Inniscrone GC (Hanse, 1999) in Avondale, PA From Private to Public - Update

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Profiled here: http://golfclubatlas.com/courses-by-country/usa/inniscrone-golf-club/


I came across an article recently published in Tri-State Golfer, a magazine, written by a local golf blogger and writer Tom McNichol. The magazine's website , www.tristategolfer.com, is not current so here it is, thanks to the author.



By Tom McNichol
Contributing Writer
Inniscrone Golf Club in southern Chester County was launched with high hopes in 1999, a planned high-end private club designed by the still relatively unknown Gil Hanse.
Nearly two decades later, well things didn’t go quite as planned, although the design certainly has some cachet because, in that ensuing time, Hanse has become one of the biggest names in golf course architecture. He won a high-stakes competition with some of the biggest names in the business to earn the right to design the course the 2016 Olympics was played on in Rio de Janeiro in the game’s celebrated return to the Summer Games.
And fortunately for the golf-playing public, the golf course at Inniscrone was the first piece of the puzzle around which 500 fancy homes, an over-55 community and a wastewater treatment plant were to be built. When the economy turned sour and the real-estate market struggled, the home building slowed.
But the golf course was still there, as was the over-55 community and the wastewater treatment plant. But Inniscrone wasn’t going to be a high-end private course anymore. Several golf management companies came and went and the golf course started to fall into disrepair.
London Grove Township finally stepped in in 2009 and brought the golf course and then looked around from an entity to run it.
Enter Tom Bolko and the Heathland Hospitality Group. Bolko, a 50-year-old native of New Hampshire, came to the area in the early 1990s as an assistant superintendent at Coatesville Country Club. He rose through the ranks at Coatesville to become the club’s general manager, adding to his knowledge of the golf business along the way.
By 2011, Bolko was looking around for a new opportunity along with Bob Wurtz of Heathland Hospitality Group, someone Bolko had come to know while working at Coatesville. They put together a bid and won the right to reinvent Inniscrone.
“In the last five years I’ve learned more about golf and the business of golf than I ever would have imagined,” Bolko said on a dreary February day, just a day after a sudden warmup had delivered more than 100 golfers to Inniscrone. “My motivation is, what can I do to make you want to come to my golf course?
“And if I can get you here, then maybe after a round of golf, and a sandwich and a couple of craft beers, you’ll want to come back.”
It is that simple and that complicated because, as Bolko points out, the golf business “is hard.”
Bolko, though, brings a lot to the table. He came to the golf business originally as a superintendent, so he’s the superintendent at Inniscrone. “That’s the easy part,” he said. But at many courses, public and private, growing the grass and keeping it green are among the biggest challenges.
Bolko learned a lot about food and beverage at Coatesville, so he’s running that part of the operation with a lot of assistance from Amy McLaughlin, the property manager. Jesse Conners is the pro shop manager.
And that’s the team. There is no head pro, although the Tim Brown Academy will add Inniscrone to its roster of sites this year.
“The golf business is fundamentally different than it was last year, than it was five years ago, than it was 10 years ago,” Bolko said. “It’s more about how can a golf property deliver affordable golf in an enjoyable environment.”
So one of Bolko’s first orders of business was to take some of the hard edges off a Hanse design that was meant to challenge top golfers paying a premium to play at a private course. It is a par 70 that measures anywhere from 4,750 from the white tees to 6,611 yards from the black tees.
Bolko cleaned out some native areas, got rid of some trees, including one that in the middle of a fairway, and turned a two-level fairway into a more conventional single fairway. But he still feels like it’s a Hanse at its heart and the Golf Association of Philadelphia thought enough of the course to utilize it for a BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship qualifier two years ago.
“I think one guy shot a 68, but I think 76 or 77 qualified, so the course held up pretty well,” Bolko said.
The average public-course golfer, Bolko has learned, isn’t trying to win the U.S. Open.
“You know, people come here, they want to make a par or two, maybe sniff a birdie here or there,” Bolko said. “They don’t want to be out here losing 10 golf balls. We want to think about ways to help people how to have fun out here.”
Bolko listens to the people who come to play Inniscrone. Some of his regulars have been members at Inniscrone since Day 1 and he estimates that 35 percent of Inniscrone’s 80 members are women.  He pays attention to the comments from those who rate Inniscrone on the Internet after visiting the course for the first time.
“It’s always nice to see compliments,” Bolko said. “But I pay more attention to the criticisms.”
Bolko can point to some numbers that indicate that his approach is paying off.
“We had 18,000 rounds in 2012, my first full year here, and last year we had 26,000 rounds,” Bolko said.
Which also means it’s a good deal for London Grove Township, whose residents can play the course for a 10 percent discount.
Ken Battin has been the township manager for a little more than a year. He admits it’s the first time he’s managed a township that owns a golf course, but he says the arrangement is working out and gives Bolko a lot of the credit for that.
“It’s unique, but it certainly is a nice way to preserve open space,” Battin said. “Tom really does a nice job, you can see his passion for the game and for this golf course. It’s good for the township and it’s good for the residents.”
With many of his tee times being secured via GolfNow, Bolko gets a pretty good idea of where the visitors to Inniscrone are coming from. It is, he was a little surprised to learn, a very multi-state clientele.
“You don’t realize how close you are to Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey here,” Bolko said. “Over 50 percent of our play comes from Maryland and Delaware. And we get people coming over from New Jersey. You’re only a half-hour from the (Delaware Memorial) bridge here.”
It is Bolko’s challenge to get you to make that trip to London Grove Township and he has a Gil Hanse golf course and reasonable rates to lure you there. He thinks he can handle the rest.

[Nate Oxman]

I think you’re talking about Tri-State Golfer.

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Duly noted and corrected.

[Steve_ Shaffer]

I found the GM's statement about " retail golfers" is spot on notwithstanding the golf architecture critics who were disappointed in the changes made to the the course:
rse:“You know, people come here, they want to make a par or two, maybe sniff a birdie here or there,” Bolko said. “They don’t want to be out here losing 10 golf balls. We want to think about ways to help people how to have fun out here."Bolko listens to the people who come to play Inniscrone. Some of his regulars have been members at Inniscrone since Day 1 and he estimates that 35 percent of Inniscrone’s 80 members are women.  He pays attention to the comments from those who rate Inniscrone on the Internet after visiting the course for the first time.“It’s always nice to see compliments,” Bolko said. “But I pay more attention to the criticisms.”Bolko can point to some numbers that indicate that his approach is paying off.“We had 18,000 rounds in 2012, my first full year here, and last year we had 26,000 rounds,” Bolko said.