La Vie March & April 2021
Join Us At The Club, As We Jump Into Spring!
A Message from the Board of Directors Dear Fellow Members, Your Board of Directors would like to update you on the implementation of the Capital Project and a potential timetable for the stages of this plan. First, we would like to thank everyone who voted, and also those who have reached out to us since the vote to share your feedback on this project. As everyone is likely aware, the vote passed by a slim majority of the voting members. The Board, as well as Management, take Club harmony and Member satisfaction very seriously. Since the vote for the Capital Project passed, the Board and Management team have met and spoken to numerous Members regarding the project. While we still believe this project is critical to the future of the Club, as Members, we also know that harmony within the Club is paramount. Based on feedback, it is clear many of the Members who voted against the Capital Project are in fact supportive of the bunker renovation (including starter station), lighting around the Main Clubhouse, and the debt reduction components of the project. However, this support does not carry over to the Member Activity Center. There are many strong opinions about this part of the project, as well as many factual inaccuracies among the Membership about the Member Activity Center. We would like the opportunity to address these concerns, and also provide the opportunity for all voices to be heard in a forum where all these issues may be openly addressed. In the interest of continued Club harmony, we believe it is in the best interest of the Membership to pause on moving forward with the Member Activity Center and have additional Town Hall meetings to further listen and address your questions. We are proposing the Town Hall meetings be held on Tuesday, March 23 and Wednesday, March 24 at 6:00 p.m. To attend these meetings, we are requiring all Members RSVP as we are limiting the number of attendees to 80 people per meeting in an effort to follow COVID safety protocols. If necessary, we will schedule additional Town Halls to accommodate all interested members. In the interim, we will commence billing for the bunkers and debt components of the project on your March 2021 statement (payment is due April 20), but defer the Member Activity Center portion of the billing pending the Town Halls and additional dialogue. The new billing schedule will be emailed to everyone in the coming days similar to how it was previously sent. Again, thank you for your input and patience as we navigate through this new process for our first assessment. Please know the Board will continue to do its best to be thoughtful and diligent throughout this process, as well as fiscally responsible for the future growth of our Club. Sincerely, Board of Directors Royal Oaks Country Club
SHHHHH... LADIES ONLY March is here, welcome spring and goodbye winter! We sure experienced winter this year and spring is extra welcome. The official first day of spring is March 20 and daylight saving time begins on Sunday, March 14. It will be so nice with long beautiful evenings. As spring is almost here and life slowly moves towards normality, Royal Oaks Country Club Ladies Association has scheduled many fun activities.
Every last Wednesday of the month is our wonderful and well-attended monthly Ladies Happy Hour! Enjoy a specialty cocktail created especially for us, wonderful food, and meeting with your ROCCLA friends. Make sure to put the last Wednesday in your calendar and don’t miss getting together with your ROCCLA girls on Ladies Happy Hour.
As soon as we feel it’s safe, the regular scheduled activities as Mah Jongg, Bridge, Mexican train Our monthly Lunch Bunch has so far been a great dominoes, and Bunko will start again. Book Club meets success. It takes place on the third Monday every in person as well as virtually. month. March Lunch Bunch is on March 15. Sign up on the website or through the app. Don’t miss getting Many fun and healthy activities are planned this together with your Royal Oaks friends for a very nice spring. Make sure you regularly take look at the app or and tasty lunch. on the club website for fun activities. If you have any suggestions, don’t hesitate to contact us. Couples Bingo was so much fun. We played outside and it was a beautiful evening. Make sure you don’t Not a member of the Royal Oaks Country Club Ladies miss next Bingo Night on March 9. Association yet? Your membership in RO Country Club qualifies you for a membership in the ROCCLA. Don’t miss our floral class planned for April 8. Another The annual fee is 50 dollars, this is money well spent Bingo Night is scheduled for April 13. on lots of fun. The ROCCLA Annual Luncheon has been scheduled for April 15. We are also planning another Wine and Unwind with yoga followed by a wine flight on the terrace.
