Chapter 8 – The “Lower Cost / Broader Based” Strategic Plan (2009)
“If running a successful business was as easy as calculating the amount of revenue needed to be successful and then dividing that amount by your current number of customers, we could all be rich”- Dr. Leon Hoke (Circa March 2009)
Having devoted a major portion of his adult life to educating the masses on concepts like Price Elasticity of Demand (The original PED), Dr. Hoke pointed out the Club had already proven beyond any reasonable doubt that raising the price on a discretionary spending item like a country club membership shrinks the base; he suggested lowering the price to broaden the base and led an effort to develop and implement several strategies designed to do just that. He proposed the Club begin by offering a deeply discounted Summer Membership Program designed to generate quick cash and give potential new members a “taste” of the Club.
Over the next several months, a Strategic Plan was developed through daylong Planning Retreats with over forty participants including Board Members, a cross section of other members and key employees. Other tools utilized included an analysis of golf industry and local demographic data accumulated both internally and externally, numerous on-line member surveys, Town Hall meetings and Member Workshops. Individual components of the resulting Strategic Plan, summarized below, were approved for implementation by Senior Membership on three separate occasions.
Strategies were designed to enable meeting three key objectives:
- Keeping the doors open by providing sources of quick cash to reverse a four year trend of dwindling dues revenues.
- Aiding in the transition from a “one price fits all” club considered the best deal in town for six day a week golfers to a club with appeal to a broader range of potential members.
- Creating membership value to facilitate member recruitment and retention
Strategy 1 – Membership Growth
- Implement a Summer Membership Program to market the Club to new members (long term) and help alleviate cash flow issues (short term)
- Develop and implement an Introductory Membership Program to attract new members and provide a bridge between Summer Memberships and full membership status
- Build a younger and broader membership base by supplementing the existing Senior Membership classification with other more affordable membership options to accommodate the financial and recreational priorities of current and potential new members.
Strategy 2 – WOW Pricing and Happening Events – Facilitate and encourage active member families by creating membership value through “WOW” (below market) pricing of food and beverages, including:
- Every Wednesday $5.99 “WOW” dinners implemented throughout the Clubhouse
- Everyday low drink prices (45% COS) throughout the Club
- Saturday/Sunday “No Frills” $3.99 breakfast in the Lounge
- Friday Happy Hour (5:30-7:30) in the Lounge
- Week-end grill service implemented at the Pool with WOW pricing
- Expansion of the club’s social calendar to include both regularly scheduled and periodically scheduled social and golfing events.
Strategy 3 – Fitness – Create a member amenity that caters to the growing demand for physical fitness facilities.
Strategy 4 – Summer Camps – Create an array of activities which insure that children become attached to Club life, thereby facilitating parental membership decisions
Strategy 5 – Governance and decision Matrix
- Develop and implement a system of governance to ensure the person with the most information makes the decision and is held accountable.
- Implement a program to utilize the full capabilities of the Jonas System
- Work with the City of Temple Terrace to secure short term mortgage and rent relief from the City Council
Strategy 6 – Human Resources – Develop an employee incentive program to reward employees who go the “extra mile” to ensure the success of the various strategic programs.
The following Mission Statement was also developed and implemented as part of the Plan:
Temple Terrace Golf & Country Club – “ Providing an exceptional golf and country club experience as well as an inviting social atmosphere while creating and preserving rich family traditions since 1922”
At a Special Membership Meeting on March 30, 2009, a Summer Membership Program that would run from April 1 to August 31 was approved. With the membership came unrestricted dining, drinking and pool privileges, plus golfing privileges with time of day and day of week restrictions. Applications required a $25 registration fee (which was distributed as an employee incentive) and monthly dues of $39. A golf course usage fee of $18 a round, including cart (if available) was also stipulated.
Due to the late start in kicking off the program, an aggressive marketing plan was implemented; included were direct mailings to a south Tampa mailing list, a stuffer with the City’s water bills, an email blitz to six thousand addresses from a list provided by the Temple Terrace Preservation Society, numerous Facebook notifications and the King High Golf Team was “hired” to distribute the thousands of marketing door hangers that were being printed.
