Retail Opportunities:
Fitness – A Fountain of Youth

At Stonebridge Country Club, we believe in keeping our members younger for longer. During my five-year tenure, we have offered numerous golf fitness opportunities, including a six-week program that incorporates a TPI physical screen, FlightScope session, customized workout program with a fitness trainer, reassessment after three weeks to make the program more specialized, and short game and full swing lessons. These programs were extremely successful and improved every member’s golf game and fitness level. But there was still something missing.

I wanted to include fitness on the golf course and introduce golfers to our fitness trainers, while introducing the game of golf to members that only focused on fitness. That’s what started Fit “Fore” Golf, a program featuring a 12-hole scramble. The difference with this event is that there are only eight holes of golf and four holes of exercises. All players start on Hole No. 1, and once they get to Hole No. 3, one of the fitness trainers is waiting for them to conduct an exercise. The members are graded individually (1-needs improvement, 2-satisfactory, 3-excellent), and the fitness trainer averages all four players’ scores for that workout. This process is repeated three more times throughout the round.

Once play is completed, the PGA Professional will take the eight-hole scramble score and subtract the average of the four fitness tests to come up with the team total. The winning golf team gets complimentary fitness lessons, and the winning fitness team earns gift certificates to use in the golf shop.

This program has not only helped members get introduced to both golf and fitness, but has also helped with merchandise sales. The golf shop at Stonebridge stocks golf, tennis, fitness and lifestyle apparel. We like to consider our shop a one-stop shop, and if we don’t have it, we’ll get it.

After the first Fit “Fore” Golf event, we sold out of all our fitness apparel and had to reorder. The golf apparel and golf club sales increased due to more lessons and members being introduced to the game through this unique and fun event. We look forward to hosting this event for years to come to help members stay younger, longer.