The Golf Club Manager: April 2021 by Golf Club Managers Association

THE GOLF CLUB

T H E

MANAGER

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ISSUE 45 | APRIL 2021

MA N AG E R S ’ A S S O C I AT I O N

GCMA

PERKS AT WORK

HUGE DISCOUNTS EXCLUSIVE TO GCMA MEMBERS GCMA

THE VITAL ROLE OF MANAGERS

GCMA CHIEF CALLS ON INDUSTRY TO RECOGNISE YOUR IMPOR TANCE THE INTERVIEW

MEET REDDITCH’S ‘POCKET ROCKET’

THE CLUB’S GENERAL MANAGER ON R E B U I L D I N G A F T E R T H E PA N D E M I C

EDUCATE | INSPIRE | REPRESENT ‘

Grow your club’s membership by pro flexible payment options... Roger Brown, Chief Commercial Officer, Fairway Credit With the re-opening of golf clubs at the end of the month, over 25 million people vaccinated in the UK, and longer days with better weather on the way, things are beginning to feel so much better. Of course it’s been a really tough time for golf club management over this last year with many months of empty fairways, silent clubhouses and the financial implications created as a result. There is, however, great optimism from club managers as a sense of ‘returning to normal’ inches closer. Preparing for the future Behind closed doors there has been a flurry of activity to get everything ready for a successful re-opening – from greenkeepers and maintenance staff, to hospitality teams and housekeeping, preparations are well underway to welcome players back albeit in a gradual, staggered way. This is great to see but how is this activity being funded? Although club managers are constantly looking at ways to diversify income streams and encourage visitors to spend more when at the course – golf club membership remains the major source of income for most clubs. How are your membership numbers looking for 2021?

Never before has it been more important to retain existing members and bring new players into UK golf clubs – members are the financial life blood and the route to a secure and sustainable future. At Fairway Credit, we believe this will be a pivotal time in golf history – increasing golf club membership will not only help clubs survive in a post pandemic era, but thrive. The future of clubs that cannot sustain and grow membership will become increasingly precarious. Following heightened interest in the game after the first lockdown and the early reintroduction of golf, multiple annual club memberships taken out then, will soon be up for renewal. So too, of course, memberships will align to the start of better weather. For the recruitment team, this is the time to strike, promoting the benefits of membership and secure much needed income. Using a credit option to pay for membership It’s important for clubs to consider compliant payment options for existing and new members. Recent economic uncertainty has made the financing of golf club memberships attractive. In addition, many golfers are looking at new ways to conveniently manage their ongoing annual expenditure effectively by spreading the cost of their club memberships over convenient monthly repayments.

For further information about how Fairway Credit can benefit you and your members, simply; call, email or visit our website.

oviding It is also beneficial for clubs, providing them with a smooth, reliable and regulatory compliant cash flow. With memberships paid to the club in full at the start of each membership year, the club can manage their own financial planning. Fairway Credit, a trading name of Premium Credit, is a market leading brand providing this service to the golf market for over 25 years, providing our services to nearly 40,000 golfers. As well as allowing golfers to spread the cost of membership, clubs can receive a percentage commission for every member that uses our service. More importantly the club receives the annual membership fee upfront in a timely manner, allowing cash flow to be maintained and capital to be spent when and where it’s needed most. Clubs that actively engage in promotional activity relating to credit facilities can often require FCA authorisation. However, since 2015 Fairway Credit has operated a solution that enables members to apply directly to Fairway Credit for finance which DOES NOT require the club to obtain credit broking authorisation, provided the Fairway Credit regulatory guidance processes are followed. We are aware that there is much misinformation in this area which has unsettled some clubs but as the industry leaders and experts we are happy to

provide guidance to our golf clubs to help them keep facilities live and compliant. Whether the golf club directs its members to Fairway Credit’s dedicated payment portals set up on behalf of the club or the payment option is integrated into the club’s existing invoicing systems via Club Systems, we have an unrivalled insight into the requirements of both the member and club. We use this invaluable experience, backed by industry leading administration and systems support from our UK based offices to provide a smooth, seamless customer journey. Fairway Credit is the popular option, with 1 in 4 fee paying golf clubs working with us, and almost 20% of members at these clubs choosing Fairway Credit. Our Fairway Credit facility helps golfers enjoy the benefits of membership, and clubs the satisfaction of knowing their subscription administration is expertly managed and that income generation is being sustained. If we can offer assistance in this area, help you build your membership base and grow revenue opportunities for your club, please don’t hesitate to contact one of the Fairway Credit team on 0344 736 9818.

0344 736 9818 | leisure@pcl.co.uk | www.premiumcredit.com/products/fairway-credit Fairway Credit is a trading name of Premium Credit Limited. Registered office: Ermyn House, Ermyn Way, Leatherhead, Surrey, KT22 8UX. Registered in England and Wales under company number 2015200. Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. *Facility is subject to approval, terms and conditions apply.

CONTENTS IS S UE

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GCMA

INDUSTRY

Have you signed up for Perks at Work yet?

Tom Brooke on the vital role of club managers

A new mentoring programme for managers

INDUSTRY

GRASS ROOTS

Andy Rideout on managing Bramshaw

Meet the Partner: VenueNext Europe

How will golf emerge from the pandemic?

THE BIG INTERVIEW 29

Redditch’s Kerry Alligan-Smith

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THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE GOLF CLUB MANAGERS’ ASSOCIATION GCMA Bristol & Clifton Golf Club, Beggar Bush Lane, Failand, Bristol, BS8 3TH Tel: 01275 391153 | hq@gcma.org.uk CHIEF EXECUTIVE Tom Brooke - tombrooke@gcma.org.uk FINANCE ADMINISTRATOR Lianne Banks - lianne@gcma.org.uk PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Gavin Robinson- gavin@gcma.org.uk BUSINESS PARTNERSHIPS MANAGER Craig Cotterill - craig@gcma.org.uk PRESIDENT JR (John) Jones 2020/22 CAPTAIN Dave Carlisle BOARD OF DIRECTORS Brad McLean, Amy Yeates, Andrew Rankin, Judy Barker, Stuart Leech, Gareth Morgan, Ed Richardson THE GOLF CLUB MANAGER IS PUBLISHED BY: 18 PLAYERS 2 Arena Park, Tarn Lane, Scarcroft, West Yorkshire, LS17 9BF, UK Tel: 0113 289 3979 | info@sportspub.co.uk PUBLISHER Tom Irwin - t.irwin@18players.com CONTENT DIRECTOR Dan Murphy - d.murphy@18players.com EDITOR Steve Carroll - s.carroll@18players.com CHIEF DESIGNER Andrew Kenworthy - a.kenworthy@18players.com DESIGNER Emmi Parry - e.parry@18players.com PROJECT MANAGER James Broadhurst - j.broadhurst@18players.com Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, but the publishers cannot accept responsibility for omissions and errors. All material in this publication is strictly copyright and all rights are reserved. The views expressed in The Golf Club Manager do not necessarily represent the views of the company or the editor. Every care is taken in compiling the contents but the publishers assume no responsibility for any damage, loss or injury arising from participation in any offer, competition or advertising contained within The Golf Club Manager.