Needless to say, there was a great degree of skepticism among the members, including some on the Board, over the level of success that might be realized, but the golfer’s grapevine must have been working overtime because before the 15,000 brochures and door hangers were even printed, two hundred fifty-eight people submitted paid applications,
After following two consecutive fiscal years with operating losses averaging over $10,000 a month with a third year of losses averaging $15,000 a month, the first Summer Membership Program was open for business and somehow the Club’s future was already looking brighter.
Dr. Hoke had also suggested the Club was not primarily in the “restaurant” business, but in the “dues” business. The restaurant, like the golf course, was “merely an amenity provided for paying dues, and amenities cost money to provide.” To attract new Social Members (and help retain existing ones), Strategy #2, which included a $5.99 WOW (as opposed to “Ouch”) priced Wednesday dinner as well as other discounted F&B offerings, were also implemented.
This proved to be an effective promotional tool for increasing membership value and membership numbers (ergo dues revenues) and because of the sheer volume of WOW meals being served (over 300 per night), Wednesdays quickly became the only day of the week the F&B operation made money; but unfortunately, the weekly P&L Statements on the profitability of WOW always seemed to reflect the opinion of the incumbent Club President.
However, the “WOW” approach to F&B pricing would be hard to sustain because as Dr. Hoke had warned, “The first time a Board decides to squeeze a few more dollars out of F&B, where do you think they’ll look? Will it be increasing the price on the handful of $25 Steak Dinners being sold on Friday nights, or will it be raising the $5.99 price on the three hundred WOW dinners sold every Wednesday?” Not surprisingly, over the next three or four years the price of WOW Wednesday dinners was raised to $9.99 and selling fifty of those dinners was considered a success.
- On March 28, 2009, Krista Heaivilin, who had the misfortune of spending her entire tour as General Manager during the most financially difficult period in Club history was leaving. Her decision to resign in order to spend more time dealing with the challenges of motherhood was definitely understandable. Senior Member Ron Callahan volunteered to assume the role of Acting-GM until a suitable (and affordable) replacement could be found.
With the summer program generating over $9,000 a month in dues, $15,000 a month in unencumbered golfing revenues and a similar amount in F&B revenues, the Board turned its attention to designing an Introductory Program that would serve as the next step for Summer Members beginning September 1st and would be attractive to other potential new members.
Following the May 2009 Annual Membership Meeting where offering an Introductory Program was approved, Danny Fischer replaced John Nertney as Club President. Fortunately, Danny was also a strong advocate of the Strategic Plan Dr. Hoke had helped put in place.
The Introductory Program had been designed to offer three separate, one year membership options, priced at about two-thirds of the equivalent regular memberships. An Intro Social Membership would be offered at $39 a month, an unlimited golfing membership at a “Flat Rate” of $199 a month and a Pay-Per-Play “Flex” golfing membership at $99 a month plus a Usage Fee of $18 per round.
- In August 2009, Shaun McCormick was hired as the Club’s new General Manager.
At the end of the summer, one hundred and sixty-one Summer Members converted into the first Introductory Membership Program, about a third into each of the three offerings. The Club was now operating on close to a break even basis even though the Senior Membership count was down to about two hundred and fifty.
In December 2009, a Special Membership Meeting was called; however, this time the Board was not asking for a dues increase or an assessment. There were two votes on the Agenda and both were approved. The first was a new membership option for Senior Members, an offering similar to the Introductory Membership’s Pay-Per-Play option. The Senior Flex Membership which was designed to prevent the Club from continuing to lose the “occasional” golfers who were paying just as much for their memberships as the golfers who played five and six times a week. Historically, these were the most vulnerable members when the club raised dues or implemented assessments. This option would also be offered to ex-members that had typically resigned for the same reasons. The Senior Flex membership would initially be priced at $129 a month dues with a $25 per round Usage Fee.
The other new offering was a “Lifetime Benefits Option” that for a one-time payment provided a package of benefits highlighted by a ten percent discount on virtually every dollar spent at the club, including dues, food & beverages, pro shop merchandise, greens fees, guest fees, etc.
