Back in the swing
A group of women tees off on Nemacolin Country Club’s course. The private club offers a variety of memberships to suit members’ needs.
Nemacolin Country Club is regaining ground after the former manager of the club was charged with theft and forgery for stealing $529,647 from his employer during a six-year period.
PGA professional J.R. Pond of Lone Pine Country Club heads up the golf pro shop on the grounds. Lone Pine had 27 holes until 2007, when it sold the property on which nine holes were laid out.
Ting Fox of Charleroi tees off at Nemacolin Country Club on Aug. 21. Nemacolin Country Club has 18 holes, five dining areas, garden patio, pool and a lake for fishing.
Josh Kokoska, head professional at Greene County Country Club
Rick Bisi is the golf pro at Nemacolin Country Club. Bisi said the club has been trying to add variety into their core activities of golf, swimming and special events.
Golf – flog spelled backward – was taking a beating a half-dozen years ago. Play was flagging, as were private memberships and the traditional country club lifestyle.
“From 9/11 to 2006 or 2007, we had a dozen clubs go from private to something else,” said Jeff Rivard, executive director of the Western Pennsylvania Golf Association, steward of amateur play hereabouts. It has 120 member clubs, about half of them private.
“Something else” included closing, which some did – most notably Churchill Valley and Highland country clubs.
The shuttering of those venerable, once-revered institutions would have been unimaginable at a different time. Churchill was renowned for its plush layout and opulent special events, Highland for its durability and history – William Penn once owned the Ross Township land, and fabled Gene Sarazen was among its pros.
Wracked by declining interest and then the Great Recession, leaving them lacking for sufficient revenue, Highland closed in 2011, after 91 years, and Churchill in January 2013, in its 82nd year.
For some clubs, “something else” has meant transitioning from private to semiprivate or public, often resulting from a downsizing in membership and exclusivity.
But as the national and local economies continue to rally, so, apparently, do country clubs throughout Western Pennsylvania. “Things have stabilized the past few years,” Rivard said.
It’s a sentiment echoed by officials at most of the eight private clubs in Washington and Greene counties.
“It appears almost everywhere that we’re on an upswing,” said Larry Roytas, head pro at Rolling Hills in Peters Township and former pro and assistant at Southpointe Golf Club. “Anytime the economy tanks, discretionary income – entertainment – is going to go.”
Golf, of course, remains the centerpiece of these enterprises, with golfing merchandise, banquets, wedding receptions, swimming, tennis and other member activities offered. Yet, as with any viable corporate model today, the clubs are striving to attract business through change, some dropping initiation fees, lowering rates or allowing non-members to duff or dine.
The industry isn’t experiencing the best of times, but it has endured the worst of times and appears to be coming on.
Here is a look at the local eight: Greene County, Lone Pine, Monongahela Valley, Nemacolin, Rolling Hills and Valley Brook country clubs; Southpointe; and The Golf Club of Washington.
Valley Brook is a 27-hole layout; Greene, Washington and Mon Valley have nine holes; the rest 18.
At 22, Josh Kokoska is likely among the youngest head professionals at a private club nationwide. Appealing to his age range, he said, is a key.
“We have to promote more for juniors and women, clinics and things like that” said Kokoska, who was a top-flight player at Jefferson-Morgan High School and is near completion of a degree in professional golf management at California University of Pennsylvania.
“Growing the game of golf is one of the biggest things we see in the (Professional Golf Association).”
Kokoska said memberships over the past year have been “down slightly” at Greene, a 92-year-old facility in Morgan Township, But the club, he added, is working diligently to boost numbers, offering about 20 types of memberships.
Introductory rates have been introduced for new members, who pay $400 the first year, $800 the second and the regular rate annually thereafter. They must rent carts for play.
Kokoska said there is an initiation fee for those who buy a bond from the club, but not for other members, and there are no monthly food or beverage minimums.
J.R. Pond has been the club pro since December 2012, succeeding Terry George, a 38-year clubhouse staple. But in those 21 months, Pond has seen a major upswing in golf swings at his club in Green Hills.
“We’re seeing a groundbreaking year in number of outings,” he said. “A lot of clubs are going in reverse. Things appear to be moving in a great direction.”
Although he was not on board at the time, Pond said “probably the leanest time, at least for Lone Pine, was 2005 to 2007,” when play wasn’t strong there and at a lot of clubs.
“The decline in golf from 2001 to about ’06 or ’07 was pretty much across the board. It was a tough economic time, esepcially with groups. There was a lot competing for people’s discretionary time and income.”
Lone Pine offers a range of memberships, including scholastic golf and dining-only. “Initiation fees are on paper,” Pond said, “but the past few years, we’ve been waiving those fees to grow membership.”
Banquets are big there, with a ballroom seating 200. “We call it upscale family casual dining,” Pond said.
Steve Kusenko has been head pro for 15 years and previously was a member dating to 1980, near the end of steel’s heyday. The changes he has seen at Mon Valley CC mirror those of the Mon Valley region.
“It’s gotten a lot younger here,” Kusenko said. “A lot of longer-term members have passed on.
