The Golf Industry

Togethering is a Golf Industry Goal

A freshly-coined word first appeared in a piece that came from the Walt Disney organization to encourage family visits to their Lands and Worlds and the marketing folks' ploy was to suggest that those activities be characterized by the word "togethering". Parents searching for new activities for the whole family were encouraged to find these family-oriented experiences at the Disney venues. "Togethering" became part of the vernacular.

The golf industry had experienced a painful several years. Golf course owners and managers had become reluctant to contribute to yet one more article related to the downturn and the commensurate decrease in the number of rounds played across the country. There was no good news coming out of clubhouses and the conventional wisdom suggested that the industry had not yet hit bottom. There was no way to accurately predict how severe the downturn would be but there were factors in play that exacerbated the effects of the business cycle.

The overbuilding of courses which had taken place during the booming 80s and 90s led to fierce competition for customers and price points were driven downward...competition for scarcer and scarcer resources. Revenue plummeted. The budgets of courses were affected significantly and courses which had to scramble for resources tapped maintenance budgets first. It was not unusual to see 40% reductions in the budget with the most obvious negative consequences. Superintendents were hard pressed to scavenge already diminished resources and personnel reductions, coupled with reduced fertilizer, insecticide and maintenance created sometimes-drastic degradation of once beautiful courses. The effects were visual and severe. The quality of golf was, in many cases, diminished.

When no more reductions could be made, some owners were forced to put their courses up for sale and the natural selection of the business cycle took effect. Courses were sold for pennies on the dollar or, as in the case of The Squires, were repurposed and lost forever as golf venues.

A Changing Demographic

Blackstone Creek is the old Lake Park Golf Course on Mequon Road, a track which was one of only a few daily fee courses in the area during the burgeoning 80s. It was a busy destination as the Ozaukee County courses, Hawthorne and Mee Kwon, were among the few municipal courses on the North Shore. Romano and his partners had purchased the 27 hole complex and almost immediately plowed under 9 holes in order to initiate a building project. The condos which they began building were intended to house newly minted boomer retirees who were in the market for golf course living at an affordable price. The nail guns which we heard that day were part of the work being done on the rejuvenated condominium project. The single family units are part of a transition from condos to a family-oriented golf community which has inherited the original template.

Plans also include a commercial development along Mequon Road which would be constructed in place of the cart sheds which had been located there for years. The thinking was that a seasonal business like golf may not be the best use of the land along the road and the businesses which had been developed along Mequon Road east of the golf course were a testimony to the worth of the roadside real estate. Sendik's, Pic and Save and others had made good use of their acquisitions. Their businesses had flourished and their decisions had been good ones. Frank Romano and his associates intended to do something equally as profitable.

Meanwhile, families were immersed in changes of their own; trying to adjust to a changing demographic and, eventually, an economy which was hovering on the precipice of failure. Recreation, always an expensive and complicated pursuit, was becoming a huge challenge within families. Golf had been a traditionally male sport. It too, had changed and many predominantly all male clubs had experienced pressure to admit female members. In addition, the mores within the "traditional" family had begun to morph into something very different than our parents had experienced.

Professional females were not content to stay home on the weekend to tend to the children while men headed for the golf course to while away the days playing what was, perhaps, the most time-consuming sport. The conflict would manifest itself in a multitude of ways and something would have to give.

And give it did.

Mothers had been charged with the responsibility of transporting their children to their many athletic events; piling up the miles driving all over creation to make sure that their kids had the opportunity to participate on select teams that could easily be likened to gifted and talented programs for precocious students.

Golf was about to change...or at least the context within which it was played would change. Golf industry leaders relied on marketing specialists and the sales experts came up with a prescient solution: if you can't take the golf to the home, bring mom and the kids to the golf course! Water slides and water parks had become among the most popular destinations for families. Wisconsin Dells boasted that it was the water park capital of the world and the popularity of these attractions was not lost on those responsible for pulling the golf industry up by its bootstraps.

Jack Gaudion, formerly of the Country Club of Wisconsin, involved himself in a new development in Waukesha Cty. The Legend at Brandybrook built a water park near the clubhouse and that and the development of an upscale single family housing development foretold the success of that club and three others that Gaudion and his group built. Their acquisition of Bergamont, Bristlecone Pines and Merrill Hills became the template for the family-oriented golf club. In the case of Bergamont, a club near Oregon, the water park was built before the club house. They knew what the priority needed to be. A family focus drove their business plan and people came.

The River Club of Mequon has incorporated family-oriented activities into their plan and they have experienced significant membership increases during the last 18 months; predominantly migrants from other north shore clubs. The Disney concept of "togethering" became the unwitting mantra for these and other developing golf communities. Golf is presently making a strong comeback as the economy becomes stronger and as golf communities continue to develop strategies which include family-oriented activities. Family golf is growing as if the industry discovered it.

Build it and they will come.