Chapter 10

Chapter 10 – Starting Over – “Temple Terrace Reimagined” (2017)

Club President Don Whittemore and the rest of the 2017 Board of Directors that included Sandy Alpaugh probably had no idea how quickly and dramatically their Director roles would change when Integrity Golf Company defaulted on their agreement.

In 1956, when the original Board of Temple Terrace Outdoors began formulating a plan to lease the Club from the City, they spent six months talking to the City, and to each other, before finalizing their action plan. That’s six months figuring out what needed to be done, when it needed to be done and who was best equipped to do it before actually assuming operational responsibility.

But the nine Board members who went to bed on Friday night, June 2, 2017, probably thinking they would wake up to their usual week-end routines, actually woke up to discover they were totally in charge of the Club because the company that had contracted to step in and solve all their problems had snuck away during the night and become their problem. Overnight, the fruits of sixteen months of mismanagement by Integrity Golf Company had been dropped on their doorstep. 

The first crisis they encountered probably centered around the fact there were about fifty Club employees who would be showing up for their usual work schedules, but the company whose payroll they were on didn’t exist anymore.   

There were also many other “knowns and unknowns” to deal with. They knew there had to be a long list of unhappy suppliers, contractors and vendors that Integrity was running away from in the middle of the night, (Why else would they have run?), but exactly how unhappy they were and the extent to which the unhappiness would affect their service were “unknowns”. One of the more worrisome “knowns” was figuring out how to make those $31,250 quarterly payments to the City of Temple Terrace, but the fact Integrity was actually multiple quarterly payments behind when they snuck away was an “unknown” because the City had never bothered to inform the Board of that “minor” detail.

Once again it was back to those televised meetings with the City; but this time the sense of urgency was even more accelerated. The usual pontificating public nay-sayers would still attend, but during the Integrity negotiations, the City was the primary party that had to be appeased; this time, not only the City, but probably every supplier, vendor, contractor, employee and even Club member had a vested interest in (and a personal definition of) a successful outcome..

The discussions between the Club, the City and IGC had primarily been a negotiation between three parties looking for a way to equitably share a “financial pie”; however, these discussions between the Club and the City would be more like a track meet where “speed” was of the essence; running, jumping, hurdling, diving and dodging were essential ingredients for success and Don Whittemore was our track team’s primary “javelin catcher”

Initially it was agreed the Club would address short-term cash flow needs internally through voluntary pre-paid dues and discounted pre-paid food and beverage purchases by the members, while the City would pursue collecting the past due quarterly payments from Integrity Golf Company (Although I’m confident both parties realized the City’s efforts would be futile).

To address the (slightly) longer term needs, the Club agreed to find new “Investors”, hopefully from within the Club’s membership ranks and to pursue contracting with a respected and experienced consultant to perform a complete “Operations Review” of the Club and help develop a “Strategic Business Plan” for moving forward after approval by the City.

Enter Christovich & Associates and six weeks later, on December 29, 2017, an Operations Review and Strategic Business Plan was issued painting an unflattering but realistic, portrait of the Club’s current operations and offering a potential path forward that came with high hopes and no guarantees.

At least as important as the “Plan” Greg Christovich developed was his recommendation for hiring Jim Musick to help implement the plan. Jim was hired as the new Club General Manager in late November to replace Sean McCormick. Sean had been the GM for eight years, but his sudden resignation was neither unexpected nor unwelcomed. Of Jim Musick’s many valuable contributions to the club during the ensuing years, one of his most significant was made shortly after his arrival when on December 28, 2017, Jim’s wife Katherine agreed to spend her days at and around a desk relatively near Jim’s office.

I’m not sure what Katherine’s  official job title was but it must have had something to do with food and beverages, and memberships, and communications, and decorations and member relations and running around the club with a smile on her face. Other major personnel moves made during this period were the hiring of Kyle Quinn as Head Golf Professional and Kyle’s wife Candy Quinn as Club Controller.

On January 16, 2018, a Strategic Plan was successfully presented for approval at a Temple Terrace City Council meeting. Key components included a reinstatement agreement on clearing the Club and IGC’s debts to the City, a plan for generating funds for meeting short-term operating and longer term capital needs primarily through member commitments; a two and a half million dollar, four year capital improvements program; and an “aggressive” program for growing memberships.                 .     

May 22, 2018 – Annual Membership Meeting – Club President Don Whittemore reviewed the financial results from the prior year and presented the Board’s proposed Operating and Capital Budgets for the coming year; however, the meeting’s primary focus was obtaining approval of the new Centennial Membership classification developed as a critical component of the Club’s financial recovery plan as approved by the Temple Terrace City Council.      

