_Sept/investinginthefuture.jpg "Investing in the Future")
By Kyle Darbyson
Since being tapped to host a Champions Tour event, management of Greystone has been bullish in efforts to upgrade the club's facilities
When it comes to renovating, some clubs need a major event to spur them into action. For Greystone Golf & Country Club, it took an actual major.
The private club in Birmingham, Alabama, had been considering the idea of renovating for quite some time. But when the Champions Tour tapped the course to host its fifth major, the Region’s Traditional, those plans suddenly (and quickly) had to become a reality.
General manager and CEO David Porter says the upgrades will help the club when it hosts some of the world’s best golfers for the tournament, but members will reap the benefits for years. “There’s no doubt this positions Greystone to evolve into a more modern, progressive club,” he notes.
Built in 1991 by Daniel Corporation, a real estate development company, the club quickly grew in prominence when it hosted the Champions Tour
Bruno’s Memorial Classic just one year after opening. A second 18-hole layout was constructed in 2000, and amenities like a pool and tennis courts were added. Membership flourished.
Then, in 2006, the Champions Tour decided to move the tournament to Ross Bridge Golf Resort and Spa on the fledgling Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. Even as the tournament moved once again to nearby Shoal Creek in 2010, members and senior management at Greystone pined for the prestige that accompanied hosting.
“When they heard that Shoal Creek wasn’t going to have it back again for 2016, members really wanted to step it up and become part of that conversation,” Porter explains.
Those members had purchased the club from the original owners in 2010. They started assessing all their amenities and put together a plan to lure the tournament back to Greystone. “They looked at what areas were lacking or didn’t measure up to other facilities in the area,” says Porter.
The new owners also held town halls and sent out surveys to get a picture of what members wanted. Porter says there was near total alignment on what everyone thought needed to be accomplished. “It was very apparent the things we needed to improve on,” he notes.
Much of the focus centered on the clubhouse. Like many older operations, Greystone’s clubhouse lacked a lot of the amenities younger private club members now demand. The small fitness facility wasn’t up to modern standards, but there wasn’t any room to expand. Luckily, a little outside-the-box thinking opened up all the space they needed.
“Our cart barn was housed in the basement,” Porter explains. “It was wasting so much valuable square footage that could have been used for far more useful amenities.”
In response, club management had plans drawn to move cart storage outside into a 9,000-square-foot golf operations facility that doubled as a welcome plaza and venue for meetings or weddings. That opened up 4,000 square feet in which Greystone will build a state-of-the-art fitness facility, more than double their current space.
Locker room facilities were also given a major facelift, and a golf performance center was added to the club’s Legacy course. In all, the club will spend $4 million in advance of the tournament’s arrival in May 2016. Surprisingly, Greystone’s 725 members will not be on the hook for any of it.
“We have a capital improvement fund that a portion of monthly dues is allocated to,” Porter says. “We’ve been banking it for quite some time.”
The renovations give Porter and other stakeholders a huge advantage in recruiting new members and retaining the ones they already have. That’s a marked advantage, given that Greystone is in a 1,400-home gated community where membership isn’t mandatory and penetration hovers around 30 percent.
Not surprisingly, Porter expects those numbers to grow. “The idea is if we have such incredible dining, a great social program, our swimming pool, all these things creating such great value, people will start to ask why they should get in their cars and leave the gates to drive to something that’s inferior,” he notes.
In fact, Porter aims to see 75 percent of homes in the development become members. “That will put us in a position from a dues standpoint that will rival any top club in the country,” he says.
Of course, having players like Fred Couples and Bernhard Langer showcase your newly upgraded course can go a long way in attracting new members, too. Fittingly, Porter is featuring the tournament prominently in all his new sales collateral. “Right now, we’re over budget on new members by 22 percent,” he says.
To be fair, Porter is still getting settled into his role, having just arrived at Greystone in early 2015. He believes the renovations and return of the Champions Tour will only help in the short term. Long-term growth, he says, will come from creating a world-class operation. He’s turned over staff, changed training programs, and even bought new staff uniforms. “We’re not settling for mediocrity here anymore.”
All the positive momentum has the Boston-born Porter issuing some pretty lofty goals. “We want to be a dominant force in the club business,” he says.
With major renovations bringing about major changes, Greystone is well on the way.
Kyle Darbyson is a Vancouver-based freelance writer.