Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Raising $5 Million in 19 Days: Lloyd McBean's Journey Acquiring Las Sendas Golf Club

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Raising $5 Million in 19 Days: Lloyd McBean's Journey Acquiring Las Sendas Golf Club · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
0:08
where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
0:11
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:14
adversity. My name is Anthony Codispodi and
0:17
today's guest is Lloyd Mcbean, the executive director and
0:20
managing partner at Lascendas Golf Club.
0:24
This premier golf course in Arizona was designed by Robert
0:27
Trent Jones Junior and is often recognized among the top 10 golf
0:31
courses in Phoenix. The club offers memberships,
0:35
dining, weddings and special events, creating unforgettable
0:39
experiences for visitors and the local community.
0:42
Lloyd has been a guiding force at Lascendas since 2009,
0:46
overseeing A talented team in areas like golf operations,
0:50
dining services, and event management.
0:53
Before joining Lascendas, he spent over 20 years managing
0:56
Lakeside Golf Club, and he is known for his dedication to
1:00
exceptional customer service and strong leadership.
1:03
Under his direction, Lascendas continues to offer world class
1:06
facilities and scenic views, all while delivering A welcoming
1:10
atmosphere for golfers of every level.
1:13
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1:56
All right, back to our guest today, Executive Director,
1:59
Managing partner of Los Sendas Golf Club, Lloyd Mcbean.
2:03
Thanks for making the time to Share your story today.
2:05
Well, good morning and thanks for having me on.
2:07
And that was a very, very kind introduction.
2:10
Thank you. And well earned, I think is
2:13
we're going to find out as we get into your story here.
2:16
So Lloyd, you've been managing golf clubs for decades.
2:19
What first drew you into this industry?
2:25
I think golf in itself being obviously a sport, which I've
2:30
always enjoyed sports was something that was exciting.
2:35
It it's, it's got many facets to it.
2:38
It's got the personal aspect, meaning trying to play golf and
2:41
and do well at it, something that's not an easy task.
2:45
But then there's also a very robust business side to it,
2:49
whether it be horticulture, whether it be food and beverage,
2:51
whether it be golf operations, you've got HR, you've got
2:54
accounting, you've got the whole kind of gamut as far as business
2:57
goes. And I've always enjoyed the golf
3:01
side, but I've also really enjoyed the business side.
3:05
And then you ended up managing the Lakeland Golf Club for 22
3:09
years. Long time.
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What was the most? That's OK, I'm just going to
3:14
correct you. Lakeside Golf Club, which is in
3:16
Lake Calgary, Yeah. So are you originally from
3:20
Canada? Originally from Canada, born in
3:24
Edmonton, AB very proud Albertan.
3:26
We became U.S. citizens 12 years ago now when we made the move
3:31
down here, and equally as proud to be an American citizen now.
3:35
But yeah, we spent a lot of our lives in Alberta.
3:40
I appreciate the correction too. So at Lakeside Golf Club for 22
3:43
years up there in Alberta. So what was the most memorable
3:47
thing that happened to you there that still impacts the way that
3:51
you approach course Management Today?
3:54
Well, I was very lucky. The PGA program, which I've been
3:58
a member of for 42 years now, really mentors young golf
4:05
professionals, not only in the business of golf, but in the
4:08
other aspects of business related to golf.
4:11
I had some very, very good mentors in my day.
4:14
I worked at Kananaskis Country Golf Course, one of the premier
4:18
resort clubs in Alberta. I worked at Earl Grey, one of
4:23
the oldest clubs in Alberta, and I worked at Inglewood Golf Club.
4:26
All three different aspects of operations.
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The resort being Kananaskis, a very private course being Earl
4:35
Grey and a semi private course which was Inglewood Golf Club.
4:39
In all three they have different business operations, different
4:45
demands, different expectations and different customers.
4:49
When I was provided with Lakeside Golf Club, I I applied,
4:55
as did many other golf pros. I was 21 years old at the time.
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I was fortunate to be hired as the head pro and I was the
5:03
youngest golf professional hired as a head professional at that
5:07
time, which was back in 1991 and at the same point a little bit
5:14
of an kind of old school concept.
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I also owned the pro shop back then.
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Therefore, I was an independent operator or contractor with the
5:23
inventory being at my cost and, and my requirement to be able to
5:29
stock and, and manage. And at 21, you, you're, you're,
5:34
you're, you think you're ready, but there's a lot of learning
5:36
that goes on. And so I would say that getting
5:40
into the golf business, I, I, again, I had great mentorship at
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21. I don't think anyone is prepared
5:46
for the, the world and its business, but you learn a lot.
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And I think that as you're younger, you're a sponge for
5:53
learning and, and that, that's where it started.
5:56
We were fortunate where my brother, who was fourth overall
6:02
first round in the NHL, he was retiring from hockey at the same
6:07
time that we had the opportunity to buy Lakeside Golf Club and
6:12
that happened in 1994, I believe.
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And at that point, my brother was looking for something beyond
6:20
hockey. I was now taking ownership in a
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golf course rather than just a pro shop.
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And, and we became partners and we have been partners ever
6:30
since. An incredible story, but behind
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two brothers, one in hockey, one in golf.
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And we've been, we've been able to do it for, you know, 40 years
6:43
or so. It's it's been quite a quite a
6:45
run. So that's an incredible
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trajectory. First thing I want to ask about
6:52
is what do you think they saw in you at the age of 21 to put you
6:56
into this role youngest ever? Well, that's a really good
7:02
question. I think the keenness, I think
7:07
that, you know, I, I look at people today no differently than
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I tried to portray when when I was young.
7:14
I'm looking for people that want to come into our business here
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that are keen, that are energetic.