When the Summer and Introductory Membership Programs were first implemented, some degree of their success was attributable to TT being the first and only local club offering such deals; however, at some point during year two, almost every private and public golf course in the area began copying the concept and potential new members were now shopping in a buyer’s market. Temple Terrace members were even receiving direct mailings from other area private clubs.
- April 2010 Future Club President Paul Richardson and wife Debi accepted for Senior Membership.
In May of 2010, Bill Taylor replaced Danny Fischer as Club President. Bill had been involved in developing and implementing the “lower cost/broader based” Strategic Plan from the very beginning and had been Chairman of the Membership Committee during most of that period.
In anticipation of the one year anniversary date when Intro Members were scheduled to make a decision on permanent membership, the Membership Committee undertook an analysis to determine, by individual, the likelihood of their staying. Based on input from on-line surveys, workshops, member interviews, analysis of six-month spending patterns and a comparison to the deals being offered by the competition, the prospects of a financially successful conversion were minimal.
At a Special Membership Meeting in August 2010, President Taylor reviewed highlights of the data that formed the basis of the Board’s recommendation for moving forward.
A few of the key reasons for concern included facts that reflected over half the Intro Social Members were spending more on their dues than on food and beverage purchases; a vast majority of the Intro Pay-Per-Play members were averaging only 1.6 rounds of golf per month creating an average cost per round of over $78 before considering the impact of any potential increase to their dues; and over eighty percent of the more than ninety Intro Fixed Price ($199) Members lived outside of Temple Terrace which meant most of them were driving by other courses on their way to TT and most of those courses were now offering competitive membership “deals”.
Rather than putting all the dollars at risk, the Board recommended the Introductory Social and Flex Members be extended for nine months at their current rates and the Intro Fixed Members be offered a nine month extension with a $50 increase from $199 to $249.
Based on Senior Member reaction to the Board’s proposal, it was obvious that not personally incurring a dues increase, or an assessment was far more important to them than the fact the Introductory Members were paying less than they were for substantially the same privileges. The overwhelming sentiment of the membership was to not even risk losing the $199 Intros by upping them to $249; however, in the final analysis, the Board’s proposal was accepted as written with only two dissenting votes from the entire membership after it was pointed out that data analysis concluded, worst case, asking for the $50 increase would be a financially break-even move from that group. (Of the first 39 Intros required to make the “$50 decision”, only two resigned their memberships.)
- December 4, 2010 – The First Annual Hickory Hackers Golf Tournament, sponsored by the Temple Terrace Preservation Society was held. The tournament would evolve into the annual Temple Terrace Hickory Heritage Weekend of social events including amateur and professional golf tournaments featuring “throw-back” wooden golf clubs and period attire from the Roaring Twenties (of the 1900’s).
Bill Taylor’s year as President ended after the 2011 Annual Meeting where the nine-month extension expired and the issue had to be dealt with again. Financially it had been a successful year with no dues increases, no new assessments and an Operating Statement reflecting a record profit of $60,000; however, a big question remained unanswered. Should the issue be forced on what was now 300 Intro Members by requiring them to “move up or move out” or should the Club accept a dues inequity somewhat longer and continue operating in the black?
In preparation for a proposal that would be presented at the May Meeting, the Board, once again, gathered Senior Member input through an on-line survey and two Member Workshops. The overwhelming member response was to take a “low risk” approach.
Eliminating the dues gap between the two groups was important, but the Board was hesitant to force the issue. There was no doubt, that until the Senior Voting “owners” of the club demanded otherwise, decisions like requiring Introductory Members to “pay more or leave” should only be implemented if the decision could be supported by solid data reflecting the benefits of being right outweighed the risks of the decision being wrong.
Once again, an extensive review of the data suggested any attempt to force the issue would result in a significant reduction in the $35,000 to $40,000 currently being generated in Dues and Usage Fees from this group on a monthly basis.
At the May 2011 Annual Membership Meeting, the incoming Board, led by newly elected President Jim Roberts was tasked by the membership to “Extend all current Intro Members for a maximum of twelve months, through May 2012, at their current rates. However, only a six month extension should be given initially with the remaining six months held in reserve pending results of a subsequent review of the financial situation at the Club.”