THE GOLF CLUB

T H E

MANAGER

O F F I C I A L

J O U R N A L

O F T H E

G O L F

C LU B

ISSUE 45 | APRIL 2021

MA N AG E R S ’ A S S O C I AT I O N

GCMA

PERKS AT WORK

HUGE DISCOUNTS EXCLUSIVE TO GCMA MEMBERS GCMA

THE VITAL ROLE OF MANAGERS

GCMA CHIEF CALLS ON INDUSTRY TO RECOGNISE YOUR IMPOR TANCE THE INTERVIEW

MEET REDDITCH’S ‘POCKET ROCKET’

THE CLUB’S GENERAL MANAGER ON R E B U I L D I N G A F T E R T H E PA N D E M I C

EDUCATE | INSPIRE | REPRESENT ‘

ON THE COVER: Redditch’s Kerry Alligan-Smith Cover picture: Mike Hyde/Carefree Photography

WELCOME I S S U E

S I write this, my wife is enjoying her first round of golf of 2021, as are many thousands of golfers throughout England. Unfortunately, my first bad shot of the year is going to have to wait another couple of weeks! The Welsh Parliament certainly took us by surprise recently, giving only 24 hours’ notice to clubs for reopening on March 13. Congratulations to our Welsh members for the amazing work you did in turning this around so quickly and thank you also to Wales Golf for their support. As golf clubs in England reopened on March 29, golf in Northern Ireland opening on April 1 and, of course, measures in Scotland now permitting fourballs, we are certainly on the way to getting back to ‘normality’. We recently did a piece of work with Jim Croxton from BIGGA, aimed at reminding the golfing public that we are still only in early spring, we’re recovering from an extremely wet winter and, of course, greenkeepers have been on furlough. So I do hope this has had an impact and as golfers return to the fairways, I hope they are appreciative of the work you and your teams have been doing to get golf courses ready for play. Thank you also to Jim Croxton for joining us on a members’ webinar recently and for the advice and support he has provided. Briefly touching on other industry matters, we continue to work with the Home Unions on

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the launch of the Independent Golfer handicap scheme and the extremely important work being done on Safe Golf. We will continue to keep you up to date and informed on these issues, as well as anything else effecting the industry. Equally, if you would like to discuss these, or any other industry matters, please do not hesitate to get in contact with me. At GCMA HQ, our attention, as always, will be very much focused on you, our members, and as such we are at the end of the phone, or email, if we can be of any support or guidance whatsoever. In the meantime, we will be planning ahead for the next series of webinars under our new INSPIRE, KNOW HOW and HOT TOPICS banners, as well as continuing to work on all areas of our education, professional and personal development services, including the new SkillGate and Perks at Work platforms, which we hope you are enjoying. Finally, within last week’s e-newsletter, we provided you with some details and reminders of our various wellbeing and mental health services, so do keep this in mind and please do remember to look after yourselves.

Tom Brooke – Chief Executive

“

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COURSE MANAGER, PRINCE’S GOLF CLUB

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GCMA Everything you need to know about what’s happening around the UK in the world of the GCMA

Association mourns loss of ‘inspirational’

IAN SYMINGTON

t is with deep sadness and regret that the Association was informed of the sudden and sad passing of Ian Symington, who was our National Captain in 2019. During his 20 years in the industry, Ian was a former Secretary of Royal West Norfolk, Royal Cinque Ports, High Post and Notts Golf Clubs. During this period, he was a member of no less than six different regions – therefore he was already well known and respected throughout the Association before taking up the role of National Captain. Ian was a very popular and knowledgeable Captain who, although suffering from a degenerative eye condition during his year in office, visited virtually every region using various forms of transport ably assisted by his many friends. He was clearly an inspirational gentleman and the numerous messages and e-mails the Association received, detailing personal memories and anecdotes, lay testimony to his wonderful character. Ian thoroughly enjoyed his year as our National Captain and he commented in an article he wrote when leaving office that he ‘hoped to have fulfilled his duties reasonably well’ which epitomises his modesty to the extreme. Ian is survived by his wife, Lindsey, and his four grown up children, Andrew, Olivia, Emilia and Rory.

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The former Secretary of Royal West Norfolk, Royal Cinque Ports, High Post and Notts Golf Club was a very popular and knowledgeable National Captain of the GCMA

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Have you started using GCMA

PERKS AT WORK?

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GCMA Perks at Work and the Community Online Academy have been launched to huge fanfare

rom taking virtual fitness classes to making big savings on your online shopping, the GCMA Perks at Work programme is a membership benefit that you are going to want to take full advantage from. The platform launched to members last month and many have immersed themselves in the huge range of opportunities provided by what’s classed as the ‘ultimate members’ discount site’. It is all part of GCMA chief executive Tom Brooke’s desire to renew the Association’s focus and vision on membership services and investment in the professional, personal development, and wellbeing of members. “This is one of those benefits that is geared towards providing for you as an individual, rather than what it’s providing for you in your business life, and we want to get that balance and development in terms of our membership services,” he said. “The platform really looks after you in terms of wellbeing, health and fitness, mental health and, of course, there’s a financial benefit element to it as well. “It will be a really fantastic and high value addition to your GCMA membership.” So if you’ve yet to sign up, or couldn’t make the GCMA webinar last month which gave attendees a demo of the new platform, we’re here to fill you in on what you’re missing.

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What is Perks at Work? Your GCMA membership is now a vehicle to save money. You can search your favourite retailers and explore the offers available by using your GCMA Member Benefits account. Perks at Work allows you to earn WOWPoints on a dazzling array of products and services. These range from every day food shops, fashion, technology, utilities and days out. There are more than 3,500 brands featured and they include big firms like ASDA, John Lewis, Currys PC World and Just Eat. How do WOWpoints work? Once you’ve signed up, you should see the GCMA Perks at Work homepage. You can then click on the Benefits tab, where you will be able to browse both the Community Online Academy and Perks at Work sections. The latter uses an online currency called WowPoints. This is cashback and any WOWPoints earned through the site can be spent or redeemed as cash. So, for example, 5 x WOWPoints = 5% cashback. WowPoints can be used anywhere throughout the Perks at Work site – from purchasing cinema tickets to even a car – or it can be put back into your bank account. You’ll also be able to benefit from card linked offers, one-off deals, e-codes and using reloadable cards. Sometimes, you’ll have the option to take an immediate discount (say 5%, for example)

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on purchase of items through the site, or earn WOWPoints and the amounts you’ll earn or see returned can sometimes be different. You’ll need to weigh up and decide which benefit is more convenient to you at that particular moment in time. Friends and family can be invited through email and you can access the site from a laptop, tablet and mobile phone.

fitness, to personal development, you’ll be able to create your own playlist of videos to watch. There are more than 100 virtual live classes, held every Thursday and lasting between 30 and 45 minutes, while there are more than 3,000 videos that can be watched on demand in the Video Hub. Classes include: boxing, yoga and strength training; selfimprovement, leadership skills, and mentoring; sign language, coding and dance.

What do I do now? If you haven’t already, click on the email you were sent and sign up to GCMA Perks at Work by entering your name and email. You’ll be asked to enter your date of birth and please do so by using the following date: 18/02/21 If you’ve mislaid the email, or are still having trouble signing up, get in touch with our Business Partnerships Manager, Craig Cotterill, by email craig@gcma.org. uk.

What is the Community Online Academy? We’ve all been staying home and facing a familiar set of lockdown challenges. Perks at Work introduced the Community Online Academy (COA) to support members during what’s been an unprecedented time during the pandemic. It is a free resource of live and on demand classes for adults and kids. Ranging from wellness, and

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olf’s future success is reliant on club managers and the sport must embrace that, the GCMA’s chief executive has declared. Speaking at the virtual GolfBIC conference, Tom Brooke said the “opinions and insights of golf club managers and operators can, and should, play such an important role in influencing the direction of the industry”. He urged home unions and governing bodies to improve their links with managers and told committees they needed to give them the “credit and support they deserve”, while allowing them to get on with the business of leading the club. “Golf club managers are key leaders within the industry,” he said in his presentation ‘The Growing Value of the Golf Club Manager’. “They take responsibility for delivering and hosting the vast majority of participation at grass roots level. Golf clubs and golf centres is where golf happens.” Brooke looked back to the work of his members over the last 12 months of the coronavirus pandemic, saying club managers and teams “went absolutely above and beyond and really showed their true leadership credentials”. “That really should be recognised,” he added. “We think about all of the added pressures of staff welfare, of customer welfare – because of the ongoing coronavirus risks – at the same time as that huge increase in demand and footfall we were seeing coming through the doors every day for days and days on end. “That took courage. It took determination. It took an incredible amount of commitment and hard work. And now I think we can

