(Rendering of new facilities at Vero Beach CC)
The new winter season promises to be especially busy, as many members who have been returning from the North are indicating that they plan to stay through the holidays. Clubs are instituting strict screening plans for family visitors who may now join their relatives in Florida for Thanksgiving, Christmas/Hanukkah and New Year’s, while also taking steps to ensure top service. “Our team is not making COVID an excuse,” says Kevin Given, COO/GM of Quail Valley GC. “We’re constantly saying, ‘Figure out a way to get to ‘yes.’ ‘ We don’t want to lose our hospitality heart.”
As Northern “snowbirds” are returning to their Florida clubs this fall, they are finding dining rooms, golf courses, tennis courts, fitness centers and other facilities open for business, albeit with some restrictions, as country club managers and Boards strive to get life back to normal, VeroNews.com reported.
And for many club members who are now planning to stay in Florida through the holidays instead of returning north, as many are now saying they will do, their families will be welcome to come and join them for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners at their clubs, VeroNews.com reported.
“Members will be able to enjoy the sports and social calendar they know and love, but events will be modified in terms of attendance and socialization before and after,” said Ursula Gunter, Director of Membership and Marketing at The Moorings Yacht & Country Club in Vero Beach, Fla.
Hugh O’Donnell, General Manager of Bent Pine Golf Club in Vero Beach, concurred, saying that many seasonal residents who have been returning to Vero Beach have indicated they will not go back north for the holidays.
“Like everybody else, we’re trying to find creative ways to offer regular services without putting anybody’s safety in jeopardy,” added Tim Straley, CCM, General Manager of Vero Beach (Fla.) Country Club, which has been successful in adding new members this year as it completes a $4.1 million project for a new resort-style pool, fitness center and outdoor “Key West-style” bar (https://clubandresortbusiness.com/vero-beach-cc-nears-completion-of-4-1m-pool-fitness-and-bar-project/). Vero Beach CC members are now able to walk the golf course at any time of the day, VeroNews.com reported.
When seasonal residents headed north earlier this year at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, most of the private clubs in Florida were fully shut down, VeroNews.com reported. But gradually over the summer they have reopened with safety protocols in place, and many of those protocols have since been eased. For the most part, the clubs are now fully open to members and family—grandparents, parents, siblings, children and grandchildren—with access to all amenities at reduced capacity, with hand-sanitizing stations, social distancing, temperature checks and mask-wearing when indoors in place at some level. Non-family visitors are usually not allowed.
John’s Island Club in Vero Beach is now “offering services to our members and their immediate families,” said General Manager Brian Kroh, CCM. “Through the end of the year, we are not allowing [non-family] guests, and we’re not doing any type of in-person events.”
Additionally, said Kroh, “we are asking [members and visiting family] coming in from out of the state to provide a negative PCR COVID-19 test and register with our membership office before they use the club facilities—or they can go into a 14-day waiting period upon arrival.”
While most clubs are now requiring staff to submit to temperature checks upon arrival at work, Kroh said John’s Island also requires temperature checks for members at all points of service for an added measure of protection, VeroNews.com reported. Several other clubs are making temperature checks available for members to use at will.
At Orchid Island Golf and Beach Club in Vero Beach, members and visiting family have been and are still required to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 PCR test, said General Manager Rob Tench. “We have a no-guest policy through the end of the year currently [and] family members as guests only,” Tench added.
The Moorings Yacht & Country Club asks that members and guests coming from out of state self-quarantine for five days before using club amenities, VeroNews.com reported. “In lieu of quarantine, they may opt to get a COVID-19 test,” said Gunter. “We have arranged for onsite testing at the club several times a week with a local home-health agency that provides results within 48 hours.”
While Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has lifted all restrictions on indoor activities, private clubs in Indian River County are taking things one step at a time, with most continuing to operate at between 50 percent and 75 percent of capacity at indoor dining venues, VeroNews.com reported. To offset reduced seating, clubs have added or extended outdoor dining facilities.
For golfers, golf cart shield dividers, no-touch ball retrieval and spaced-out tee times are par for the course at the clubs.
Instituting tee times represented a significant change at his club, said Bent Pine’s O’Donnell. “Historically, we’re a no-tee-time club,” he said. But to properly sanitize the golf carts, tee times have become necessary, O’Donnell explained.
“Our goal,” he added, “is for everyone to be comfortable when they come out here and not really have to think about everything that is going on. We try to keep it as normal as possible and try to think of alternative ways to keep everyone safe.”
In that vein, The Moorings’ Gunter cited the creation of new outdoor programming at her club, including an Audubon-Certified 1.5-mile nature trail at Hawk’s Nest, a Moorings Walking Club and outdoor yoga, VeroNews.com reported.
While most of the clubs will be serving Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner, you won’t see many buffets on the menu, VeroNews.com reported. It’s now strictly a la carte for the most part, with an extended reservation window so that groups can be spaced out.
Kevin Given, Chief Operating Officer/General Manager of Quail Valley Golf Club in Vero Beach, said his club has modified its “all-you-can-eat prime rib and lobster buffet” by installing Plexiglass partitions to separate the server and the member, with only the server handling the food, VeroNews.com reported. All other courses are now plated and served tableside.
“At Quail Valley, we’re planning for a very busy and active season,” Given added. “There are obvious challenges and obstacles that are out there in our business. Our team has been resilient and is not making COVID an excuse not to provide great services.
“We’re constantly saying, ‘Figure out a way to get to ‘yes,’’ ” Given said. “If you can do that in a safe and healthy manner that is morally correct and physically possible, we want to. We don’t want to lose our hospitality heart.”
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