Meet the golf manager: Max Stockwell

The golf game manager at Bowood Park Hotel & Golf Order in Cornwall details what managing the club has been like since the pandemic started, the results of offering gratis coaching to juniors, the club's green arroyo and being an England Golf 'Club of the Twelvemonth' finalist.

Can you tell the states a bit about Bowood Park Hotel & Golf Club?

Bowood Park is ready in the countryside of North Cornwall, which is within touching distance of Tintagel, Boscastle, Port Isaac and nearby Padstow and Wadebridge. Nosotros were established in 1992 as a USGA-spec parkland course.

Brian Huggett, Bob Knott and Eddie Connaughton (advising) were taken on board to design the beautiful USGA specified par 72 parkland golf game course we know today. In the 30 years of trading we have lived through recession and the heights of golf that we are experiencing today. We are amongst a low populated area so our membership hasn't ever surpassed 400 members and to date we currently sit at 354 members, which is climbing continually thanks to new developments in the local area.

Our hotel built within the golf club has 32 en-suite bedrooms which facilitate our residential golf breaks along with our large restaurant which tin conform 100 covers in one sitting. As a whole, our golf breaks are extremely successful with first-class feedback and echo concern year on year. Having everything required on site has really been the primal to our success.

What accept your, and the club's experiences of the pandemic, from March 2020 to the present twenty-four hour period, been? You lot've seen a huge growth in membership numbers haven't yous?

We certainly have, pre-pandemic our membership was 189 and then after the nail, here we are at 354. What has taken me past surprise is the retainment of members. My initial thoughts were that the boom in numbers would fall off the scale once people's lives returned to some course of normality but that hasn't been the case for ourselves I'm pleased to say.

During the pandemic I personally worked from abode as much equally possible, this gave me a practiced amount of fourth dimension to prepare from a dorsum office point of view in one case nosotros returned. Just doing the jobs that on a mean solar day-to-day ground can be tricky, such as reconciling reports, analysing tee times utilisation, seeing what gaps can exist filled in the diary and actress financial gains that nosotros might be missing out on. Furlough was extremely helpful to our business of 33 employees as this secured their jobs and fabricated sure we were in a skillful position of returning with a golf course in good order.

You offered complimentary coaching to all juniors. Why did you do this and what were the results?

We offered free coaching as a way of promoting junior golf inside the club. To u.s. juniors are our future as a club and we wanted to sow as many seeds as possible on engaging juniors in the game. Nosotros ran four sessions on Saturday mornings throughout the summer where parents had to book them into slots of six per grouping. This besides enabled new friendships within the juniors and helped introduce parents to other parents. These sessions were full each week and were usually fully booked a week prior. Chris Kaminski, our head professional person, has been in the manufacture for over twoscore years and with us for 12, his patience and commitment to the tuition were outstanding so I must commend his efforts.

Are you lot doing anything to become more women playing the game?

This is the side by side goal for 2022, we have noticed across the game that female person participation levels are dwindling. We are making good progress by signing up to the 'Women on Par' initiative that England Golf have launched.

The lodge hopes to be carbon negative by 2026. What are yous doing to bring that about?

Nosotros have been continually replacing items around the business to focus on our green free energy commitments. To date we have solar panels for our driving range, a biomass boiler for our heating, a wind turbine to supply electricity, a PapaPump system for our irrigation of the golf course and recently we introduced electric car charging points for members to use for costless and visitors to apply.

Our adjacent steps will be to focus on green alternatives to diesel and petrol machinery. Hybrid and electric technologies accept recently hitting the market place which nosotros are watching very closely merely these machines are in the early stages of their lives and so plain a few stories are coming out of their teething problems so we are waiting for established technology upon looking into this farther.

The club was recently a finalist for England Golf game'due south 'Gild of the Year'. Congratulations! Tin can you take united states through your experience of this?

It was an astonishing experience and created such a adept buzz in the social club. From application to awards nighttime England Golf were amazing with their communication and promotional fabric that they supplied. On the evening we decided to host an evening for all the individuals that are involved with the club and enjoyed fizz and nibbles to add to the occasion. Unfortunately we didn't win just beingness amid and then many wonderful clubs was something to be proud of.

A number of golf venues have been thwarted in attempts to build housing on their venues in contempo months. Have you had a like experience?

Nosotros had an application for eight dwellings turned down and these were retirement bungalows which are lacking in the area. Our awarding was rejected on this occasion due to no affordable housing being considered. The plans are being reviewed and we will endeavor again. New planning regulations on a local basis take made whatsoever new forms of development tricky. Any developments that are taken up are always tricky not to divide stance only for us, if successful, information technology would future proof the concern and secure and add farther jobs for local families.

Bowood runs partnerships with local facilities that offer, for example, swimming pools. How do these work and are they of benefit?

We have a very proficient relationship with Juliots Well Holiday Park, which are function of South Westward Holidays. They offer five-star premium quality lodges for visitors and non-residential ownerships. They also accept a swimming pool, gym, sauna and steam room which have been kindly offered to our visitors on a day-charge per unit basis and our members on a membership footing. This has been received extremely well, peculiarly to those who are non-golfers who are staying with us and are looking for something to practise on a rainy twenty-four hours or members who have families wanting to practice activities together.

How do yous market place the venue?

Mainly social media such every bit Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and online advertisement. We find this mode of advertizing gives u.s. far more than engagement with the customer and gives them a far more than personal feel as the channels are run by myself. And then if you bulletin or comment through any of the channels, it'southward me, and then you can now put a face to the name. We too use Mailchimp as our customer base e-mail server which is an extremely powerful tool for reaching out to previous and new customers.

How good for you exercise you call up the Cornish golf industry is at the moment? Has the area seen a rise in golfing staycations since the pandemic started and, if and then, do y'all think this will be maintained?

Cornwall Golf is currently in a very good place as are many other counties across the land. As a committee member for Cornwall Golf Union, as a whole, clubs are going through a boom in numbers. Will that be the case in 12 months' time? Who knows, only the price of living amongst other price risings beyond the board are bound to have an upshot on people's lives. My opinion? Keep your grade steady, work harder on turnover and not rack prices. The side by side two years are going to exist quite rough and it volition exist those who look after their customer bases that will somewhen rise to the acme unscathed.

What are your predictions for the next few years for the UK golf game industry?

Pretty much the same as Cornwall ethos, plainly Cornwall tends to have lower membership fees than others in the country and I think that might offset to change in the coming years ahead.

Maybe not for the prestigious venues, only for the working grade golf game clubs this volition have to change as people'south wallets are going to endure in the next ii years ahead at least. The key at the moment in my opinion is to focus on the retention off the back of the boom and listen to what your members desire. All too often clubs make decisions for the select few and not the overall consensus. Time volition tell I guess, but from my finish that'due south what I will be focusing on at Bowood Park.

By Seamus Rotherick August 12, 2022 x:46

Source: https://www.thegolfbusiness.co.uk/2022/08/meet-the-golf-manager-max-stockwell/

Posted by: landissclows1999.blogspot.com

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