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really grow from that. I think we really can support and utilise those individuals, and their skills, for the betterment of the game.” Brooke said the value of the golf club manager was rising and expressed his view that they are under-represented in the industry. “Our [GCMA] vision is to ensure that our members are more acknowledged as valuable and highly educated individuals and real leaders to take us forward.” He remembered a recent conversation with a general manager, who told him he’d committed to three different strategic plans over the last five years as a result of changes in board and committee structures. Brooke told clubs to focus in on the kind of facility they wanted to be, whether that was traditional private members, modern family club, or pay and play, and then trust the manager to plot the way forward. “I’ve urged committees and golf club boards in the private membership sector to really think about that, and to give your golf club general manager the credit, and the support they deserve,” he said. “Equally, give them the leadership role and trust them to lead your club, and take that responsibility on”. He concluded: “Allow them to lead your business. That’s how you will achieve success. To my colleagues in the in the governing bodies and home unions: really involve and engage with golf club managers and with golf clubs. “The industry will be all the better for it. We must support and we must develop the key industry workforce of golf clubs if we’re going to achieve the success and the retention that we’re striving for. So that’s all about vision, it’s about collaboration. It’s about strategy, and it’s about leadership.”

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Give managers the‘credit and support

THEY DESERVE’

GCMA chief executive Tom Brooke extolled the vital role of the golf club manager at the influential GolfBIC industry conference

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The big challenge as golf reopens

FROM LOCKDOWN

he levels of play produced by golfers flocking to courses as coronavirus lockdowns ease may present a “fairly major challenge” for club managers and greenkeepers. In a GCMA Hot Topics webinar, Jim Croxton, chief executive of the British & International Golf Greenkeepers Association, told viewers those levels were likely to be “significantly ahead” of where they would normally be in April – as players make up for lost time after three months of closure came to an end in England on March 29. Croxton said the number of rounds played per month in the early spring averaged out at around a couple of thousand per course over the last five years. But last May, when the first Covid shutdown was eased and golf clubs reopened, that figure nearly doubled as players rushed to courses and rose further through the summer. Croxton said: “The levels of play are going to be significantly ahead of where they normally would be for March and April and that presents a fairly major challenge for all the GCMA members and our members.” Croxton used the analogy of a three-legged stool and a glass of water – representing the balance between the amount of play that’s permitted and put through the golf course, the amount of maintenance that’s allowed to take place, and the expectation of golfers and the condition of the

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golf course they will find. “I think that’s a really tricky balancing act,” he added. “If any one of those legs get longer, or potentially shorter – in terms of, let’s say, maintenance isn’t maintained – then pretty soon that glass of water falls off and we’re in with a problem.” Croxton added he felt the only people who could “influence all three legs of the stool” is the general manager. He explained: “You manage expectations. You set the standards that you would ask your greenkeeping team to achieve. “You decide how much the tee sheet is open, what your regulations are and what the interval is between tee times, when you’re going to have visitors playing and groups and then you, working with your course manager, I hope, manage the level of maintenance that’s available. I think that’s the biggest challenge that the industry is going to face these next few months.” Croxton also outlined the continuing challenges arising from worms, chafer grubs and leather jackets – and the lack of chemical options with which to deal with them – as well as highlighting the oncoming difficulties of climate change and the growing water emergency. “Water is the biggest thing,” he said. “If you are in the Midlands of England and south, and you’re at all reliant on mains water, you are in trouble. You need water security as a matter of some urgency.”

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In a GCMA Hot Topics webinar, BIGGA chief executive Jim Croxton said only golf club managers could balance the ‘three-legged stool’ of play, maintenance and expectation over the next few weeks

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ADVERTORIAL

Getting to grips with your

ENERGY BILLS We sit down with electricity and gas experts Brook Green Supply to get the answers to some key energy questions that could help your golf club

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rook Green Supply is an Industrial and commercial energy supplier that manages a diverse portfolio of large energy consumers across the UK. They recognise the need for simple, transparent, and fairly priced gas and electricity supply contracts. With the GCMA, Brook Green Supply saw a great opportunity to bring their knowledge and expertise to an industry that is increasingly working towards a sustainable future. They know that golf club managers make tough decisions every day and worrying about their energy bills should not be one of them. To help clubs get better understanding of their energy bills and contract differences, the GCMA posed some key questions to Michelle Dance, Brook Green Supply’s New Business Manager… What are the main charges or information that all managers should be aware of when they receive their invoices? The main thing to look out for is that the standing charge and the price per kilowatt hour remains the same throughout the term of the contract, if you’ve signed a fixed price contract. If that differs month on month then the discrepancy should be raised with the supplier. Meter reads are also important to verify to ensure accurate consumption is being charged. As a manager, when should I review my energy bills? Managers should always look at their energy bills and compare to the contract and agreed charges. Keep a regular eye on energy prices. If they fall, as they can do during the contract year, this could then mean

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a saving on next year’s contract. It’s never too early to look ahead. You can secure a business contract 12 to 24 months before your existing contract is due for renewal, with most suppliers offering prices up to three years out. Why are golf clubs charged CCL on their bills? The CCL is a Climate Change Levy. It’s a government-imposed tax to encourage the reduction of carbon emissions and to improve greater efficiency of energy use. It’s only charged on the units kilowatt hours that are used and not on any other component of the bill, such as a daily fixed charge. Separate rates have been set for electricity and gas and as these are now index linked and therefore likely to increase on the first April of each year, all businesses can look to decrease their CCL costs by becoming more energy efficient. This can range from installing energy saving technology to onsite generation such as solar. Why do commercial gas and electricity bills change? Competition and wholesale costs affect price changes. Energy prices aren’t set by Ofgem, the industry watchdog for energy markets, or by the government for commercial supply points. Wholesale commodity markets for gas and electricity are very volatile and impacted by supply and demand factors both within the UK and globally. The commodity cost in your contract varies based on the market prices at the time you secure your contract. Non-commodity costs are also a significant part of your overall invoice, and these costs for delivering energy to your site and for various government schemes are reviewed regularly so your

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5 QUESTIONS TO ASK TPIs More than 70% of UK companies now use a Third Party Intermediaries (TPIs) to support their energy requirements. A primary driver for the decision to engage with a TPI is to reduce annual energy spend, however the biggest value a TPI can often provide is the reduction in a cost which is much harder to quantify – your time. The UK energy market is complex and there are a plethora of energy products and tariffs from over 25 business energy suppliers for customers to navigate. Indeed, even once a product is selected, some suppliers have over 50 pages of T&Cs to review that are full of energy acronyms and jargon requiring a level of expertise and industry understanding not found within many businesses. With over a thousand TPIs operating in the UK, it is important for customers to ask the right questions before they enter into any agreement: 1. How do you charge for your services? 2. How many suppliers do you work with? 3. What services are you offering? 4. How long does your average customer relationship last? 5. How will you help me make an informed decision? To read more information relating to the five questions above, visit www. brookgreensupply.com/ insight/the-top-five-questionsto-ask-your-tpi

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ADVERTORIAL contract cost will reflect the current prices at the time you secure your contract. What is a fixed contract? A fixed contract is where a business will agree on all rates and charges up front, with a supply for a fixed term. And that fixed term can be 12, 24 or 36 months. Those prices remain the same until the contract expires and that rate includes all of the noncommodity charges, which are also known as third party costs. One point to note that is if you are in a fixed contract, you agree to a forecast consumption which is an agreed usage for the contract year. Each contract will have a volume tolerance but there could be penalties in the contract if you are under or over what is agreed. What is a flexible contract? A flexible contract can offer businesses more control as the commodity cost is achieved through multiple purchasing decisions, rather than fixing a price upfront on one day. Customers also have the ability to change their forecast consumption if needed, which gives greater flexibility. Non-commodity costs are usually pass-through, which means the customer pays the exact cost without any additional risk premiums, although there can be options to fix these depending on the chosen product. Non-commodity costs include charges such as distribution and metering, and government schemes to incentivise renewable generation and security of supply. TCR (Targeted Charging Review) comes into force in April 2022. Can you explain this? The existing Triad system will