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I, I was top of my class with respect to all my, my scores
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and, and studies with, with the PGA program energetic.
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You know, obviously many, many other important things.
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I clean cut, come from a good family, good moral standards,
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those type of things. Excellent.
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And then the real question is, how did you pull off buying a
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course at the age of 25? Must have had investors, maybe
7:52
some family that was helping out.
7:55
How did this come to be? Well, I was, I was young at
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marriage. I had a home.
8:00
I had to mortgage my house, which my wife certainly had
8:05
involvement in that risk. My brother, of course, being in
8:09
the NHL and and he, he's the youngest in our family.
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I have a sister in the middle had just retired from hockey and
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unfortunately he retired because of injury.
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They he had some injuries caused while playing and and that
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provided him with additional resources that he was able to
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use as well for us to be able to buy the course.
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But you know, we had to go through the the challenge of
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financing and we did have some partners in the involved with
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us. We were still the operators of
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the club but we definitely had some partners and over the years
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we were able to buy those partners out and it it just, it
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was a long slow process, much like a young family buying their
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first home that you know that the large mortgage and the goal
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is to start paying it down. OK.
8:56
And you felt like at the age of 25, you were ready to take over
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the operations. At 25, I thought I was ready to
9:05
take over the operations. I think now looking back at it,
9:07
I would have said that was probably, maybe maybe a little
9:12
presumptuous. But you know, again, it's part
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of that whole youth and and excitement and, and sometimes
9:19
jumping in to the deeper water that that you may not know
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what's underneath. And so Lakeside is still owned
9:27
and operated by you and your brother, correct?
9:30
No, we had some exciting scenarios with with us buying
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the golf course down here in 2009.
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We both operated the club up in Calgary and down here and we we
9:42
did find it to be challenging even though the seasons are
9:45
opposing. The Golf Club here in Arizona is
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a year round Golf Club. It runs year round and the club
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in Calgary is closed essentially from mid-october through April.
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The first couple years I tried going back and forth and, and
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operating both courses along with my brother and I just found
10:03
it to be too difficult to be gone from this course for the
10:07
entire summer, which is kind of a requirement up there.
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We, we do almost as much business in Calgary in six
10:15
months as we would do down here for tee times and rounds based
10:19
on sunlight. So again, understanding the
10:22
Calgary, you know, we're, we're, we're putting golfers out at
10:25
6:00 in the morning and at 6:00 at night, they can still go out
10:27
and complete their game by, you know, I think our latest tee
10:31
times or daylight was 11:00 in our longest days.
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So you have to be up there to do it. 5-6 years ago now, my
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brother wanted to continue the ownership of, of Lakeside and he
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and I did a buy out for myself and oh, I think it's been at
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least 10 years now that I've been operating this full time
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year round. And he goes back and forth.
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He comes here in the winter months and he manages and
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operates the golf course up there in the summer months.
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And so how did the Lascendas opportunity come about?
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Lascendas came about really and truly through my brother, both
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of us owning Lakeside. We're looking for winter
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vacation, winter time away from the club and I had joined a Golf
11:26
Club right next door, neighboring Golf Club called Red
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Mountain Ranch. And the reason I joined it was
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because my first mentor and club professional, Wayne Bygrave from
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Kananaskis was a member there and he and I had become long
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time lifetime friends. He's actually a member of my
11:43
club here and he's a member at Lakeside as well.
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At this point in his life, he's retired.
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He, he recommended that I that I come down and join a club here
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and, and I joined Red Mountain. I bought a home in Red Mountain
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and kind of committed my winter time vacation time to Red
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Mountain, my brother, his wife and their children.
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Kim, which is my brother's wife, was from Hershey, PA.
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And Wayne always promised Kim that once he had retired from
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hockey that they would move back to the US.
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And so to try to complete his promise to Kim, they agreed to
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move to Arizona. And Wayne found Los Sentos,
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which is again the neighboring community, to be a bit better
12:26
fit for their family. And in doing so, they did a full
12:30
commitment like we did to our community.
12:32
They they bought a home in Los Angeles and they joined the Golf
12:35
Club. Unfortunately, in 2008 and 2009,
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the economy was really failing here in the in the Southwest and
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the golf course was near bankruptcy.
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Wayne saw what was happening and really just came to me and said,
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listen, I think there's an opportunity that we could by Los
12:57
Angeles and really turn this thing around.
12:59
It's got great bones. It needs a lot of investment, it
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needs a lot of love and TLC. But I think we could do that and
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we talked about it for almost a year, you know, doing as much
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research as we could. Neither of us had ran golf
13:15
courses in the US as again, a a year round type of facility in
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a, in a, in a completely different economic place with a
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golf course that grass changes twice a year.
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You go from a, a winter grass to a summer grass.
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There was a lot of things we did not know, but after a year of
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negotiation and discussion and talk, we, we made the move.
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We, we were very fortunate that it was kind of the perfect
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storm. The Canadian economy at the time
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was very strong, especially in Western Canada, Oil and gas, the
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industry was extremely strong. The currency was, no pun
13:54
intended, at par with the US currency.
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And we at this point had already operated our Golf Club in
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Lakeside for almost 20 years. So we had a very strong
14:06
following of members. They knew how we operated.
14:09
They knew how we ran a club there.
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And we put out a private offering to our membership and
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we said we're, you know, we're going to buy this golf course
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down in the US. We're looking for investors in
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that club. We are looking for $100,000
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investment, which would include a refundable golf membership.
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It would, it would include lifetime dues, lifetime cart
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fees, food and beverage discounts.
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If you're interested, come and talk to Wayne Roy and within and
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and this is an amazing statistic, but it within 19 days
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we had fifty of our members and close friends put $100,000 in
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each. That was a half a million or
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yeah, yeah, it was, it was it was significant.
