Clubhouse Notes

Hitting The Road For The First Time

A CHANCE TO VISIT country clubs around the U.S. was one of the reasons I accepted the job at Club + Resort Business this past spring.

I recently returned from visiti ng two clubs in Omaha, Neb.: Champions Run and Field Club of Omaha. Aft er spending about six months interviewing country club employees and reviewing industry press releases, it was nice to visit with club leaders on their home turf.

By emphasizing fun and entertainment, Champions Run prides itself on creati ng unique and memorable experiences for members and guests. Creati ve Director Ben Lorenzen, who gave me a tour of the faciliti es on my fi rst day in Omaha, says he enjoys working in the country club business.

“I love the club industry because I feel like it’s 10 businesses in one,” Lorenzen says. “You have golf, tennis, food and beverage. It makes every day really diff erent.”

The “every day is diff erent” comment was echoed by General Manager Andy Reetz, Director of Agronomy Greg Jones and Executi ve Chef John Benton. They clearly enjoy their jobs and the various challenges that they deal with each day.

Lorenzen showed me the golf course, fi tness center, tennis courts, pool area with splash park and climbing wall, playground, dining areas, and banquet rooms. The club has made facility improvements during the last few years in conjuncti on with a master plan that was craft ed from a member survey conducted in 2017. The dining rooms, entrance and banquet rooms on the clubhouse’s main level were renovated last year.

Lorenzen also serves as the club’s Director of Aquati cs and Fitness and oversees a youth swim team with more than 400 parti cipants. The program has grown in popularity due to a focus on playing games and having fun rather than swimming lap aft er lap.

Aft er seeing the faciliti es and chatti ng with several employees, Lorenzen and I had lunch in The Fairway Room, which off ered a spectacular view of the golf course. The meal was delicious and I enjoyed learning more about Lorenzen as I glanced at the Champions course on a beauti ful sunny day.

Following the meal, it was ti me to take a few swings on the golf course. Using a set of demo clubs, I played the Front 9 with Mitch Klooz, a PGA Assistant Golf Professional at Champions. Aft er not playing much golf for the past decade, I’m again playing more and it was inspiring to play with a golfer as talented as Klooz. While I was there, I learned that Klooz shot a course record 58 at Champions in August. Klooz told me he eagled every Par 5 during his round.

My shots improved as I got more acclimated to the clubs that I was using. Besides the wind, another challenge was playing shots on hills where the ball was either on lower or higher ground. Klooz was a great tour guide as he pointed out recent upgrades and discussed upcoming improvements.

I stopped by Field Club of Omaha the next day to speak with General Manager Greg Gilg, and while the weather was cooler, it was sti ll a nice day to check out the golf course. Gilg says the club is adding a third set of tee boxes and renovati on work is occurring on holes 14 and 15. The 14th hole will be closed unti l May 2023, while the 15th hole was recently closed for a month and reopened as a temporary Par 3. Gilg adds the 15th will become a Par 4 in the spring aft er the sod in the tee box takes root. Some fairway bunkers are

Phil Keren • Associate Editor

pkeren@wtwhmedia.com being installed on the 5,200-yard course to add in a challenge for golfers who hit long tee shots.

“These young guys hit the ball a mile,” Gilg says. “[When] you get into some of these league match-ups, there aren’t enough strokes for guys who are hitti ng drivers up on the green. We wanted to make sure we had some kind of answer to that.”

Club leaders decided to off er complimentary golf lessons to golf members starti ng in 2020. When club offi cials researched the issue, Gilg says they only found one other facility in the U.S. that provided this benefi t. He admits that, if offi cials had realized how much the pandemic was going to impact their business, they likely would’ve delayed implementati on. Sti ll, Gilg says the free lessons are “one of the most att racti ve benefi ts” for golf members, and the program has “stabilized a category of membership that had always had lax demand when compared to our social and clubhouse categories.”

I plan to share more details about Champions’ unique swim program and Field Club’s complimentary golf lessons in upcoming editi ons. I enjoyed the trip and am looking forward to visiti ng more clubs to hear about other exciti ng and innovati ve programs.