JAN/FEB 2007
Golf House is born

In November, the Wisconsin State Golf Association and the Wisconsin Section of the PGA of America finally did what they had discussed on and off for at least the last 30 years. They moved into shared office space under the name Golf House.

Technically, the name on the lease is Golf House of Wisconsin, LLC, but the new shared office space at 11350 W. Theo Trecker Way in West Allis is now home to several state golf associations. Along with the WSGA and the WPGA, the Golf Course Owners of Wisconsin, the Senior Golf Association of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Women’s State Golf Association all now work out of the new digs.

The Wisconsin Golf House concept has been the dream of many individuals for a long, long time. WPGA Executive Director Joe Stadler said he has seen documentation of the effort being discussed in the 1970s, and he said longtime Wisconsin professional Manuel de la Torre told him the idea dates back to at least the early 1960s.

But cost always seemed to be a major sticking point, especially since a golf course was seen by many involved as key component to the project. Stadler said things began to change a few years ago, when then-WSGA president Ken Berke and then-WPGA president Tim Marks started to downsize the dream.

“We spent so much time over the years talking about maybe buying a golf course or buying a building or building a building,” Stadler said. “And finally, when Tim Marks and Ken Berke were presidents of both associations, they got together and said, ‘Why don’t we just move in together somewhere? Let’s start with that.’

“So I think when we quit looking at extremely huge projects – where it would have been a million dollars minimum – it became realistic.”

WSGA Executive Director Tom Schmidt said the discussions picked up steam a couple of years ago, at which time both the WSGA and the WPGA arranged their existing office leases to expire this fall, paving the way for the move. About a year ago, the final decision was made to establish Golf House.

It remains to be seen whether the move will result in any cost savings for the associations, but there’s little doubt that the new space will allow them to work more closely on what is essentially a joint mission to grow and improve the game of golf in Wisconsin. They just go about it in slightly different ways, with the WSGA serving its membership of 60,000 amateur golfers and the WPGA working for its member-professionals while also organizing dozens of tournaments for Wisconsin junior players each season.

Along with 5,000 square feet of office space, the WSGA and WPGA also share a 1,400-square-foot storage area with overhead garage doors, a particularly handy feature since both associations own tents, scoreboards, caddie bibs and other tournament items which they haul all over the state. There’s also work space for the interns who are hired each summer, a nice conference room and a trophy room which is still taking shape.

Schmidt sees two primary benefits to the new arrangement.

“First of all, the fact that we’re together and can easily talk to each other and get problems solved without having to chase around and get people on the phone, it will make us much more cohesive and we’ll be able to do some projects together probably much more efficiently,” Schmidt said. “From a physical point of view, to get a building that had an area that we could drive our vans right in the back and fill them up before going to a tournament, benefits both of us.”

There may be some economies of scale in terms of office equipment – one copy machine, one fax machine, one postage meter, etc. – but the associations likely will not share staff. They also maintain separate computer systems. The establishment of Golf House is another in a line of steps which have brought the WSGA and WPGA closer together – literally – in recent years. Another key moment took place a few years ago when both of them placed the other associations’ president on their board of directors.

“I would say we have always had a good relationship, but it keeps getting better and better,” said Stadler. “And I think Tom (Schmidt) and I have a good relationship, which certainly helped a lot.”

    New contact information:
    Golf House: 11350 Theo Trecker Way, West Allis WI 53214
    WSGA: (414) 443-3560, WPGA: (414) 443-3570, Fax for both: (414) 443-0817.