Call the club concierge and request to join today! We look forward to seeing you!
CLUB CONTACTS General Questions/Club Reservations: Concierge 281-899-3200 | concierge@royaloakscc.com
Welcome New Members January & February
Membership:
Membership Director - Meghan Smith 281-899-3207 | msmith@royaloakscc.com Membership Assistant - Lizz Barber 281-272-6665 | lbarber@royaloakscc.com Member Statement/Accounts Receivable 281-899-3253 | ar@royaloakscc.com
Adekunle & Tessy Ajayi Jared & Ashley Kearney Kyle & Amy McCully
Dining:
Assistant Manager - Gregory Constantinou gconstantinou@royaloakscc.com Assistant Restuarant Manager - Cheryl White cwhite@royaloakscc.com Pick-Up/To-Go Orders The Bistro: 281-899-3230 The Turn: 281-899-3227
Events:
Jeff & Julie Applebaum Michael & Dana Springer
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Catering & Events Director - Allyson Brown 281-899-3293 | abrown@royaloakscc.com Catering Coordinator - Lauren Davis 281-899-3290 | ldavis@royaloakscc.com
Sports Club:
Front Desk 281-899-3250 | sportsclub@royaloakscc.com Fitness Director - Pam Owens 281-899-3236 | powens@royaloakscc.com Tennis Director - Peter Farrell 281-899-3219 | pfarrell@royaloakscc.com
Golf:
Golf Shop 281-899-3270 Head Golf Professional - James Brown 281-899-3205 | jbrown@royaloakscc.com Director of Instruction - Derek Hooper 281-899-3217 | dhooper@royaloakscc.com
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A MESSAGE FROM MEMBERSHIP Dear Members, I don’t know about you but I am so happy to welcome more daylight with the Spring Daylight Savings. It’s sad to see all the damage from the Great Freeze of 2021 but hopeful as I see the green peeking through. This along with the vaccine and Texas opening up more to business, it has been great to see more members enjoying the club. I know the Events and Food & Beverage teams are excited to be able to offer more and more events through the Spring and Summer. We have been lucky to have our club community through the last year. It’s hard to believe that we have been under this pandemic for a year now! Shows you just how time flies… I would be remiss to not mention the Capital Project improvement plan and all the member feedback we have received. For many members, it has been my first opportunity to speak with them directly and I cannot express how appreciative I am to have been given the opportunity to review the facts so you all can make the most educated decision. I hope that I can continue to support our members regarding their questions and concerns. The long-range planning committee spent a lot of time and energy coming up with the final plan presented to the membership and it’s always discouraging to hear the misinformation. I hope that the Town Hall meetings regarding the Member Activity Center will allow everyone to ask questions and learn more about this aspect of the Capital Project. This is your Club and we want you to get involved! The best way for members to influence decisions at the club is to join one of our great committees. As we progress further into 2021, I look forward to continuing to meet with members both new and current, and seeing the increase in traffic here at the Club as we all enjoy spending time together and enjoying the warmer weather!
