The Wall Street Journal's John Paul Newport has a nice piece on modest-sized clubhouses (as opposed to the overstuffed kind that have been a huge financial drag on so many clubs lately). He quotes Joe Webster, who developed and manages the Dye Preserve in Jupiter, Fla., as saying: "Most clubs that are open for dinner at night are losing seven figures on their food and beverage operations."
Dye Preserve is one of four newish high-end clubs cited by Newport for their "understated" clubhouses. The others are Whisper Rock in Arizona, Chechessee Creek Club in South Carolina (pictured) and Dallas National.
Webster runs some thought-provoking numbers for Newport. Quoting from his article:
"Mr. Webster said that a typical golf club with 300 members might spend $1.5 million a year on course maintenance, or $5,000 per member. 'Everything you pay in dues above that is basically so you can have lunch,' he said. Lunch is his shorthand for the cost of supporting a kitchen, other services such as the locker rooms, and clubhouse staff -- essentially, all the non-golf amenities that a club offers.
"Dues at Dye Preserve, which has a 15,000 square-foot clubhouse (and is not open for dinner), are $9,000 a year. 'So that's $4,000 for lunch,' he said. A nearby club in Jupiter, with a 50,000-square-foot clubhouse plus a pool and tennis, charges $21,000 in dues. 'So those members are paying $16,000 to eat and for the other stuff,' he said. Yet another club in the area, built in the go-go 1990s as a real-estate play, has a 100,000-square-foot clubhouse and is operating under bankruptcy protection."
-- P.F.
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