prospects in a changing climate, clubs have stepped beyond what’s long been considered the norm for crafting and communicating membership offers.
Members are the lifeblood of any club. Without them—and their monthly dues—there is no club, after all. When golf was booming and courses were being built at a breakneck pace, it was (relatively) easy to attract members, and many clubs had the enviable “problem” of working with waiting lists.
Those days have not readily returned, however, for many of the clubs that made it through the recession, forcing them to reinvent themselves on the fly and move beyond traditional ways of doing business.
Look no further than Avalon Golf and Country Club in Warren, Ohio for an outside-the-box approach.
With membership plans beginning at just $64 per month and a guarantee of no initiation fees, no minimum spending requirements and no assessments, Avalon has created a model that makes it easier to attract new members at a time when other clubs are still coping with significant reductions in membership, or even facing closures.
Christine Bell,President of The Grand Resort and President of Avalon Golf and Country Club and all of its related properties—Avalon Lakes, Squaw Creek, Buhl Park, The Field Club at New Castle and The Avalon Athletic Club, which are all within a 40-minute drive from the centrally located Grand Resort—says owner Ron Klingle believes in giving back to the communities where he operates, while making it affordable for individuals and their families to join.
“From The Grand Resort’s central location in Howland, Ohio, the four properties of Avalon Golf and Country Club are easily accessible. They range from a 10-minute drive to Avalon at Squaw Creek to a maximum of a 40-minute drive to the Avalon Field Club at New Castle (with Buhl Park and Boardman falling in the middle of those drive times).”
“Here at Avalon, we’re not a ‘traditional’ country club,” Bell says. “So it’s not just about our amazing golf courses, but more about the large number of activities and programs offered across all our properties that appeal to such a wide audience. Being an Avalon member [provides] access to four separate country-club locations, along with The Grand Resort [formerly Avalon Inn & Resort].”
In total, this combination offers four championship golf courses, meeting and conference centers, 18 restaurants, 13 indoor tennis courts, eight outdoor tennis courts, pickleball, racquetball, shuffleboard, seven swimming pools (including an indoor 25-meter Olympic swimming pool), a Spa and Salon, three fitness centers, indoor and outdoor basketball courts, bocce courts, a variety of club events, and more.
“This unique relationship between our country clubs and our world-class resort benefits both resort guests and our more than 5,000 country-club memberships [a number that does not include family members],” Bell explains. “Our resort guests experience the finest in resort amenities and accommodations, plus they are members of Avalon Golf and Country Club during their stay. And our country-club members receive access to the many amenities offered at The Grand Resort, which is a significant ‘value-added’ benefit to their membership plans.”
Growing from Within
Across the country, other novel approaches to marketing what a club can provide, and to developing attractive membership offers, are taking hold. For Rio Verde (Ariz.) Country Club, this has involved enlisting the help of existing members to attract new business.
Rio Verde members were each given a certificate in June to issue to a potential new member of their choice, Membership Director David Benham reports, and recipients joining before July 31 received a full $12,500 off their initiation fees, paying zero to join the club. In August, the offer moved to $10,000 off the initiation fee, which meant paying $2,500 to join the club. The promotion then continued through September ($7,500 off) and October ($6,000 off).
“As part of the program, new members must agree to a two-year dues commitment and begin paying club dues the month after joining,” Benham says.
Benham added there are no incentives or rewards for members who refer someone with a certificate. “It’s more about them wanting their friends to join because they have a pride in belonging to the club,” he says.
The Fountaingrove Club in Santa Rosa, Calif., had to cope with a natural disaster on top of its day-to-day efforts to maintain membership. The Tubbs Fire of 2017 had a huge impact on the region and the club lost its clubhouse, its maintenance building and all maintenance equipment, and its cart barn and all golf carts, along with hundreds of trees and bunkers.“To this day, you see damage all over the region,” says Membership Director Ricky Potts. “But you also see and hear a resurgence of builders putting up homes all over Fountaingrove. We truly are rising from the ashes, and I am honored to be a part of that story.”
While the club experienced a drop in Athletic Center and Golf memberships after the fire, Potts says, things are now looking up again. “With the number of new homes going up, and a strong economy in the Golden State, things have never been better,” he says. “We are simply asking our members for a little patience while we rebuild.”
And because keeping existing members is equally as important as attracting new members for Fountaingrove—as it is for all clubs—putting a premium on steady and effective communication about the club and all that it has to offer has become paramount. Director of Communications Adina Flores builds and sends e-mail communication to Fountaingrove’s members while also managing the club’s Facebook and Twitter accounts, Potts says, and is also instrumental in creating/distributing The FountainPen, the member newsletter.