Although a comprehensive replacement Strategic Plan would not be presented for membership approval until a Special “Integrity Golf Company” Membership meeting in December 2015, the 2010-11 Board would be the last board to fully embrace the “Lower Cost / Broader Based” Strategic Plan.
In late 2011, a Membership Task Force was chartered with developing a plan for closing the membership cost gap between the Introductory and Regular Membership categories; however, In mid-February 2012, a Special Membership Meeting was called by the Board to formally announce two actions they had taken.
At the meeting, President Roberts announced the Board had successfully negotiated a deal with the City Council of Temple Terrace for a three year “Interest Only” arrangement on the Club’s monthly mortgage payments. Rather than include the principal amount of about $10,000 a month with the payment, the agreement allowed depositing those dollars into a special account from which capital expenditures, pre-approved by the City, could be made.
This was a major accomplishment and provided the Club an opportunity for a three year window to grow dues revenues and address dire capital needs, such as replacing the now twenty-year-old greens without imposing assessments on the membership. The new greens were completed the following year and continue to serve the Club well.
The second announcement would quickly prove to have a far from positive impact on the Club’s financial viability. The Membership Task Force had updated the Board in January on the status of their efforts to close the membership cost gap and had committed to delivering the final plan by the end of February; however, at the January Meeting the Board announced it had notified all Flat-Rate Introductory members who had been paying $249 a month for a minimum of one year, they would be required to upgrade to full Senior Membership at a monthly cost of at least $321 as of March 1st.
Of the initial fifty-four Intro Members faced with the upgrade and dues increase decision, twenty-three chose to resign their memberships. The net financial impact on Club operations was a loss of over $4,000 a month in Dues/Guest Fee revenues and twenty-three fewer member families supporting the Club’s F&B operation.
At the May 2012 Annual Meeting, the Board attempted to solve the revenue shortfall problem by venturing into the historically taboo area of “Trail Fees”
Trail Fees – “To be, or not to be”
In the early days of golf, there was no such thing as a Trail Fee. Golfers paid a Greens Fee and either walked, carrying their clubs, or hired a caddy to carry the clubs for them. After gas/electric golf carts were invented and available, they had the additional option of renting a “motorized” cart, usually from the Club Professional.
When Temple Terrace Outdoors leased the golf course from the City in 1957, they set the Greens Fee at $2 a round. With the move to a “private” club the following year, the daily Greens Fees were substantially replaced by monthly dues of $12. The breakeven point was six rounds a month. Play less than six times a month and your cost per round was greater than $2; play more than six and it was less. Eventually the added cost of a motorized cart would complicate the calculation.
Initially, cart usage was extremely limited. In fact, most private clubs, including Temple Terrace, didn’t consider carts a major source of revenue and outsourced the operation to their Head Professional. Things began to change dramatically when riding in a golf cart stopped being an “exception” to the rule and became the “rule”.
At first, privately owned carts were not allowed at most clubs. If you wanted to ride, you rented a cart from the Head Pro and paid a fee.. When cart fees became a major source of revenue, clubs began reclaiming the operation from their Head Pros. Eventually a limited number of clubs began allowing members to use their own carts; however, they charged a Trail Fee to compensate for the lost cart fee revenues. Depending on the club, the Trail Fee might be structured as an annual fee, a monthly fee, or sometimes as a “per round” fee of usually somewhat less than their cart rental fee.
TT was the first local club to allow member owned carts; however, their approach to moving from the world of generating revenues through cart rentals into the world of allowing member owned carts without sacrificing those revenues basically combined the “worst of both worlds”
At TT, you could ride in your own cart without paying a Trail Fee; however, this was far from the only revenue limiting decision the early Boards made concerning carts. Members, who didn’t own carts, as well as golfing guests of members, were allowed to ride in carts owned by other members without paying any form of cart or trail fee. Basically, the Club operated with little or no cart revenues other than those generated through outside tournaments.