“The majority play after 4 or 5 (p.m.), but when I started here, the majority of play was around 9 or 10 (a.m.). That’s the way the Mon Valley is. There are not as many local businesses. Probably in the Valley, you don’t have as many people with excess money.”
He said membership costs have declined at Mon Valley, and that previously everyone had to be an equity member. “About half of the members now are nonequity,” Kusenko said, adding there are no initiation fees.
A club since 1919, Mon Valley has a dining area with seating for 100 to 120 for weddings, banquets and wakes. It is no longer a WPGA member.
The Beallsville club with the undulating, scenic course is 94 years old. Make that 94 years young.
It strives to keep up with the times, or stay ahead of them, and has been doing so, said Rick Bisi, golf pro for 26 years.
“Lifestyles are changing and you have to change with lifestyles. You have to do some promotion, be creative,” he said, citing the club’s junior membership drive this year as a successful initiative.
Variety isn’t the only spice of life at Nemacolin, though. Traditional offerings – golf, swimming, special events – endure as its lifeblood.
“We try to offer a quality product, which is our course, and a quality program, which is golf events and lifestyle,” Bisi said. “The pool and golf course are always in special condition, which is our biggest asset for sure.
“We have a core membership that is very strong, which is very important at a private club. We have members who have been here for over 50 years.”
Bisi said Nemacolin has 282 members with golf handicaps, a healthy figure. He said members have to pay annual dues and monthly minimums on food only, but “we really don’t have intitiation fees.”
The club, he added, does have a promising future.
“Things look brighter every year. There’s never been a concern about shutting down here.”
Rolling Hills, apparently, is more than rolling along in a recovering economy.
“There’s definitely been an increase (in membership),” said Roytas, head pro there for the past three years following a 16-year run as assistant, then head, at Southpointe.
He said that despite frequently odd spring and summer weather this year, rounds of golf are up at Rolling Hills. Special-event banquets continue to be a key dynamic of the club, which also has a pool and tennis courts.
“I’ve seen a significant increase in weddings over the past three years,” Roytas said. “The biggest thing is more people are in better shape (financially) or not as nervous about spending money.”
Charity and corporate events also have been a boost at a facility that, Roytas said, offers some incentives to recruit members. Individuals do not have to purchase a bond to join, but will not have voting rights that bondholders have.
Surrounded by businesses, Southpointe is taking care of business.
“We’ve had a great year with membership, adding over 50,” said Brent Johnson, the golf pro. He said the club, in its 20th anniversary year, has “well over 400 members” from various levels.
As with many Washington County entities, the club is benefiting from the Marcellus Shale boom, according to Johnson. He said people who live more than 50 air miles from Southpointe can join with reduced fees, and that out-of-state officials from energy-related firms are doing so.
“They use the memberships to entertain,” Johnson said. “Marcellus Shale has been a great thing for the club.”
He said the Cecil Township club also has experienced an increase in parties, dinners and other social functions, but that golf “is the lifeblood” and that upgrades have quickened the pulse of that dynamic.
“We have invested some money into getting the golf course to what it was before 2008 and 2009. It’s in the best shape it’s been in in six years.”
Swimming and tennis also are part of the equation, but golf is the featured attraction. The course was home to the PGA-sanctioned Mylan Classic through 2013.
Scenically nestled at the end of Hidden Valley Road in Peters, Valley Brook offers a quality 27-hole layout and more. Other features include a pool, baby pool, outdoor paddle tennis, dining and a grand ballroom.
“The club’s doing well,” general manager Jim Zeh said, declining further comment.
Pro Michael Papson said the golfing operation has been prosperous.
“Things are very good here,” he said. “We have filled corporate outings and members’ events. Golf is not down here.”
Pond, the pro at Lone Pine, said that was his experience during six years as a Valley Brook assistant. “That’s one of the strongest clubs in the region,” he said. “It had a waiting list for awhile.”
The former Washington Country Club changed ownership and its name in 2002. Twelve years later, it is still transitioning.
“Our numbers have stabilized,” said general manager Scott Burkhart, who has experienced these major shifts and some of his own at the Chartiers Township facility. He started working at the country club in 2001 as the executive chef, a year before Jim Cameron purchased the club from members.
A key to this stablization, he said, is the club’s success with recruiting younger members.
“We lost some members for health reasons or job changes, as opposed to our performance,” Burkhart said. “We have been obtaining younger members, something many clubs have trouble with. Having a nine-hole course, you don’t have the same costs as 18. It makes us able to come up with more attractive pricing.”
That pricing, he explained, is offered at different levels according to age. Individuals in their 20s pay about half the membership price; in their 30s, about two-thirds; and 40s and up, full.
“That makes it more attractive,” Burkhart said. “The average person in 20s or 30s may not necessarily have the income of some in 40s. Easier for them to establish themselves as members.”
He said initiation fees are waived for new members, who have access to golf, the pool, dining and casual bar at the club.
“We have to be very aggressive as far as keeping up with the latest needs of members,” Burkhart said. “We have an open-book policy to listen to their feedback. If not, we may end up like some clubs that are no longer in existence around here.”