At this year’s England Golf awards Seckford were named club of the year. Golfnews24 editor Mark Flanagan spoke to two of the men instrumental in the Suffolk club’s revival.
There is a well-worn phrase in business – and life… ‘never go back’.
Thankfully for Seckford Golf Club Tony Pennock, who is closing in on 50 years as a PGA pro, did just that.
When the Suffolk club opened in 1990 he was its first professional while his assistant was Simon Jay.
Fast forward to 2023 and the duo are still there, albeit after a few moves in between.
However this time their partnership, in conjunction with the drive and determination of the Seckford directors, has proved a winning combination, culminating in the England Golf awards success last month.
It was due recognition for an impressive turnaround in fortunes, all achieved in double quick time. It is particularly inspiring as this is a club that has twice gone into administration, most recently in 2016 when the current owner, a London based shipping company, bought the land and buildings and leased it back to the members for 20 years.
Seckford’s current rude health is a far cry from December 2019 when it was “desperate times”. The club not afford to pay staff and big decisions had to be made.
However when you consider the efforts of some of their team it is easy to see why they have turned things around.
When Covid struck in March 2020, the new chairman Jon Anderton, who runs Cambridge Telecom, repainted the 19th Hole bar with the help of a friend, Steve Fisk. In fact in the May of that year the duo also repainted the exterior of the clubhouse as part of a major overhaul of the facilties. New furniture came in as the bar and dining areas were given a 21st century makeover and the expansive terrace was also redone.
Down came the old-fashioned honours boards to be replaced with perspex replacements “It is very different to how it was,” added Jon, who has been chairman for the last three years.
Such was the initial success, helped by the ‘Covid bounce’, the bar has subsequently been extended so they could get an extra member of staff serving.
Another tenet of the Seckford success story has been the way the local golfing community has embraced the club’s membership strategy and particularly the ‘Points4Golf’ membership option it offers.
PlayMoreGolf has become the market leader in this area but Tony was involved in its early origins and implemented it at Seckford when he returned in 2016. It works on the idea that there are many players who can’t justify an annual membership because they don’t have the time so players can purchase Points in relation to how often they think they will play during the year. Playing on a Saturday afternoon might swallow up 10 of your points while playing on a Tuesday afternoon will cost you only five.
The concept took a while to grab hold but since Covid, the club has not looked back.
In 2016 the club had 280 ‘tradtional’ members and that is still an option for those who have the time to take advantage of playing more often. Now that number hovers around the 300 mark.
By mid 2019 the points-based system started to get traction but in the last three years it has sky rocketed and now they have 700 golfers in this membership category.
“The great benefit is you can have a lot of points-based members because they are not playing very often,” said Tony, who spent 16 years running Rye Hill in Oxfordshire. “Ultimately it’s been our saviour.”
The increase in numbers has also helped with the social boom. Regular quizzes, run by Simon Jay, have become a major attaction while Tony has also been the driving force behind Fore-Get-Me-Not-Golf, using golf to help people with dementia.
Simon has also overseen the growth of the booming junior section and encouraging youngsters and women into Seckford is central to everything the club is trying to achieve.
However success brings interesting problems. The growth in people using the clubhouse has exposed issues with the infrastructure, which needs addressing. The club has been able to buy the greenstaff extra equipment but the complex, which houses the mowers etc, is now too small. There are also plans to extend the car park to cope with the extra traffic.
The range has also been refurbished and alongside Tony and Simon is a third PGA pro Matt Ransome.
The bill for all of the upgrades, over the last three years, runs into the hundreds of thousands of pounds and the plan is to ramp up that investment to keep improving the club while it has this fantastic momentum.
As Tony said: “The award was a victory for the little boys of golf.”
Although it sounds like they won’t be staying “little” for much longer.