As crazy as it may sound, for many years this approach was not as revenue stifling as it might seem. Not charging any form of trail fee for using your own cart and offering other “golfer friendly” options to avoid renting one were the major reasons the club generally had a waiting list of golfers eager to join and willing to pay a significant Initiation Fee to do so; and there’s definitely a big advantage in being able to quickly attract golfers willing to pay a $2,000 Initiation Fee rather than golfers who can just walk in and starts paying dues.
In one instance, the member has an investment to protect, giving the club a degree of leverage when enforcing the Rules & Regulations or raising the price of a hamburger or the monthly dues. (Not to mention the benefits of having the $2,000 infusion of cash)
When a member can join with no Initiation Fee, all the leverage shifts to him. He can just walk away or threaten to walk away any time the Board makes a decision he doesn’t agree with (especially if it’s going to cost him money) knowing all the pressure is on the Club. Said another way, both of these members are customers of the club, but paying the Initiation Fee forces one of them to also function as an investor/owner.
Every Board since the early years of the club struggled with this issue. Some made weak attempts to do something about it, but nothing really changed until well after the waiting list disappeared and the Initiation Fee was effectively reduced to “zero”.
The first Board Meeting reference to the “Trail Fee” subject was a “general discussion on the use of electric golf carts” at the May 1958 Annual Meeting. Over the next few years, member owned carts grew in popularity to the extent a motion was made at the May 1962 Annual Meeting, suggesting “the membership discuss the possibility that those members owning electrical powered golf carts be charged a fee to offset damage such carts do to the course.” The Motion was defeated, and no action was taken.
A few months later, at a December Board Meeting, after noting the “flagrant” use of carts around the greens, there was a motion approved that “members who use a golf buggy or cart in any manner that violates Club regulations pertaining to same, will on the first offense be given a warning, second offense a fine will be imposed and third offense will be subject to suspension.”
Other early references to dealing with the issue included the following:
- May 1963 Annual Meeting – Motion to impose a “club tax” on privately owned golf carts died for lack of a second. (A Trail Fee by any other name)
- May 1964 Annual Meeting – Motion made that “an assessment of $4 per month be placed on privately owned electrical or gasoline powered golf carts.” Motion failed and no action taken.
- May 1968 Annual Meeting – The major issue of discussion was a petition in opposition to the Board once again treading on “hallowed ground” by during the previous month implementing a $4 per month assessment on all cart owners. A motion against the move was successfully argued by Tom McEwen and passed. At a Special Meeting in July, the $4 monthly assessment on cart owners was replaced by a $3 monthly assessment on all Senior Members.
- November 1976 – Once again the Board attempted to delve into the “Trail Fee” quagmire by sending Notice of a Special Meeting to Senior Members that “outlined the need for additional revenue, proposing as a solution a ‘trail charge’ for privately owned electric golf carts”. A long discussion was held at the meeting. A motion was made for a trail charge of $10 a month on all cart owners for the period December 1, 1976, through May 31, 1977. Motion failed to pass for lack of a majority.”
- August 1979 Monthly Board Meeting – “The matter of taking steps in some form of a trail fee for purposes of repairing cart paths was discussed. It was pointed out that such option would require official action of membership.” No further action taken.
- May 1988 Annual Meeting – “A motion was made to impose a Trail Fee.. The motion died for lack of a second.”
- May 1989 Annual Meeting – President Wathen made a motion to assess each Senior Member a $100 Trail Fee. The motion died for lack of a second.
- April 1990 Monthly Board Meeting – A motion was made to impose a $20 per month Trail Fee on all carts. After discussion, the motion was withdrawn.
- December 1995 – A motion was passed to assess a cart fee on all golfers paying a Guest Fee whether riding in a Club owned cart or a privately owned cart. (Did they finally find a way to make it palatable to the members?)
- January 1996 (One month later) – “A motion was made by Rick Rausch and seconded by Joe Affronti to rescind the Cart Fee being charged to Guests riding in member owned carts.” Motion passed. (Apparently not)
Don’t think that at this point Boards just gave up on the idea and quit talking about it. Actually, I just got tired documenting the same sad story over and over again. Rarely did a month or two go by without the subject being brought up at a Board Meeting, being discussed at great length and then action deferred until later (“Later” loosely defined as “when someone else was on the board”) .