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be replaced with a fixed charge methodology from April 2022. At the moment, we are charged based on our energy use. The more power you use, the more you pay. Ofgem want to change this in recovering so-called ‘residual’ network costs and under the proposed new system, people will be given a ‘fixed charge’ depending on the category they’re deemed to fit into. The rationale is that we all benefit from the grid and have to pay for it, so why should the people who are able to use less energy, pay less, and people who can’t reduce their energy use have to pay more? The biggest impact will likely be on those businesses that are already employing Triad-avoidance measures, such as switching to back-up generation or reducing demand during Triad periods, as this will no longer provide the cost reduction impact it did under the previous scheme and the new charging scheme will create winners and losers with the potential of using creative ideas to reduce these costs. Explain Green Energy and where it comes from... If you choose a Green Energy supply contract, you will still get your electricity from the national grid in the same way as you would if you were on a non-green tariff. Electricity is generated from a range of sources, some of which are renewable. All generated energy is sent to the national grid and is then supplied to businesses and domestic supplies. Renewable energy can come from wind farms, solar farms and hydroelectric power stations which capture the energy of falling water to generate electricity.

Several suppliers offer Green Energy tariffs and some supplies are greener than others when it comes to how much they support renewable energy. Choosing a green tariff doesn’t automatically mean you’re choosing a supply that owns solar and wind farms, but it may have deals to buy power from renewable generators. Energy suppliers are required to publish details of their fuel mix. For example, what percentage of the energy they generate comes from renewable sources and what percentage comes from other sources such as coal, gas and nuclear power? We have been asked some questions from golf club managers about third party intermediaries and how they charge, can you help explain this? Approximately 70% of UK businesses use an energy broker, also referred to as a Third Party Intermediary (TPI), to source and lock in their gas and power contracts. The TPI will either charge the client upfront or they will be paid direct from the supplier. This is usually an amount per kWh. The broker/TPI market is not regulated. Our advice would always be to check the terms and conditions and any exclusivity clause before signing any thirdparty agreement. If the contract has an exclusivity clause then this will usually mean that you cannot benchmark or compare prices either directly with a supplier or with another broker. For more information about how Brook Green Supply can help your golf club, visit www. brookgreensupply.com

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THE COUNTDOWN IS ON! We can help you prepare for golfers to be back on your course Verifeye from RGM uses powerful RFID technology which allows you to make decisions and amendments that keep your members safe and satisfied.

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INDUSTRY The latest news, insightful opinions and in-depth features from the golf industry

Talking Point

EuropeanTour chief’s‘crazy’ideas to solve

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ould you play 18-holes without taking any practice swings? What about rushing round the course every Tuesday and Thursday mornings? The man who brought golf the Shot Clock Masters and GolfSixes has some interesting new ideas about how the sport can try and stamp out slow play. “You might look at these and go ‘this is crazy’,” European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley told the industry at the online GolfBIC conference. But he urged viewers to think about ways they could quicken up the game and get more people involved. Among his other suggestions were: • Special times for twoballs only • Men’s and women’s club nights together – playing only six holes • Fourballs have to putt with the flag in Pelley said: “These are just some ideas. It’s always been a pet peeve of mine – slow play at all the golf courses, not just in the professional game. “And so, how innovative can we be? That’s the slogan. You might look at these and go ‘this is crazy’ and my last idea [ready golf, no practice swings in specific time slots] is probably not doable. But think about it. “First of all, why can’t we have speed golf on Tuesdays and Thursday mornings – from 7am to 8.30am? If you’re playing from seven to 8.30, you’ve got to walk. You have

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to be in a twoball. You’ve got to play within two and a half hours. “I played with Ross Fisher. We played from the backs at Wentworth. He closed me out on 14 so that maybe helped a little, but we played in just over two hours and 20 minutes, walking the West course.” He added: “Men’s [and women’s club nights together] Play six holes, let them play for an hour and 15 and come back. Special times for twoballs only; fourballs have to putt with the pin in. It’s been incredible. Covid has taught us that putting with the pin in is something that you get used to, and it is definitely quicker. “And last the one I know it sounds crazy but Ready Golf, no practice swings. You just can’t have a practice swing, you have to play Ready Golf. “These are just little things that we have to try to address, because we constantly hear ‘I don’t have four hours to play. I don’t have four and a half hours to play’. “Trust me, the Millennials and the Gen Zs are completely different in terms of their ability to focus for an elongated time. “So I think this is going to be a big challenge going forward for our game: how we can play, and how quicker we can play? “That is exactly why we’ve done GolfSixes. We put it in the professional game. Now there’s golf courses playing it all over Scotland, the R&A are adopting it as well. “We’ll bring it back on the pro circuit because we think it is a massive opportunity.”

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Keith Pelley has some interesting suggestions on how to deal with his ‘pet peeve’ – the continuing menace of slow play

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The interview...Kerry

ALLIGAN-SMITH Redditch’s ‘Pocket Rocket’ is leading her club out of the coronavirus pandemic with confidence

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ou came to Redditch from a very commercial background. What was it that attracted you about working in a private members’ club? They’re very forward thinking. They made some dramatic changes before I joined – so smaller committees and having the general manager on the board. They were looking for somebody to take it to next stage and to really try and push things a lot more. It is a traditional club. It is a private members’ club, but they are very open to new and creative ideas. That’s my background. It’s all about ‘what difference can we make? Let’s try it. If it doesn’t work, what lessons can we learn from that?’ It’s about having the trust in the membership, and having the trust in the committee, to allow me to do what I need to do for the betterment of the club. Was it a bit of a culture shock at first? I don’t mean that negativity, but you’ve come from very highprofile projects and environments that are heavily sales oriented into a traditional private members’ club environment… It was really challenging in the beginning. The way you would look at it is going from a corporate background into a family-owned business. There’s policies, rules and regulations, and discussions about making decisions. So one of the things was really to try and develop trust within the committees – to say ‘look, this is what we need to do, this is how we can change it’. It was going to be bumpy in the beginning, because it’s a bit of a shock for the members but also for me. In my first year, we took the pro in-house as well.

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You were brought in to be a moderniser and one of your first projects was to consolidate the golf club as one entity and one team. That must have been a tricky project to push through because you’re dealing with structures that have been in place for a long time… You do have to ride it out and it is painful at times but it’s just one of those things you need to do. It was the best thing we could have done – especially coming into the pandemic. We moved staff around. We all did a bit of everybody’s role. Even at the moment, I’ve got pro shop and bar staff working on the greens. Normally I’ve got six greens staff. Now I’ve got nine of them all focused on the work to prepare the course for opening. That’s key. If we were split up as a team, or we had franchises here, there, and everywhere, it would have been an absolutely traumatic period. We didn’t have to worry about paying a retainer for the pro, or furloughs, or any of those things. We tried to be really creative and really proactive. Even though we’re going through this difficult time, everybody’s still being supported by the club and still in work. That’s really important. A lot of people out there aren’t working. When they do come back to work because they’ve had so much time on furlough, they’re really going to struggle coming back into the workplace. So you’ve had this big consolidation exercise and then a pandemic the like of which hasn’t been seen for 100 years in your time at Redditch. You’ve not experienced normal yet… The first month I started it snowed so I was known as the Ice Queen.

