Photo by Zoe Meyers/The Desert Sun
The future of the semi-private, 60-year-old club in Palm Desert, Calif. was in serious doubt a year ago, but a focus on non-golf activities such as bocce, bingo and trivia nights, and movie and walking clubs have combined with a more aggressive outreach for public play and social memberships to generate renewed optimism.
On a recent bright but cool November morning, the first tee at Shadow Mountain Golf Club in Palm Desert, Calf. was a busy place, The Desert Sun of Palm Springs, Calif. reported.
Two foursomes of players, buddies who make the trip to Shadow Mountain once a year, were starting their rounds on the course that was a vibrant green after overseeding, The Desert Sun reported. A few golfers who were not members were putting their clubs on their carts with the help of staff to prepare for play. The rest of the tee sheet was sprinkled with club members, the putting green near the first tee was full, and the driving range had a few golfers hitting shots. And the busy morning also included people stopping in for an early lunch at the patio.
All of this came a year after there were serious doubts whether the 60-year-old club could remain open, The Desert Sun reported. But even with the strong traffic on this day, club officials know the progress that Shadow Mountain has made over the last year is just a start to re-securing its future.
“I would love to say we have found that silver bullet and that we are on the road to long-term success. But the fact is there is no silver bullet,” Kurt Olsen, a member and a co-manager of the club, told The Desert Sun. “It is a combination of many things that it’s going to take to make this thing a viable business.”
Even the most optimistic of members understood the course was close to closing six months ago, The Desert Sun reported. Facing the issues that other courses in the region and across the country have battled—an aging and dwindling membership, trouble attracting younger players and a decrease in golf play overall—officials at Shadow Mountain didn’t know if they would be in a position to open the course after this year’s overseeding.
But now, after the season-opening party for the club’s 60th year, officials and members are certain the course will remain open through the 2018-2019 season at least, The Desert Sun reported.
“During the off season, we did a lot to get to where we are now. When we opened up a few weeks ago, I think we were all pleased to see the activity that we saw here,” Michael La Torre, a member and co-manager of the club with Olsen, told The Desert Sun.
“We are still trying to get all our numbers together and see how much better it was then last year,” La Torre added. But right now, we are very, very optimistic that we are going to see better flow on a monthly basis. Whether that is enough, we’ll see.”
Featuring a rare design by golf legend Gene Sarazen, the Shadow Mountain course is tucked away on approximately 60 acres of land and measures just 5,375 yards from the back tees, So the course focuses on older golfers looking to still have fun in the game, younger or novice players and couples hoping to enjoy the club in their retirement years, The Desert Sun reported.
And while Olsen, La Torre and Jennifer Dammeyer, the club’s Director of Operations, still want to focus on golf, The Desert Sun noted, part of the club’s success in the last year has also come from focusing on non-golf activities to attract people to the club.
“You’ve got to be open to creative new membership programming and young executives and after-4 o’clock memberships for people who are running out of work and want to play a quick nine,” said Dammeyer, who has been in her position at Shadow Mountain for a year, after two decades at other area clubs, including Desert Falls Country Club.
“We have added a lot of different activities to bring just social people who might not be able to play golf anymore at the club, but may stop and have lunch or dinner,” Dammayer added.
Karen Ulrich, who has lived in a house near the first green for 17 years and stepped up four years ago to become the club’s Activities Director, believes the only way for golf clubs to survive the changing landscape is to offer members more than just golf, The Desert Sun reported.
“I have thought that way for so long,” Ulrich said. “I’m a ‘nine-holer and lunch.’ I love that. But I know there have got to be people in those houses [in the club community] that would love to play cards or play bingo. We are not getting the numbers, but we are getting some different people doing different things.”
Those activities include bocce, bingo, cards, movie and walking clubs, trivia nights and putting competitions, The Desert Sun reported. Along with an updated grill, new chef and new menus for the club’s food-and-beverage operation, the changes are all designed to make those around the club who have not joined for golf consider the $100 a month for the community membership.
In one way, what Shadow Mountain is offering non-golfers is much like new non-golf amenities at other clubs in the region, The Desert Sun reported, including the new sports complex at PGA West in La Quinta, Calif. and the “Shots in the Night” driving range and putting course at Indian Wells Golf Resort.
“We are trying to learn from other golf courses,” Olsen said. “We look at websites and white papers and things like that. But as I said, there is no silver bullet.”
With new membership offerings including a new alliance with neighboring Shadow Mountain Resort with its amenities and restaurant, or a Discovery membership lasting for just the season, Olsen said memberships are now over 100, The Desert Sun reported. But more new members are needed.
The club’s focus in the last year has been on four areas, or what its managers call pillars, The Desert Sun reported. In addition to increased memberships, the Shadow Mountain has been seeking to gain more public play, more sales of shares of the club’s limited liability company, and sales of community memberships to people who live on or near the course and who would be impacted if the course was allowed to die or be sold and developed into condominiums. The club fell short of goals in those four areas in the last year, Olsen admitted, but still made enough progress to stay afloat for another year.
“You’ve always set goals higher than expectations, higher than you are going to get, because everyone drives toward that,” he said. “And you are going to fall short on your goals. But there are public goals and internal goals. We knew we wouldn’t hit everything, but we got close to a lot of things, and that helps.”
The easiest area to increase should be more public play, La Torre and Olsen said. While that might be tough to take for long-time members who played the course when it was strictly a private club, the club has been aggressive in seeking outside play, from increased newspaper advertising to shared advertising mailings to direct mailings to area residents, The Desert Sun reported.
Almost all of the Shadow Mountain members are now past the idea that their course in no longer exclusively private, Olsen said. “We had some resistance, but we are past that,” he said. “Some people left because of that, but that was probably three years ago, or shortly after we went from private to semi-private.
“But the people who are here understand,” he added. “They get 14-day advance tee times. They get standing tee times every week, and there are groups for every day of the week. They get all the preference they need.”
All the work to keep the course open is based on two concerns for members, The Desert Sun reported. One is losing their membership privileges completely and the course becoming just a public facility, and the other is the course having to sell some of its land to a developer who might re-route or shrink the course further while building condominiums on the land.
“We want to make sure that [the property] remains green and beautiful and lush and [with] seeing people enjoy the space,” said Dammeyer. “I think a lot of people are starting to realize how important that is.”