The shift away from equity memberships toward annual memberships and a restructured dues schedule is part of the group’s “thinking about current and prospective members, family and guests,” one of the member-buyers explained. With a highly regarded nine-hole course, the club also seeks to attract more non-golf members through enhanced dining options (General Manager Leslie Ortiz’s husband Ramon is Executive Chef).
Making big changes at the 104-year-old Woodstock (Ill.) Country Club is not what the recent sale of the club is about, The Woodstock Independent reported.
“We want to preserve the old traditions and unique character of the club,” Philip McCullough, one of 11 members of “diverse ages” that make up the ownership group that last week closed the sale told The Independent. Another of the buyers, Chris Hesch, agreed.
“Our goal is to keep our great staff and membership,” said Hesch. “Retaining employees was a key part.”
The new owners, who formed Woodstock Country Club of Bull Valley LLC, raised $925,000 among them and bought the well-regarded nine-hole golf course and clubhouse for $550,000, McCullough told The Independent. Much of that sale price will go toward retiring the club’s debt.
Some of the rest will go toward improvements, which includes clubhouse improvements and putting up a new equipment building for the golf course, The Independent reported. Beautification of the course also is planned, Hesch said.
So, some changes are planned, which includes improving “the culture of the club,” Hesch told The Independent.
“Making it more fun and socially desirable,” he said of the move from equity members to annual memberships. “Getting people involved … building relationships.”
In an e-mail, Hesch said social events would increase in the coming years “as we aim to build on the camaraderie and family-first feel that has always been a hallmark of WCC.”
Like many private golf clubs, WCC started running into money problems more than a decade ago when it failed to maintain its membership by attracting younger members, and then the recession hit, The Independent reported. The nine-hole Oregon Country Club in Ogle County, Ill., for example, closed when it went bankrupt and was sold to a housing developer for new home construction.
Under the old structure, WCC was owned by equity members, which at one time numbered 200, McCullough told The Independent. In a coffee table book commemorating the club’s 100th anniversary in 2016, more than 160 were listed. Last year, fewer than 40 remained, McCullough said.
Annual assessments for members to cover budget shortfalls continued to grow, which “made it tough to retain members,” Hesch reported.
“It’s been declining steadily since 2008,” McCullough told The Independent, “when we lost members for a number of economic reasons.”
The shift toward annual memberships and a restructured dues schedule is part of the group’s “thinking about current and prospective members, family and guests,” Hesch’s e-mail said.
The new group of buyers “started with four or five and it grew and grew, little by little,” McCullough told The Independent.
“People wanted to get involved,” McCullough added. “It’s kind of a labor of love.”
An offer to buy the club was made by a group that would have turned WCC into a public course, Hesch told The Independent, but the new member-owners feared that would lead to the loss of both staff and members.
“The course to us feels majestic,” Hesch said of the 5,968-yard, par 70 course, with two sets of tees on each of nine holes.
The hilly tract was laid out by course designer Thomas Bendalow amid 57 acres of forest, farm, and pasture land, The Independent reported. Property acquisitions have since increased the site to about 60 acres, “more or less.”
Timing was right for the acquisition, McCullough told The Independent.
“I think because of the long, old tradition, a lot of people support that,” he said. “And the consultants we hired have a pretty good track record with [clubs] such as this.”
The new owners have contracted with a Florida consulting firm to help in building the membership, in part through the club’s dining room, The Independent reported. The club has dozens of dining memberships among non-golfers.
“Members want a great golf course to play and great food to dine,” Hesch explained in his e-mail, “but do not want the pressure of running the golf course along with a potential yearly financial assessment. Not being equity-owned gives the incoming group more flexibility running the operation with a focus on experience for our members and guests.”
McCullough told The Independent current members—which includes second- and even third-generation families—would be surveyed this month about the course and food to guide the club’s new governing structure.
“As we look forward,” Hesch’s e-mail said, “we will look to work with, listen to and retain our most important assets—our wonderful staff and members.”
The club’s General Manager is Leslie Ortiz and her husband, Ramon Ortiz, is Executive Chef. Allen Brown is the longtime Golf Professional, The Independent reported.
Hesch acknowledged the new organizational structure continued to be developed in light of the recent closing on the purchase, The Independent reported.
“We’re still working on some of this,” he said.
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