Additionally, Potts introduced a Live Chat on Fountaingrove’s website, an effective technique that he first implemented while serving as Director of Marketing and Communications at Tiburón Golf Club in Naples, Fla.
“If I am awake, I am responding to members and guests [through the Live Chat],” he says. “I have booked tours, helped to pay bills, answered questions, and sold multiple memberships because of this solution.”
The Fountaingrove Club is looking at text-message marketing as well. “One of our core values here is transparency,” Potts says, “and we strive to keep our members and guests abreast of everything that’s happening, in real time.”
Hitting the Right Targets
Targeted communication is also a major part of the plan to market the Avalon group of properties and continue to build up their membership rolls, with Bell reporting that the companykeeps members informed of upcoming events through social media, e-mail communication and Web calendars.
“We give our members the ability to choose their areas of interest for receiving clubs’ promotional e-mails and to opt-out of receiving e-mails for the activities for which they do not have an interest,” she says. “Due to the large number of events and activities we promote through e-mail communications, the ability of members to choose their areas of interest helps significantly in our targeting of activities to specific audiences.”
And like many clubs, Avalon has responded to the need to find ways to counter the dip in golf participation among club members, current and prospective, by investing in other revenue-generating areas.
“We have completed the latest phase of a $25 million growth and expansion project at The Grand Resort that has added significantly to the number of amenities enjoyed by our hotel guests and country club members,” Bell says. In particular, she points to the new outdoor pool complex that features a 140-foot-long recreational pool with zero-entry, a diving area, decorative waterfalls, and a sunbathing deck, along with the completion of an outdoor Roman Bath. There is also a separate, adults-only pool that is open 12 months of the year and features tiered sunbathing decks, a wedding veranda, and three private cabanas.
The project also includes The Grand Resort’s newly expanded hotel lobby, a full-service spa and salon, an additional indoor restaurant, and a separate wine cellar and lounge, as well as a cigar store and lounge—all targeted for completion by early 2020.
All told, over the past 20 years Avalon has quietly invested more than $100 million in its country clubs and its Grand Resort property.
“Through this process we have created what we believe is one of the most unique country-club models in the country, with the added benefit of the association with The Grand Resort,” Bell says.
“While it’s common knowledge that so many country clubs have struggled to survive—not only here in the ‘Rust Belt’ but all across the country—we are very proud of the Avalon model and its appeal not only to the traditional country-club member, but also to the many families who typically would not have been able to enjoy the benefits of country-club membership based on the old, antiquated club models,” she adds.
Bringing Golf Back: A Quality Idea
Generating more interest in golf, and with that the increased use of course and club properties, isn’t solely the goal or province of private clubs. The City of Detroit was struggling with its municipal golf course properties before bringing in Signet Golf Associates of Pinehurst, N.C. to take over operations.
Karen Peek, Signet’s Director of Golf Operations for Detroit, says updates were needed to spark more of an interest in the courses. Conditions were inconsistent and the turf on greens, tees, fairways, and roughs was not healthy.
“The quality of the courses is what drives rounds,” Peek says. “On the operations side, we focused on engaging with our guests one person at a time. Great customer service delivered consistently, with sincerity, is our goal.”
The City of Detroit invested $2.6 million in capital improvements, such as a fully automated irrigation system at its Chandler Park property, along with new boundary fencing for the entire perimeter of the course. New furniture, flooring and improvements to the outdoor pavilion were also added.
At the Rouge Park course, six bridges were rebuilt, as well as an enclosed pavilion that can accommodate 100 people. The city also brought in a new fleet of golf carts and maintenance equipment to all three of its locations.
“This type of commitment and investment is invaluable to the resurgence of the courses,” Peek says. And the city has seen immediate dividends, with a 34 percent increase in revenue in 2019 over the previous year.
“We are extremely friendly, efficient, and caring,” Peek says. “And I believe we are creating a comfortable environment where golfers are enjoying the experience and happy to recommend us to friends.
“This is what golfers are talking about and why golfers are coming,” she adds. “They don’t want to pay for a course with poor conditions. People play where they feel welcomed.”
Summing It Up
- Avalon Golf and Country Club offers four 18-hole golf courses and a bevy of amenities at various properties to its members, all at a nominal monthly fee and a guarantee of no initiation fees, no minimum spending requirements and no assessments.
- Rio Verde Country Club members were each given a certificate in June to issue to a potential new member. Recipients received a discount—ranging from $6,000 to the full $12,500—off their initiation fees based upon when they joined.
- The Tubbs Fire of 2017 devastated much of Santa Rosa, Calif., but efforts by The Fountaingrove Club have maintained—and grown—membership.
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