|
When Robert Lougheed wanted to introduce his 3-year-old son, Alexander, to golf, he started taking the tot to driving ranges in their hometown of Surrey, British Columbia. Trouble was, the Surrey ranges just didn’t compare to the modern and user-friendly facilities across the lower mainland in Richmond, where the Lougheed family owns a property development business. Lougheed longed for a top-flight facility closer to home that he and his son could frequent.
“In Richmond there are two or three very, very high-end, nice ranges and they’re very busy,” Lougheed explains. “So I said in my mind, ‘Wouldn’t that be nice if one of these facilities was out here in Surrey?’ And that thought made me think, why don’t we do it because no one else is.”
And so began the Lougheed family’s seven-year odyssey to open Birdies & Buckets Family Golf Centre, a golfer’s paradise tucked away in the outskirts of Surrey. Alexander, now 12, works at the center, picking and washing balls, placing pins and helping the facility hum along. Lougheed’s wife, Jacquie, also pitches in part time.
Customer service is a Birdies & Buckets trademark, and a prime reason the facility won second-place honors in Golf Range Times’ 2003 Best New Range contest.
But beyond the personal touch, Birdies & Buckets offers state-of-the-art golf practice and teaching facilities, including a 76-stall double-deck tee line, short game and putting practice areas, a nine-hole short course and an array of teaching programs from certified instructors who’ve even developed personalized lessons by e-mail.
With an outlay of CAD$3 million, the Lougheeds spared little expense in creating an inviting environment for patrons. From the attractive Swiss chalet architecture and the180-space paved parking lot to the uniformed employees, the 10-foot-wide tee stations and the well-appointed bathroom facilities, Birdies & Buckets has a comfortable style that brings customers back.
“We get comments from customers all the time,” says Lougheed. “They love the little touches like the fine tiling in the bathroom. Those kinds of things are important.”
But becoming a favorite destination for golf-minded patrons in Surrey, nestled between Vancouver and the U.S. border, hasn’t been easy. Planning development, working through local government red tape and, ultimately, converting a 25-acre tract of fallow farmland into a pristine golf center was a slow and sometimes painful process.
“There were a lot of things that came up,” says Lougheed, shaking his head. “But we wanted to make the best facility we could and I think everyone can see that. We went the extra mile in design.”
Hoops and Hurdles
After first getting the notion to build a golf center in Surrey, Lougheed knew he faced the arduous task of locating the right piece of property. Although real estate development was the family business, the golf industry was wholly unfamiliar territory.
“In British Columbia, and maybe in other parts of the country, it’s very difficult to find a site for a golf driving range because of agricultural land reserve requirements and zoning issues,” he says. “You have to worry about the adjacent land, too, and you don’t want to be so far away that there are no customers near you.”
It took Lougheed three years to find a suitable site. Bordering a residential area and an agricultural land reserve, the tract of farmland had lain dormant for longer than anyone could remember, maybe for 75 years. The soil was mostly peat and disagreeable to all but the most determined of tenants. Still, negotiating development with the Provincial Agricultural Land Commission turned into a two-year process for Lougheed. And that was just the beginning.
“Going through all the government agencies was very difficult,” Lougheed recalls. “We had to go through the Ministry of Fisheries because there would have been upland [water] runoff once we built. There weren’t any fish but there was water running, and as soon as you get water running, Fisheries gets involved.
“We had to cross a railway track and that caused more departments—highway, rail and the city—to get involved. It just went on and on,” he says, estimating that he worked with 15 to 20 government departments in the late 1990s.
Even though he had land development expertise and had spent years boning up on the golf range industry, Lougheed was blindsided by the water runoff requirements as well as the demands of the railway that runs parallel to the Birdies & Buckets’ property.
Eventually, Lougheed paid CAD$175,000 to install crossing lights and protective arms to stop traffic when trains pass, even though several nearby crossings had only stop signs. “You never realize all the politics involved in something like this,” says Lougheed diplomatically.
That Sinking Feeling
Next up, engineers took a closer look at the thick and spongy peat soil and began devising workarounds to make construction feasible. The land was cleaned of all shrubs and unwanted growth to unearth the peat. Greyback Construction then brought in heavy machinery on big wooden blocks so that the Cats and trucks wouldn’t mire up in the soft peat.
The construction crew worked one area at a time, repeatedly moving the support blocks and the machinery until they had carved out a 10-acre space for the range landing area. Once leveled and contoured, the area was filled with sand and covered with a carpet of geo-tech fiber secured by wire.
“The land probably sunk 2 feet over that period when the weight hit it,” says Lougheed. The covering served to squeeze the peat and water out, compacting the soil and creating a hard, stable surface.
