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Out of the rough
By BILL COATS © St. Petersburg Times, published December 24, 2000 LUTZ -- Andy Zupsic spent $1,500 in August to join a country club that was in bankruptcy court.
But the couple's people decision, and those of more than 50 like them, have held special financial significance at Cheval Country Club, which is systematically digging its way out of the red. The club, which completed its bankruptcy reorganization in August, entered the holiday season in a membership drive and needed only about 10 more recruits to reach a break-even budget. It is cutting expenses from taxes to sand traps to golf cart towels. And it is making its facilities kid-friendly with shorter tees and roller hockey in a parking lot. "The word is just beginning to get out that we are stable, we have growing membership," said Rohn Harmer, the club's vice president and membership chairman. "We're on solid ground." Harmer predicts that the club will complete its fiscal year March 31 with a loss of $20,000. But that beats last year's deficit of $89,000 and the previous year's of nearly $800,000. The club began running deficits soon after it was purchased from the Cheval developer in 1997 by a new corporation, mostly Cheval residents who had bought shares for $15,000 apiece. But the first club managers lasted only 10 months, and the new owners' first full fiscal year produced the $800,000 deficit. Yet that didn't send the club to bankruptcy court. What did was a promise, effective last Oct. 22, that any shareholder could return his shares for a full refund. In court, a judge allowed the club to devalue the shares to $6,000 and install a new system in which they can be sold only as new shareholders invest in the club. All other creditors are being repaid. Meanwhile, the club has undertaken a mix of cost cuts and upgrades. It lowered its real-property taxes by $11,500 by showing the county it no longer owned some equipment, such as tractors, that were being assessed. It is refinancing its mortgage. It even persuaded ball boys to wash golf cart towels, eliminating the expense of an outside service, Harmer said. It installed new equipment in the fitness center, got a new chef and new menus at the club's restaurant, and profited from two-for-one happy hours. The membership drive includes newspaper advertising and letters to owners of high-priced homes in neighboring areas like Carrollwood, VillaRosa and Heritage Harbor. "The Cheval Open," a bargain golf tournament open to the public, is this Tuesday. But Harmer said the most important marketing tool is a group of about 20 of the club's most active members, who in November began calling on about 500 Cheval families who haven't joined. "They'll leave a package," Harmer said. "They'll say, "Would you like to join me for a round of golf?' " Zupsic, 38, moved from San Francisco to Cheval in August, as Microsoft's manager for Florida, Alabama and Mississippi. He said he and his wife, Karen, knew about the club's finances, but relied instead on what a variety of people told them about the club. He's glad they joined. "All the family stuff they've put on has just been first class," he said. Family activities have been a major focus lately. Club managers have expanded children's golf clinics, added family specials in the dining room, and planned a children's fishing tournament for Jan. 7. Roller-hockey clinics have begun in a parking lot. Eventually, a children's nursery is planned at the tennis center. Extra tees have been added at the golf course: a long-distance one for experts and a short one for kids. And some sand traps are being removed from fairways, partly to lessen the course's frustration level and partly because they are more expensive than fairways to maintain, Harmer said. "We're taking out several traps this month," he said. - Bill Coats can be reached at (813) 226-3469 or coats@sptimes.com.
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