Lake Chesdin Golf Club is spread across 200 acres at 21801 Lake Chesdin Parkway. (Photo courtesy Lake Chesdin Golf Club)
Looking for a boost in membership and to its bottom line, a Chesterfield golf club has brought in some outside help from elsewhere in the county.
Lake Chesdin Golf Club recently hired Mike Hatch and his firm Acumen Golf to take over management of the nearly 30-year-old club.
Hatch, who also owns Birkdale Golf Club and Brandermill Country Club, both in Chesterfield, took the helm at Lake Chesdin earlier this month. The semi-private club remains member-owned by its approximately 150 members.
Hatch said his goal is to help Chesdin tap into the continued uptick in golf that began with the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic and, for many courses, hasn’t waned.
Mike Hatch
“We haven’t seen a downtick. Rounds of play have been up since Covid 30 percent,” Hatch said of his courses.
In particular, Hatch said he has spillover demand from members at his other two courses and is working to create a reciprocal membership program to allow Birkdale, Brandermill and Chesdin members to play all three courses. Birkdale is semi-private and has 200 members. Brandermill is private and has close to 450 members.
“Before we would have said ‘sorry we’re full,’ (at Birkdale and Brandermill) but now we have another option for a sister club. Our members are super excited,” Hatch said. “I think it’s going to be a huge draw for Lake Chesdin in growing the membership, which is really the goal.”
Hatch is aiming to increase Chesdin’s membership to 250 and to increase its revenue from $1 million annually. But he said it will take patience.
“It takes time, it takes money and it takes commitment. They haven’t had management in a while,” Hatch said, adding that longtime superintendent Tim White and the club’s volunteer board had most recently been managing the club. “This business isn’t as easy as everybody thinks.”
The Lake Chesdin club opened in 1998 in southern Chesterfield within the 3,000-acre Chesdin Landing subdivision.
About a decade ago, the club merged with Meadowbrook Country Club in a deal that both sides had hoped would improve their fortunes by sharing members, expenses and personnel. However, it proved to be short-lived and the two clubs broke up about two years later. Chesdin had 225 members at the time.