The landing area was then ready for seeding with a ryegrass blend, and work began on the adjacent 8,500-square-foot clubhouse, situated over what was once a peat bog and flood plain. To stabilize the clubhouse, the construction team installed 135 telephone poles beneath the main building and placed sand mounds under both wings of the range.
“The engineers told us this is what we had to do or we were going to sink,” says Lougheed with a shrug. “So did we run into some surprises? Yeah. There’s another CAD$150,000 for the poles under the building.”
The Best of the Best
It took six months to prep the land for construction. But the end results are striking. The picturesque clubhouse with its white wood siding and distinctive green roof emerge from a clearing that is surrounded by pines, shrubbery and blue mountains in the distance. It’s just the scene Lougheed had in mind when he first imagined a top-of-the-line golf facility in Surrey.
Lougheed handed off his design ideas to architects who drew up the final plans, but he already knew the color scheme and the overall look he wanted. The wood framing is warmer and friendlier than the typical steel-frame construction, and the white-trimmed windows add charm. Wood-beam supports on the patio and tee line visually connect different areas of the facility, providing flow and continuity.
“I went to see 38 driving ranges, took pictures and took the best ideas, researched them and came back and said, ‘Here’s the style we want,’” Lougheed recalls.
Lougheed also read everything he could get his hands on and attended the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, Fla., to absorb as much as he could from the distributors and experts on hand.
Back home in Surrey, he went to work turning ideas into reality. To fit more stalls on the tee line, he opted for a double-deck design that connects to the back of the clubhouse with 76 teeing stations. Customers enter on the deck’s upper level direct from the clubhouse, stopping to fill their buckets at the Range Servant America Inc. ball dispenser that serves the entire tee line.
“When we’re busy, we fill the top first, which is unusual compared to most double-deckers,” Lougheed notes. “The guys that are real serious about their ball flight, they head to the basement and they’ve got lots of room.”
In fact, everyone on the tee line has ample room, thanks to 10-foot-wide stalls. Thirty-seven stalls are equipped with Re-Verber-Ray gas-tube heaters, a winter necessity in British Columbia.
The north-facing tee line ensures that the sun is always to the golfer’s back, and the back of the tee structure is permanently enclosed to protect golfers from the strong south wind. Windows are strategically placed to filter in light. Golfers look out on a 250-yard-wide by 290-yard-deep landing area, featuring five raised targets, ranging from 50 yards to 220, and two sand traps. Actually, the sand traps are artificial placements by Sport Tech of Toronto. “It looks so good from the distance, I don’t think anyone knows,” Lougheed says.
Customers do notice the most distinctive feature of the landing area, though. At 130 yards, a black trampoline target inspires golfers to take their best shot. “When we go to pick balls, there are usually a thousand balls around it because when you hit the trampoline, you get the thrill of—boom—‘I hit it,’ and—boom—it went 20 feet in the air and took off the other way,” says Lougheed.
But those supercharged balls don’t escape the range. Perimeter netting from Netex Canada Netting Inc. soars 100 feet on both sides of the landing area, while a 60-foot-high span guards the rear.
Adjacent to the landing area and to the right of the tee line, Birdies & Buckets offers a half-acre short game practice area. A kidney-shaped bunker abuts a raised, elevated green that’s ideal for chipping practice.
Popular with customers is the Penn Cross Creeping Bent Grass putting green alongside the clubhouse and overlooking a pond, which separates the green from the new pitch-and-putt course. The 7,500-square-foot putting green has nine pins. “It’s really busy all summer,” says Lougheed. “The view there is so panoramic with the mountains in the distance.”
Great Views Inside and Out
Inside the spacious clubhouse, Lougheed leases space to the operators of Birdies & Buckets’ pro shop and restaurant. Golf Town, Canada’s largest golf retailer, runs the 2,500-square-foot pro shop, bringing a vast selection of merchandise, professional service and low prices to range customers.
Carrying all major brands, Golf Town offers an entire rack of demonstration clubs. Customers sign out clubs and test them on the tee line at no charge. If they decide to make a purchase, Golf Town offers custom club fitting on-site.
“They’re a huge chain and we were really lucky to be the only retail unit they put in a driving range,” says Lougheed. “Their stores are usually 25,000-square-feet instead of 2,500, but what they liked was the custom club fitting aspect and the quality of what we were building here.”
Partnering with such a large retailer has enabled Birdies & Buckets to offer more customer-pleasing services such as ladies’ golf fashion shows. The latest show drew 80 customers, who were treated to a glass of wine and appetizers.
The food service operation at the range is also in outside hands. O’s Kaffee Haus seats 20 patrons comfortably, with room for 20 more on the outdoor patio when weather permits. O’s offers a diverse menu from hamburgers and hot dogs to appetizers, freshly baked breads, desserts and traditional breakfast items.