DON’T FORGET TO TEXT US HERE AT THE CLUB @ 281-377-0034
Membership Director - Meghan Smith msmith@royaloakscc.com
ONE YEAR AS YOUR ROCC CHEF! It has been an exciting couple months here at the Club. • Review all food products; transition to more We started with the celebration of the Chinese New scratch-made products to provide you with the Year, hosted our February Taco Tuesday, a second freshest ingredients and menu items possible. This teen baking class, the Super Bowl Tailgate Party, has taken time and training but is well worth it! and a Pizza Night at the La Vie Patio during Family • We developed a standard recipe book to ensure Bingo. We are looking forward to the many upcoming consistency in all the dishes we offer in the Bistro. member events as well! • Rotate in different bread options to offer more variety and better products. It is hard to believe I am approaching the one-year • Research, sample, and test various meat products to mark since I joined the Royal Oaks team. Starting a offer you the best grade of meat at an appropriate new job at a new club is challenging; to start any new price. I appreciate your feedback in this area as we job during a pandemic certainly adds to the process! have featured some different products over the past As I reflect on the last year, I wanted to share some few months. of the steps we’ve taken along the way to broaden and • Standard cooking temperature meat chart - where improve your dining experiences at the Club. all the staff has been trained and follow as cooking procedures for all the steaks. You may be surprised On this issue I want to talk about the culinary team that one person’s idea of what a medium-rare steak and how much improvement has been accomplished in can look different than another. We are committed the past 10 months: to following the chart and providing the training to ensure consistency. • As the pandemic unfolded, we pivoted from in-house • We are constantly researching our local restaurants dining to family meals to-go, holiday entertaining and all food trends to keep the specials and to-go, and many other offerings to provide service menus trendy to all our dining members. We are and hopefully some comfort to all member families fortunate to have such a diverse membership. This during a very difficult time. allows us an opportunity to present national and • Due to supply chain interruptions and the increased international dishes. cost of products, menu pricing was carefully • Offer additional house-made desserts. adjusted. Increasing prices is a delicate operation. • The ROCC Kitchen Team is very organized and I want to assure you that we do so with quality in works harmoniously. I am proud of what we mind and with your best interests at the core. have accomplished so far and, I know we will only • Offer fun and delicious “drive-thru” menu events. continue to grow and improve together. Our goal These were the most fun by far as we were able is to offer the ultimate Club dining experience for to include some unexpected variety and also an all of our members and their guests. opportunity for us to connect without in-house dining. • Evaluate all menu offerings and determine to offer menus that are interesting and not the typical “club food.” We strive to offer variety but also want to include your favorites. • We had to start small when we were able to resume limited in-house dining. We have since been able to expand the menu and offer great variety with our daily and weekly features.
Executive Chef - Eva Barrios, CEC ebarrios@royaloakscc.com
On other food news: The jalapeno cheddar bread is back as part of the bread service, and chili is now our Saturday soup of the day. We changed the Wagyu Ribeye Steak to a Prime New York Strip and added a new grilled chicken sandwich as well.
GET OUTDOORS THIS SPRING! Host a small intimate gathering outdoors, or host the wedding of your dreams!
Our Catering & Events team can make any event come to life!
Looking to book your event in 2021? Give our Catering & Events team a call at 281-899-3293 or 281-899-3290
UPCOMING EVENTS...
FUTURE DATES TO LOOKOUT FOR: March 28 - Spring Yappy Hour April 10 - ROCC’n The Range & Kids PJ Party April 21 - Virtual Cooking With Chef Eva April 24 - Crawfish Cookoff
SPORTS CLUB
MEMBER SPOTLIGHT Pam is an active member at the Sports Club, where she does Pilates with our Fitness Instructor, Sarah Hannegan, at least 5 days a week. Pam has been a Member here at the Club since 2000 and loves to travel when she’s not at the Club. Pam loves being a Member here at the Club because of the activities the Club has to offer.
NEW GROUP EX SCHEDULE!
UPCOMING SWIM CLINIC DATES!
AQUACISE IS BACK THIS APRIL!
Fitness Director - Pam Owens powens@royaloakscc.com
WARM WEATHER IS NEAR! It seems this will be a very different March update than the one submitted in 2020. It seemed when the old groundhog saw his shadow this year, he saw it in Texas. Up until a few weeks ago, we were in very much the same place we were last year with the course. The fairways were holding on to a ton of color and the roughs had some to show as well. Fast forward a couple of weeks and the course has taken on the most dormant shade of yellow many have seen in quite some time. As in previous years, we spent the last couple of months working on small projects around the course with a focus on drainage repair and improvement. We still have many projects of this nature on the list but unfortunately, they will be taking a back seat to the winter recovery projects currently underway for a short time. We will be evaluating the damage caused to the landscape over the coming months caused by the brutally cold temperatures and managing as necessary. We have already started the process of cutting back much of the herbaceous plants and some woody plants to encourage new growth.