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So what we had 5 million from them and we put another half or
15:04
another 5 million in and we were able to acquire the golf course
15:09
and at the same time start a number of the capital projects
15:13
that were required here that the club didn't have.
15:17
So not only did we purchase the club, but we we're able to build
15:20
a pro shop. We were able to build a
15:21
clubhouse. We were able to complete cart
15:24
pass that weren't ever complete. The course when we acquired it
15:29
had porta potties out on the golf course, which if you can
15:32
imagine at 115° in the middle of the summer, not not a good
15:37
thing. So we were able to put rest
15:41
stations and comfort stations on the course.
15:43
We were able to do a lot of the things that were always promised
15:45
but never got completed in our first first two years of
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ownership. And it really it brought this
15:53
community of Lasentes together again.
15:56
Lasentes at the time had a lot of homes that were upside down.
15:59
The HOA was in the red. There was a lot of communities
16:03
down here at that time period that we're not in a good place.
16:07
And to see a group of individuals coming in at the
16:12
time, foreign investors, but not only coming in, but buying homes
16:17
within the community, doing what they promised, improving this
16:22
resource that's here in the community, it really struck the
16:26
nerve of a lot of the community and in a real positive way.
16:31
And it's just been a an incredible journey since then.
16:37
Yeah, it's quite a story. Yeah.
16:39
I didn't realize during what was the economic downturn, the
16:42
crisis here in the US, that the economy there in Western Canada
16:46
was still really strong. So from, you know, a currency
16:50
arbitrage point of view, economic arbitrage point of
16:54
view, what a great opportunity for you guys to come in from a
16:57
place of strength and be able to take over a club that was really
17:01
struggling and then make those improvements that had been, you
17:05
know, promised and not delivered for a long time.
17:08
How long did it take? Again, keeping in mind that the
17:12
economy here in the US was not strong at the time, how long did
17:15
it take before the membership numbers really started to pick
17:18
up? But when we began there, there
17:24
were I think 18 members at this Golf Club is all.
17:27
So it was a really small, small number.
17:29
And we, I think we had 100 memberships sold four years into
17:41
operations. So it, it, it took a while
17:44
because again, we had a, a struggling economy still.
17:47
And it also took I think a little bit of a, we had to prove
17:52
ourselves there. There had been two prior owners
17:55
to this property who had made promises and never were able to
17:58
complete those those promises. And, and I think that there were
18:01
people that we're simply, you know, skeptical of whether this
18:06
would actually happen or not. We had many people who passed on
18:11
our investment opportunity because of the fact that the
18:16
economy was so poor down here that they thought that we were,
18:21
you know, jumping into an acquisition at a really poor
18:26
time based on the fact that the economy was poor, people didn't
18:29
have expendable income. But what we had hoped, which
18:35
fortunately came true, was that we were able to not only acquire
18:40
the course, we did it all with cash and without financing.
18:44
So when we did our initial perspectives, when we did our
18:50
forecasting, we, we were very conservative in our numbers.
18:53
We, we felt that we could operate the golf course.
18:55
We, we could do so provided we didn't have an economic or a
19:01
financial tie to a bank that we, that we used again, private
19:06
funding and, and it, it, it really worked out great.
19:09
And, and for the people that were in the and still are in
19:12
the, the, the investment opportunity with us.
19:17
I don't believe today and I think every one of our
19:21
shareholders would tell you that, that there's been a better
19:24
golf story with respect to a private investment opportunity
19:28
than what we've been able to provide here at Las Vendas.
19:31
That's incredible. And I know the course was a
19:34
design by Robert Trent Jones Junior, and you guys are now
19:38
today considered one of the top courses in the region.
19:42
From your perspective, what really makes this course
19:45
special? Well, my brother said it to me
19:49
before we bought it. It's the bones.
19:51
And so you just said it yourself.
19:53
The, the designer, Robert Jones Junior, he, he built an
19:59
incredible golf property. This, this we have elevation
20:03
changes. We have desert.
20:04
We don't have, we don't have any fairways that run perpendicular
20:09
or parallel to each other. Every fairway is cut separately
20:13
and independently amongst the the the homes here.
20:17
But most importantly is the golf course was designed and built
20:20
first. All of the homes of course were
20:23
built following that the ability to change elevations.
20:28
I think we change elevation here by 900 or 1000 feet from where
20:34
our driving range and and some of our settling ponds are to our
20:37
highest points on the golf course.
20:39
We have a mountain that you play around.
20:42
We have just a breath, breath taking landscape.
20:48
The wildlife is incredible. When people come and play this
20:51
golf course, it's, it's 100% wow factor from the opening hole,
20:57
which is a dynamic and dangerous and crazy hard to our finishing
21:03
hole, which you play over 2 lakes.
21:05
You're looking at Camelback Mountain in the W sunset views,
21:10
which again, because we sit higher in elevation in the
21:13
valley, we, we've been able to really I, I don't like the word,
21:17
but I use the word because it's accurate.
21:19
We exploit what we have, which is this incredible view,
21:22
incredible scenery to the West. It, it, it's magnificent.
21:27
People fall in love with the place.
21:28
It's, it's a, it's a love story. You know, one of the things you
21:31
mentioned about that goes into the management of golf courses
21:34
obviously is that the horticulture aspect, but there
21:37
was something in particular about the course here in Arizona
21:40
and maybe that's typical of courses in that part of the
21:42
country. You guys have to see the grass
21:45
twice a year. Do I understand that correctly?
21:48
Well, kind of not OK completely. We, we, we seed the grass once a
21:52
year, but we require two different types of grass.
