Oops My Club Is Closing

Sometimes in life, and golf, the things that you think at first, are the worst things, turn out to be the best things.

This blog is not food or supper club related. It addresses my other passion, GOLF. This piece was originally written for a Golf Digest series called Golf Interrupted, but as that series has been terminated, I wanted to share the piece as a blog. Apologies to my Foodie audience. Hopefully you will get a chuckle out of it.

What a shocker it was to get a letter on January 4, 2019 that our club would close on February 28^th. It quickly brought on something similar to the five stages of grief with dying:

Anger – Denial – Depression – Bargaining – Acceptance.

In Anger one yahoo threw a golf bag across the pro shop when he heard the news.  The Denial piece was led by a group of guys trying to buy the place. (Talk about what a big mistake that would have been.) Depression was driven by the reality of losing connection to friends that we have built over the 28 years at the club. Bargaining came pretty quick as various clubs in the area put together packages to woo the 350 refugees set adrift. Acceptance hit home with the realization that there are better options out there.

The situation was driven by the reality of the golf market today. Young professionals (they don’t want to be called millenials) are not joining country clubs the way previous generations had. The reality is that something like 200 country clubs across the country have been closing per year. Our club, affectionately known as the “Germ” was pretty typical. The owner died and his kids realized that the land was worth way more than a country club. And, by the way, the club had been losing money. In summary, the reality can be summed up in one word. Adios!

In hindsight, there were all kinds of signs that the end was near. The truth was that we were in denial. I use my squeaky windshield wiper analogy. I had a Mercedes for years that had a windshield wiper that squeaked. I brought it in at least a dozen times trying to get it fixed. It got the point that I would manually turn it on and off to minimize the squeak without thinking. I bought a new car and low and behold, the windshield wiper didn’t squeak. It never occurred to me how much the squeak bothered me, until I bought the new car.

It was the same way with the Germ. I loved the place, but there were lots of things that bothered me, and signs that it would be ending, that we chose to ignore. For one, you have to love a course whose key design feature was affectionately referred to as the freaking ditch. If it was in California it would sound a lot better because it would be called a Barranca. In Memphis it was just a freaking ditch. The fact that the ditch was getting bigger every year with erosion was a bit of a tell. Ten years ago the owners spent some money to fix the ditch on 4 holes and promised to fix a few others. It never happened.

The Freaking Ditch

It turns out that other clubs in the area were hurting as well. One club in particular stepped up with incentives to woo a block of 75 refugees. The infusion of newfound revenues allowed the new club to make what was a nice club into a really nice club. The key design feature at the new club is a beautiful 30-acre lake. Somehow we don’t miss the freaking ditch.

Ridgeway Country Club…Kind Of Nice!

Of course we miss a lot of old friends. Then again there is the old saying about the two rules you have to remember if you are thinking about changing jobs. Rule 1. There are a–holes everywhere. Rule 2. You are probably making good money for what you do, where you do it. Rule 2. A. When in doubt… remember Rule 1. There are lots of parallels with country clubs.  The really good news is that with 75 refugees at the new club we are constantly being surprised with old friends and former Germ employees showing up as part of the new club.

Don’t Miss the Freaking Ditch Flooding. Do Miss Ben & Hogan

In hindsight, what seemed to be a bad thing when the Germ closed turned into the best thing that ever happened. Who would of thunk! It was a shock. It still hurts to ride by the Germ. We worried about the Germ’s employees, but almost everyone has benefited from new opportunity. In a final point of irony, it turns out that the kids of the old owner, who had thought they were in for a big pay day, will have to wait a lot longer than they had thought to get their money. Lots of the old clubs members were mad at the kids for closing the club. In reality, they did us a favor. In all, it was 3 weeks from getting the closure letter to having a welcome reception at the new club. Sometimes in life, and golf, the things that you think at first, are the worst things, turn out to be the best things

If you enjoyed this blog and similar other stories/supper club lessons follow me on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and check out my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs. Published by Morgan James Publishing and available through most channels where books are sold.