Jim Deiters has been a golf professional for nearly 30 years. He is an accomplished player (qualifying for the Senior PGA Championship), an effective instructor and a builder of great golf programs at top-notch clubs such as Desert Mountain in Scottsdale, Ariz., and, currently, Midland Country Club in Midland, Mich.
Returning from a recent PGA-sponsored event, he marvels at how the golf is pushing at its established boundaries. He recalls a time when the PGA would have held to a more narrow view of golf and only “count” 9-hole or 18-hole rounds as actual participation in the sport.
Today, the PGA, with its dedication to moving golf forward, has a much more elastic view of the game. “Golf” now includes practice, simulator rounds and even innovative retail experiences such as Topgolf.
Deiters, who learned to love golf from his father’s own passion for the sport, will be the first to admit that the current scene is no longer “your father’s golf” in which a languorous 18-hole round might be followed by a similarly leisurely game of gin-rummy in the men’s grill on into the night.
“We’re starting to realize that maybe golf is three holes,” Deiters muses. “We have a Wednesday evening class that we do for beginning women … they have a 15-minute clinic and play three holes.”
Following is a closer look at this fun, informal and unabashedly social new approach to golf at Midland Country Club.
Traditional Golf
Midland contains a par-70 course measuring more than 6,300 yards. Not long, but nevertheless challenging with small greens and tree-lined fairways. “You have to hit some draws and some fades,” explains Deiters. “It helps to have control of your golf ball.”
Originally established in 1928, the club renewed its facilities and golf course about a decade ago. That ambitious capital campaign spanned two years and resulted in a new, capacious and a redesigned golf course. This course now sees about 11,000 traditional rounds of play during a season that stretches across seven months. The club has more than 800 members, about 300 of whom have full golf privileges.
Practice
As the club contemplated a wide array of potential improvements and new features, a practice facility (or “driving range,” as it was originally dubbed) for its golf course was near the top of its list. Leading golf designers and architects were given the challenge to carve out a range on the course’s relatively small, land-locked footprint.
One of the designers reluctantly declined the invitation because, in his opinion, shoehorning a full practice range into the current acreage would be a mistake that would effectively ruin a great golf course. “We selected that guy,” recounts Deiters—the club leadership realized the architect was right.
That fork-in-the-road moment was not without compromises or workarounds. While the planners indicated that the club was not going to get a driving range, they asked what members would want to be included in a world-class learning center. Deiters was ready with their response: 1) A short-game area of at least 100 yards with some downhill and uphill in order to create practice conditions represented on the course, and 2) A world-class indoor facility with a minimum of four hitting bays, “because if you want a group to warm up, we need at least four … and it would be nice to have an additional one if we are doing some instruction.”
Deiters built that bridge out a just little farther: “If we could play golf indoors that would be wonderful.” And thus golf simulation entered into the equation.
Technology
You don’t get a world-class indoor facility these days without making a deep dive into golf technology, pricing and evaluating a wide range of options. Midland has taken this plunge and is currently utilizing a range of technologies for a variety of purposes.
The first simulator was so popular that a second followed in relatively short order. In addition to simulators, hitting bays get strong utilization, in-season and out, and are also augmented with technology that facilitates advanced instruction. The JC Video systems used by Midland offer detailed motion analysis on a 50-inch monitor that is capable of instant playback and comparison features for righties and lefties alike.
Technology is a great stimulus for Midland’s golf program. In addition to fully supporting practice, it also promotes proper instruction, measurement and club fitting as well as general golf fitness.
Technology has also given rise to a whole range of golf experiences that are uniquely entertaining and socially engaging. Individuals and groups schedule the simulators—sometimes a week in advance—just as they might regular tee times on the course. Deiters comments on the popularity of the golf simulators, “People feel better about golf. Their scores improve dramatically on the simulators. And they don’t want to go outside now; they want to stay inside and play golf.”
Club utilization no longer experiences the big seasonality swing that many clubs endure. Instruction, golf club and merchandise sales, league fees and related food and beverage consumption all continue briskly as the weather turns more forbidding.
For More Members, In More Ways
From November to March, simulator usage and the club league play supported by these simulators kicks into high gear.
Each month six courses are offered on the simulators for players. Club members who regularly play the simulator will have their names and handicaps stored. The staff tallies scores at the end of the month and low scores and league leaders get mention in the club’s “19th Hole” newsletter as they would with other golfing events in season.
“Believe it or not, a nine-hole round for a twosome is probably going to run you an hour and fifteen minutes,” Deiters relates. “If you’ve got a foursome and you’re going to play 18 holes, you better plan on four hours. It’s amazing—you’re talking; you’re eating—it’s kind of like going bowling. You get some ribbing going on; people are backing away. So you better block the time it would normally take to play golf. It’s pretty darn close.”
Beyond the simulators, Midland Country Club’s rich golf experience also includes a strong junior program, engaging kids who range in age from five years old to young teens, as well as a priority on increasing women’s participation in the sport. The Wednesday evening class for women who are new to golf is bringing new players (and new members) into the game, and Deiters observes that simulator golf and the league that has sprouted up around it has significantly more women than men participating.
“Signature” Golf
Tuesday night at that club in golf season will find anywhere from 40 to 60 members engaged in a signature club event—Men’s Golf League. Here again the club has relaxed many of the constraints and formalities that perhaps in the past might have discouraged all but the most avid golfers.
Deiters explains the process for participation: “You have no yearly commitment. You call in that day by three o’clock. If you call in and say you want to be paired with Bill, then we pair you with Bill. If you say, ‘I don’t care who I play with,’ then we put you in a group.”
Every week there is a different game. According to Deiters, “The games are crazy … this is the most fun you can imagine that 45 guys can have on a Tuesday night.” For example, strategies for playing from different tees may be implemented on one hole and change with the next one. Complex and quirky rules give players pause as they encourage strategizing and playing to each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Deiters puts in a 15-hour day on Tuesdays and he says it’s the highlight of his week.
Golf can be demanding on players’ time, talent, equipment and sometimes money. But Midland has adopted an active, creative focus on lowering the barriers that might otherwise subtract from the experience of golf. As the rules and customs get relaxed and reimagined, golf remains fully capable of attracting more and more participants for a whole range of reasons.
While Midlands doesn’t say definitively what golf is, Deiters and his band of merry golfers at Midland agree that it is indeed changing. Golf has always placed a premium on inventive shot making; Midland encourages us all to do likewise and worry less about landing out-of-bounds.
Club Trends Spring 2017