_July/thespeedofprogress.jpg "The Speed of Progress")
By Rob Carey
Over the past 20 years, Nemacolin Woodlands Resort has consistently advanced its destination-golf pedigree through bold, energetic leadership
On Labor Day weekend in 1995, a private jet shuttled two dozen PGA Tour players from the Greater Milwaukee Open to a small landing strip in the rural southwestern corner of Pennsylvania, where they were greeted by Joe Hardy, owner of 84 Lumber Company and the fledgling, 101-room Nemacolin Woodlands Resort. Hardy was paying each man to play in a pro-am that would open the resort’s new Pete Dye layout, dubbed Mystic Rock. And to make things more interesting, Hardy waited until that moment to tell them about the additional $10,000 prize for the pro-am’s low round.
So the next morning, the assembled pros—including Chi Chi Rodriguez, Fuzzy Zoeller, Tom Kite, Pete Jacobsen and new British Open champ John Daly—put on a show for more than 5,000 spectators and Pittsburgh-area media who came to see the competition as well as the layout for which Dye moved thousands of tons of earth to build. Mystic Rock, and Nemacolin Woodlands, were now on the map.
Come 2003, Hardy and his daughter Maggie (Hardy Magerko), who had just begun running both the lumber company and the resort, lured the pros once again to Mystic Rock. This time, though, it was for an official PGA Tour event called the 84 Lumber Classic. The inaugural competition went well, but when Magerko surveyed the players afterwards and found them wanting a better off-the-course experience, she had a new clubhouse built with a AAA Five-Diamond 42-room inn above it, plus a new RV park behind it, all in time for the 2004 event. Mystic Rock hosted the PGA Tour for three more years, bringing lots of publicity and prestige to the resort.
“Getting things done in that way doesn’t happen in most places, but that’s Maggie’s approach to everything,” says Brian Anderson, vice president of real estate and development. “That’s how much the Hardys care about the Nemacolin guest experience. Maggie learned at Joe’s side since she was five years old, and she’s put her own spin on her dad’s way of doing business and drives the philosophy here.”
That point is evident by the continual evolution of the now 318-room property and its amenities, which include 36 holes of golf plus a learning academy, spa and holistic healing center, sport-shooting center and off-road driving school. Nemacolin even boasts a vintage auto and aircraft museum, bowling alley and arcade, zip line tower, wildlife park, ski mountain and casino.
But Nemacolin’s progress isn’t done; in fact, it’s hardly slowed down. Come 2017, nine more Pete Dye holes will open, along with the first phase of what will be 640 villas, townhomes and single-family homes. The new housing will create a year-round community for members and add a critical mass of units to lure sizable corporate and association meetings to the resort, all of whom will use golf such that the new nine holes are necessary at Mystic Rock, which presently hosts 24,000 rounds over its six-month season.
Despite the numerous amenity upgrades, Anderson feels the biggest factor in the resort’s growing success over time is the staffing philosophy of its leaders “We hire for energy and passion,” he notes. “And sometimes we’ll put people in areas where they have no experience, but we know they’re able to adapt because they have a driven personality and the aptitude we want.”
Anderson himself is a perfect example. He started as superintendent of the resort’s older course, the Links, in 2001. In 2010, he became director of golf for both courses and the academy. And earlier this year, he was named vice president of real estate and development at a critical juncture.
“The biggest lesson I take away from our golf operation is that there doesn’t have to be a set way of selling—anything it takes to get the numbers where they need to be, you do it,” Anderson explains. “For a few years, all of us were passing out brochures at the local mall and the pubs, talking to anyone to get them to play the Links. Our managers never told us, ‘You should be doing it this way or that way.’ It’s about creating your own opportunities.” The results support this strategy: By 2014, the Links had more than 350 annual pass holders and 19,000 annual rounds.
In fact, the in-person approach Anderson relied on more than a decade ago is still what drives golf demand from the resort’s major markets in the present day. Within a four-hour drive of Washington D.C., and Baltimore to the east and Cleveland and Columbus to the west, the resort bases its sales staff on property, though they drive to their target cities at least twice a week for meals, events and meetings.
But how can the resort pull 43,000 annual rounds and also expect to fill an additional nine holes when there are so many other things for guests and their families to do on property? It begins with knowing your product and clientele.
“We try to put the right business on the course at the right times of the week—corporate, buddy vacations, social and charity outings, members and locals,” Anderson says. “The key to success for all our amenities is that someone owns each one and has sole responsibility for it to work for the resort.”
To round out its golf market, Nemacolin’s director of golf instruction, Brian Rogish, devotes much of his time to junior golf. “He’s done wonders with the people who live within 90 minutes of here,” says Anderson, who is Rogish’s former boss. “Between his involvement with First Tee of Pittsburgh, his own junior camps and then teaching kids indoors all winter—and even helping college golf prospects create portfolios of their accomplishments to land scholarships—he’s the face of our golf product in the local community.”
In the end, the Nemacolin experience is predicated on guests enjoying what the Hardys have created and continue to build. “It killed Joe to see that the course wasn’t full in the lean years, and now it kills him that everyone who wants to play can’t always get on the course when they want,” Anderson says. “That’s a good problem to have, of course. Like the rest of the higher-end resort golf market, we’re seeing our numbers increase—people are willing to pay good money to play good courses. We make sure to have other good experiences around that, too.”
Rob Carey is a freelance writer and principal of Meetings & Hospitality Insight.