Centennial Membership (CM) status would be granted to individuals making significant financial contributions to the Club, including securities pledged against the Club’s indebtedness. The initial members awarded this designation were Brian Hawke, Gary Koch, O’Neal Sutton, Jim Roberts and Jack Suarez. Steve Stodghill would later be named as a replacement for Suarez.   

Because the “investments” by Centennial Members could only be repaid in “gratitude”, they were granted a significant degree of control over the make-up of the Club’s Board of Directors. The overall size of the Board was reduced from nine to seven Directors. The CMs would elect four including the Club President with the remaining three elected by vote of the entire membership.

Over the next several months, the Club was able to repair relationships with key vendors and get financially current with the City of Temple Terrace. The Board’s primary focus then turned to addressing capital improvements including critical maintenance and repair items in and around the clubhouse. From a golfing (and cost) perspective, the most significant capital project undertaken was a new irrigation system to supply the sorely needed “Nectar of the golfing gods”………..  “Water”

“Water Flows Uphill Towards Money”

No natural resource has a greater impact on the game of golf than water. The greatest courses in the world lie idle on rainy days; the greatest golfers in the world have all been penalized by its unforgiving nature and no course in the world can survive without it.

When Temple Terrace opened in 1922, there was no underground irrigation system, but it must have been a well-conditioned course for the first few years because it hosted several PGA tournaments.  There were a few hoses hooked up to wells and dragged around the course watering some of the greens, but the primary tool used to water the course, other than mother nature was a water truck driven around the course at night.

The first documented reference to water impacting the course was on October 3, 1922, when it was reported the front nine was ready for opening except  for a few greens waiting for the “water system” to be finished before the grass would be ready (The “water system” was a new spring fed well.)

During the ten year “Depression” era beginning around 1927, the course was described as “mostly sandspurs”. We know Basil Brook emphasized the need for accelerating the watering program and at one point reportedly changed the water truck driver’s nightly schedule so the Head Greens Keeper, “Wouldn’t have to get up so early to keep an eye on him”

In 1954, the Hillsborough County Commission authorized “pumping water from the river to irrigate parts of the golf course.”  The city sold $8,000 in bonds to pay for the pipes and pumps to make it happen. The job was completed before the end of 1954 and “Big John” Brinson was heavily involved in the process. 

The first reference to Temple Terrace Outdoors participating in “water” discussions was at a Board Meeting on June 1957, when Basil Brook reported on the progress of the irrigation system, saying, “Water was now as far as the #7 tee and the bill would be $9,900.” (Keep in mind the labor cost would have been absorbed by “Big John” and the rest of the greens keepers.)

• At a March 1961 Board Meeting, the Greens Committee reported the cost of pipe required to complete the sprinkler system would be just under $9,000. The Board then approved “completing the installation at the approximate cost of $11,100 using American made pipe”

During a review of the completed system in June 1962,  it was determined an additional six sprinkler heads were required and the Board approved $3,000 to construct a pump house on Hole #5 with a new well and a forty horse electric pump.

• After noting the water truck had accumulated over 27,000 “watering” miles in the previous year, the installation of an automatic sprinkler system was approved at the 1974 Annual Meeting. “This will require a special monthly assessment against all Senior Members of $6 plus tax per month for sixty months.”  

• In October 1974, the pumps on #5 and #10 were replaced at a cost of $4,625. Apparently, the contractor didn’t do a very good job, because in less than a year both pumps dislodged and fell into the wells. After spending another $11, 221.11 to retrieve the pumps and get both systems working again, they sued the original contractor and his insurance company for the full cost.

• In May 1975, Roy Babb, Greens Committee Chairman reported, “As you read this, our modern, fully automatic sprinkler system will be fully operational. As with anything new we will be going through a shakedown period over the next few months, which is normal procedure with a system as intricate as the one we have installed. As the years go on you will begin to see the results of having adequate water throughout the entire course.”

• At the July 1978 Board Meeting, the Board approved Attorney Tucker’s recommendation to settle the 1974 law suit out of court for $3,800. The Club President then advised, “We will now have to pay Attorney Tucker’s fee which will not leave us much but he had to be paid anyway so we are actually ahead.”  (I assume Attorney Tucker had no problem agreeing with that logic,)

• Oct 16, 1984 – “We are experiencing a great deal of difficulty with the sprinkler system on #10. The system is over ten years old and we anticipate major problems within the next several years.”

• February 1988 – “A major pump breakdown cost $5,000 to repair. This particular pump was in operation for fourteen years.”