21:55
So we have an annual grass called Bermuda and a Bermuda
21:58
grass is a very sustainable, very Hardy grass that grows in
22:04
high, high temperatures. And last year we had 91 days
22:09
over 115° consecutively. That's a lot of heat over 91
22:16
days. Bermuda can sustain that where
22:20
most other grasses cannot. And when I say that, I mean
22:23
grasses that are conducive for golf.
22:27
However, in the winter time, we do have a much more moderate
22:32
temperatures and that Bermuda does not do as well.
22:35
And so basically we put it into remission and we put a rye grass
22:42
overseed down and we're going to be doing that in, in
22:45
approximately 10 days from now. It'll take three to four weeks
22:49
to fill in and then we'll be playing on that all winter long.
22:52
And what our travellers and our our members have is the
22:58
opportunity to play this incredible winter Wonderland
23:03
with rye grass. And rye grass is a much
23:06
friendlier grass to play on. We can achieve better conditions
23:13
with rye grass than we can with Bermuda grass.
23:15
We can increase the green speeds which people love.
23:20
So, so when we get the mass majority of golf, which is our
23:24
winter months, we have pristine conditions with again a grass
23:31
that is much more conducive to to what golfers are looking for.
23:36
What does it mean to put that Bermuda grass into remission?
23:45
I'm not sure where you're from. If you have a winter, do do you
23:49
have a winter where you are? I'm in Columbus, OH so we
23:52
definitely have winter. OK, well, you know when snow
23:55
comes, your grass in your front or your backyard turns brown and
23:58
it stops growing? That, that has to do with
24:01
temperatures mainly once, once, once you have a growing
24:05
temperature that's below a certain degree and it, again, it
24:10
depends on the grass, it literally just stops growing.
24:13
And so dormancy is, is that scenario.
24:15
We actually chemically help ours go to bed so that we can get
24:20
that rye grass down as quick as we can.
24:23
And we, what we're trying to do is not have the Bermuda grow
24:27
back. We're trying to get that, that
24:30
rye seed into the ground and get it germinating so that we can
24:34
get it to capture the surface and, and, and provide us with a
24:37
real good blanket and, and have the Bermuda kind of sit behind
24:42
it and, and stay dormant. That's the magic of what our our
24:48
Superintendent and and his staff do is, is play that game with
24:52
the with the two grasses and try to achieve, like I say, the best
24:56
scenario for going into overseed and then coming out of overseed.
25:00
And so what's it like coming out of oversea 'cause it's not like
25:03
the Bermuda grass goes away, it just kind of goes to sleep.
25:06
So it's it's got back, it's not really growing.
25:10
Yeah, we, we do it so, so going into overseed, we take the plant
25:14
off the top, which of course then minimizes the amount of
25:19
nutrients the root is getting because it it doesn't have that
25:22
plant on on the surface to grab the nutrients.
25:24
We've we've, we've put that seed in and, and, and it's going to
25:27
do its job. But when we start to come back
25:31
into the in, in into our summer conditions, the rye does the
25:36
exact opposite of what your bluegrass does.
25:39
It it says, whoa, whoa, whoa, it's getting way too warm here.
25:41
And it starts to check out. And checking out is just a term
25:44
used. Simply, it starts to slow down
25:46
and, and, and it's not going to grow nearly as efficiently.
25:49
Bermuda saying, hey, I like this temperature.
25:51
This feels good. And all of a sudden we start to
25:54
see kind of a reverse situation happen.
25:57
Unfortunately, ryegrass doesn't survive the summer.
26:02
Therefore we have to and, and I'll just share with you, we
26:07
seed from fence line to fence line.
26:09
We seed our rough, our greens, our Tees, our fairways.
26:13
Every aspect and and part of the golf course is overseeded.
26:17
Some golf courses will for, for, for looks and so forth.
26:25
They'll overseed only specific areas, maybe the fairway, but
26:28
leave the rough and so forth. We do it all.
26:31
It costs us currently $150,000 in seed.
26:38
That's just the seed. That's not the labor in the
26:40
process. No, that's, that's just the
26:42
seed. It's not the fertilizer, it's
26:44
not the water and it's certainly not the staffing and the fact
26:48
that you we have to close three to four weeks in order to, to,
26:51
to rebuild the golf course with this new grass every year.
26:56
Something that you know, you know, our course in Canada when
27:00
we seeded it now we opened it in 1991.
27:03
In 1989 we started seeding the golf course in Lakeside.
27:09
We've never seeded that golf course since, you know, we've
27:11
had some sod work done, we've done some repairs, we've done
27:14
maybe renovations where we've done sod work or seed.
27:17
But basically the original seeds from 1989 is still the seed and
27:21
still the grass that you play on at Lakeside.
27:23
And that's common at most golf courses where the golf course go
27:28
dormant in the winter and and and then they have their annual
27:31
grass come back. And So what you're talking about
27:34
with this double seating is this typical pretty much across the
27:38
South in the US? No.
27:41
And again, something that we had to learn Southwest US, so
27:45
ourselves, Arizona, Nevada, any, anywhere where you have really
27:50
high temperatures, you'll, you'll see an overseed program,
27:53
but there's not that many that there may be 4 States and all of
27:56
the US, there may be 5. I don't want to be specific, but
28:00
very few of the states overseed, we're just forced to do it.
28:05
So Lloyd, for any golf nerds that are listening that love to
28:08
travel around and hit new courses, what's make your pitch?
28:12
Why come to Los Sendes? OK, that's it.
28:15
That's it. That's the easiest pitch I can
28:17
give you. Mountain desert golf at its
28:23
absolute peak. You can't find a more
28:29
challenging, more demanding golf course anywhere.
28:34
You'll find equally as demanding and equally as good of
28:37
conditions throughout the valley.
