8/25/2022
Covid
While Covid is not fully behind us, a return to so many regular activities has been welcomed by all. This spring it certainly seemed like more members and staff caught Covid particularly before the season began and in the early days of summer. However, it also seemed that recovery was swift. Thus far, we have avoided any significant issues that required us to close for periods, as some City Clubs experienced early in the summer.
Golf Course
From a weather perspective it’s been as good a summer as we could hope for and Chad and his team delivered golf conditions that many members commented were as good as they had ever experienced. Remarkable comments given the high standard Chad and his team set every year. A huge thank you is in order for Chad and his team.
At #38, we rose an additional seven places on the Score golf rankings this summer. I suspect we will continue to see this upward trend, though we are already among the absolute elite courses in the country, something to be extremely proud of!
Staff
Given the staffing challenges Covid created over the past two seasons, The board and management agreed our greatest risk for this summer was the uncertainty of the labour situation. As a mitigation strategy, we allocated more resources for our seasonal employees and were fortunate to have hired an outstanding group this summer.
Each August, we bill the members a gratuity fee that is distributed to our seasonal employees with their final payroll. The pool of funds is divided among the departments, based on number of staff, hours worked and their performance as determined by their department manager. It’s a small token of our appreciation for their efforts.
Survey
It’s our plan to complete several short surveys to gather feedback from you on various aspects of our performance this summer. We’ve completed our first survey which focused on food and beverage, thank you to the 270 respondents.
Another survey will go out to gather feedback on the back shop performance next week and we will also send one out on the pro shop and golf course before the summer is over. A summary of results will be provided at the conclusion of these surveys and the feedback will be an important component for our 2023 planning.
Budgets
As I mentioned earlier, thus far, it’s been an exceptional year weather wise and it’s also been an exceptional year financially.
Through our July results we are well ahead of budget in operations. This is primarily due to more than anticipated family associate members joining the club this summer, and despite the drop in our rounds played, exceptional ancillary sales in the pro shop and food and beverage. We are setting records in both areas and the August results have remained strong.
Our capital budget is based on revenues from capital dues and entrance fees and expenditures on planned upgrades to our current assets through the capital preservation fund and any approved new capital enhancements through our new capital fund.
Revenues are on budget, but supply chain issues have delayed many planned expenditures. Most of Chad’s equipment purchases for this summer remain undelivered and we are finally expecting our golf course contractors to arrive next month to begin tee work. I expect much of our equipment order won’t be delivered this summer, so we can expect to be underspent in our capital preservation fund and funds for these purchases will be deferred and added to purchases planned for next season.
Thus far, it's been an exceptional year and I expect a strong finish over the closing two months.
You can reach me by email at
[email protected] or by phone at 705-428-3673.
Gary Ward, General Manager/COO