_May/seeingthebigpicture.jpg "Seeing the Big Picture")
By Steve Donahue
Jim McWethy purchased Mistwood Golf Club during the economic downturn, but he's making moves to set the facility on the path to success
Build it and they will come. That’s the scenario Jim McWethy envisions for Mistwood Golf Club in suburban Chicago after constructing a new clubhouse, a restaurant/banquet facility and a performance center—all following a complete course overhaul. When the 27,000-square-foot clubhouse opens in late summer or early fall, McWethy, the club’s owner, will have invested millions of dollars (“into the teens,” he says) into a public golf facility during a period when the sport is struggling.
“I admit the golf industry is a huge challenge, but it can still be a good investment,” says McWethy, who purchased the Romeoville, Illinois, club in 2003 after being an original investor when the course opened in 1998. “We have pretty ambitious plans. I plan to make money, but other things are involved, like the love of the game and a passion for excellence. I also thrive on challenges and want to build something really great.”
Original designer Ray Hearn completed Mistwood’s two-year course renovation in 2013. He strategically improved every hole, including adding 21 Scottish-style, stacked sod-wall bunkers and expanding several bodies of water, including a 65-acre lake now lined by stone walls.
The Performance Center—along with the clubhouse and restaurant/banquet structure, which features stone architecture to create a Scottish farmhouse theme—boasts 11 climate-controlled stations, two indoor heated bays, 32 outdoor stations, a custom club-fitting room, a putting room, a repair and club-building center, a full-service bar with eight flat-screen televisions, and a full kitchen with the capacity to prepare food for groups of 100-plus. High-tech teaching aides include the TrackMan launch monitor, SAM Putt Lab and Quintic ball-motion putting system.
“We’re not only investing in bricks and mortar,” McWethy says. “We’re investing in an outstanding staff that loves golf, they’re passionate—almost crazy—and they love Mistwood. There’s an energy level here I don’t think exists at many other places.”
As the number of amenities has increased, so, too, have green fees; Mistwood “nudged prices up slightly” in 2014. Despite the rate hike, rounds played increased and golf revenue rose more than 20 percent. McWethy attributes flat food-and-beverage revenues to last August’s demolition of the old clubhouse. Because golf revenue was up and F&B was about the same as in 2013, overall 2014 revenue grew slightly less than 20 percent.
“I expect revenue to grow in 2015,” McWethy adds. “Food and beverage was about 15 percent of our total revenue, but I see that growing to over 60 percent. We’ve hired leading food-and-beverage consultants and a new director of F&B, which gives me great confidence about what we can do.”
To realize the numbers McWethy envisions for Mistwood’s food-and-beverage business, the club will focus heavily on non-golfers. “We would be doomed to failure if we only looked at golfers,” McWethy says. “We’ll reach out big time to the general population. The restaurant won’t be leased out to a private owner, and we’ll have craft beers, happy hours and so forth.”
Earlier this year, McWethy fielded an inquiry from an orchestra leader. He initially thought the move was strange until remembering that several retirement communities, with some 16,000 seniors, are located within five miles of Mistwood. Now, he’s considering holding monthly “Moonlight Serenade”-type evenings.
“We have to be open-minded,” says McWethy, “so we’re going to push it and do things like that, [as well as] business outings and business meetings. With the building’s configuration, we have numerous separate areas capable of holding multiple simultaneous functions. If we had lots of people wanting to do something simultaneously, we could hold four or five different events, totaling 450 to 500 people.”
Mistwood’s inquiries for outings have also increased dramatically since the course reopened. McWethy would like to host more outings, but he doesn’t want to become an outings factory.
“The last thing we want to do is have so many outings it makes the course less accessible to regular players and members, and compromises the course’s condition,” says McWethy, who hopes the semi-private facility’s membership increases from last year’s 85 to 100-plus in 2015. “We’ll strive for quality and impeccable service in our outings, not necessarily quantity.”
Mistwood’s restaurant/banquet facility will be open year-round, but McWethy remains uncertain as to whether or not he’ll operate the Performance Center during winter months. Chances are he won’t need to, given that he purchased a nearby, 60,000-square-foot indoor golf dome, now named McQ’s, in 2012. The facility, which has been completely renovated inside and out, features 44 two-level tee stations, two putting areas, a chipping area and its own sports bar/restaurant.
“I think we’ll do just fine,” McWethy says. “Peerless quality tends to sell even in tough times.”
Steve Donahue is a Connecticut-based freelance writer.