28:38
We have some great golf here. Arizona is known for that.
28:43
We sit in East Valley and we're in Mesa, AZ and our golf course
28:49
rates are 50 to 60% of what the rates are in some of the
28:59
Scottsdale locations here, here in the Valley.
29:03
And so it's value you. You get incredible value coming
29:07
to Los Angeles. You get the experience of a
29:09
lifetime. You get, like I said, demanding,
29:11
demanding golf at half the price of what you would pay at some of
29:15
the big names in, in Scottsdale and so forth.
29:18
So it's a, it's a really good value when people come out here,
29:21
not only are they absolutely turned on by the game of golf
29:25
and and what we have to offer, but they feel like they get
29:27
really good value proposition for coming out.
29:31
I'm not even a golfer and I just want to come out to see sort of
29:34
this mix of the desert and the mountains.
29:36
It sounds beautiful. And, and I can already think of
29:38
like a dozen of my friends that I'm going to be like, OK, this
29:41
is one of my interviews that you have to check out 'cause you're
29:43
you're going to want to travel to see this place.
29:46
There's another interesting thing about you guys, though.
29:49
You're a transitional club. What does this mean?
29:54
When my brother and I made the decision to buy Las Sendas golf
30:00
courses, as I mentioned, when I was in my internship, I worked
30:05
at a resort course, I worked at a private course and I worked at
30:07
a semi private Golf Club. The golf industry over the last
30:12
40 years has has had peaks and valleys with respect to success.
30:18
We did not know what would be the best mix for Los Angeles
30:23
Golf Club. Many golf clubs just simply try
30:26
to go private and they try to be sustainable by a membership base
30:30
who pay annual dues and and and support a clubhouse that wasn't
30:37
working as well as it should when the economy was poor.
30:42
People look at golf as a it's an extra, it's not a requirement,
30:46
it's not a need. It's something that they do with
30:48
fun, with free time and and only if it's affordable.
30:52
So when we made the decision to acquire Las Endas, we wanted to
30:58
have a a plan in place that would that would be sustainable
31:03
with the least amount of risk. And so we took the private
31:09
concept and said we will go private here in a hybrid fashion
31:14
once we attain enough membership to meet the, the inventory of
31:21
the golf course. In other words, we only have so
31:23
many tee times per day and if you can't get on, it's not good
31:26
for a member. So we need to, we need to try to
31:28
maximize the, the number of members with how much they play
31:32
and so forth. But what we, we decided was
31:35
we're going to, we're going to do it in a hybrid fashion.
31:37
We're going to leave our clubhouse always open to the
31:40
public for our restaurants. We have 4 restaurants on our
31:43
property and I'll share those in a minute.
31:45
But we're also going to leave Monday as a public day, a
31:50
maintenance day, a corporate day.
31:52
Monday would be the only day that the membership would not
31:55
play the golf course. They would have the golf course
31:57
Tuesday through Sunday once we become private for them and
32:00
their guests. But Mondays would be this flex
32:03
day that we could use for revenue if required, for
32:07
maintenance if required, if there were tournament and
32:10
corporate requirements or demands, we could, we could, we
32:12
would have that flexibility and that's the way we've ran the
32:15
course. We still are not private.
32:16
We are getting closer to being private, which again, to your
32:21
listeners, this is the best opportunity, the best time for
32:26
you to come and challenge on the Send Us Golf Club.
32:30
We are still open to the public. We'll always remain open on
32:32
Mondays, but we're open seven days a week still.
32:35
And you won't regret it. It's it.
32:38
It's a place to come to. You know, and hearing about
32:42
those four restaurants is a great segue.
32:44
We we've spent a lot of time talking about what an amazing
32:46
course it is, but tell us about what makes the rest of the
32:51
entire Los Angeles environment great.
32:53
I eat for restaurants. Sounds like a lot.
32:55
Can you tell us sort of what the different cuisines, different
32:58
environments? Are like for sure.
33:01
And, and, and so when I say for restaurants, I'm I'm kind of
33:06
exaggerating a little bit, but not really.
33:08
We as part of our build out in our, in our capital plan, we, we
33:11
wanted a, a pavilion, A tournament pavilion, a banquet
33:14
pavilion, something that was separate from the clubhouse that
33:18
we could host our tournaments, host weddings, host private
33:24
parties, Christmas, New Year's, Mother's Day, Thanksgiving and
33:28
you name it. So we have a, a large banquet
33:32
facility with a separate kitchen, separate staff that is
33:37
completely independent from our restaurants, which is one of our
33:41
food and beverage operations. And so that is used by our
33:43
members for their tournaments. It's used from by public for all
33:48
sorts of different types of weddings, parties and everything
33:50
I just mentioned. And then we have our main
33:52
clubhouse and our main clubhouse hosts 3 distinctly different
33:57
operations. We have a sports grill, 14
34:01
televisions dynamic. It's fun.
34:04
It's got a grill menu. It's it's football.
34:08
It's everything that anyone would love to do, whether you're
34:11
a golfer or not. We're within a community here.
34:14
And one of the things that a lot of non golfers fear is going to
34:20
a Golf Club, they don't know the culture, they're not certain if
34:22
they're welcome, they don't know if they're really able to walk
34:25
into a clubhouse where there's golfers.
34:28
We've really tried to change that persona and we hope that
34:34
our community has found it to be a very welcoming place as a as a
34:38
community pub. So the Grill is a great place.
34:41
We find a lot of our, our community just coming to
34:44
regardless of whether they're a golfer or not.
34:46
We also have a, and I would call it a semi formal dining room.
34:49
We don't, we do not have a formal dining room.