O’s also caters the birthday parties, business meetings and other private parties the facility often hosts. In addition to the restaurant space, Birdies & Buckets has a group meeting room that also seats 20. “It’s not a big part of our business, but it’s there for parties, small business meetings and charity events we’ve done,” Lougheed says.
“We’re still growing and that’s true for all of us in the building. Time will tell. When the weather is good, business is good. But we have quiet times, too [in the winter],” he says.
The clubhouse also houses a two-bedroom custodial condo on one wing, allowing the facility the option of employing on-site security personnel.
A Friendly, Golf-Savvy Staff
Birdies & Buckets has 10 full-time employees in winter and 12 in prime season, with more part-time help added as needed. The facility is open 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., though inclement weather often shortens those hours in the off-season.
Lougheed always positions at least one employee at the main desk, where prices are posted and customers purchase range ball tokens or an access pass to the Panorama Links Pitch & Putt course, which opened last September.
Employees wear Birdies & Buckets logo apparel, including shirts and hats, and heavy jackets in the winter. “We want to look professional and like a team,” explains Lougheed. “We’re also really big on customer service, on saying, ‘Hello, how you doing?’ and ‘Thank you very much for coming.’ That’s a mandatory part of the job description. We have a very friendly, energetic and hard-working young crew inside and out.”
Birdies & Buckets employs three full-time golf professionals in season, headed by Robert Ratcliffe, a British PGA member and member of the National Coaching Foundation.
Ratcliffe also designed the facility’s web site and set up an innovative golf e-lesson program. Anyone enrolled in the Personal Learning Programs offered at Birdies & Buckets can opt to receive e-lessons, which reinforce the skills covered in a range lesson. The instructor e-mails the student with reminder points from the lesson, sometimes accompanied by photos taken of the student’s golf swing, comparison photos of a professional and analysis.
Among the numerous on-site instructional options are age-specific junior programs for youngsters 4 to 18. There are never more than eight students per instructor in these group sessions. A junior Elite program with more advanced instruction, including seminars on fitness, nutrition, injury management, sports psychology and competitive skills, is another popular option. In addition, the center offers a Ladies Only program and Family Learning , which teaches parents and children together.
Keep It Fresh for Customers
The broad range of instructional programs has become an important avenue for Birdies & Buckets to expand its clientele beyond the typical golf center demographic.
Some of the facility’s most successful promotions also involve the teaching staff. On Ladies’ Nights, when women get discounts on buckets of balls and the short course, the center’s pros are on-site to provide free tips and mini-lessons along the tee line.
On Meet the Pros days, instructors bring out the Swinger Professional swing analysis software and provide free advice and analysis to customers. It’s become an effective way for the pros to build lesson sales, Lougheed says.
Two-for-one coupons for the range and the nine-hole course have also proven to be one of the center’s best promotional tools. When the range opened, Lougheed flooded the market with 40,000 coupons, placing them in newspaper ads and handing them out to area businesses to pass on to their customers. Each coupon was coded so that Birdies & Buckets could track the most effective distribution pathway.
Lougheed distributed more coupons when Panorama Links opened last fall and enjoyed about one month of great business before the weather turned inhospitable. In designing the course, Lougheed opted for the shorter pitch-and-putt format (the holes range from 50 to 82 yards) because of the close proximity of six other par-3 courses in the region.
“It was how we could be different,” he explains. “The only other pitch and putts are in Vancouver and Burnaby. We’re the first one here in the Fraser Valley. I think it brings out new golfers, seniors, kids, moms, and we get some business groups. We didn’t want to be just another par 3.”
Each hole has a name and none is more apt than No. 9—“Gone Fishing”—which is surrounded on three sides by the pond.
Anticipating their first full season with the golf course, Lougheed says the facility will hold more tournaments. Birdies & Buckets is already a two-time stop on the Junior Linkster Tour. Lougheed also aims to host more charity events and group functions, using Panorama Links as the centerpiece for his promotions.
Lougheed’s determined efforts to have a first-class golf range facility in Surrey have not gone unnoticed. The White Rock/
Surrey Chamber of Commerce named Birdies & Buckets the best new business of 2003. The facility also has a following among local school systems, hosting golf seminars for physical education classes. Birdies & Buckets provides the clubs, allowing students to hit on the range and play the short course for half price.
The tie-in with local schools is helping Birdies & Buckets meet its goal of building the junior instruction program. And when young people discover the facility, their parents are often close behind.
“We wanted to make a place where ladies and families felt welcome,” says Lougheed. “We are trying to be different, more professional with our style of building, our uniforms, our customer relations and our golf programs. So far, I think we’ve accomplished that.”
|
