Royal St. Patrick's Golf Links
920-532-4300 in Wrightstown, Wisconin
Probably $627...
Below are the "Links" to our most recent Newsletters that are emailed to our loyal listeners. If you think you may have missed one of our emails, or you remember it being so good you want to read it again...this is where you will find it. Enjoy!
April 17, 2019
It has become a tradition that April’s Tales From The Tall Grass always contains a nice update on the things we have been working to improve. I always figure this is about the time when you start really thinking about golf, so let’s touch on a few things. Clearly the Shark Experience I have been teasing is far and away the biggest innovation. While I still refuse to give you everything…let me say this. Shark is a feature you will find in our carts, our brand new platinum colored 2019 Club Car Tempo Electric Golf Carts. Shark will change your golf experience. It will make you say, “let’s play RSPGL this weekend, RSPGL is simply more fun”. More to come! As for other things that could never rise to scale and scope of Shark, here we go: Hank has gotten a new zero turn trap rake. It’s fast and puts a way better rake job on our bunkers. We can simply do them more often because it takes less time. We have a goal to re-do as many as 10 bunkers this summer. Given the prospect drainage changes, we hope to finally take a serious look at the range and hopefully make some improvements. Until now it’s been foolish to try and fix the range when the problem was down stream. Last week I documented a number of the menu changes Chef Bob has made. The most obvious change will be the white plates that everything is served on. Don’t worry, we are not going all fancy on you, we just think it looks better than served on soggy paper baskets. Chef got a new mixer in the kitchen. Each year, things we used to farm out, we are now doing internally. It’s great stimulation for our employees and when we said its made fresh, well it’s not some lame cliché. Over the winter Chef launched some local catering. With so many businesses going up, how will these people get free lunch from the boss when they go 90 days without hitting a fellow employee with a forklift. A huge behind the scenes improvement for us is a new POS system in the restaurant. Did you know for the last 15 years, I have had two separate systems, now everything is the same system. A little learning curve is needed for us, so be patient. In the end, my life gets way easier, cross training gets way easier, and hopefully in time we can use all the loyalty features to make your experience better too. Not that you are going to do cart wheels today about my POS, but it’s a big deal for us. East Wisconsin Savings Bank is back as our range ball sponsor. NEW Wall Street and Assisted Living By Hillcrest will be our scorecard sponsors. Thank you Charlie, Debi, Briana, Amy, Brooke and Matt! Memberships continue to grow. Six more corporate memberships have committed. Large defector groups from courses unmasked have moved here. I’m surprised a few times a week by golfers I don’t know that well, committing to membership this year, and I have to believe there are a number of you planning to join, but you just haven’t pulled the trigger. Pull it! If you had done already, I might have had more improvements to talk about! Anyway…you will see lots of familiar faces this year, we return almost all our major players. Unheard of in the golf business, but maybe a testament to our work atmosphere. Ok, that’s enough. I’ve got more, but this got a little long…
April 2019
If you have been living under a rock, you may not have realized the USGA has changed the rules of golf. Some say it’s for speed, some say golf is too penal, other’s say the old rules are just too silly. While I won’t bore you with all the changes (and there are ton), I will simply highlight the ones that seem to come into play every single day here at RSPGL. 1) Search time for lost ball is cut from 5 minutes to 3 minutes. Your round just got faster! 2) Accidently kicking your ball in search is not a penalty. I’m seeing a lot of our senior crowd on their hands and knees gently looking for balls, they will appreciate the idea they can now just kick around with their feet. 3) You drop ball from knee height not should height now. At 6’4”, my fibula is still longer than someone who is 5’1”, not sure there is still equity??? 4) Losing your balance in a bunker and having your hand or club touch sand is no longer a penalty. For those of you taking practice swings, that was against the rules; and still is. 5) Water hazards are now called “Penalty Areas”, and Penalty Areas don’t have to contain water. We should get credit for this rule when we changed our fescue to “Penalty Areas” like 12 years ago. We are Innovators! 6) You can now ground your club in a Penalty Area, oh wait…that’s not a rule change, you’ve been doing that since you took up the game 7) You can tap down spike marks now. Good news, we will be selling a new device that looks like a lint roller, so you can smooth the whole line while you are at it. Sorry, your round just slowed down again. 8) Hitting ball with practice putting stroke. In addition to looking like an idiot, you were penalized, not anymore. No penalty, but you will still look like an idiot as you go and get the ball so you can put it back. 9) You can putt with the flagstick in. Jury is still out on whether this is an advantage or disadvantage. Tour players would lead you to believe it’s an advantage, but I’m sure it will lead to some heated clubhouse debates. Like I said, there are a lot more rules changes, I would encourage you to take a few minutes and read up on them.
Tales From The Tall Grass
April 15, 2019
I have a friend, who is very much like me. Conservative, prideful, traditional, he has a servant’s heart, and is very golf centric. I don’t think he likes to write, but he is a great club pro. In the last 5-10 years, there is this new idea that a northern Wisconsin golf course, should open in the dead of winter, despite agronomic conditions, if the temperature might creep into the high 40’s. While no one reading this even steps into their yard after a recent snow melt, some owners have deemed this a perfect time to begin the golf season, all be it for 1 day in the middle of February. Here is where my friend, the club pro comes in. He is traditional, which means he believes the golf season is April 1 to Nov 1, give or take. He is prideful, which means he is representing a company, and he wants you to think the company makes great decisions, and he is part of those decisions. He is conservative, which means he understands that one good day doesn’t make a season. He has a servant’s heart, which means he genuinely wants you to have a good time. He is golf centric, which means he represents playability and the etiquettes of taking care of the course. Said friend: executes his owner’s wishes. He opens in the dead of winter. He takes your money knowing full well the product is crap. He feels terrible that this experience might determine your future interest in playing this course. Upon completion he asks if you had a great time, knowing you spent the whole time wondering why an owner thought it was OK to cause damage to his property that you would never dream of doing to your own backyard. Finally, said pro encourages you to return under premise that he is a great caretaker, and he has provided a great experience. RSPGL does not operate this way. I will not put myself, our people or our course in this situation. Other operators can do whatever they want at their place, I merely am pointing out the difference. They can ask their prideful people to stand there all day and try to defend substandard conditions if that happens to be the case. So my question is…what’s the point of opening in the middle of winter? Oh yeah, I forgot…probably like $627. Hope it was worth it?
Articles From The
Wandering Mind of
Nick Stephens, PGA
March 26, 2019
April 9, 2019
RSPGL State Of The Union...
Want To Have Our Incredible Monthly Newsletters Emailed Directly To You?
Past Newsletters, Enjoy!
New Rules of Engagement...