Golf Course Superintendent - Cody Alexander calexander@royaloakscc.com
Once we can get past the trouble that has been caused by our February freeze the spring months will somewhat resemble other traditional springs. We are quickly stepping into our season for regular cultural practices such as vertical mowing, topdressing, and fertilization of the greens. Our first aerification of the year is scheduled for April 19-April 21. This will be a repeat of the process completed last year utilizing smaller hollow tines to give the greens a bit of fresh air before the summer aerification. These smaller holes will recover quickly and should not cause much disruption to your round. We look forward to seeing you out there on the golf course as we continually work toward providing you the best playing conditions possible for your next round of golf.
www.royaloakscc.com
THE SECRET TO LOWER SCORES Royal Oaks has one of the busiest driving ranges I have ever seen for a private club. To be on the range each day and see so many people hitting balls and working on their golf swings is very exciting. It is less exciting when you look closer and realize that all this hard work will not have the effect on their scores on the golf course, that they are hoping for. In any given 18 holes of golf you will execute the following shots: • 15% of shots with a driver • 10% of shots with fairway woods and hybrids • 13% of shots with irons • 20% shots with wedges – inside 100 yards • 42% strokes with the putter That is amazing 62% of shots played from inside 100 yards! If you were to break up your practice based on the number of times you will play a shot, then 2/3 of your practice should be spent on shots inside 100 yards. Yet I see so many players investing that amount of time on their long game and treating their wedges and putting them as an afterthought. Four years ago, we launched our Operation 36 Program which focuses on helping players shoot 36 or less for 9 holes. Since that time hundreds of players have joined our Operation 36 community and have learned to the importance of the short game and improved these skills. The Operation 36 program begins at the green and progresses back from there. We do this because it doesn’t matter which tees you play from, you will need to be able to play the shots around the green if you want to score well. Only when the player can execute these shots and shoot 36 or less, are they allowed to move back to a longer tee. Operation 36 players of all skill levels have seen their scores on the course reduced by focusing on the shots they will play over 60% of the time on the course.
Director of Instruction - Derek Hooper dhooper@royaloakscc.com If you are unsure how to improve these playing skills or need some help with what you need to do to improve, consider signing up for the Spring semester of Operation 36. We offer weekly classes and Saturday afternoon Matches twice per month, with classes open to ROCC Members and their guests. The Spring semester of Operation 36 will begin the first week of April with classes for Juniors and adults. Additional information is available on the ROCC website, from the Golf Shop and by emailing Director of Instruction Derek Hooper at dhooper@royaloakscc. com . Just think how much better you would score if you were able to get down in 3 or less every time you are inside 100 yards. Wouldn’t that be fun!
RECENT GOLF HAPPENINGS I hope you all were enjoying the mild Houston Winter as much as we had been until the frigid cold blast hit late February. That week of snow and ice halted most everything in our area and caused havoc to so many homes. We all hope that you are recovering from any damage you may have encountered. Due to the pandemic, the multi-vendor Demo Day will not take place this Spring. The Staff has been scheduling individual Fitting Days with Titleist, Ping, Callaway, Mizuno, Cleveland/Srixon/XXIO and, Taylor Made, please be on the lookout for emails with the dates and times. Signup early as space will be limited. If you are not available to attend a Fitting Day, please contact the Professional Staff and schedule a private fitting. We are all gearing up for a great year and looking forward to seeing everyone out in full force as the weather continues to improve. Derek and Robert had another very successful Operation 36 semester, be on the look-out for the next semester, it is the best way to prepare those golfers wanting to take up the game of golf from the ground up and help you become comfortable with the golf operation all the way to those golfers wanting to take your game to the next level. Derek and Robert were both recently recognized with awards for their outstanding accomplishments in golf. Derek was selected as a 2020 Golf Range Association of America Top 100 Growth of the Game Teaching Professional, and Robert was selected by Golf Digest as one of the Best Young Teachers in America for 2021-2022. We are so very excited that these talented two are a part of the Royal Oaks team. It’s time to bring those clubs and your game out of hibernation, contact the Instructional Staff to regrip those clubs, improve your golf games, find more fairways, hit more greens, and make more putts. Please remember to visit the website for the upcoming events around the Club and upcoming MGA and WGA tournaments and Socials.