34:51
We didn't want 1:00 We, we, we really pride ourselves on not
34:55
being a pretentious club. It's a fun club.
34:57
It that the, the, the word fun is what I try to share with my
35:01
staff all the time. That should be our primary word.
35:03
Whenever we think about anything, whether it be policy
35:05
or otherwise, fun should be at the front of it.
35:08
So our, our, our dining room is there for a great date night.
35:12
It's great. It's it's there for families who
35:14
don't want to be in the pub atmosphere with their children.
35:18
We have some elderly people who just want to have a more refined
35:22
dinner. It's there for them.
35:25
Then we have the most dynamic outdoor patio in the valley.
35:31
And I say that with pride because for the last three
35:35
years, two of the last three years, we are a top 100 alfresco
35:42
dining experience through OpenTable.
35:45
And now I just want to share with what that means.
35:48
OpenTable provides a top 100 list in America.
35:55
In Arizona, 3 restaurants were selected in the top 100 in
36:02
America, we were one of the three.
36:05
Wow. We were and are the only golf
36:09
course in all of America to get a top 100 ranking.
36:13
So that in itself is unique. And and when I talked about
36:16
exploiting our views, our patio sits on the West side of our
36:22
clubhouse overlooking the valley.
36:24
It overlooks camelback, it overlooks the sunsets.
36:26
We have live music seven nights a week.
36:29
We see the 180 people. We have a covered deck, we have
36:32
an open deck. We have three different levels.
36:35
We have a 16 foot smoker. We do prime rib every night.
36:39
We have and we, we have an upscale after 5 menu that will
36:46
knock your socks off. It's it's, it's comfort foods
36:51
like bison meatloaf. I I mentioned we have a prime
36:55
ribs. We, we do a, a a a, a meat pie
37:00
that our customers love. We do lamb, we do a lot of other
37:05
types of cuisine there that it's just fitting.
37:08
It's perfect that our service levels are, are really good.
37:14
I'm I'm I'm bragging IA little bit, but I'm I'm in love with
37:16
it. I, I, it's something that's very
37:18
unique. And the final point I'll make is
37:20
this. We're in A1 percentile and I and
37:23
I say that because our food and beverage revenue equals our golf
37:28
revenue and that typically does not happen at a golf course.
37:30
So you know, if if we're doing 8 million dollars, 4 million of
37:34
that is in food and beverage and 4 million of that is in in golf.
37:37
And that's typically not something that you would see at
37:40
any golf operation. You would usually see a much
37:43
heavier weight on the golf side and a much, you know, smaller
37:46
amount of revenue coming from food and beverage.
37:49
Was this part of the original plan to go in there and lean
37:52
heavy on the food and beverage side, or did this just kind of
37:55
evolve organically? We had hoped it would.
38:03
When we bought the club, we of course had access to the prior
38:07
year's financials and the club's food and beverage was doing
38:10
$375,000. Out of a little kind of a
38:14
canteen type of an atmosphere. We looked at where the clubhouse
38:18
sat or the at the time it wasn't a clubhouse, it was a a little
38:21
cantina. We saw what the views were, but
38:26
again, when we did our first forecast, I couldn't be too
38:30
aggressive because I would have scared investors away.
38:33
And so we put a very moderate increase in our food and
38:37
beverage forecasting for the first five years so that it
38:43
didn't look like we were kind of overstating forecasts in our
38:49
first year. We exceeded our fifth year's
38:53
forecast and we had already done a major renovation to the
38:58
restaurant and to the kitchen, expanding all of it.
39:02
And the food and beverage director that we had hired, who
39:04
was a absolute professional came to me and I remember his his
39:10
comment, Lloyd, you're setting me up for failure.
39:13
And I said, what, what, what do you mean?
39:15
And he goes, you didn't build the kitchen big enough.
39:19
And our demand far outweighs what we can do.
39:23
And so in our second year, we had to renovate the kitchen and
39:26
expand it again. And this time we expanded it to
39:29
a much, much bigger concept to to be able to accept more
39:34
customers, get more food out and, and we're now at a place
39:39
where we did not set him up for failure any longer.
39:43
We set him up for success and it's worked great ever since.
39:48
How do you pull off outdoor dining in Arizona in the summer?
39:52
We don't, we've tried. We try, we try, we try because
39:56
we would love to use the patio as much as we can in the
39:59
summertime. But no matter what tricks we've
40:03
tried, people do not like to sit outside at 100 plus degrees.
40:08
It just it's not comfortable. And so we have instead really
40:14
made the dining room more comfortable in the summer.
40:16
It's all air conditioned, of course.
40:18
We have walls that open up. We keep closed in the summer.
40:21
Our gorilla as I mentioned before is phenomenal.
40:25
So 70% and I think I'm pretty accurate with that number, leave
40:31
the valley or not, not leave the valley, but 70% of our golfers
40:34
leave and go home, whether that be to a, a home in the US
40:38
somewhere else or into Canada. So we have a smaller customer
40:42
base that we try to look after in the, in the, in the
40:47
summertime and, and the, the, the patio just does not.
40:50
We've used misters. We've done anything and
40:52
everything you can imagine. It's just, it's we just have to
40:56
understand that the patio is a winter place, not a summer
40:59
place. Yeah, just have to accept that.
41:02
Talk to me why you emphasize community driven values at
41:07
Lasenta so much and what that means.
41:12
Well, I'm going to share that with a again another story.
41:16
I came from Canada, Alberta, Canada, where I presumed Alberta
41:23
beef was the best beef in the world.
41:24
That's what I was always told and that's what I grew up on.
41:27
I also felt that our school system and our religions and our
41:30
family values were the highest of high and that anywhere else
41:33
that I would go in the world would be lower and less.