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GCMA | NEED TO KNOW | INDUSTRY | CAREERS | GOOD PRACTICE | GRASS ROOTS Now I’m known as the Covid Queen! What has helped is my background. Working in shopping centres and at the Olympic Park, I’d done quite a lot of work around crisis management. So, in this sort of scenario, I’ve actually come into my own. These things don’t faze me. I always look for a solution. I always look at how we can get around things. The first and second lockdowns, I worked all the way through. I was part-time furloughed in January and then back to normal because we’ve got a refurbishment and an extremely tight deadline to get that sorted. We did go through some redundancies. It was a heavily reduced headcount but we are now starting to rebuild as we come out of the pandemic. I had all the support from the committee, but it was still really challenging and a really testing time. But it was something that, as a club, needed to be done. At that time, we didn’t know how long the furlough [scheme] was going to continue. We didn’t know where anything was going. There were some extremely difficult conversations taking place. I’ve struggled in the latest lockdown, I must admit. January was really challenging. You’re constantly up and down through this whole pandemic. You come out of it, things are going well, you start planning and rebuilding and then you get slapped down again with the second lockdown. Then you have Christmas and you think ‘right, it’s a new year and we go into that’ and you’re knocked back down again. So, in the first part of January, I struggled but it was more a point of just keeping yourself busy. Now, with the refurbishment,

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we’re getting back into golf and we’re starting to rebuild and make plans, that has brought me back up to where I was before. Those things give me the buzz. That keeps me going. We all want an easy life but if it wasn’t fast paced, if there wasn’t a challenge, if there wasn’t anything I didn’t have to do, that would worry me more than having to do too much. I enjoy spinning plates. You have a consensual style of management. You like your team to take responsibility and you give them the means to do that. But you’re also a people person so how difficult has it been not to have communication over lockdowns? I still had my team meetings. We always had a catch up with the team at least once a month. It’s just to keep them updated and make sure they’re still motivated to come back. Because the team has been condensed so much over the last few months – and we’ve all been doing each other’s roles at some point – that’s actually made us even closer. For example, there’s the bar staff and pro shop working on the greens. They’ve got more of an understanding in terms of how the greenkeepers work, the amount of work that’s involved, and vice versa. So even though the pandemic has been absolutely awful, it’s actually been a benefit for the club and the staff coming in. I would never ask somebody to do something I wouldn’t do myself. It’s leading by example. If somebody has an idea, if they want to try something, I will completely support them. Even if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t matter. We tried it, and it’s about the lessons that can be learned and what we can improve. That’s where you get the

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momentum, the constant change and the constant improvement. The members will naturally come with you. But you do need the whole team to be on board, to get the end result and meet the members’ expectations. You said you’re going through a refurbishment. It’s been a terrible time financially for some clubs through this period but, presumably, Redditch is looking forward with confidence? The golf club is in a healthy position. We did what we could for the members in the first lockdown. We have actually reduced our 7-day membership fee for this year, when lots of golf clubs are putting their prices up. Last year, we looked at a five-year plan and what we wanted to do was to try and harmonise the subscriptions. Five and six-day will come into seven-days. We’ll have intermediate discounted memberships integrated so when they hit the age of 30 it’s not so much of a big jump. We started that process last year. We made a decision to make the reduction, which is what we promised our members. We’ve Kerry Alligan-Smith Kerry started her career in a corporate environment – in banking, sales, media sales and managing shopping centres. She managed large outdoor events at the Olympic Park, in London, and successfully applied for the general manager’s job at Redditch in 2017. Kerry was named Newcomer of the Year at the prestigious GCMA Golf Club Management Awards in 2019.

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stuck to that, and all the new members joining now will be on the same subscription fee as a full 7-day member. You’re known as the ‘Pocket Rocket’. Tell me a little bit about where that came from? Presumably it refers to the energy you show in your work… I was called the Pocket Rocket in my previous role as well. I’m all over the place, but in a good way. I can do so many different things.

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Once a decision is made, I don’t mess around and it gets delivered. The refurbishment we’re doing at the moment is a big project. I got the go ahead on the Friday, work started on the Monday and I’ve given the builders and all the team a deadline of April 12 for that to be 100 per cent finished. The committee thinks it’s going to be May 17 and I haven’t allowed myself enough time. It will be done by April 12. We’re building a working hub. I

went to the committee in January to say ‘look, a lot of people work from home anyway. More and more people are naturally going to be working from home. Why can’t we create a space where we can get members to come, plug in, do some work, meet a friend and go out and play the game?’ Or they can be one-on-one having a coffee meeting. It’s just ways to really try and utilise the space and create that work-life balance for our members

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brave – we haven’t come across it yet – but if somebody sees a professional on TV wearing a hoodie at Wentworth then their expectation, immediately, is ‘I can go to any golf club, wear a hoodie, and play golf’. I think it’s more about how you manage those expectations. If someone turns up with a hoodie with a big massive logo on it, that’s just not going to happen. But it’s always that argument: whether it’s golfing attire. If you can buy it in a pro shop then, in theory, you should be able to wear it on the course. There’s going to be some pretty hefty conversations in golf, in terms of those dress codes going forward. Ultimately, it’s down to the club. We are smart/golf attire on the course and relaxed casual/smart in the clubhouse. As a result of the refurbishments, the whole of the clubhouse will be soft spikes. You don’t need a spike bar; you don’t need to worry and say ‘I can’t go in there because I’ve got golf shoes on’. We’re looking at that flexibility to create. When people come in, you don’t want to bombard them with loads of rules. You want them to feel as comfortable as possible.

as well as having the social elements and the functions that go with it at a later date. Again, there’s a lot of golf clubs you can’t go into and use your phone. We’re putting workstations in and areas where you can have a meeting. It’s quite different but so many people are really excited, and we just hope they can and do use it in time. There’s a debate about this at the moment – how golf needs to change. Whether

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that’s surrounding dress codes and so on. Here, you’re putting workstations into the clubhouse. Presumably you’re quite relaxed in your approach? Do you feel modernisation is the way forward? Yes, I think so. You’ve got golfing ambassadors and you’ve got the pros. You’ve got Hatton in a hoodie around Wentworth. It’s very difficult to, as a golf club, then say ‘I’m not allowing a hoodie’. I’m not saying at Redditch we’re that

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You won the GCMA’s Newcomer of the Year Award in 2019. How big a deal was that for you and how has it helped as your career has progressed? I was absolutely shocked. The expectation was that I’d entered and been recommended for the award. The whole process really opened my eyes and it did build up my confidence quite a bit. It was lovely to see people [who had been nominated], their backgrounds, how long they’ve been dedicated to the club, and being on top of things that have happened through their process.

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When I won, it was incredible and I felt the work I had done had been really recognised. The only people who had seen that work were my committee. As a general manager, you get more bad than positive feedback. It is quite a lonely place, so to have the external recognition – and obviously the recommendation from my own committee – really gave me the confidence to prove to them even further that we can succeed and we can keep pushing on. Since then, even though I had the trust of the committee previously, they’ve really supported the decisions being made and they’re just allowing me to get on with the work for the best of the club because they put their trust in

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me and know I can deliver. I think it’s really important committees can leave the club to be managed. That’s probably always been a little bit of a sticking point in a lot of clubs. It’s just a shame that I got the award and haven’t been able to do anything with it. Part of winning was being an ambassador for the GCMA for that two-year period and I just haven’t had the opportunity to be able to do that. I’m quite hopeful, once things do go back to normal, I can take part in any conferences they’ve got coming up and try and support the GCMA in a better way going forward.

Redditch Known as one of the Midlands’ best courses, Redditch is a part-parkland, part-woodland private members’ club and was founded in 1913. The Callow Hill course was designed by Frank Pennink in 1972 and is renowned for its exceptional greens, which were re-laid in the mid 1980s under the direction of the Sports Turf Research Institute. Redditch was the first club in Worcestershire to sign up for the R&A’s Women in Golf Charter.

