Community - GolfBusiness

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An enhanced food-and-beverage business
is one of the changes Melanie Maslow has
championed at Huntsville Golf Club.
From these modest changes, the atmosphere of the
club transformed quickly. “It had a much bigger effect
than I expected, which definitely told me something,”
Maslow says.
Finally, when the general manager grumbled about
members who didn’t come to the club’s 2011 holiday party,
Maslow reached her breaking point. “I said to him, ‘Are
you serious We have to make it so they want to come
here,’” she recalls. “He simply was not a people person,
and a GM can’t be that. So I let him go.”
Less than a year later, Maslow also terminated the
head professional of 17 years. “He took a liking to some
members and ignored others,” she says. “He didn’t put
himself out there like we needed him to.” And when a
group of about 20 angry members insisted that she reconsider,
“I told them, ‘I understand you love the way
he treats you, and I want you to be happy. But the way
you feel is the way everyone here should feel, so we’ll
find someone who does that.’” None of those members
left the club, while literally dozens of other members
thanked Maslow for making the move.
Yet that wasn’t the only big change at Huntsville in
2012. The club used every dollar of its line of credit to
remedy significant drainage problems on two fairways;
to create a new Web site featuring detailed information
for members and nonmembers alike, plus great course
photography; to add a large tent to
the outdoor patio for social events;
to improve the restaurant and
adjacent space; and to hire a topquality
chef. “All of these were investments,
not expenses,” Maslow
says. “They bring in more revenue
and make members want to be here
more often.”
The results strongly back
Maslow’s contention. First, the club
is now back in the running to host
local tournaments that had stayed
away due to unpredictable course
conditions. Second, the new Web
site proclaims that Maslow “has informed
members of things they did
not even know about the club.” It’s
also used to provide a communication
platform for members to set up
games individually and in groups,
while educating the public about the
club’s offerings. Third, the new patio
tent contributed to the booking of four weddings during
2012, with more set for 2013. And fourth, the newly
added Friday night “family dine” event has become a huge
success, combining fine-dining fare for adults, appealing
yet healthy choices for children, plus a kids’ club in a
nearby event room offering games and activities so parents
can mingle with other members. Average attendance
at Friday dinner rose from 40 to 240 in one year, and the
restaurant is now popular enough to stay open more often
in winter, further boosting revenue.
Even more impressive is that 35 new golf members
and 55 new social members joined during 2012—a 20
percent increase in total membership. In fact, Maslow
had to cap social memberships at 125 to maintain the
member experience.
“The driving philosophy for all our decision-making
now is ‘member-oriented,’” Maslow explains. “They
choose to spend their discretionary income here, and they
should get what they deserve for that money—which is
being very comfortable and forgetting whatever else was
on their mind that day. If you give them that, they come
back and bring family and friends, too. Some other clubs
in our area have folded, but we are on the way up. So we
know this works.”
Rob Carey is a freelance writer and principal of Meetings & Hospitality Insight, Inc.