Summing It Up • Member events should be one of the golf staff’s top priorities, not only for their sales potential, but also their value in generating good feelings about the club. • Member feedback is critical for assessing the successes of the past and gauging interest in future events. • Member events help increase positive cash flow for the club overall by boosting retail and food and beverage sales. • Providing financial incentives for employees will help develop new ideas for events.

There’s something special about being a member. Along with the sense of belonging comes a loyalty that individuals possess for their respective clubs. While the benefit to the club is clear, that loyalty is put to the test day in and day out. To maintain and nurture the win-win relationship between management and members, thought and effort is required to keep event programming engaging.

Creating member events that are fresh is not an easy feat. Golf pros aim to produce a solid roster of activities that will maintain member interest, while potentially attracting new clientele. By working together with other departments, clubs can use this synergy to generate new ideas for their members and in turn, boost profits across the board.

Something for Everyone
Because of a diverse membership that ranges from serious golfers to members with non-golf interests, the Golf Club at Quail Lodge in Carmel, Calif., makes a point of servicing its clientele with a variety of event choices.

In addition to golf tournaments and weekly male and female golf socials, the 42-year-old club hosts events that don’t revolve around the sport, including outdoor concerts on the member’s private patio and monthly happy hours.

Quail Lodge appeals to the increasing number of family members with special offerings for children and member grandchildren, such as the ever-popular Halloween hayride. Membership Coordinator Lisa Ann Thornton calls the annual event “a blast,” and ascribes its popularity to the children’s membership program.

The success of Quail Lodge’s member events is largely due to the club’s pro shop staff.

“They work beautifully with all of our departments and will customize their abilities to meet the needs of a particular group or [offer] a combination of activities,” Thornton explains.

Such events include specialized competitions on the lodge’s nine-hole putting course, round-robin tennis games, or swim parties.

This past year, Quail Lodge went beyond the ordinary when it held its inaugural Golf Cart Rally. Members decorated their golf carts “in various and sundry ways,” says Thornton, who could only describe the scene as “hilarious!” (For photos of two of the craziest entries, see pg. 46.) And the fun didn’t stop there. Participants were whisked to secret locations to find their way out of a maze, and then were tasked with trying to score the most points in a game of bocce. Prizes were awarded to teams that earned both the most and least number of points. The event was so popular, Thornton says, that plans are well underway for the next rally.

Quail Lodge’s members’ holiday party also attracted quite a bit of attention last year. Tiny white lights festooned the ballroom area, and an entire wall was designed to represent starry skies. Assorted cuisine and wine stations were assembled around the room, as members danced the night away and went home with individual gifts.

Programs like these benefit Quail Lodge’s overall business, notes Thornton, by providing “a diverse menu for the members, which gives them different reasons to use the club and spend additional monies in our outlets. You can count on members coming to the club for one thing and then staying for lunch or dinner or whatever else might be happening at that time.”

Inventive Offerings
While Glen Oaks Country Club is a relative newcomer to the West Des Moines, Iowa, community it serves, it is hardly lacking in experience hosting top-notch events for its membership.

The 13-year-old private facility directs its programs to the interests of its core clientele (the average member is 47 years old), according to Glen Oaks’ Head Golf Professional, Ken Schall. Family “twilights” are typically held on Sundays at 5 p.m., right after Pro-Parent-Child lessons that take place at 4 p.m.

Quail Lodge provides its members and guests with a variety of activities, including the highly successful Golf Cart Rally, when members Heidi and Scott McKay (above) and Jo and Chuck Davis (right) didn’t hold back in customizing their rides.

“We set up special tees for the youngsters 100 or 200 yards from the green, depending on their age,” he explains.

In addition to kid-centric activities, Schall says Glen Oaks does not neglect its more mature members. He notes that twilight couples events are so popular, “we sometimes play in eight-somes [best-shot/alternate-shot format] to accommodate the strong demand.”

Innovative themes in the past have included a murder mystery, a drive-in movie and a Las Vegas night, complete with craps and blackjack tables set up on the golf course. Tapping into the local culture, Glen Oaks has also offered an Iowa State Fair (“We even have a dunk tank and heckler on the fifth tee,” says Schall), and a football-themed event on the Friday before the big in-state rivalry game between Iowa and Iowa State.

None of these initiatives could be possible, he notes, without the teamwork between Glen Oaks’ golf and non-golf departments. “We spend a lot of time planning for these events so that everyone is on their ‘A’ game—from the menus, to what we wear, how we greet guests, remembering names, course set-up and more,” Schall explains.

And for an indication of how the hard work pays off, he notes that Glen Oaks’ Men’s Finches Invitational had 52 teams on its wait list this year.

Getting to Know You
For country clubs and resorts that have just opened shop, finding ways to attract new members is critical to generating business, especially in the first years of operation. Successful events can help a staff get its feet wet by interacting with members and their guests and discovering how best to fulfill their interests.

White Clay Creek Country Club at Delaware Park in Wilmington, Del., celebrated its one-year anniversary this past July and, according to General Manager Bobbi Sample, derives most of its business from public play and various outings.

Because the membership is so concentrated, White Clay Creek offers special wine dinners to its members, VIPs and the public once a month. Special wines are paired with each of the four courses, and the club’s wine vendors send representatives to talk about the different selections, what regions they come from, and why they go well with certain foods. Guests usually leave with a copy of the menu for next month’s dinner, so they can look forward to it.

Attendance at these dinners continues to grow, Sample says; when contacted in August, she was expecting that month’s dinner to be the largest yet. “Since we are still growing, these events expose people to our facility, and we see a lot of repeat customer
s,” she adds.

Never a Dull Moment
All of these events demonstrate good solutions to an important concern for any club: keeping things interesting for its members.

For those looking for ways to jump-start the planning process, a proven technique is to go directly to the source—your members themselves. For example, communication can be established with participants during and following an event by sending pairings and/or results via e-mail.

Taking things a step further, consider hosting a cocktail party after golf on a multi-event day, or holding a putting tournament, a closest-to-the-pin contest or long-driving contest during the festivities. And charging participants for food and drink as part of the entry fee is additional revenue for the club.

Schall of Glen Oaks provides a financial incentive to staff members who can come up with new ideas for member events.

“The biggest challenge is the demand on members’ time,” he says. “Golf is a fairly time-consuming game.” Because the club caters to members with families, Schall feels his club’s events address everyone, whether golf is their game or not.

Keeping sight of the main mission—improving the quality of member relations, and thereby the club’s business—is essential. And while the profitability of an event is important, it shouldn’t overshadow an equally critical goal: fostering interaction between the club and its members, to ensure they will continue to use the facilities and find new ways to enjoy them.

The Big Sell: Prospective Members When guests are on hand for a function, it makes sense to show them firsthand what your facility has to offer. At Quail Lodge, Membership Coordinator Lisa Ann Thornton says the starter who greets guests on the course gives a little background about the resort before players tee off. Pinehurst (N.C.) Country Club’s membership office involves the club’s staff in tours of the property, introducing them to other employees and answering any golf-specific questions they might have. “An advantage we have in this process is that the membership salesperson is a past employee of the golf operations department and has a great working knowledge of our club,” says Chad Campbell, Club Manager and Head Golf Professional. White Clay Creek makes certain areas of its golf course available for bridal party wedding pictures, which Bobbi Sample says helps to generate interest in the club. Of course, nothing beats a personal touch for making guests feel at home. “I take potential new members on a tour of the golf course, and sometimes even play a few holes with them,” says Ken Schall from Glen Oaks.