Going the Distance

New amenities will help Portland GC build on its rich golf heritage as it starts its second century.

Oregon’s sports history is filled with examples of innovation and leadership, especially in the last half-century. In track and field, the high jump was never the same after an Oregon State University athlete, Dick Fosbury, decided in the late 1960s that it might work better to “flop” backwards over the bar, rather than try to roll over it.

In the early 1970s, Steve Prefontaine, a Coos Bay native, turned Eugene, Ore., into a mecca for long-distance running when he set numerous NCAA and American records while competing for the University of Oregon, before his life was tragically cut short by a fatal auto accident at the age of 24. And of course, there is Nike, Inc., founded as Blue Ribbon Sports by Bill Bowerman (Prefontaine’s Oregon Ducks track coach) and Phil Knight, and now based in the Portland suburb of Beaverton, where it has long been established as a global pacesetter for not only sports equipment and uniforms, but also sports-related branding, marketing and culture.

Portland Golf Club AT A GLANCE Portland (Ore.) Golf Club Location: Portland, Ore. Opened for Play: 1914 No. of Members: 472 Golf/Intermediate; 617 total Clubhouse Size: 40,000 sq. ft. Annual Golf Rounds: 28,400 General Manager/COO: Roger Aggson Head Golf Professional: Tim Hval Course Superintendent: Jason Dorn Food and Beverage Manager: James Warren Executive Chef: Cristophe Preyale Controller: James Dunham Membership Director: Jeff Wright

Golf also has a rich history in Oregon, with most now connecting the state and the sport through the world-renowned destination resorts—including Pronghorn, Sunriver and most notably, Bandon Dunes—that were developed during the industry’s last growth spurt in the 1990s and early 2000s. But golf is also where one of Oregon’s most enduring sports stories of any kind can be found, on a property at the edge of Portland’s west side that in many ways still looks and feels quite similar to how it was in April 1914, when a $10 initiation fee and $2 in monthly dues secured membership in the Portland Golf Club.

Originally selected as the site for the club because of its proximity to an electric-rail line passenger station at a time when autos, and roads, were still scarce in that part of the area, Portland GC quickly established, and then built steadily on, a reputation as a center of golf in the Pacific Northwest, even as the city’s metropolitan area extended to, and passed, the borders of the club’s property.

That status earned the club the opportunity to host several leading amateur and professional tournaments, including the 1946 PGA Championship (won by Ben Hogan). Portland GC’s place among the nation’s leading golf clubs was then cemented in 1947, when club President Robert Hudson footed the bill to make it possible for a team from Great Britain to come to Oregon for a revival of the Ryder Cup competition, which had been interrupted for 10 years by World War II.

Wiser With Age
Through the rest of the 20th century,  Portland GC went on to host many other significant events, including the Western Open, the Portland Open, the Alcan Open, the LPGA Portland Classic, the U.S. Senior Open and U.S. Senior Amateur, and the Fred Meyer Challenge. But as the new millennium began and the club approached its own 100th anniversary, it became clear that it could not expect to stand forever on its history and reputation alone.

Part of that realization came in the form of a harsh wake-up call towards the end of the last decade, when disease pressure claimed the greens of the course that was originally designed by George Turnbell and then renovated in 1950 by Robert Trent Jones. As detailed in a Course & Grounds profile in C&RB’s April 2013 issue (“A Special Oregon Trail”), course conditions and playability were revived through the teamwork of a new Course Superintendent, Jason Dorn, who brought expertise from the storied Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J., and a new Head Golf Professional, Tim Hval, who had been the first pro at Bandon Dunes.

With assists from favorable weather and an infusion of new members through a new Intermediate membership category, the hard work put into the course recovery effort has paid off, Hval now reports. The 28,400 rounds played at Portland GC in 2013 were “the most in six or seven years,” he says, and that was followed by “a nice January with 1,400 rounds—the most ever for that month in 15 years.”

