East Maitland Bowling Club has unveiled the new-look East Leisure and Golf clubhouse following nearly a year of extensive renovations.
The $5 million project was the result of an “off-the-cuff” remark one sunny afternoon on the balcony of the club’s function room in 2018 between some directors and managers. The club worked with architecture firm EJE on the revamp.
“We said wouldn’t it be great if we had a deck that took advantage of this view?” East Leisure Golf manager Scott Driffield told Club Management.
Now, the clubhouse boasts not just one deck but three new indoor-outdoor terraces offering different views of the lush fairways and surrounding landscapes.
In response to the growing demand for family-friendly amenities, the clubhouse also features an indoor kids’ area and upgraded parents room.
“I speak to my peers and there’s this impression that golf clubs are a little bit exclusive, a little bit stuffy. We wanted to change that. It was fairly obvious we had a set demographic; we were targeting the 55-plus age group, and we weren’t getting that younger market. With what our competitors were doing in the area and looking at what we were offering, we needed to change,” Driffield said.
When we opened up the kids room, the demographic shift has been quite noticeable. There’s been a lot of families. This area, with Maitland in particular, it’s always been one of the fastest growing residential areas in the New South Wales. Near us, there’s quite a few newer developments and so we really want to bring those people in.”
He added that even existing members have started to bring their grandchildren along.
Driffield is hopeful that by welcoming more families to the club it would encourage younger members to join.
“The way you see golf televised on TV, it’s a lot different to what it was. It’s bringing in a younger demographic,” he said.
“We’re also seeing other forms of golf such as driving ranges and simulators, which have been really heavily marketed, and it’s great.”
The function spaces, and bar and lounge area were also upgraded. Plus new dart boards and pool table were added.
“We tried to be functional as well as decorative. The improvements we’ve made … they’ve all been well received,” Driffield said.
“I always joke that prior to the renovation that if you advertised a promotion and said come and watch the State of Origin on the big screen, the TV we had was probably smaller than what most people had in their home. We now have these massive 100-inch TVs and a wall of TVs in the sports lounge. That’s been really good those kind of facilities have been added.”
While the major upgrades are now completed, Driffield hinted there’ll be more to come.
“We hope from a technology perspective we’ll be looking at other things to help with service that we can now do based on the renovations.”