Pictures courtesy of Mike Hyde/ Carefree Golf Photography

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A matter of opinion: The return

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As clubs reopen after lockdown, a trio of managers consider what the next few months have in store

olf in England and Wales is back and it’s on the way in Ireland too. As clubs wake up from their coronavirus-induced slumber, yet still under various restrictions until the summer, we asked a trio of managers to assess how the next few months will look and how the sport will emerge from the pandemic… Golf clubs have reopened but restrictions remain in place. What are the opportunities and challenges now for your clubs? What does the next couple of months look like? Gareth Anthony: Membership is the key aspect for us because our renewals are due on April 1. We sent them out and the response has been pretty good. We’ve been getting quite a few applying for membership and that’s been really productive. It’s all based around the membership for us. We won’t really be taking visitors for the foreseeable future. We’ll have to see what impact of play on the course is, capacity-wise, before we decide about visitors. But there’s a great opportunity in terms of really driving the membership side. We’re not quite full yet. We’ve got around another 50 to go before we get there and, hopefully, we can recruit those before the end of April or early May. We’ll look at it, see financially where we stand, and how we can go about trading in the future.

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Chris White: The biggest immediate challenge is capacity. Our membership is completely full. We’ve got 50-odd people on our waiting list. That’s pretty unprecedented. We haven’t had that since the beginning of the 1990s. There’s going to be a lot of people wanting to get out and play. Our membership is full but it’s quite diverse. We’ve got a lot of people who live away and a couple of hundred who are London way, which is two to three hours from us. In Covid times, people who maybe had second homes in this part of the world decided they wanted to make this their primary residence. They’d rather be locked down by the seaside than in a city centre and the [case] rates have been lower here generally throughout. We’ve got our own roadmap of what members can expect. They’ve got exclusive access to the golf course for at least the first two weeks. After that, they will have another period of four weeks where they might be able to bring a guest. From May 17 when, theoretically, the clubhouse reopens properly, we will be looking to take visitor income again. Visitors are a big part of our club and we absolutely welcome them, but It’s a fine balance because the members are the ones who’ve had to put up with the closure - more so than anyone who would come and visit on a day. But, obviously, visitor income hugely subsidises membership.

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GCMA | NEED TO KNOW | INDUSTRY | CAREERS | GOOD PRACTICE | GRASS ROOTS Capacity-wise, through the experience of the last year and seeing how things are going nationally, I’m mildly concerned about compliance with rules - on the basis that when there’s been nice weather in the last few weeks, the seaside has been rammed. There’s a huge apathy towards the rules as they’re coming towards their natural conclusion. We’ve told all the members the rules England Golf have set out, but it’s a case of whether they will follow them. In our average age demographic, most of our members will probably have been vaccinated by the time we return. Alistair Cook: One of the challenges we had was in terms of course set-up and getting winter projects done and getting the course in the best possible condition for when members return. But the lead in time that Boris gave helped us as we essentially had five weeks to put lots of big holes in the greens and do a whole load of top-dressing. That was one of my worries to begin with – when we didn’t know when golf was necessarily going to return. We’ll have Augusta on the TV screens soon. I’m not sure we’re going to be Augusta standard because we’re up north in Yorkshire and spring doesn’t come along until about July! Another of my worries was going to be twoball golf and how we were going to cope with that because it was madness trying to get members on with the demand. Fourballs is taking care of that. We’re members only to begin with. Visitor revenue is a large amount of our income each year. It probably makes up about a third, so we want to have this back as soon as possible.

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We’ve got a waiting list for membership. We’ve a lot of applications on the board already. We’ll be looking at that at some point in the summer to see if we can get any more members in once demand is gone. Funnily enough, one of the things I’m worried about most is the World Handicap System. Members haven’t played under it yet. I think it’s a great thing but it’s quite confusing, and quite challenging, regarding how it all works. I think members getting used to it means we’re probably going to be spending a lot of time holding people’s hands. Is that a similar situation for you, Chris and Gareth? Competitions are allowed straight away and golfers are going to want to be playing competitively pretty soon… CW: Our first competition is the Friday of the week we are coming back – because Easter weekend is an important one for our club. We’ve got four competitions in four days. We did actually get to the stage where we were playing a few non-qualifying type events before lockdown. So people were at least starting to use the new system. What I couldn’t tell was if it was working or not. In those particular competitions, the scoring was really good. You could quite easily win a competition at Hunstanton with 37 or 38 [points] under the old system. Those we’ve run so far, were all 40s and mid 40s – which would be really unusual. But, by the same token, they were also incredibly easy days. The jury’s out whether it was just because there was no wind, a nice day, a short course, or whether it’s because everyone’s course handicap is higher than they are used to playing to and suddenly

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they’re getting a load more shots. I don’t think it worries me too much, because it’s just a learning experience. As long as people can play competitively, I think they’re happy with that. GA: We’re starting competitions on the first Saturday, but we’ve got competitions on Saturday and Sunday. When we went into lockdown, we were mostly on winter rules – so they weren’t really qualifying competitions. But I’m expecting it to be pretty rocky, in terms of holding people’s hands and getting them used to playing in the competitions, entering all the scores, and doing it all remotely. Then for us, from an administration side, it’s closing the competitions and making sure they are working properly. I’m uneasy about it. CW: I think we’ve actually been quite lucky we’ve been shut because the weather’s been so horrible. It’s the worst winter Norfolk has had in 160 years and our golf course has only been around 130. If we’d have been open any sooner than March 29, I’m not sure how much of a golf course we would have had. But an extra five weeks for the run in has allowed us to finish all the winter work and it’s also meant that we’ve got a course. I think it means members will be expecting it to be pristine: dead of summer, super greens, and all that. I’ll tell you a little story from the first lockdown last year. Obviously, it was slightly different because it was essential maintenance only at that time. We had two guys in and they were basically cutting the greens and fairways once a week. In the run up to reopening, we were cutting them every day like we normally do. We cut our greens the same height all year, every day of the year. It’s always the same, never changes.

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GCMA | NEED TO KNOW | INDUSTRY | CAREERS | GOOD PRACTICE | GRASS ROOTS One of the first weeks back, somebody said ‘Oh, yeah, I can see we’re protecting the course – just left it a little longer while we’ve been closed. It’ll be nice when it gets back up to speed’. The greens are still being cut at the same height. About two weeks later, he says ‘it’s nice to see they’re so much faster now we’re back playing’. We’re going to see tremendous amounts of play over the next few months. The course has had time to breathe over lockdown but, if you’re getting fourballs every tee time for the first few weeks, how is it going to hold up? AC: It’s going to be a challenge. It’s had a very good rest but it’s been under snow and there’s been unprecedented amounts of rain. It’s finally starting to dry out and we’re able to do lots of verti-draining and tining and it will get drier. But the grass hasn’t really started growing up here. We’ve still got some bare areas. As soon as play starts, those will just get magnified again. There’s so much pent-up demand. We will be just as busy, if not busier, than we were in May. I don’t think people are going to start returning to work until probably May or June. The course probably won’t win the battle and members will have to be understanding on that. We’ve got increased daylight hours, so it’s not as if we’re going to get a natural restriction on numbers of people playing. What will probably happen is as soon as member demand tails off, you start introducing members’ guests. After that, if demand starts tailing off and you’ve got capacity, you start introducing visitors. You’re probably going to be at 100% capacity from now until the autumn. GA: I totally agree. Ours is a parkland

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course, and it’s recovered now. At the start of March, it was very wet. From chatting to members while they were paying their subscriptions, they were talking about TV golf and Bryson hitting the ball so far and the type of course they’re playing in America. I hope they tone down the expectations when they come down. We’ll have the greens good but they’re not going to be running at summer speeds. We know that. I just hope they realise that.