Theoretically the first time a Board seriously attempted to force the issue was at the May 2012 Annual Meeting. I say “theoretically” because in reality it was not exactly a transparent attempt to impose a Trail Fee.
The Meeting Notice and Agenda, including all the enclosures detailing the items for discussion, made no reference to Trail Fees or Cart Fees. (Probably a contributing factor in why barely a third of the eligible members showed up for the “surprise party” on such a historically controversial subject.)
The subject of Trail Fees didn’t surface until a couple slides were put up during discussions on the proposed Operating Budget for the upcoming year. Neither of the slides actually used the term “Trail Fee”; one referenced a “cart fee” and the other just called it a “fee”; however, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind what was happening.
Basically, all Senior Members who owned carts would be charged $300 a year, Senior Members without carts would be charged $750 a year and both groups would have the additional option of paying $12.50 per round whether riding in their own cart or one leased from the Club.
There was no separate vote scheduled for member approval of the “fee” because the Board’s position was those revenue dollars were part of the Operating Budget being proposed for the coming year, and a vote to approve the budget was a vote to approve all the detailed components of the budget.
As expected, the Whine Club entered the fray in full force, initially pointing out the Board had not given proper Notice to legally call for a vote on the matter. They also questioned the structure of the proposal, where among other issues, if the budget was approved as is, all of the Senior Flex Members, in addition to their $199 monthly dues, would now be paying $37.50 for every round of golf they played, which was far more than their guests or members of the general public would be paying. Given no opportunity to directly vote on the Trail Fees the membership just rejected the entire budget.
At the follow-up Special Meeting in July 2012, there was still no mention of a Trail Fee, the Board choosing instead to label the dollars as an “Assessment”. They also proposed an annual or “per round” cart fee on all Senior Members with no cart registered at the club.
Following another long discussion on “why me, why not them?”, a counter proposal from the floor was passed for a $150 assessment to cover the club’s anticipated losses over the following three months during which time a Long Range Strategic Planning Committee comprised of ex-Club Presidents would be tasked with developing a plan to address cart fees, trail fees and re-structured membership classifications in a manner that would allow the Club to move forward with a strategy that at least had a chance of generating new revenues without losing members. The Committee agreed to present their proposal during October.
At an October 2012 Special Membership Meeting, new Club President Bob Boss introduced John Nertney as the primary presenter of the Committee’s proposal. The Committee had done a thorough job of formulating a plan for moving forward and had researched the data and presented facts to support their conclusions. Based on surveys of the members most likely affected by Trail Fees, they had concluded any attempt to implement the approach of merely adding a Trail Fee on top of the current dues structure was doomed to fail.
They proposed the framework for a new membership structure that would incorporate lowering the basic dues and adding a monthly Trail Fee or daily/monthly Cart Lease option on all golfing memberships. To finalize a price structure for the proposal, a complete analysis of the competition and the marketplace would be required.
- October 13, 2012 – Thanks to the efforts of the Temple Terrace Preservation Society led by Tim Lancaster and Grant Rimbey, the Temple Terrace golf course was honored as the first and only eighteen hole Florida golf course listed in the National Register of Historic Places by the National Park Services.
- December 18, 2012, Board Meeting – For the first time in Club history, the Board authorized management to open the doors to public play through the sale of tee times on GolfNow.Com.
At the Annual Membership Meeting in May 2013, a new membership structure was approved for implementation with an effective date of June 1st. Frequency of play and cart ownership would now be considered in the pricing of all golf memberships. Senior Membership dues would be lowered from $321 to $199 a month; however, a cart option would also be required. Cart Options included either paying $25 for each round played or electing a monthly Cart Lease or Trail Fee option of between $100 and $180 depending on whether the membership was for an Individual or a Family and whether a personally owned or a leased golf cart would be used.