Overall, says Hval, “a lot of positives” are now at play, including a fast-growing junior program. It all lends to optimism, he feels, about being able to achieve, and sustain, a 30,000-round level that would still comfortably accommodate Portland GC’s tradition of keeping every other tee-time open for walk-ins. The club is also anticipating additional buzz from its next return to the tournament spotlight, when it hosts the U.S. Women’s Amateur in August 2015.

From the Inside Out
With the golf course back in good shape, the club turned its attention to its clubhouse, which still retains enough ties to its original location, and look, that a special placemat was made for the 100th anniversary that shows its gradual evolution through the years. But while the outside of the 40,000-sq. ft. clubhouse still evokes pleasant memories of all that Portland GC has stood for, the interior was in need of a major upgrade, both in appearance and functionality, as the club’s centennial year approached.

Recognizing that need, Portland GC members gave 85% approval to be assessed for a $3 million interior renovation that started in February 2013 and required the closing of the clubhouse in June. After coming back for the grand reopening in October, the members have consistently shown they are more than pleased with what they paid for, reports Food and Beverage Manager James Warren.

“We thought we were busy before when we had 80 to 100 covers for lunch or dinner; now, we think that’s pretty slow,” reports Warren, who started at Portland GC 24 years ago, when he was hired out of high school as a busboy. “The thing I’ve noticed more than anything is how many people are now coming to lunch here at least two or three times a week.”

The renovation emphasized opening up sightlines from within the clubhouse to take full advantage of its position atop a hill that overlooks the golf course. “When you enter, you can now see the entire 9th fairway,” says Ed Ellis, a long-time club member. The club’s full collection of photos, trophies and other archives, which have all been kept well-organized and well-preserved through the years, are also being positioned throughout the clubhouse, to create a constant feeling of “historic sightlines,” Ellis says.

The club’s staff and Board also recognized that it was time to introduce more casual and flexible dining options for a membership that has seen a recent decrease in average age (now 58), according to Membership Director Jeff Wright, largely because of a successful drive to add new members through the Intermediate category, which offers a reduced initiation fee and discounted dues in exchange for non-voting status. “It has been extremely successful and was really a saving grace for us, coming out of the recession,” Wright notes.

But that change, and the infusion of younger members that it created, brought a new challenge. “Portland’s a food town, and there was no way we could ask more laid-back, younger people to come here to a clubhouse that still looked very old and formal,” says Warren. So the renovation put an emphasis on “flex dining” that offers different ways to set up the same tables for different meal occasions (placemats for lunch, tablecloths for dinner), and also offers many more seating options.

“Before we remodeled, a person eating alone had to sit at a four-top,” Warren notes. “And we only had a service bar that was very impersonal, with no chairs.

“Now, we’ve opened things up and you have a choice of booths, bar seating, and window tables,” he says. A new wine room with 40 lockers became instantly popular, and an alcove area with seating for up to 14, created by taking out an ice machine and electrical panel, has been “a huge hit—it’s full every night we’re open for dinner,” Warren reports.

The open feeling of the dining areas has enhanced the popularity of a culinary program directed by Portland GC’s Executive Chef, Christophe Preyale, who came to the club in 2010 and immediately created new excitement by adding a pastry chef, changing menus more frequently, and introducing popular events such as cooking classes and themed family buffets.

“Without Christophe, I don’t know if the remodel would have gone through,” says Warren. “People were loving his food, but they wanted to have a better environment where they could come to enjoy it more often. Since we’ve done this, they’re here a lot more now, and I think we can make a claim that we’re one of the best restaurants in the area, and that members want to bring people here to show them what we have.”

The renovation also created momentum for Portland GC to step up its outdoor dining presentations, after discovering while the clubhouse was closed, and cooking on its pool deck was the only option, how popular that proved to be.

Warren also expects the renovation to bring more wedding business. “The building was getting too dated for brides,” he says. “But now they can see how everything will look, and work, its best for their big day.”

While Wright agrees that the impact of the renovation has already been “huge,” he also thinks “we haven’t even seen the full potential of it yet.”

“For the families that join clubs in the future, a well-appointed clubhouse is going to be the deciding factor,” he says. “Combined with our location and history, we feel pretty good now about being ready to provide what they want.”