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By Rob Carey
Coming off its second course overhaul in 25 years, Wild Dunes Resort is adapting to customer trends and leveraging local advantages to maximize rounds and revenue
In the golf business, location is the ultimate selling point. But what location can give to a facility, it can occasionally take away as well. Case in point: Wild Dunes Resort on Isles of Palms, South Carolina. The resort’s Tom Fazio-designed Links Course boasts wide ocean views on its last three holes, making it highly attractive for golfers visiting Charleston. That proximity, though, recently forced the redesign of No. 18 from a par-5 to a par-3 due to erosion.
“The edges of these barrier islands come and go naturally, and by late 2014 we couldn’t fend it off anymore,” says director of golf Jeff Minton. “We lost the last 150 yards of the hole.”
This wasn’t the first time Mother Nature bit Wild Dunes. In September 1989, Hurricane Hugo destroyed the one-year-old Links Course as well as the eight-year-old Harbor Course that’s set along the Intracoastal Waterway a mile inland. With three to six feet of seawater across both layouts and many thousands of trees lost, no golf was played at Wild Dunes for more than a year.
Though the 2014 erosion incident on Links was mild in comparison to all that Hugo did, management nonetheless used the moment to be aggressive so that the facility would stand out well into the future—especially with another oceanfront golf resort, one with a Ryder Cup pedigree, also located in greater Charleston. So the entire Links Course was closed from May to November 2015 to replace the irrigation system, build concrete cart paths, enlarge and re-contour all greens, and then install on them Champion bermudagrass. What’s more, the par-3 18th is now an original design “worthy of being a finishing hole” rather than an adaptation. The clubhouse was also redesigned for greater player comfort, while the restaurant’s new theme and décor reflects changing demographics and preferences. The total cost: $3.5 million.
With this improved product comes a greater focus by management on delivering a satisfying golf experience to customers through variety. In fact, it’s a key to engaging one customer segment that’s showed signs of life recently.
“We’re seeing corporate groups coming back to using golf during their meetings,” Minton says. “They’re putting some entertainment dollars back into the budget, and golf is getting some of that.”
But what’s different is the type of golf those business groups are playing. The 18-hole shotguns with a box lunch have been replaced by 45-minute clinics starting at 3 p.m., followed by a nine-hole shotgun event. Or the course is skipped altogether, with the practice green the stage for chipping and putting lessons and games accompanied by refreshments.
“For these groups, golf is more of a social activity than it was in the past,” Minton notes. “Playing a full round with the same three people isn’t what they want. We have to be creative in what we offer to get them to use golf.”
In addition, the buddy-group segment is strong at Wild Dunes, and “having a new story to tell about Links is bringing back people who haven’t been here in a few years,” Minton says. And with Harbor positioned as the value option to complement Links, the resort is “drawing a lot of bachelor parties and wedding parties in addition to golf-focused groups. We could charge more to play Harbor, but it serves a purpose to get people here and then be impressed by the whole facility.”
A similar philosophy is used to attract more families to golf. Recently promoted offerings that have gained traction include a “sunset package” for couples that provides a late-afternoon nine plus dinner in the clubhouse; the “kids-play-free-with-parents” deal each afternoon with club rentals for $20; and multi-day packages that include not just golf but also family tennis time, spa treatments and even planned excursions to the aquarium and other Charleston attractions. Forward tees set at the start of each fairway have made a positive impact in this segment as well.
To attract novice golfers of any age, Minton conducts lessons of up to four people that include two holes of play so that “the course’s natural beauty and one or two decent shots gives them the golf bug. These days, beating balls the whole time isn’t going to get people to stick with it.” Furthermore, with the ability to record players’ swings on their own smartphones, Minton creates on-the-course videos with voice-over analysis that keeps the resort experience in students’ minds long after the visit.
With Charleston being a strong destination on its own, Wild Dunes proactively markets to golfers who aren’t staying on property. Minton is able to drive one-third of the facility’s 60,000 rounds a year from local players as well as from visitors not staying at Wild Dunes. “It’s less than 25 minutes from downtown to here, so we’re the closest oceanfront golf resort to the city,” he notes. “We have the course quality that visitors are willing to leave the city for, but they save 30 minutes each way [compared to the area’s other destination-golf experience].”
To ensure tourists and business travelers hear about Wild Dunes, Minton has built relationships with several downtown hotels, especially with their customer-facing staff. Twice a year, he invites them out to play for free and hosts a reception afterwards. There’s also a once-a-year outing he conducts for bartenders, waiters and hosts from Charleston’s restaurants and microbreweries. “We connect with the general food-and-beverage industry because Charleston is such a great food town,” Minton says. “Many people visit the city specifically for that, and maybe we get them to spend their time between meals playing golf.” Lastly, all of these hospitality workers get a heavily discounted rate to play golf themselves on off days and times. The result: “We get a lot of business from them talking about our courses with their guests and patrons.”
For anyone who experiences golf at Wild Dunes, Minton’s goal is to deliver multiple interesting interactions that create not just playing memories but also distinct impressions of the entire resort experience. “It’s about treating the golf customer as a whole person,” he notes. “We train our people to start conversations that provide local immersion in different areas.”
To facilitate this effort, each resort employee’s badge sports a nickname or tagline that invites questions. On Minton’s badge is the nickname Redfish. “Naturally, people will ask why I’m called that, and it’s because I love fishing and that’s the most common fish in our surrounding waters. Then I tell them about my favorite local spots to fish, and that the resort has a great fishing program.” One pro shop staffer’s badge says No Snow, which often starts a discussion about the local activities she enjoys year-round, as opposed to those in her cold-weather hometown.
Even the new restaurant in the Wild Dunes clubhouse is themed around a local story. Huey was a Canadian goose that hung around the nearby gas station and, for whatever reason, only harassed people wearing red clothing. As a result, Huey’s Southern Eats is a diner-style outlet with traditional regional dishes, replacing what was a clubby post-round bar and grill. What’s more, servers tell the story while adorned in t-shirts featuring the offending goose. Minton says that families and couples now dine at the clubhouse as often as golfers do.
Across the whole operation, “giving the insider perspective is what really personalizes a destination experience and makes people feel connected to it.”
Rob Carey is a freelance writer and principal of Meetings & Hospitality Insight.