• June 1990 – A major pump blowout

• November 1994 – “The irrigation pump on #5 is completely worn out. The motor is ok but it will cost $9,000 to replace the submerged turbine pump. Both the 75 horsepower irrigation pump and the 45 horsepower pressure booster pump are the same age. We will have to keep our fingers crossed that these other two will last a little longer”. (“When it rains, it pours”, but then again, when it rains there’s no need for the pumps.)
• February 2002 – The General Manager reported “the pump house on Hole #5 recently caught fire”

• February 2004 – Waterline break under a driveway across the street from the 15^th hole. (The street being referenced was actually a shell road when the waterline was installed by the City)

• May 2010. –  The pump shaft on Hole #18 split and the pump had to be replaced at a cost of $13,474. The pump on #5 was hit by lightning and the repair cost was $3,800

• May 2012 – Replaced the Pump on #5 for $10,400

If you’re not familiar with that pump house on the 5^th hole, it’s roughly the same size as a commercial port-o-let found on almost any construction site. Originally built in 1962, it has been repeatedly victimized ever since, not only by age, but by fire, lightening, vandalism, shoddy workmanship, lawsuits and I’m sure, more than a few mishit golf balls. I don’t have the actual data to support the conclusion, but I’m confident that over the years, the Club has invested more money in that “outhouse” than many of the neighborhood homeowners have invested in the houses they live in.    

But keeping the wells, the pumps and the pump houses functioning was far from the only irrigation issue and definitely didn’t stop being a problem in 2012; however, at some point, getting the water out of the ground became the easiest, and least expensive,  part of the process. The larger, costlier, more time consuming issue became getting water from the wells to the scorched grass of the fairways and greens because the water flowing out of those pumps was being routed to sprinkler heads via fifty year old asbestos pipes that were crumbling faster than Doug and his crews could track down the leaks and replace the bad sections of asbestos pipe with galvanized pipe or PVC; and it wasn’t just the pipes that were over fifty years old and failing; so too were the controllers and routers and wiring and timers and gauges and everything else required for the system to function.

As for finding replacement parts, none had been made for decades, so the only option was searching through the mountain of junk parts “stored” in a tall scrap pile on the floor of the maintenance facility; a pile that had been created over the years by salvaging used parts from other golf courses after they found the money to replace their own fifty year old irrigation systems.    

Solving this problem wouldn’t be easy or cheap; a new irrigation system would cost well over a million dollars and asking less than two hundred golfers to write “assessment checks” to cover that tab would be no more an option than asking the City to “guarantee” another loan that couldn’t be repaid.

A multi-faceted approach was required. The financial commitments of the Centennial Members was a critical first step in building the City’s confidence in the Club’s commitment to solving problems, but it was important to find other sources of funds before approaching the City or club membership for additional support.

Over the next twelve months or so, Jim Musick led an effort to convince the Southwest Florida Water Management District of the long term benefits they would realize by helping advance the project and John Nertney led a similar effort with Hillsborough County officials. After they successfully secured government grants from the Water Management District and Hillsborough Country totaling $305,000, getting a City commitment to make an “infrastructure investment” in the irrigation system became a much more viable option.

The Club’s portion of the new system’s cost, as well as the funds for most of the other capital improvements included in the long-range plan were then generated from within the membership through three programs, including: 1) A full court press on selling the existing Lifetime Benefits Program where for a one-time fee members received a “lifetime” ten percent discount on virtually all member-spending; 2) A significant number of members from all classifications voluntarily made donations to fund capital improvements; and, 3) At a Special Membership Meeting on October 7, 2019, the membership approved creation of the 1922 Club which offered a limited number of memberships where a one-time payment satisfied a 1922 Club Member’s dues obligation for life.

During 2019, Greens Superintendent Doug Hughes retired, Doug had been responsible for maintenance of the ageing irrigation system for its final thirty-seven years and definitely knew where all the “asbestos bodies” were buried. Fortunately, the club was able to “re-Doug” when Doug Faller agreed to move from Avila to Temple Terrace and (hopefully) begin his own thirty-seven-year career with the advantage of starting on the front end of the new irrigation system’s life cycle.       

On August 24, 2020, the first shovel of dirt was turned on a new, state of the art, fully paid for irrigation system that cost $1,149,329.

“Clubbing” a path through COVID-19

In the first quarter of 2020, the entire world was forced to begin dealing with devastation being caused by the Coronavirus. The Club Board and management team was challenged with the difficult task of walking a fine line of decision making in an environment where human lives were literally at risk. Their challenge was to develop and navigate a path to a successful Club future during a world-wide health pandemic which, among other issues, required accommodating a wide range of social distancing demands from existing and potential new members; a task further complicated by the fluid and often conflicting safety dictates and/or recommendations of government officials.

