The storied Merion golf course will understandably, and deservedly, get all the attention and accolades this week, but the clubhouse deserves some love, too, for also helping to provide a truly distinctive venue for a major sporting event.
Club & Resort Business Editor Joe Barks is “embedded” as a utility worker on the expanded kitchen staff of Merion Golf Club as the Ardmore, Pa., club hosts the U.S. Open Championship this week, and will file behind-the–scenes reports after each day. Here are some of his impressions and insights after working his first shift on Saturday morning, to help get things set up for Monday’s opening day:
• No matter what time of year it is, Merion’s old farmhouse-turned-clubhouse always has a comforting, home-for-the-holidays feeling, in large part because you never have to walk very far before getting a good whiff of the distinctive, smoky fireplace scent that has seeped permanently into its walls and floors. Open Week will only enhance this charm, as many of the tables that have been set up in the various clubhouse rooms to serve USGA officials and guests have mismatched chairs, in the same way every available seat gets put into use to extend Grandma’s dining room table as families grow.
While Merion’s storied East Course will understandably, and deservedly, get all the attention and accolades this week, the clubhouse deserves some nods, too, for also doing its part to help provide a truly distinctive venue for a major sporting event. This is in fact an advantage that the golf, and club, industries have retained and that most other sports have lost.
There are very few distinctive stadiums left in which the Super Bowl, World Series or NBA or NHL championships are contested, as the drive to add corporate suites has brought a sameness to all but a few of the possible sites for those events. But golf has no shortage of unique courses to choose from for its major championships—and the club industry, with the help of talented design firms that specialize in upgrading and expanding older clubhouse structures to meet today’s and tomorrow’s needs, without losing their historic charms, is now in a great position to maximize the marketing and growth opportunities this can present. (Merion, in fact, has plans on the board to follow its latest Open-generated prominence with a clubhouse pavilion addition that will greatly enhance its revenue-generating capabilities from both regular member dining and events, as well as weddings, banquets and other catered affairs.)
• You never know when something you’ve come across in your professional or personal journeys will come in handy. I’ve been assigned to help primarily in the members’ hospitality tent, which will have all-day, cafeteria-style foodservice. Saturday I filled display racks with snack bars and candy bars, and cooler shelves with yogurts—and that let me draw on knowledge gained years ago, when covering the convenience-store industry for Convenience Store Decisions (now a sister publication of C&RB), about how proper “facings” and arrangement of merchandise can maximize its appeal. So I fully expect a record run on those items this week.
• Included in all employee packets along with credentials, handbooks and other essentials for getting through Open Week: individual envelopes of Emergen-C drink mix, to provide 1,000 mg of Vitamin C along with other nutrients, vitamins, antioxidants and electrolytes.
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