How much do you do?

[archie_struthers]

 




So my home club  today is my old home club from the 90's.   The Shore Club in Cape May Court House, NJ. 


Originally built in 1916 , designed by Stiles and Van Cleek , it occupies a  fairly small piece of land that has some interest architecturally. Though fairly flat , it borders on the bay across from Stone Harbor / Avalon NJ two tony shore towns in deep southern NJ.  There are nice views of the water sprinkled all through the golf course. I would categorize it as an excellent members course , given that the greens are really interesting and make it a pretty good test when the wind blows, which it usually does a lot of the time.


I really like playing there, although there are a few two many dog left lefts for my  liking (doesn't fit my cut ) . It's a little shortish for today's bombers but at least the angles on the doglegs keep them honest. For most of us the blue tees are more than sufficient at 6400 yards given the difficulty of the greens. It's firm thanks to a wonderful superintendent in  Doug Larsen, who is one of the best anywhere. We were lucky the Union League didn't grab him when they built the new course right down the road.


Here's the dilemma . When COVID hit many people fled the urban centers , living at their vacation homes away from the maddening crowd. So when golf flourished post pandemic we had a run on the bank so to say. Wildwood CC was saved from bankruptcy by a group of wealthy investors and The Shore Club emerged from the rubble. They instantly made the club solvent and proceeded to make some necessary capital investments in the club. New irrigation system, a few subtle changes to the golf course and a new 18th hole came into being. Tyler Rae did some bunker work and put some long range plans on paper. The gentrification process was well under way when we emerged from the pandemic.

[archie_struthers]

 


So here's the rub. The good news is that the ownership group isn't interested in returns , just having a really nice place close to their summer homes at the beach. But they certainly are exposed to some really good golf courses both in Philly and Florida and have a lot of friends that play some of the best. So naturally they want to make the Shore Club special if possible. But if we do all that they or I might envision to make it really good we might price out some of the best local members and young people who are an integral part of the club.   


So growing pains for sure. If I hit the lottery I'll pay for the changes myself but it would be pretty easy to blow up the 6th and 7th hole one winter and redo them completely. They were added about twenty five years ago so we could have a practice facility near the clubhouse , which none of us would want to lose today. But the holes are pretty bad and certainly don't look like they fit the rest of the architecture.


 IN the interim I'd love to see the club build a new green behind and to the left of the present one on # 14 , which would turn an innocuous short par into a great short par four!  You could easily have the green floating just above our little version of Calibogue Sound and make both the tee shot and the approach way cool.  Also I think we could drain the small pond on our 17th and put driver and three wood back in the hands of our better players to their ultimate demise LOL....


the dillemma is how does ownership continue to improve an already good product without disnenfranchising some great members ?

[Jeff Fortson]

Is membership currently full? Does the club have the reserves/capex available currently?  If not, how far away from that number are they?


In an ideal world your dues cover operating expenses and initiation fees go into an account that can be used for capex or rainy day fund needs. Also, if it is an equity club some portion of the initiation would be held on to to back your share of the club as a security. 


I guess it really depends on the type of club and that club's unique financial position.

[Jeff Fortson]

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[archie_struthers]

 


The Shore Club has a full membership and is owned by a small group of member investors. There is an initiation fee but there is no equity for this fee. Love that the membership is limited and they don't just take anyone. We play in less than 3.5 hours almost every time we play. Rules , yes but not crazy.  Think management is doing an exceptional job!  Conditions are typically close to the best in the area on a daily basis.


So if it never changed I would be happy!  However being a golf architecture fan I'm hard pressed not to try and fix or improve some obvious design flaws.  That's the dilemma ...don't want to price out any of my friends but would love to fix some of the holes for sure !

[Tom_Doak]

An equally valid title for this thread might be, “What is the Goal?”


Hundreds of millions of dollars have been wasted by clubs that forgot to consider their goals before considering changes.


The most vulnerable are those who subscribe to the belief that the course should “always be improving.”  It’s just as easy to go backwards instead of forward if you don’t have a clear end in sight.

[archie_struthers]

 


There are financial issues that surface with a club that's on the ascent. Our structure is there is an initiation fee but no equity for the vast majority of the members. It's good in that if you get the right benevolent dictator the club will eschew frivolous expenses to placate a group of members that aren't really up to speed on architecture and improvements that don't make sense. That's the optimal condition for me as an architectural buff and a competitive golfer.


However , not having any equity in the deal makes whatever new costs come up may or may not strike your particular fancy. For some this may be wall to wall cart paths or bunker renovations that seem frivolous.  So you pray that the management stays focused on the golf first , at least for me and doesn't worry too much about new clubhouses and the like, which have been the kiss of death for many a golf club. This proved to be the case for a childhood favorite of mine , Woodcrest CC , (Flynn 1929) in Cherry Hill , NJ.
The clubhouse , while grandiose in scope , didn't deliver the cash flow on an annual basis that was anticipated.


I'm hopeful that my club will make prudent investments in the facility while maintaining the quiet ambiance we enjoy today. But it ain't easy to do it right!

[Mike Worth]

It's good in that if you get the right benevolent dictator the club will eschew frivolous expenses to placate a group of members that aren't really up to speed on architecture and improvements that don't make sense. That's the optimal condition for me as an architectural buff and a competitive golfer.


However, not having any equity in the deal makes whatever new costs come up may or may not strike your particular fancy. For some this may be wall to wall cart paths or bunker renovations that seem frivolous.  So you pray that the management stays focused on the golf first, at least for me and doesn't worry too much about new clubhouses and the like, which have been the kiss of death for many a golf club. This proved to be the case for a childhood favorite of mine,  Woodcrest CC , (Flynn 1929) in Cherry Hill , NJ.
The clubhouse , while grandiose in scope , didn't deliver the cash flow on an annual basis that was anticipated.

Local to South Jersey, I think you’ll agree that Hidden Creek was a successful “benevolent dictatorship.”


A single owner management structure only works if the owner knows what they’re doing. Roger and Edwina Hansen clearly fit that.


I don’t think there’s a ranking list for management capital spending decisions that ended up sinking a private club. But if there were, Woodcrest’s decision to build a Taj Mahal like Clubhouse in the late 1990s would most certainly merit a National top 10 rating. 

[Ed Brzezowski]

Got to rate the club last fall. You can see the great changes made by the new owners. Their " pride of ownership " is obvious.


I love the changes you talk about. Would really change the feel of the course.

[Peter Bowman]

As a partial owner of a Stiles and Van Kleek course myself, I can say that the recent renovations of all bunkers and their drainage has been the most exciting thing to happen at Hooper since the new ownership took hold in 2018.

We prioritized improving turf conditions and removing trees before the bunkers were addressed, so if The Shore Club has no need to improve conditions, then there could be some long-term gains for the club by doing the restoration and finding someone to design the 6th and 7th keeping as close to S&VK's unique simple designs and use of the land as-is rather than significant earth moving. 

Jeff Stein has done a fine job in the trap restorations in keeping with S&VK, and I highly recommend him to anyone, especially to another S&VK course.  If the owners and members appreciate fine golf, then your ideas have merit and the club should be able to find ways to afford the expense.

We have been conscientious about not raising our costs too high that we have to increase our membership rates too much, other than gradually raising them to where they should be.  Our 2024 $750 membership fee is arguably the best quality deal in all of golf.  We take pride in being a fine blue collar course for the everyday Joe and we intend to keep it that way.  We'll look into other ways to raise revenues such as long distance memberships and creating separate greens fees for locals v. non locals.

[Peter Bowman]

Also, I'd love to see the course someday.  No time this season but maybe I'll be lucky next season

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