Head Golf Professional -James D. Brown jbrown@royaloakscc.com
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SHARE YOUR PHOTOS WITH US! Hello Members! With warmer weather around the corner, there are so many exciting things to do here at the Club! Whether you are attending one of our upcoming events or joining us for a round of golf, be sure to share your photos with us by tagging us on Instagram/Facebook, or emailing them over to me personally! We want to see how you are taking advantage of the warm Houston weather! Be sure to check out all of our upcoming events going on here at the Club by visiting our Club Happenings page or by following along with us on Social Media where we are sure to keep everything up to date for our Members to easily access!
Communications Manager - Hannah Vines hvines@royaloakscc.com
We look forward to seeing you here at the Club!
FOLLOW ALONG WITH US Follow us on Instagram and Facebook for daily features, specials, updates and more!
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MARCH & APRIL Calendar At a Glance
MARCH 2ND CONCERT ON THE PATIO MARCH 6TH WIM HOF BREATHWORK MARCH 9TH ROCCLA BINGO NIGHT MARCH 10TH WGA WEST HOUSTON 18H INTERCLUB WINE TASTING & TAPAS MARCH 14TH DAYLIGHT SAVINGS BEGINS MARCH 15TH ROCCLA LUNCH BUNCH MARCH 17TH ST. PATRICK’S DAY MARCH 20TH FIRST DAY OF SPRING MARCH 27TH PASSOVER BEGINS MARCH 28TH PALM SUNDAY YAPPY HOUR
MARCH 31ST WGA ONE DAY MEMBER GUEST ROCCLA BOOK CLUB ROCCLA HAPPY HOUR APRIL 2ND GOOD FRIDAY APRIL 3RD EASTER EGG HUNT APRIL 4TH EASTER SUNDAY EASTER BRUNCH APRIL 7TH WGA MASTER PAR 3 CONTEST CPR CERTIFICATION APRIL 10TH ROCC’N THE RANGE KIDS PJ PARTY APRIL 13TH ROCCLA BINGO NIGHT APRIL 15TH ROCCLA ANNUAL LUNCHEON APRIL 19TH ROCCLA LUNCH BUNCH APRIL 21ST VIRTUAL COOKING WITH CHEF EVA APRIL 24TH CRAWFISH COOKOFF
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APRIL 28TH ROCCLA BOOK CLUB ROCCLA HAPPY HOUR
ENJOY THE NEW FIREPITS!
Located near the driving range!
IMPORTANT DETAILS *PLEASE NOTE: MASKS ARE REQUIRED WHEN NAVIGATING ALL CLUB FACILITIES. We also encourage all our members to practice social distancing and to use hand sanitizer to protect yourself and other members!
www.royaloakscc.com
Mission Statement
Royal Oaks Country Club provides an environment of enjoyment to all members and their families by offering exceptional golf, fitness, recreational sports, social and dining experiences.
Vision Statement
To be recognized as the private club of choice for Houston families by offering a convenient and relaxed lifestyle with superior amenities and facilities. -
Values
Members Members are our most important asset Membership is a privilege through a thoughtful selection process Amenities First class golf and recreational sports experience Remarkable social experiences promoted by members Employees Attract staff who are high performers and outstanding in their field Uphold fiscal responsibility through effective Club governance Community Promote fellowship in a welcoming social environment Adhere to the Golden Rule...treat others as you want to be treated
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