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By Rob Carey
PGA Village in Port St. Lucie is celebrating its 20th birthday this season–but management’s vision to make it a complete golf destination has left the resort mature beyond its years
When PGA Golf Club debuted in 1996 with 18 holes in a sleepy town an hour north of Palm Beach, it’s likely even the facility’s venerable owner, the PGA of America, didn’t envision all that the facility would become. But these days, the property—called PGA Village and offering 72 holes for public and private play, plus a 35-acre instructional and clubfitting center, and a distinguished golf museum—reflects admirably on the PGA of America as that organization celebrates its centennial this year.
Over its two decades of operation, though, PGA Village’s path to becoming a complete golf destination for various customer segments was not perfectly straight and smooth. “The direction of this club has changed a few times over the years,” says general manager Jim Terry, who came on in 2013 after managerial stints at TPC San Antonio and TPC Harding Park.
“At the beginning, the club was about public golf, with no private membership,” Terry notes. However, the construction of a second Tom Fazio course; the purchase of St. Lucie West GC and its conversion to the private PGA Country Club; the building of a Pete Dye course; and the debut of the Center for Golf Learning & Performance over the following five years, changed things considerably. As a result, the client base today “encompasses local players, buddy groups, vacationing families, and private members—including more than 160 PGA professionals who by themselves bring us 15,000 rounds per year.”
As these developments took place, there were competing visions for PGA Village. “Some folks here wanted world-class golf and a price tag reflecting that, while others wanted affordable golf for everyone,” recalls Terry. But when significant economic downturns in 2001 and 2008 knocked down the entire Port St. Lucie area, the need to account for outside forces took precedence.
“Knowing what you want to be, and who is truly in your competitive set, are the most critical things,” Terry says. “We realized we’re not in direct competition with Bandon Dunes or the Monterey Peninsula. But the ability to play courses of this caliber at reasonable in-season rates, and enjoy our newly-expanded clubhouse and the museum built into it, demonstrates the high-value experience that we have here.”
At PGA Village in particular, there is another factor for management to consider: “The name we have over our front door means there’s always going to be pressure on us to deliver a physical product and a service experience that’s right for anyone who comes here.”
To maximize package business, Terry partners with numerous local hotels and wholesalers, so that there are options at different price points in high and shoulder seasons. Between May and September the resort gets play from people attending baseball and soccer tournaments and from families taking vacations. Winter sees member play from seasonal homeowners and from PGA professionals using their offseason to relax and entertain guests.
Interestingly, Terry’s plan for the facility since he arrived nearly three years ago has focused significantly on the membership. “The private segment will help protect us from too much stress when the next economic slowdown comes,” he says. “The ongoing dues line we have now is much more substantial than even three years ago, and that will soften the sensitivity we’d have to the public golfer in a downturn. And as members grow, it restricts starting inventory for the public just enough to allow us to yield-manage our rates much better.”
Terry moved the facility in this direction only after listening to and getting buy-in from critical constituencies. “The first thing I did when I arrived here was to get on the same page with the property owners’ association as to who are we as a club, and where we’re trying to go,” Terry says. “You can’t make good, strategic decisions unless you’re very honest about those things.”
It became clear what would most enhance the satisfaction of members and the public alike was an expanded clubhouse. Renderings existed when Terry came aboard, but he used his conversations “to make sure that the scope and scale would match our long-term vision while providing some future flexibility.”
So the reimagining of the clubhouse for PGA Golf Club at PGA Village, serving three courses, brought the building to more than 20,000 square feet along with an adjacent covered pavilion plus patio and lawn areas. Inside, much of the Tom Hoch design is member-focused, with generous but not over-the-top locker rooms plus Nineteen-Sixteen, a private bar and grill overlooking the finishing hole on the Wanamaker course. Other elements were designed to serve the public: a remodeled golf shop with a centrally-located sales counter and a PGA Gallery that displays impressive artifacts, including the original Wanamaker trophy plus other major awards, player memorabilia, unique equipment and historical photography.
Another feature that’s had a surprisingly strong impact since the clubhouse reopening is the conversion of Champions Grill into the upscale Taplow Pub, a name that connects with Rodman Wanamaker and the founding of the PGA of America 100 years ago.
With the overall vision, “we had to know our competitive set, and be mindful not to build the church for Easter Sunday as it relates to our private or public customers,” Terry says. “We aimed to satisfy each segment but stayed within the strategic plan. And the response to what we’ve done has been great; we’ve already driven some membership growth through word-of-mouth by members in their home communities.”
Rob Carey is a freelance writer and principal of Meetings & Hospitality Insights