Let’s move on to income generation. You’ll have subscriptions from members but not much else for the first couple of months. What gets you through until June when, hopefully, you can power up to full speed again? CW: We had our subscription renewal in December/January. So not the best timing this time round. The members have been amazing – they almost unanimously just paid and got on with it. The support the Government’s given to us, in terms

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of wages and certain grants, means we’re OK for a period of time. We’re anticipating that by about May we might be on half our revenue from green fees and then, from June onwards, back to normal. We wouldn’t necessarily be a club that makes a huge amount of money out of bar and catering. When it’s closed, it’s not the end of the world. We are going to open something in April, though. That’s more a service to members, because they’ve had to put up with nothing for so long. They

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haven’t been able to come into the clubhouse since November. Financially, we are budgeting on the basis of quite low uptake and quite conservatively in terms of when we might allow people to come back. But, from June onwards, it’s pretty much full tilt. Obviously, there are always contingencies in budgets but we can certainly do without another lockdown. GA: Membership’s our number one source of income. We have a very busy food and beverage

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business. Covid had a massive impact on us. But it also gave us a chance to realign and think about our business model. For the first time, last year, we started using an online booking app – and we got quite a number of bookings through that, which was excellent revenue for the club. In lockdown number two and three, we started a takeaway Sunday lunch. Following that, we decided to have ‘takeaway Friday night’. We had the idea of doing an

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international meal every Friday night. We’ve done Brazilian, Italian, Cuban, Jamaican, Irish. We’ve had about 10 weeks where we’ve been doing it. We’ve been able to get local people coming down to the club and collect it and the feedback we’ve had from the community has been tremendous. We feel once we get back open, we might have a new revenue stream coming. Just to give you an idea how successful it’s been, our food revenue last February – this is not including the bar – was £10,000.

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This year, we took £9,000 in food revenue in February. Through only being open eight working days, we managed to generate £1,000 less than we did last year. AC: Our financial year runs from January 1 to December 31. In broad brush strokes, the furlough and government grants offset our loss of visitor and bar income. It just neutralised. This is going to be a different challenge. Are we going to lose more visitor income because of the pent-up demand? Possibly. Another of the challenges, with our bar, is the waitress service that has been compulsory as part of

Covid regulations and has become so incredibly popular that people want it permanently. As I’m sure you know, as soon as you put waitress service on at a private members’ club you actually lose money at the bar. So that’s going to be really challenging for us. One good thing, and some people would criticise private members’ clubs for this, is that when we do open for visitors we charge headline rates – and they get taken up. There’s no discounting of green fees. Sand Moor is not a traditional club that would discount green

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frees anyway. But I should imagine we’ll be able to reclaim a lot of our loss of visitor income. Finally, has what you’ve experienced in the last 12 to 15 months changed the golf club? Can you look forward with confidence? CW: I think the nature of the running of the club over the last year has perhaps been a bit more reactive than it would be in normal times. There’s smaller involvement, from a smaller number of people on the board, following the guidance.

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There’s not really been many subcommittee meetings. There haven’t been too many board meetings. It’s been really good. I think the board do see a value in a more modern approach to their governance of the golf club, in that respect. We came from a position, a few years ago, where we had about 15 people on our board and it’s looking like, in the next year or two, we might be able to get that down to six or seven. Then the people who are employed to do the job professionally, the staff, actually get

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left to run the club. Our membership is thriving. We’ve got demand through the roof. The club’s in a great position. But people are very keen to get back to doing all the things they normally do in a golf club – matches, match meals, and just sitting in the bar on a Tuesday night watching Sky Sports. They’ve definitely put up with it for the time being but I don’t think they would wear another one [lockdown] – I really don’t. The club’s got a great opportunity going forward to use this to modernise. I’m sure a lot of clubs have done that. I’m also a member of another club, which had never used tee booking before Covid. There’s no way they’d ever go away from it now. So I hope clubs take that opportunity to look at what has been important to them. Areas in which they’ve probably tried to save money over the last year, when they’ve been worried about the future, perhaps they can do that as an ongoing exercise. Broadly, it’s made people appreciate golf more. We’ve had people from other sports come to play golf. Cricketers, who weren’t able to play until quite a lot later in the summer last year, have started to play golf and realise you can’t get out first ball. Golf’s in a great place going forward. AC: We’ve always heavily used technology so we didn’t need to change very much when the regulations changed. We probably use social media a lot more than before. We’re going to be redesigning our website, focusing on attracting new members, but also attracting visitors. There will probably be a greater emphasis on that. We’ve had quite a few cricketers

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– which is good in the Yorkshire area because there’s quite a big pool of them. Is it going to fundamentally change? Are people going to go back to gyms, go back to playing cricket, go back to playing rugby? I don’t know. I think a lot of that will dictate, as well as the Independent Golfer situation, as to whether the pool of golfers in the UK gets bigger or not. If it does, I think that might be great for visitor income. I don’t think it’ll affect our membership criteria, because we’ve got full membership. But other clubs in the area, where they’re struggling with membership, may get propped up like that. If that pool doesn’t get bigger, I do fear for the survival of some of the clubs in our local area. If the

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number of golfers to choose from does go down, there may be a slimming down process of golf clubs. Or it may have the opposite effect. There may be a lot more golfers out there to choose from. It’ll be interesting. GA: I’m very positive about it. Membership’s going to be strong. Green fees are going to be good. There’s going to be a lot of golf played. We’re going to be very busy. I’m really hopeful for the future. The technology side is taking off – getting members to use BRS and use Club V1 has always been positive. I don’t think we are going to fall back into the old traps that we have before. I’ve got a seven-man board. It’s really progressive. They’re really forward thinking and it’s just encouraging looking to the future.

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Meet The Panel

Chris White, secretary at Hunstanton, in Norfolk

Alistair Cook, club manager at Sand Moor, in Leeds

Gareth Anthony, general manager at Druids Heath, in Walsall

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24/03/2021 21:32

Berkhamsted

Leaving a

LEGACY A mentoring programme aims to equip the new wave of golf club managers with the vital skills they need to be a success

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Berkhamsted’s Ben Hunter, left, and Stuart Gillett, of Legacy Golf Advisors, right

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ime. It waits for no-one, they say, and how many of us complain we don’t have enough of it? The inbox is full, the phone is ringing, and it feels like the members are lining up outside your door to have their say. Dealing with those spinning plates – not to mention all the operational and legislative issues that come across the desk – might be one of the biggest challenges of being a golf club manager. “Everybody will tell you they don’t have enough time to do their jobs,” says Legacy Golf Advisors’ Stuart

The important lessons are coming early. “It’s trying to make Ben understand that, at this point in his career, he will only get busier as he moves up the ladder. So how does he deal with that?” The mantra is ensuring the new wave of golf club managers can avoid the operational banana-skins which can arise from inexperience. “Stepping up from being an assistant manager to becoming the number one at a golf club is a huge challenge” explains Gillett. “Even the best of the newer managers, like Ben, simply don’t have enough years under their

Ben Hunter, assistant club manager

Gillett, as he outlines one of the pivotal messages he is trying to get across to Berkhamsted’s Ben Hunter. The 25-year-old assistant club manager has entered into a yearlong mentorship programme with the one-time general manager of Golf at Goodwood and former co-head of European Tour Destinations. It has the full backing of senior management at the Hertfordshire club. Gillett’s new venture aims to “support clubs and individuals to get better”. At Golf at Goodwood, he helped mould the early careers of prominent industry figures including Amy Yeates, Chris Fitt and Gary Beves.