The Club’s two primary revenue generating amenities were under financial stress from both the pandemic and pre-pandemic infrastructure issues during the entire period. The playing condition of the golf course was less than ideal, primarily due to the lack of water issue that would not be fully rectified until well after completion of the new irrigation system; however, the good news on this front was that golf, being an outdoor activity not dependent on confining large crowds into small spaces, was considered one of two primary places of safe refuge by most of the Club’s more Covid cautious members. (The other safe haven being their refrigerators) There’s a very good chance trips to the golf course were the longest trips made by a majority of this segment of the membership during the pandemic’s first year.(The second longest trips often being to their mailbox.)

As a result, during Covid’s pre-vaccine days, its impact on golfing revenues was primarily felt in the cancellation of virtually all outside tournaments. There were definitely strict guidelines dictated for social distancing on and around the golf course but requiring Club members to ride “one per cart” was not a tough sell. (Although I’m confident management would agree than implementing the “one rider per cart” rule was a lot easier than reversing it sometime later.) The owever, thHvirus’s impact on the Club’s other key revenue generating amenity, Food & Beverage service was quite a different story. 

During the pre-vaccine period, F&B service ranged from “take-out only” to take-out plus “dine-in” service at 25% to 50% of room capacity. The resulting reduced member usage when combined with the loss of virtually all outside banquet revenues had a devastating impact on the F&B bottom line, although Club management was pleasantly surprised by the degree to which the roster of Social Members (and their associated dues revenues) held fairly firm. The Club was able to maintain a full complement of employees during the pre-vaccine period through financial assistance provided by the government sponsored Payroll Protection Program (PPP).

In December 2020, emergency use approval for ages sixteen and above was granted to the first of several Covid vaccines under development; a vaccine, that according to the FDA and the CDC, would at best, substantially eliminate the threat of contracting known variants of the highly contagious virus, and at worst, would mitigate the possibility of a severe outcome for most who did contract it.

Under normal circumstances, the Board might have assumed that within a year or so, the Club would be flourishing. After all, the new irrigation system was well under way, the long list of other sorely needed capital improvements was being chipped away at, and with a Covid vaccine seemingly available to turn the pandemic into a controllable virus the entire country would soon be back to normal. But as it turned out, “normal” was not even close to an apt description of the “post vaccine” environment.  

Unfortunately, more than a year after its availability, a diverse array of attitudes towards the vaccine continued to exist across the country; an array that might be labeled as a form of “Covidiocy”. Fortunately, the Club has substantially been able to return to its pre-Covid operating mode because a vast majority of members have refused to allow the virus or varying attitudes towards it destroy the “sense of community” the club is so reliant on.

Ninety-Nine Years in the Rearview Mirror

One important lesson learned, or at least repeatedly reinforced during the first ninety-nine years of history is that the Club is a “business” and must be operated as such in order to survive. Although the basic formula for success in most businesses, including country clubs, is fairly simple, i.e., “all” you have to do is provide products and services at prices that will attract enough customers for the business to thrive; history has also taught us there are many non-country club aspects of “life” that can and will get in the way of achieving business success.

What began as Bertha Palmer’s vision of creating a golfing community was undone by the Spanish Flu, World War I and ultimately her death in 1918. After her brother sold the property to Temple Terrace Estates, their vision of a commercial success was short-circuited by two consecutive winter freezes and the Great Depression. Enter the fledgling City of Temple Terrace that somehow managed to keep the doors open but failed to significantly advance the project due to the more important municipal challenges resulting from the Great Depression, World War II and the Korean War.    

The “Country Club” era began in the mid-1950s when members of the “Greatest Generation” returned from the battlefields of Europe and Asia and negotiated a deal to assume control of the struggling golf course. Those original stockholders in Temple Terrace Outdoors (TTO) knew they were getting into a “business” they had no experience in, but their hard work laid the foundation for a club that has served its community well ever since.

Their success was predicated on a three-part business strategy of:

1. Negotiating the best deal possible with the City to minimize the club’s largest item of fixed cost, i.e., lease expense,

• Assembling an array of marketable “country club worthy” products and services by utilizing a vast majority of available revenues to upgrade the golf course and improve or replace the aging physical infrastructure, and

• Creating an advantage over the competition relative to attracting members by restructuring from a “for profit” Corporation into a member owned “not-for-profit social club”; an action that would aid in growing the membership in two significant ways. Having no profit motive in assembling budgets obviously created a major competitive advantage in product pricing; and functioning as a member owned and operated Club, ensured a majority of the club’s customers would also be its owners, thereby simplifying the challenge of identifying, evaluating and pricing products and services to attract and retain a viable customer base. (Not to mention, ensuring the availability of a large pool of talented, willing and “cheap” labor to staff a Board of Directors for moving the Club forward.)    

In recent years, additional major complications of “life” that have negatively affected the Club’s viability include the global Economic Crisis of 2008 and the more recent global Covid-19 pandemic