The Kansas City Country Club’s tennis and golf departments combined forces to create “Racquet Golf,” to bring couples together.
As part of its ongoing study of usage patterns for the recreational options that it offers, the staff at The Kansas City Country Club (KCCC), in Mission Hills, Kan., took a closer look at the demographics involved with participation for golf and tennis at the club. The results, somewhat predictably, showed that more of the men among the membership were playing golf, while most of the women were playing tennis. This sparked a quest among the KCCC staff, to find a way to get more of the club’s members to also participate in their significant others’ sport of choice.
A good way to bring couples together for a shared activity, the club’s staff decided, would be to bring their favorite sports together in a fun fashion. Thus was spawned “Racquet Golf,” a game devised in tandem by KCCC’s Director of Tennis and Head Golf Professional.
After a set of rules, some basic guidelines and some designated holes on the club’s golf course were determined, couples that signed up for the activity were put together in teams that would each share one racquet and tennis ball. After that, the teams were left to their own devices to figure out the best way to trade off for the task of swatting their team’s ball down the course and putting it into the golf cups.
THE GOAL: Create a new recreational activity that could be shared by couples at The Kansas City Country Club and help to overcome the fact that most men among the membership preferred golf, while most women preferred tennis. THE PLAN: Promote a new “Racquet Golf” activity that brought the two sports together in a highly social atmosphere. THE PAYOFF: The new game was an immediate smash hit and caught the attention, and envy, of onlookers who hadn’t signed up for it. More opportunities to play have been added to the club’s event calendar. |
KCCC also made sure that a beverage cart was available to follow players during their racquet rounds. And the fact that those rounds finished with Hole #9, which is directly between the club’s pool and its al fresco dining outlet, provided the best promotion of all for how much fun the hybrid game could be. “With all of the onlookers, the players felt like they were walking up number 18 at a major sporting event,” the club reports. “And members who had not signed up for Racquet Golf were envious of those who did.”
Racquet Golf attracted avid players and non-players of both sports, KCCC reports. It proved to be so popular, the staff has planned to expand the number of times it’s scheduled for this year, on the way to establishing the activity as a popular new club tradition.
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