ClubLink's "one membership—more golf" model takes the sport to a new level in Toronto

In the late 1980s, ClubLink founder Bruce Simmonds owned a single golf club in Toronto called Cherry Downs Golf & Country Club. By the early 1990s, the course's growth had stalled. Like many golf facilities at the time, Cherry Downs was having difficulty finding a competitive edge.

"We had several single-operator clubs in the area at the time, and all were dealing with that same lack of competitive differentiation," says ClubLink's Executive Director of Sales and Marketing, Tim Green. Simmonds realized that he had to create some type of hook; a mechanism that would separate his club from the pack. The answer wasn't in a single facility. Instead, he came up with a model that didn't exist in Toronto: a multi-destination, join-one, play-them-all brand of private-club golf.

In late 1993, he acquired three additional facilities in the Greater Toronto area and ClubLink was born as a public company trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Today, the company has 32 golf clubs, featuring the equivalent of more than 39 18-hole championship courses and eight nine-hole academy courses.

During the first few years of ClubLink's existence, the model was clearly working and the company decided to raise the ante, moving from buying existing courses into the development of greenfield sites. "Our first development was The Lake Joseph Club in Muskoka, Ontario," Green says. "That was the exciting growth phase for us. We got into the process of site selection for the first time. We knew we had to do it in a 'cluster' fashion, so that we could move into new geographic regions knowing that we would be able to develop more than one unit to suit our reciprocal play model. In addition, we hired our first designer, Tom McBroom, among Canada's best-known golf course architects and a second, Mark O'Meara, a Master's champion and course architect. By 2001, we'd opened three clubs in the area: Lake Joseph, Rocky Crest and Grandview."

In 2000, the company's portfolio of golf clubs was made up of 17 member clubs and 14 public, daily-fee clubs. To add muscle to the model, ClubLink converted its daily-fee, public clubs into member clubs. In doing so, the company also upgraded each. An example is Gormley Greens Golf Club in Gormley, a daily-fee golf club just north of Toronto. In 2001, the company undertook a $14 million, year-and-a-half renovation project that encompassed significant course improvements, such as new green surrounds, new cart paths, enhanced drainage, refurbished bunkers and a conversion to bentgrass. It also included the addition of an elegant, train-station style clubhouse, featuring a 4,000-square-foot porch overlooking the 18th green.

Seven years later, operating revenue eclipsed $153 million and the chain served more than 16,000 members (see the "ClubLink's Historical Performance" sidebar for more on the company's numbers). Its roster also includes Glen Abbey, the host of the 2008 and 2009 RBC Canadian Open.

"Clearly, our numbers bear out that the model works," Green asserts. "It serves a lot of demographic and personal lifestyle needs. I put myself squarely in the demographic we serve: I'm in my 40s and play about 30 rounds of golf each year. It can be hard to find one 18-hole course that will satisfy a golf lover who plays with regularity. For those of us who travel for leisure and business, having access to multiple clubs is a perfect fit."

ClubLink's reciprocal play model features other aspects that further differentiate the company from other golf operators. For example, its large number of clubs lets the chain create a tiered member pricing structure. Its membership fees range anywhere from $9,500 to $85,000, set up as Silver, Gold, Platinum or Prestige levels. In each case, players have certain rights and access based on their level. And players at lower levels can play at higher-level clubs for a fee, based on availability.

But, adds Green, it's ClubLink's members that give the company its personality. While the locations offer the amenities that other private clubs offer—upscale clubhouses with high-end dining, personal service and more—there are some typical aspects of private clubs that its members bypass, at least to some degree. For example, every good private golf club offers storage for its members' clubs and most ClubLink locations are no different. But, as Green points out, you can walk through the storage area at almost any facility and be "shocked at how few clubs are there. Most of our members never know when they'll pick up a game at another ClubLink facility, so they keep their clubs in the trunk of their car."

Going forward, ClubLink's next phase of growth will likely come through acquisition of operating golf clubs. Based on current market conditions and an imbalance in the supply/demand equation for golf in the Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa triangle, the company has no greenfield sites in the works.

"We're sort of back to our starting point," observes Green. "But now we're doing this from a different position. We have significant influence in the Toronto golf market. What we've really been able to do is change the face of the market. When people think about joining a golf club in Toronto, they may not choose ClubLink, but we're confident that we're part of their decision-making process."