41:36
And I came to realize very quickly that that's not the
41:41
case. Moving to the United States.
41:45
I always thought that was the big, you know, strong country
41:49
and, and we were a little Canada and, and they were overpowering
41:52
and, and I'm very proud of the United States.
41:57
What I what I was more surprised with and very pleased about was
42:01
the family values are equal to and or better than what I came
42:11
from in Alberta. The school systems are more
42:13
supported, they have more funding, there's there's more
42:18
sport, a sporting opportunity, but also after school activities
42:22
for those that aren't into sports, whether it be drama,
42:25
band or or other options. The PTA is way more supportive
42:33
in the US than it is in Canada. Religion is a very strong thing.
42:37
We have a real strong Mormon private presence in in Mesa.
42:40
They're very strong valued families.
42:44
We quickly realized that the community we need to, we need to
42:50
be a part of the community. We wanted again to to promise
42:53
them that we were going to build up this golf course.
42:55
And over a period of probably 2 years, they finally started to
43:03
believe in us. And that's an important
43:08
relationship to have. So for us to be in the Los
43:12
Angeles community, a part of the community, we're all homeowners
43:16
in the community and have the community thankful that we're
43:20
here and operating this golf course is a really, it's a huge
43:23
blessing. That's amazing and no surprise.
43:26
I mean, you grow up in a, you know, particular part of the
43:29
world, particular part of whatever country and you're
43:32
proud of that place. I mean, you should be right.
43:35
You've got friends, you've got family there, but man, the
43:38
ability to travel and to be able to see different points of view
43:41
and the way other folks do things.
43:43
And you know, so great that the community there has not only
43:47
embraced you, but sort of vice versa now, you know, you guys
43:50
are sort of 1 together, it feels like.
43:54
So I want to shift gears now, Lloyd, and I'd like to hear
43:57
about a serious challenge that you've overcome in your life,
44:00
maybe something personal or professional.
44:02
I can see you've already got something in mind there.
44:06
No. Choosing the the golf industry
44:15
as a career it it it it's a you know, I there could be there's a
44:23
lot of other jobs that would be a lot worse than being in in the
44:26
in the business that I'm in. The biggest challenge of the
44:31
business that I am in is customer service.
44:34
You know, there's an expectation and trying to meet that
44:37
expectation on a daily basis for four plus decades is I would say
44:42
the biggest challenge. It's something that I don't
44:47
think that there's a day that I go home and say that I've met
44:51
every accomplishment or goal that I've wanted it.
44:55
There's always a continued stride.
44:58
I could have done something better or we could have done
45:00
something better. We could have made that one
45:02
person happier. That's, that's it in a nutshell.
45:07
I love being in the customer care business, but it is a
45:12
challenge and it always will be. And, and I think you just have
45:15
to be a certain personality to do and you have to, you do have
45:18
to have strong shoulders at certain times because it is
45:21
impossible to make everybody happy, but the goal is to try to
45:25
make everyone happy. Can you think of a particular
45:28
challenging customer experience that you had to navigate?
45:33
Absolutely, and I'm definitely not going to share it.
45:37
Fair enough. OK, I can respect that.
45:41
Talk. Talk to me about your team.
45:43
You guys have got a a great course, these amazing
45:46
restaurants. The one in particular, you know
45:48
that's on the top, the only golf course in the country that's in
45:51
the top 100 list. To pull all this off, you have
45:54
to have an amazing team working with you.
45:56
How do you guys approach a tight labor market and what have you
46:01
found success with in terms of both recruiting good folks and
46:05
then holding on to them? We, we have 125 employees here
46:13
at the club. We have 7 managing directors.
46:21
So you know, we have a horticultural team
46:24
Superintendent, we have a food and beverage director.
46:26
We have a banquets director. We have a operations manager for
46:31
for the restaurant. We have an operations manager
46:34
for the banquet. We have a director of golf.
46:37
We have an outside operations director.
46:39
We have of course our our CFO and our office manager.
46:43
And then my brother and I, we try to be the captains to these
46:48
people. One thing that my brother and I
46:51
learned long ago and, and I mentioned to you before, he's a
46:54
hockey player. So he's strong and he's big and
46:56
he's tough is not to fight with him because he'll win.
46:59
So we, we learned to separate our responsibilities a long time
47:02
ago. And, and that's also good as far
47:05
as management goes, because in all of our departments, we, we
47:12
really try to provide clear, a clear organizational chart of
47:16
their responsibilities and provide them with success and
47:21
opportunity for success and not failure.
47:23
Just like I told you with the story of, of our food and
47:26
beverage director, we've been able to build this golf course
47:32
with the amenities and the services that we wanted.
47:34
And we learned from, from our Canadian golf course when we
47:38
built out the clubhouse and so forth in Canada, we, we, we put
47:44
our tournament center in the same clubhouse and shared a
47:47
kitchen. And that's like putting water
47:52
and vinegar together. It, it doesn't work.
47:55
And, and you know, if all of a sudden we have a big tournament
47:58
and we have members who want to have a nice dining experience
48:00
and you got one kitchen, you're setting your staff up for
48:04
failure. You're setting the membership up
48:05
for disappointment. And potentially the corporate
48:07
tournament or wedding isn't happy either.
48:09
So all of a sudden you're losing out in many different aspects.
48:13
When we built this property, we learned a lot of the mistakes
48:18
that we had made and so when we did the build out, we corrected
48:23
those and we tried to create an environment that would allow our
48:26
team to succeed. Now when we start to talk
48:30
individually about our team, Wayne and I do not hire anyone
48:36
below our directors. They are responsible for their
48:39
own staff. They're also responsible for
48:42
firing them and they're responsible for keeping within
48:45
their budgets. But what we do is we have and we
48:48
have been very fortunate in hiring some incredible leaders
48:54
who we try to give them as much rain as possible for them to
49:01
succeed, for them to, to show their skills and talents.
