The owners of Millwood Golf & Racquet Club in Ozark were looking to retire, and their former general manager, who helped start the club in 1995, found an opportunity.
Dan Schumacher, general manager at Fremont Hills Country Club in Nixa and longtime general manager at Millwood, led the purchase of the private club north of Ozark from founder Keith Keltner. Schumacher, who now serves as Millwood’s general manager and CEO, said he and his family closed Nov. 1 on the $5 million purchase of all business assets, including the clubhouse, the roughly 150-acre golf course, Mikayla’s Steakhouse & Grille and all equipment.
“This was just an opportunity I couldn’t pass up,” Schumaker said, adding that the transaction was financed by Great Southern Bank. “This place always had a strong spot in my heart. I always wanted to get back here someday, and it just worked out.”
He said on Oct. 30 that he had already vacated his position at Fremont Hills in Christian County, where he served as general manager and golf pro for roughly four years.
Keltner said he was pleasantly surprised to learn about a week before the purchase that Schumacher would be the new owner of the club that has more than 1,200 golf, social and dining members. He said Millwood was on the market, though, for more than two years as he and his wife, Wanda, were planning for retirement.
“This did not come about overnight,” Keltner said. “All this time, we only had one or two serious people and then Dan all of a sudden popped up. It was really a welcome surprise.
“If I had to pick somebody, I couldn’t have picked somebody who would have been a better fit because he knows Millwood inside and out,” Keltner added.
Schumacher said he left Millwood in 2008 when his wife, Janie, was receiving regular treatments for brain cancer, and the day-to-day work of managing the club had become overwhelming. Now, with his wife in remission, Schumacher said he is anxious to reunite with the management team he had in place when he left Millwood. While he said most staff positions would not change, he named a new restaurant manager, Liz Tucker; controller, Karen Cummings; marketing manager, Donna Hartman; and club manager, Dan Darnold.
The Schumacher family’s acquisition does not include the 275 acres of residential lots intermingled with the golf course at the Evans Road exit on U.S. Highway 65.
“I look forward to being a good partner with the homeowners, but my business is going to be operating Millwood Golf & Racquet Club,” said Schumacher, a 25-year PGA golf pro, who has received three PGA President’s Council of Growing Golf awards dating back to 2005, according to
PGA.com.
Kristy Horton, former CEO of Millwood, said the Schumachers’ purchase also resulted in a retirement for her and her sister, Kimberly Mills, office manager. Horton and Mills are the Keltners’ daughters.
“It is bittersweet. We are very excited for the family to be retired and spend time together now and not discuss business,” Horton said. “We are going to miss the members. We have lots of great relationships out here, but we are looking forward to it.”
Schumacher, who worked as an assistant golf professional at Highland Springs Country Club before joining Millwood in 1995, said he plans to eventually make Millwood fully private. Currently, the club offers day passes for nonmembers. He said he would also consider eliminating the dining-only memberships.
“We will definitely honor every dining membership that is out there, but we have to sit down and put our long-range plan together and determine our goals,” Schumacher said, adding that he believes in a fully private business model. “We don’t want to be playing in the public game. There is plenty of public access out there, and my expertise is in country clubs.”
Millwood membership fees range widely, including a $25 annual dining-only membership and a $100 monthly social memberships that covers use of the clubhouse, dining privileges at Mikayla’s, and access to the fitness center, pool, meeting rooms and tennis courts, according to
MillwoodGolf.com. Golf memberships start with an $1,800 to $2,400 initiation fee, with monthly course dues ranging between $100 and $275, except for seniors ages 62 and above. All memberships come with a $150 quarterly food and beverage requirement, according to the website.
Jim Bailey, an account executive at advertising firm Schilling/Sellmeyer & Associates Inc., has been a Millwood member since 1999. Bailey, who hits the links at least a couple of times a week and attends an occasional dinner or social event, said the Keltner clan will be missed, but he figures they have earned their retirement.
“I think it was a good time for them to retire and start enjoying themselves without the burden of a club that has done a fantastic job of surviving during a time when many clubs around the country have closed,” Bailey said.
Based on data collected by the National Golf Foundation, 25.7 million people played golf in the U.S. in 2011, which is flat compared to 2010. Between 2008 and 2010, the number of people hitting the greens declined by 1.5 million, according to the Association of Golf Merchandisers.
Though Keltner declined to disclose club revenues, he said it was profitable even after the impact of the recession.
“The economic downturn of 2008 took its toll on golf membership all across the country. Millwood wasn’t spared in that,” Keltner said. “Millwood was still a profitable venture but not as profitable as it once was. A lot of that business is coming back now.”
In 2004, Millwood was selected for the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce’s W. Curtis Strube Small Business Award. At the time, it reported 500 members and was among only 5 percent of U.S. country clubs to turn a profit in 2003. Not including dining memberships, Schumaker said the club currently has more than 425 members, down from 600 members reported to Springfield Business Journal in November 2011.
The 77-year-old Keltner said he is pleased to have the business off his hands.
“I’ve got a lot of things that I need to get caught up on, like fishing,” Keltner said in an Oct. 29 phone interview while vacationing with his wife at Sanibel Island, off of Florida’s Gulf coast.
“I really don’t have any plans at the moment.”[[In-content Ad]]
