On the surface country clubs look to many as a place for a few ‘rich cat’s’ to get richer off the people who join the club. In the past, and in a few rare places in the world today, this probably is the case, however, many country clubs are like many other businesses who are struggling in a failed economy. Many also do not understand that country clubs are pillars in their community who depend greatly on the club’s support to its economy.
Most people are not aware of the total number of people a country club employ or contract, not to mention the vendors that survive on a country club’s existence. Depending on the amount of real estate the club manages will determine the number of people they need to effectively operate the facility. For every person you may see inside the clubhouse of a country club there are on average four more people supporting that person. In the case of the golf course superintendent, it could be a small army of people per golf golf course.
When you take in consideration vendors and outside suppliers the number of people impacted by a country club’s survival could be in the thousands.
The impact a country club has on the community reaches far pass the ivy covered gates. When a country club becomes financially instable the impact of its pull back in operations is felt across the entire community it resides. In cases where the country club is known globally as a great place to play golf its failure can be felt across the country.
All of these people who are associated professionally or employed by a country club live locally, pay taxes locally and purchase goods from retailers who are local. For every person that is employed at a country club they influence the livelihood of four more people in the community. For every country club employee that is laid off it causes a chain reaction of economic failure that leaks off into the mainstream of the economy like a toxicant chemical. Eventually, the deep roots of the country club’s influence on the global economy start to die along with the solid reputation the country club built as a supporter of the community.
The effect of a failed country club on the local economy is much more impacting than other types of businesses. This is not to say any failure of any business anywhere is good for the economy. In tough economic times tough decisions have to be made and this does not exclude country clubs. All those in the community and the property owners who are surrounding the country clubs can hope is the country clubs make the right decisions. A wrong decision could cause the community the club resides in to go down with it.
