Board Report

BY DAVID DELORENZO | BOARD PRESIDENT

Happy Spring! On behalf of the Board of Directors, I want to extend a warm welcome to our new members who got to celebrate their first opening day of the golf season.

Each year, the President says it’s going to be an exciting one at SGCC, and this year is no different as spring is truly a season for change. First, we will be welcoming Steve Lawson as our new General Manager/Chief Operating Officer in early May. Steve brings a wealth of experience and talent and is excited to meet the membership. Please be sure to give him a big Springfield welcome when he gets here. He is currently at Washington Golf and Country Club and is very familiar with SGCC.

I want to thank our Search Committee, led by Vice President John “Astro” Astorino, for their hard work and commitment. I believe our process was well planned and executed. With our search firm screening candidates from twenty different states and only bringing forward the best, the entire team is confident that we found exactly what we were looking for in Steve.

As you know, April kicks off the beginning of our fiscal year. The Finance Committee, staff, and the Board have been hard at work planning and developing our budget. I want to dispel some notions that with the clubhouse loan payments ending we are “flush with cash.” While we are in a stronger financial position than we have been in a while, this has not been without hard work and commitment.

Over the last four years, the Board has pushed to develop an operational reserve, along with our capital reserve. This means that much of our cash is allocated to current projects, capital maintenance, and maintaining Board-set reserve levels. The ability to repair our spillway is attributed to the fact that we have set these reserves aside for such contingencies.

It is also no secret that inflation is hitting us hard, and costs are up across the board from labor, to food, to supplies. In order to maintain our levels of service and manage our cash flow, we will be enacting a 5% dues increase this year effective May 1, 2023. The CIF contributions will not change. Additionally, we will be increasing out service fee from 18% to 20%. As you know, the service fee contributes to the overall wages of our service staff and will allow us to attract and retain a strong team.

We continue to see interest in membership and remain on a small waiting list for our Social membership. Our Active memberships are healthy, but we have room for some new members so please refer a friend and help our community grow.

Our sense of community is very important to SGCC, and it is important to always be mindful of other members. While we all enjoy a good time, it should never be at the expense of others’ enjoyment of the Club. The Board will be pushing new management to more strictly enforce rules around our code of conduct, dress code, and general decorum while on property, especially inside the Clubhouse.

Our course renovations continue under new Superintendent Shawn Gill. We had a wonderful celebration in early March to recognize the retirement of Lentz Wheeler. Lentz took our course from good to great during his tenure and now Shawn will continue the excellent work. There was extensive tree and turf work done over the winter and I think everyone is excited, and maybe a little scared, to tee it up from the new tee boxes on #3. This will be one of the most beautiful holes in all of Northern Virginia as it grows in. Shawn is also leading the spillway repairs that will afford us the time to get a permanent plan in place.

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I am happy to announce that our new fleet of golf carts should be arriving in mid-May and will provide all of the modern amenities that a premier club should have. The carts will include GPS screens that will not only give course information, but can also track pace of play (a major initiative this year) a well as sync with Golf Genius for tracking tournament scoring. There are a lot of other great features that you’ll be able to check out when the carts arrive. The cart fees will increase by $2 for 18 holes this year.

Our tennis facility renovations are putting on some finishing touches for Phase 1 and the place looks fantastic. Our outdoor courts and the pool are also getting ready for their face lifts. I have seen so much great activity around tennis, pickleball, and junior programming over the winter months. I would like to say the long cold winter is over and it is time for some golf, but this has been a very golf-friendly winter and I have never seen the course in such great shape this time of year. Regardless, I am ready for the 2023 golf season and all that it will bring. Don’t miss the chance to sign up for our new premiere golf event the Member-Member tournament, as well as all our events. See you around the Club! 