Trying to keep things teed up at Summerside club
SUMMERSIDE — More than 125 people turned out at the Summerside Golf and Country Club Tuesday night to discuss ways of keeping the facility open.
The club has been a money loser for years and in 2011 lost $110,000. In February, Curran & Briggs took over sole ownership of the course but Rick Kennedy said the future of the club is in serious jeopardy if revenue cannot be generated.
One of the ideas suggested at the two-hour session was labeled a golf course tip.
One member suggested that after every round of golf, golfers drop a toonie into a jar to help generate funds. With over 23,000 rounds of golf played at the club last season, this would be a way to quickly and painlessly generate new revenue.
Club general manager Dallas Desjardins said the Summerside course, unlike other courses in the province, is membership driven and he sees a need to increase those numbers at the club.
He said green fees do not translate into big dollars for the club because tourists don’t come to P.E.I. specifically to golf at the Summerside course.
Club members and other interested parties tossed about different ideas of generating more revenue for the facility.
One popular suggestion made was posting online the names of people golfing and their tee-off times.
One member said that would give others the opportunity to see if friends are on the links and if there would be a space available to join them to round out a foursome.
Desjardins suggested that current members could each try and bring in one new member. One of the possible perks from doing this would be a $100 gift certificate that the current member could use in the pro shop and put towards membership dues.
Desjardins said a major key to increasing membership is the development of a junior program. He said he wants to get more youth involved in the sport to develop future club members.
Currently there are 133 kids registered in the old junior program but for the most part they’re between the ages of seven and 11.
Desjardins said the club has missed pretty much a whole generation of potential members.
There are only seven people between the ages of 18 and 28. He said by creating a second junior division the club would be able to see a more consistent turnout of future members.
The group agreed to strike a committee to review many of the suggestions made at Tuesday’s meeting and to work on developing more that will help generate revenue and secure the future of the golf course.