At Princess Anne Country Club, one of GM Bill Shonk’ s biggest challenges is honoring the club’ s longstanding traditions while keeping an eye on growing membership in the future.
“ The challenge to ensure these parttime team members are living our motto to provide Personal Attention Consistently Captivating( PACC) to each member and guest is met through creative video training and pairing / integrating seasonal team members with longstanding team member stars,” he says.
Princess Anne celebrated its 100th birthday in 2016. Shonk says another of his challenges is“ honoring the traditions of our 100-year-old traditional club while developing / enhancing programming, amenities and lifestyle fit for tomorrow’ s member.”
The joint study indicates that lifestyle fit is more important to millennials and baby boomers( 1946 – 1964) than how much it costs to join. Multi-generations, including Gen X( 1965 – 1976) and Traditionalists( before 1945), say they have similar preferences for club amenities, so there is common ground from which GMs can work.
But a generational divide means club managers can’ t take a one-size-fits-all approach. The importance of amenities such as fitness / sports facilities, social hours, places for family time and dining vary by generation.
Brian Vincel, director of golf operations at Spring Creek Golf Club in Zion Crossroads, says competition with other family
entertainment options is a major hurdle. Vincel is a past general manager at Spring Creek and filled in for current GM Steve Krohn, whose travel schedule prevented him from participating in this report.
“ We are extremely fortunate to have a great facility to attract players, but like everyone in the golf industry, we are all competing for a tiny piece of the free-time pie,” Vincel says.“ With so many entertainment options for individuals and families these days, golf has been forced to take a number and compete like never before … clubs aren’ t competing against one another; we are competing against soccer, karate, video games and all the other options kids have to choose from today.
“ We hope that our efforts to develop strong women’ s and children’ s programs will pay dividends. Let’ s face it, moms are the ones that decide how we allocate much of our free time so if we can convince her golf is a great family activity, we’ ve won half the battle.”
Spring Creek is the centerpiece of a major housing development, and golf is the club’ s focal point.
“ One of the key factors in our success has been the diversity of our membership … We target those who care about the quality of the course and see value in joining a true golf club,” Vincel says.“ Being a development course absolutely has an effect on our operation. Making sure our goals are in line with our residents’ expectations has been a key factor in building a strong relationship with our homeowners. We work with the HOA and its social committee to provide many non-golf related events such as kite day, Oktoberfest, watercraft day, as well as a family dog race. These events build a stronger community and loyalty to the club.”
vsga. org M ARCH / A PRIL 2017 | V IRGINIA G OLFER 17