Virginia Golfer September / October 2015 | Page 7

TWO RIVERS COUNTRY CLUB employees are limited in what they can do to describe the club to newcomers. “Job one for the staff is to serve the needs of current members—that’s where our time has to be concentrated,” he says. At the same time, employees are not in the habit of freely offering opinions about the club. Thirdly, they don’t actually know the member experience first-hand. “When a person who is thinking about joining can play 9 or 18 with a member, or sit down to dinner with them, it’s the ultimate chance to get all their questions answered,” says Warring. One piece of data a visitor might ask about is the cost of that major renovation, which not only completely cored out and rebuilt the greens, but renovated all bunkers and overhauled footbridges. As a true feather in the club’s cap, it managed the $1.7 million outlay without calling for an assessment. Club leaders found that, as the project went forward, it was continually under budget and ahead of schedule. That opened up the possibility of adding previously unplanned fixes like the bridge work, which was a valuable late addition because it meant avoiding interruptions down the road. On that same note, the club can cite its progressive policy on the vexing question of the winter overseed. Tossing aside what it sees as an outmoded idea, Two Rivers skipped that disruptive, turf-injuring practice in favor of its new solution—turf colorant. “We painted our fairways this past winter and it was extremely well received by our golfers,” reports Warring. “The rough was brown, so they could see a visual contrast, and the greens are bentgrass, so they aren’t going to discolor. Now we’re in a mode where our bermuda fairways will get their best possible chance to come out of dormancy in early spring—which they did wonderfully this year.” months of weekly session, he notes, before the group plays its first three-hole scramble. Like most country clubs inside the gates of a golf community, this one measures success partly on how many new residents opt to take out a golf membership. In the go-go days of 15 years ago, according to Warring, developers could count on 60 percent of residents buying golf memberships after they bought their home—now that percentage has been cut in half. In this club community, the hit rate is on the low side, at least initially. A review of 2014 shows there were about 30 homes purchased inside The Governor’s Land, yielding a half dozen new members for the club. “People take a wait-and-see approach,” Warring explains. “If they have younger kids, they know they will be using the non-golf amenities, but they want to know there’s room in their schedules for golf.” In response to that concern, a new trial membership was added to the menu of options. Creating new membership categories is a valued tool in the club market these days, and Two Rivers uses it with enthusiasm. A Senior Membership is now in place, to allow older members to continue playing and enjoying the game. PLAYING HOST But visibility is the thread that runs through the club’s strategic outlook going forward. The two VSGA Stroke Play championships “brought people out to the property who wouldn’t otherwise know what we’ve got here,” says Warring. “We consider that a positive.” He adds that premier state events can’t be an every-year occurrence—what matters is just to stay active over the long haul. That’s why having the men’s and women’s golf teams from the College of William & Mary play their home matches at Two Rivers is a win-win for the club and the school. The story is similar for a piece of programming that’s been in place for six years and continues to earn club support. It’s the Two Rivers Invitational, held every year in October and featuring Senior and Super Senior divisions. The goal is to build those fields up to a total of about 120 players, versus the 60 to 70 entrants it currently tops out at. “We’re making a consistent effort to build our Invitational, and our commitment is longterm,” says Warring. “Sometimes it’s human nature to launch an idea and then decide it wasn’t any good because success doesn’t come right away. For something to become really well e