Monday, March 21, 2022

Scottsdale Private Golf Courses See More Activity than Ever Before

 

Scottsdale Private Golf Courses

As we enter our busiest time of year, we are seeing increased activity at the Scottsdale Private Golf Courses as more familiar faces join us after being away for the holidays.  We want to give you an update regarding the Club following the Annual Meeting held in January.   First, we want to thank John Roussel who recently completed his appointment as President as his leadership was key to another successful year as a Club as we continued to see growth in the offerings we have as a Club as well as the level of member satisfaction.  As was announced at our Annual Meeting, our officers for 2022 will be President Bob Kline, Vice President Rob Maruster and Secretary Rich Baccaro.  In addition, David Goldberg will serve as the Treasurer for the coming year.  The advisory committee assignments for the Board of Directors at Scottsdale Private Golf Courses  are as follows: 

Finance – Chair David Goldberg / Vice-Chair Mike Thorell

Golf & Grounds- Chair Rich Baccaro / Vice-Chair David Wigler

House- Chair Cathy Hotchkiss / Vice-Chair Alan Sears

Membership- Chair Rob Maruster / Vice-Chair Doug Ideker

Racquets & Fitness- Chair Doug Ideker

Thank you to all of those who applied to serve on the various Advisory Committees for the year. Your support of the Club, our Staff and offerings are key to the continued success of the Club.  This group also serves as an important training ground for the future as we utilize our Committee system to develop future Directors of the Club as that is the minimum requirement of service on the Board.  The more that our members participate to develop a further understanding of the Club as a business, the better prepared they will be successful in serving in that capacity as a Director.

Our interaction with the Club Membership at the Best Country Club in Scottsdale is vital to our future success and the Board, and we recommend that if you have any questions, comments or concerns,  to reach out to either of us.    As we reviewed at the annual meeting, some of our main goals for 2022 at the Best Country Club in Scottsdale re as follows:

  • Keep an ongoing line of communication with our Club members to enhance transparency and fully utilize our Advisory Committees to ensure that our members are engaged at all times so that we can continue to improve in all that we do.

  • Continue to drive improvement in all member-facing areas of the Club by providing the highest level of service possible so that the Country Club at DC Ranch continues to be the finest Club in the Valley including a reputation for service, outstanding facilities, and member satisfaction.

  • Follow through with the needs as provided in the Master Plan for Improvement of Club Facilities –we are currently looking at options available to complete an update to our Golf Shop this summer as well as enhancing our back of the house areas to better serve the team as in many cases we have outgrown our needs in way of storage, restrooms, and employee dining.  We are also looking at taking over the portion of our golf maintenance building which the Ranch Association currently occupies to also add storage, workspace and to relocate staff parking to alleviate some of the stress that we see currently.

  • Review & update – with full participation and feedback from every class of membership – the current Strategic Plan. To formally begin not just to look at the now known Golf improvements we look to do in the next five years or so that will coincide with our irrigation system update - but more importantly, to look beyond that, to look to the future.  Discerning what you, your families, and the next generation of families and members desire and need through surveys and focus groups, etc. 

As we stated at the Annual Meeting, we truly believe that we are in a solid position with an experienced leadership team, a strong financial position and an engaged and supportive membership which will continue to generate a buzz in the market as we aim to achieve even higher levels in 2022 and beyond.

In Membership news, we continue to have a robust waitlist of prospective members with our current waitlist encompassing roughly 100 approved prospects in all categories which have grown the waitlist time from two to five years depending on the category of membership.  This past month alone we received almost twenty new applications. Despite the waitlist in place we continue to see a great deal of interest.  At the most recent Board meeting, the Board unanimously approved a recommendation from the Membership Committee to increase the transfer fee for Golf Memberships to $50k effective March 1 st .  This will bring our transfer fee more in line with those seen at our surrounding Clubs.   

With all this being said, we look forward to a busy next few months at the Best Country Club in Scottsdale and know that you will enjoy all that our team has planned during this time.  The calendar is packed with a number of golf, tennis, fitness and social events for your enjoyment so please make it a point to be here as much as possible as the temperatures begin to warm up!  It would go without saying that we encourage you all to make advanced reservations as many of your Club favorites will be fully subscribed.


Tuesday, March 8, 2022

Golf, Golf and More Golf at The Best Country Club in Scottsdale

 Private Golf Club in Scottsdale

Guest Play:

We certainly understand the importance of wanting to play some golf with your friends at the Best Country Club in Scottsdale and until further notice we are relaxing the guest restrictions on Sunday mornings.

Should we observe that we are limiting the number of Members having the opportunity to play those mornings, we will possibly have to limit guest play once again

Please keep in mind that family guests are privileged to play 6 rounds in season and 6 in the summer while non-family guests may enjoy 6 rounds for the entire year.

We will keep you informed as time moves on.

Fivesome play:

Simply stated, the rules of the Best Country Club in Scottsdale do not permit fivesomes at any time. Should that ever change, we will let you know.  Regarding the pace of play, it remains at 4 hours max regardless of your mode of transportation around the course. 

The first Monday of the Month at Private Golf Club in Scottsdale, the practice areas and course are closed for maintenance and we ask that you understand the course needs a rest and time for necessary Agronomy practices be respected that day. This happens each month on the first Monday. 

The remaining Mondays throughout the month, the first tee will open for play at 11:30, with exception of Club team competitions.

Golf Course Survey:

Thanks for over 300 responses to the Private Golf Club in Scottsdale survey sent to you a few weeks ago.

The purpose was to understand what course modifications if any you would like to have considered when the course irrigation gets replaced in 2026.

We are in the process of reviewing responses with Tom Lehman, who redesigned the course in 2002 and will share your comments with him.


As a reminder, we hope that anyone feeling sick will not come to Private Golf Club in Scottsdale for any reason and we ask you get proper medical attention before you do so. If you need a clearer understanding of the policies during this time please feel free to reach out.