49:05
And we listen, You know, we have a weekly manager meeting where
49:08
we all sit. We used to do it in the
49:10
boardroom. Since COVID, everything now
49:13
seems to be on computers with Zoom and so forth.
49:17
But it also makes it a little bit easier for them.
49:20
We have great communication, but we have great, great, great
49:24
experts in each of their fields. Thanks for that, Lloyd.
49:29
Curious to hear, setting all humility aside, what you
49:32
consider to be your superpower. My wife.
49:40
Smartest. Man in there.
49:43
Wow. Well done.
49:45
Well done. The great fortune of being able
49:51
to partner with my brother. That's, you know, to have a
49:57
lifetime of a lifetime career and being able to do that with
50:03
your brother is awesome. I love people, so those are the
50:12
good things. Right on.
50:14
Aside from the transitional club aspect that we've talked about,
50:18
what is the future hold for Las Endas?
50:23
As golf continues again to strengthen in the industry, I I
50:29
see that the golf course will go private in the next number of
50:32
years. I can't say exactly when, which
50:35
will really tighten the bond between the community and the
50:41
golf course even more. So allowing that one Monday day
50:46
to be a flexible day is really going to help for those that
50:49
simply either can't afford financially or by time to be a
50:54
member of the club. The the ability to still play
50:57
the club and not be alienated from it.
51:00
I see the golf industry continuing to strengthen.
51:03
One of the things that had happened prior to COVID is
51:07
families had started to align with different paths, boating,
51:16
camping, not that those are bad things, but they were doing
51:20
things that started to kind of fall away from the golf, the
51:23
traditional golf, first, second, third, 4th generational type of
51:28
concepts. COVID when many activities got
51:32
shut down, Arizona, especially based on the governor and his
51:38
decisions made golf an essential business allowing us to remain
51:41
open. It really put a a new spurt and
51:46
excitement into the younger generation who have now found
51:52
off to be really great for family values, great place to
51:57
spend time with their kids. And I and I see that that's
52:00
going to continue. And I really think that we're
52:02
going to see a growth from the younger generation because our
52:08
older generation, they're kind of legacy at, but we really need
52:15
this this, this youth to continue the strength in the
52:18
industry. Are there any other movements
52:22
that are sort of helping that along kind of get the younger
52:25
generation interested and involved in in golf that maybe
52:29
we haven't seen before? Here in the United States and
52:34
especially again in Arizona, the school systems promote golf and,
52:39
and we see world, world class golfers coming from Arizona,
52:43
from other areas of, of the United States.
52:45
Obviously Canada does not have and it's climate managed nearly
52:53
the same support system for golf.
52:56
They have a great hockey program, but it does have to do
53:02
somewhat with geography. Golf is inspired, promoted in
53:10
grade schools and so that does help our industry.
53:14
You've seen it also with the tours right now we have this
53:17
live tour, we have the PJ tour, we have the ladies tours, we
53:20
have the development tours. There's a lot of players who
53:26
have been able to reach out to different demographic groups and
53:30
and we've got more people interested in golf than we ever
53:32
have before. Golf is a strong industry and I
53:38
don't see that going away. What?
53:41
I've just got one more question for you, but before I ask it, I
53:44
want to do 2 things. First of all, everybody
53:47
listening today, thanks for joining the show.
53:49
Pause for just a second. Open up that podcast app that
53:52
you're using right now, hit the follow or subscribe button.
53:55
That'll allow you to continue to get more great content like
53:58
we've had today with Lloyd Mcbean.
54:00
I also going to let you know the best way to get in touch with
54:03
Lloyd and Lascendas. So I've got three pieces of
54:06
information here for you. First, their website,
54:08
lascendas.com and that's LASSENDAS.
54:13
So there's two s s there in the middle, lascendas.com.
54:16
Their e-mail address is info@lascendas.com and they're
54:20
old school man, so they got a phone number where a human being
54:23
actually answers it. So you can call 480-396-4000.
54:28
That's 480, 396-4000 and we'll put all of that in the show
54:34
notes, but in case you're driving right now, 480-396-4000.
54:38
So that sticks in your brain. So Lloyd, you and I reconnect
54:43
one year from today and you're fist pumping in the air.
54:47
You're super excited. You are celebrating something
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big. What's that big thing that
54:51
you're celebrating one year from?
54:53
Today, retirement. OK, How's that?
54:58
Yeah, it's something that my wife and I have been looking
55:03
forward to and planning for a long time.
55:05
As I mentioned, it's 40 plus years in the industry.
55:10
I turned 60 in a couple weeks and I had always said I would
55:14
like to retire at 60. My partners who are in the
55:19
process of buying me out at the moment asked me to stay, stay
55:23
for another year or two and try to look for someone to follow up
55:29
as a new general manager. And that'll be my job over the
55:33
next year to, to to try to do. But I would say that in a year
55:36
from now or sometime in that near future, I hope to be one of
55:41
the members here at the Golf Club playing the golf course on
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a more regular basis than I do now, enjoying it from that
55:47
aspect versus kind of behind the counter.
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Well, it's fun stuff. Well, good luck with that
55:53
timeline. We'll have to check back in and
55:54
see how those retirement years are going with you.
55:58
Thank you. So Lloyd Mcbean from Lascendas
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Golf Club, I want to be the first to thank you for sharing
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both your time and your story with us today.
56:04
I really appreciate it. Well, thanks for having me.
56:07
It's been great. Folks, that's a wrap on another
56:09
episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
56:11
Thanks for learning with us today.