By Rob Carey
With a new drainage system that can accommodate frequent heavy rains and a progressive management team, Lakewood Golf Club is moving boldly into the future
Since 1947, Lakewood Golf Club has been a recreational complement to the now 168-year-old Marriott Grand Hotel, and together they’re the central attraction of small Fairhope, Alabama, on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay. The club’s 36 holes are a blend of Perry Maxwell and Robert Trent Jones, Sr., and routinely garner top marks from Lakewood’s 1,300 members as well as hotel guests and Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail card holders and package players, all of whom account for the club’s 35,000 annual rounds.
Of course, with that pedigree comes significant responsibility, and the person who has borne much of that for more than a decade is director of golf Niall Fraser. While working for Jones, Sr., and then Roger Rulewich as director of construction of the Trail’s courses between 1991 and 2005, Fraser spent $7.5 million to reconstruct Lakewood’s Dogwood course in 2002. The investment was made as a way to protect the layout from storms, and included raising several fairways and greens as well as adding bulkheads and larger drainage culverts. In his final project as director of construction, Fraser oversaw a $5 million renovation of Lakewood’s Azalea course, removing several hundred live oaks and pines while upgrading its drainage system, too.
As Fraser supervised the grow-in of Azalea’s turf during August 2005, he was offered the director of golf position at Lakewood. He accepted—and three days later watched that fledgling product get blasted by Hurricane Katrina. Actually, the hotel took the biggest hit: $52 million in damage that fully closed the 405-room Marriott Grand for eight months, and partially for six more months after that.
“A lot of businesses went under in Fairhope,” Fraser recounts. “It’s a quaint, artsy community that couldn’t stay intact with no hotel guests coming through and with many hotel employees out of work.”
Meanwhile, Lakewood’s 700 golf members at the time sustained the golf operation, in large part due to the drainage upgrades made to Dogwood. While Azalea needed a thorough reseeding and other repairs after Katrina, Dogwood was closed just two weeks for tree-clearing and safety checks. In fact, Dogwood endured a bigger test earlier that year: a 20-inch rain that lasted for two days. But the course held its ground, reopening for cart-path-only play 36 hours after that storm passed.
“We know we’re going to get big rains here on a regular basis,” Fraser says. “So the biggest thing we put money into during the renovations was drainage, drainage and drainage.”
When not worrying about inclement weather, Lakewood’s management dedicates one course to members each day, given that about 65 percent of rounds come from members and their guests while the remainder come from hotel guests and RTJ Golf Trail players. But to remain healthy over the long term, Fraser knows the club must derive more non-member-related rounds. As a result, he’s looking to boost the number of hotel guests who use the club by offering variations of the game that appeal to the younger crowd and even to non-golfers.
For instance, night golf that uses candles in paper bags to guide players along holes 1, 11 and 18 is now popular. During the event, Fraser also places small bars and casino tables on the tee boxes so participants can learn craps, roulette and blackjack. And once night golf ends, the reception in the clubhouse offers more casino tables plus “funny money” for players to bet with and redeem for prizes offered by the host.
FootGolf is gaining momentum at Lakewood as well, in part because playing nine holes only requires about 75 minutes. Fraser coordinates FootGolf tournaments a few times a year, and after each event his staff conducts a 15-minute group golf lesson to pique participants’ interest in the traditional game.
To attract hotel guests and members’ children alike, Fraser places family tees on both courses and openly encourages beginners to tee up the ball everywhere on the course to add enjoyment while reducing maintenance. What’s more, the club’s junior league is set up as a team event, with two-person scrambles the typical format so as to reduce pressure and increase bonding among younger players. And a sponsored-junior program is available for up to 30 children of non-members each year. For a $200 initiation and $100 per month, a non-member’s child can be sponsored by a member to take part in the club’s junior program for practice and course play alike. Two school golf teams also use the facility for nominal fees, and in return host their fundraising events at the club “so that we can get lots of people in to see our facility.”
One other way Fraser is appealing to different groups is by creating more interesting practice areas and allowing a relaxed dress code in those areas. In the off-season, the club will complete a $1 million renovation so that the driving range has appealing target fairways and greens, while a short-game area will re-create shots found on the courses.
“We’re trying to get hotel guests to spend some time and money here even if they don’t play the course,” Fraser says. “We also want younger members to come here for more than just straight play, and we’re trying to get other members to bring the whole family for two hours on the weekend.”
In short, Fraser is doing all he can to remain relevant. “There always has to be something that’s changing,” he says. “All the adaptations we’re making serve to connect people to the enjoyment of golf and to the course experience.”
Rob Carey is a freelance writer and principal of Meetings & Hospitality Insight.