Kenny Beebe is the Director of Wellness at DuPont Country Club in Wilmington, Delaware.
Kenny Beebe on the importance of driving awareness to new fitness facilities:
I was a part time tennis instructor while playing at Kutztown University, before joining the DuPont Country Club team full time in 2015. After another year or two of teaching tennis, I transitioned into fitness training and became the Director of Fitness when our 20,000-square-foot gym and new swimming facility opened in September of 2020. Since then, I was promoted to Director of Wellness, overseeing all fitness and aquatics programming, facilities and staff. It wasn’t long ago that fitness participation at our club was predominantly the same 50 or 60 members utilizing our small, and somewhat antiquated gym. It just wasn’t used a lot and this posed a challenge in gaining new fitness clientele. We knew we needed to build a new fitness space if it was ever going to become a more viable program and we were to attract young families and a more active demographic. New owners took over in 2019 and word spread about the many dynamic changes they had in store. We implemented a series of fitness classes with trainers on site and participation slowly grew. But it wasn’t until the new gym opened that we put golf- and tennis-specific programming in place, and members really started flocking to our new facilities.
Kenny Beebe on the business impact of driving awareness to new fitness facilities:
The new gym literally has everything we need to bring golf fitness to the forefront of our members’ game improvement efforts. The gym was built to reflect the diversity in age, gender and abilities of our many golfers, and though general fitness is now a huge amenity at our club, the new space was built with golf performance in mind. Since its opening, the fitness center has breathed exciting new life into all aspects of our programming and engagement with members. Our two floors of fitness space offer all new top-of-the-line fitness equipment that promote strength training, nautilus, cardio and functional performance. Group classes are held in our two group training studios. After pushing through the many required COVID-19 protocols when opening in the fall of 2020, we now have a large golf-specific fitness center to complement our three golf courses and six-bay golf performance center. With golf staff, fitness trainers and physical therapists all working together, we can provide a holistic approach that our members didn’t have before. The collaboration between the three departments is a vital facet of our rejuvenated approach to golf fitness and overall wellness.
If you would like to email the author of this Best Practice directly, please email kbeebe@dupontcc.com.
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