Unfortunately, the benefits of putting a membership structure in place that addressed the “Trail Fee” issue would be more than negated by other cost of membership decisions soon implemented. As a result, during the three year period beginning when the Board required the $249 a month Introductory Members to “move up or move out” and February 2016 when the Board received membership approval of the completely new “Integrity” Strategic Plan, the Club’s total membership fell from over 800 to 570.
- July 4, 2012, Family Fun Day – As the crowd was exiting the fairway of Hole #1 at the conclusion of the fireworks display, a spectator sitting in the fairway was hit in the leg by a bullet falling from the sky. Club management was contacted by her lawyer in January 2013.
The Death Spiral returns and transitions into a Free Fall
“Tactics without a strategy is the noise before defeat”
With the new “dues plus cart option” pricing structure in place, attention was turned to the two hundred plus Introductory Members that had been at the Club for more than a year. Most of them were forced to convert to full membership status or leave.
The financial impact of the decision was staggering, especially with the eighty plus Introductory Flex Members paying $99 a month plus the $18 per round golf fee. (And remember, a vast majority of this group averaged playing less than two rounds a month). A few converted to Social Memberships, but most resigned rather than pay the new monthly dues of $199. The “Death Spiral” had definitely returned and the “hole” was getting deeper and deeper. In an attempt to replace the revenues lost through mass resignations of the Introductory Members, the club was forced to accelerate its reliance on the sale of on-line tee times primarily through GolfNow.Com.
During discussions with the City in late 2013, the Board agreed to a City Council suggestion for hiring an outside expert to help stabilize the Club’s future through development of a new Strategic Business Plan.
Billy Casper was a remarkably successful golfer. Included in his more than seventy career wins as a professional were two U.S. Opens, the 1970 Masters Tournament and the 1969 Busch Invitational Pro-Am held at Temple Terrace Golf & Country Club; however, hiring the consulting firm that bore his name, Billy Casper Golf, Inc. (BCG), would prove to be far from a solution to the club’s problems.
In April 2014, BCG issued a one hundred page Facility and Operations Evaluation detailing their recommended path for “magically” moving from the prior year’s operating loss of $186,000 to their projected profit of $272,000 in one year. They advised that achieving this “ambitious” goal would require structural changes to the by-laws and to membership pricing.
By-law changes included “strategic” items like moving the date of the Annual Membership Meeting from May to March, renaming the core membership group from Senior Voting Members to Full Golf Members and creating a sense of urgency among potential new members by lowering the allowable number of “Full Golf Members” from 430 to 275.
On the financial side of the ledger, their “solution” included a $60 a month dues increase (from $199 to $259) beginning in June; a $120 a month assessment on all Full Golf Members for four months; and another $300 a month assessment during June and July.
Keep in mind, all of these increased costs would be levied during the heat of summer when, under normal circumstances, all but the most dedicated golfers choose to limit their golfing schedules; and these were far from “normal’ circumstances because during this same period of time, all eighteen greens were being replaced. (BCG was getting the Club a “deal” on the new grass!)
In effect, members were being offered two choices; 1) Spend $1,080 on assessments and absorb a $60 a month dues increase to have the option of playing (or not playing) all summer on a golf course with “temporary greens”, or 2), resign, take the summer off, come back when the weather and the greens were nice and see what kind of leverage was available for rejoining.
Member responses turned an active “Death Spiral” into a “Free Fall”, and by the time the March 2015 Annual Membership Meeting was held, the total membership count stood at 570. At the meeting, one of the “winning” candidates for a position on the 2015-16, Board of Directors made the following statement, “My commitment to this membership is that we will not render decisions on this Board without first asking the tough questions then seeking the data to provide the answers. We will not conclude any policy and strategy discussions with “I think”. What we think is irrelevant. Only the truth which can be told in data and hard facts can provide the sustainable answers.”
The entire 2015-16 Board apparently took this pledge to heart, as evidenced by their actions when the financial facts and the membership data they analyzed led them to conclude the Club’s financial viability had deteriorated to the point there were only two possible options available; return the “clubhouse keys” to the City and walk away or find a viable third party willing to make a substantial investment in the Club and negotiate a three-way deal with the City.