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belts to have come across the huge variety of challenges that general managers typically face. “Although he receives a great deal of coaching and support from Howard Craft, we believe that Ben will benefit greatly from being able to access advice from outside of the day-to-day business. “Berkhamsted has an admirably clear set of values, and this mentorship will help Ben to champion those values every time he interacts with the club’s staff, members and other customers. “It will also help him to make the right decisions when he comes across situations he hasn’t

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GCMA | NEED TO KNOW | INDUSTRY | CAREERS | GOOD PRACTICE | GRASS ROOTS encountered before.” The mentoring programme began with setting goals and objectives, reviewing actions, and then working on how to translate those into the workplace. It’s very easy to learn things, believes Gillett, but the key comes in making that knowledge work in practice. The pair, both of whom are GCMA members, meet remotely, thanks to Covid restrictions, but will come together quarterly when restrictions allow. Gillett says: “What I want it to do is trigger some thought processes in Ben that gets him to think about things in a slightly different way to perhaps he would have done.” The focus doesn’t fall on the day-to-day. “That has to come from myself”, explains Hunter. “It’s more about the big picture, making me a more valuable asset for the club.” Take a specific example. Hunter’s a doer. He’s never happier when he’s got a list of tasks in front of him and he can work through them in methodical fashion. Perhaps that works for an assistant. But a general manager has to have a wider perspective. “I love structure,” Hunter says. “But if I want to evolve into being a top club manager, it’s not about how many emails you tick off in a day. “It’s about spending time with your members, and with your staff. So one of the things Stuart’s challenged me on is to put my out of office on. Between 10am and 12 noon every say, my out of office comes on and says ‘Sorry, I’m currently away from my desk and with my members, I’ll get back to you later.’ “It’s just changing my mindset, from doing the job list to actually being with people. I think that is just a little insight into how I’m going to adapt to that next level.” “It’s just trying to get him to understand that if he’s not sat at

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his desk working, that’s not a bad thing,” adds Gillett. “The younger generation do think that this is the only place they can be seen to be doing work. I shared something with him the other day, which was go for a walk. “At lunchtime, take someone with you from the office. Be the person that shows about wellbeing – getting out in the fresh air. We all know what it’s like in those office environments. The first person to leave is looked at like ‘it’s 5pm, they’re off’. If Ben gets to work at six in the morning for a competition and goes at 3, I don’t want him to think he’s done anything wrong.” Getting him to think like a senior manager, to increase his profile at the club and to become an influencer, is at the heart of these real-world stories. Giving the number two the airtime they need to develop in a busy club can be a challenge, but even at this early stage of their relationship, Hunter believes Gillett’s gentle probing is starting to pay dividends. “I’m just noticing a slight change in my mindset. It’s channelling my

enthusiasm into the right areas. I think that’s probably the key phrase.” Once the year is up, Gillett and Hunter will continue with a personal development plan, setting career aspirations and getting feedback from his peers at the club. The whole programme is about setting him up for the challenges Hunter will face in the longer term. “There isn’t going to be a line in the sand where he suddenly changes to become a better manager or a finished article,” says Gillett. “What I want for Ben is for him to have challenged that enthusiasm and to start thinking more like a senior manager. “The deliverable of that comes through the things we discuss. It’s really important in any of these programmes that the mentee takes on a lot of the discussion. That’s been great with Ben because he is happy to talk.” To learn more about Legacy Golf Advisors, visit legacygolfadvisors. com Picture of Ben Hunter and Berkhamsted courtesy of Andy Hiseman

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04/01/2021 9:14:07 AM

Grass

ROOTS All the latest news, views and interviews from across the GCMA’s various regions in the UK

Meet the

MANAGER

The Forest Course at Bramshaw

ell us how you became a golf club manager… I’ve always been a golfer. I’ve had a golf club in my hands since I was about two. I was playing off scratch by the time I was 16 and played county golf. I really wanted to turn professional, and worked in a pro shop for a winter, but decided it wasn’t for me. I went back to college, went to university, got a degree in sports

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science, and ended up spending seven years as a lifeguard. At that point, I thought ‘what are you doing with your life?’ I had a look around and eventually picked up a golf administration job at Duxbury Golf Club, Hotel and Spa, in Ferndown, near Bournemouth. I spent a couple of years there and then I had an opportunity to apply for the general manager’s position at Bramshaw. I didn’t think I’d get it. I didn’t really think

I had enough experience on the management side of things but the owner obviously saw something in me and decided to give it a shot. I’ve now been here for three and a half years. What did you learn from lifeguarding you could bring into golf club management? People skills. When you’re a lifeguard you deal with all sorts of people – probably very similar

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With Andy Rideout, general manager at Bramshaw, in Hampshire decided to build another 18 holes, in land they owned, and the Manor Course was built in 1971. We’ve got the best part of 1,200 members over the two courses so we’re probably doing something right. It’s a really nice place to work. The New Forest is a great place to work anyway but the members make it really special because they’re always so positive about it. They seem to keep coming back year after year. Tell us a little bit about your

Andy Rideout

to a golf club, really. It’s nice to be able to judge people’s characters as well to know how you need to speak to them. I imagine you’d have learned a lot about crisis management? Lifeguarding is all about being proactive rather than reactive and I think it’s actually very similar to the golf industry – if you can prevent things happening before they occur, it’s probably the best way to

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go about it. I never got in the water once. Apart from training, I never had to rescue anyone. So I would like to think if you can be proactive in any walk of life it’s going to save you a lot of time down the road. Tell us about Bramshaw… We’ve got two courses in the New Forest. Our Forest Course is the oldest in Hampshire. The club was founded in 1880. The then owners

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management style. How do you like to run Bramshaw? Do you empower teams? Are you hands on? Do you spend time with the members or are you more focused on admin and detail? I think a good manager has to be all of those things. You will get some managers, and some golf clubs, who are more just about the administration and others who are all about their members. I think, at a proprietary business, although we’ve got a very big

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The Manor Course at Bramshaw

membership base, you have to be a bit of all of that. You have to be the admin person. You have to be the guy who goes out and talks to the members. In terms of my staff, I like to give them sense of ownership. So, when it comes to the F&B staff, for example, I tell them to get involved: talk about the menus, talk about how you want to evolve, what your service is about. I’ll have my inputs. But, actually, you’re the guys on the floor. You’re the guys talking to members. You’re the guys taking their money. How do you want to run the business as best for you and best for the members? I sit in an office for a lot of time – even though I try to get up and about – and I don’t see all the time how the business is working. So I use my staff to give me feedback on how they think the business is running. Members will talk to my staff up in the bar more than they will talk to me – because they are the people they get to see.

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They’ll talk to the pros, they won’t come to the manager, because that’s just the way golf clubs are. I talk to the pros about what’s going on in the day, what members are saying, what they like and what they don’t like. It’s taking all that on board and trying to gauge what the feeling is around the club. Staff are so important. If you’ve got a good staff behind you, you can rely on them to feed things back to you and to give you ideas and it makes your job so much easier. You’ve been through an unprecedented period as all managers have over the last year. Are you optimistic about the future post-Covid? I think the club is looking in great shape. We have a sale on the horizon, which is going to be great to bring a bit of oomph to the future and new ideas and new investment. Golf, generally, is in a pretty good place. Being one of the main sports that has been

open when we’re not in lockdown periods, it’s been great to see new people come into the game. When golf reopened last May, we had a lot of new golfers coming to the course – especially the Forest Course, which was our easier course. It’s brought even more people back into membership. People have seen the value of memberships because a lot of golf clubs have put members first. Golf, in general, is in a very good position. People have said it’s back to the same popularity it had in the mid ‘90s. I was only a kid back then and I wouldn’t really know. But if that’s the sense of scale – when they were opening courses left, right and centre – if that’s the same level of participation, then when you hear people say golf is a declining sport, it’s very obviously not. People still love it.

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Get In Touch To contact Bramshaw, visit branshawgolfclub.co.uk

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The Golf Club Manager: April 2021

Articles inside

Meet the Partner: VenueNext Europe

Andy Rideout on managing Bramshaw

Redditch’s Kerry Alligan-Smith

Have you signed up for Perks at Work yet?

A new mentoring programme for managers

How will golf emerge from the pandemic?