September 1, 2025 • 15 mins
Golf has a reputation for exclusivity, but Augustine Golf Club is flipping that script. Tucked away in Stafford County, this hidden gem has been welcoming the public for nearly three decades, though many locals still mistakenly believe it's private. As General Manager Ron Leporati explains, "We are 100% open to the public. Our restaurant's open to the public, the golf course is open to the public, we give lessons to the public."
What makes Augustine special isn't just its storied past—it opened in 1996 as one of the top five new public golf courses in the country—but its commitment to accessibility. The club operates on a yield management pricing model (book early, save more) that keeps golf affordable for everyone. And forget about stuffy atmospheres; the team at Augustine has cultivated a warm, welcoming environment where players of all skill levels feel at home.
Marketing Manager Dominique, herself a former collegiate golfer, has championed programs specifically for women—the fastest-growing demographic in golf. The club also runs robust junior programs throughout the year, investing in the next generation of golfers. Under Leporati 's leadership since 2023, membership has grown by 30%, course conditions have improved dramatically, and the club is steadily reclaiming its former glory.
Beyond exceptional golf, Augustine offers surprisingly upscale dining, event hosting for weddings and celebrations, and a genuine community feel. As Leporati summarizes their philosophy: "We're not in the golf business, we're in the people business." Whether you're a seasoned player or holding a club for the first time, Augustine Golf Club invites you to experience golf as it should be—accessible, enjoyable, and decidedly unstuffy. Visit www.golfaugustine.com or drive to 76 Monument Drive in Stafford to discover this local treasure for yourself.
Ron Leporati and Dominique Batac
Augustine Golf Club
golfaugustine.com
+1 540-720-7374
proshop@golfaugustine.com
76 Monument Dr, Stafford, VA, United States, Virginia
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast
, the place where localbusinesses and neighbors come
together.
Here's your host, Dori Stewart.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome back to another episode of the
Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast, where we share the stories of
our favorite local brands.
I'm excited to introduce you tomy two guests.
Today.
They are joining us withAugustine Golf Club, Dominique
and Ron.
Welcome to the podcast.
Thank you for having us.
Thank you so much.
(00:33):
Yeah well, I am looking forwardto diving in and learning all
about each of you and about thebusiness.
So let's start there Tell usabout your business.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Dominique Golf Club.
Augustine Golf Club is open tothe public.
It's been open for almost 30years.
Actually, when it opened in1996, it was one of the top five
new public golf courses in thecountry, so it has a storied
past.
We, in addition to golf, wehave clubhouse events, weddings,
quinceaneras, retirementparties, holiday parties.
(01:09):
We have an annual golfmembership driving range.
We've been a fixture here for30 years almost and it's an
honor for us to be part of thegolf landscape in Stafford
County and feeding intoFredericksburg and Spotsylvania
and points north as well.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Amazing, amazing.
So why don't?
So thank you for sharing that.
It is interesting to learn thatit is public.
I imagine some people mightthink that, since it's part of
the neighborhood with the samename, that it might not be
public.
So thank you for for sharingthat with us.
Why don't each of you share alittle bit about your own um,
(01:48):
maybe your own background and inyour role within augustine golf
club?
Speaker 4 (01:56):
absolutely so.
Um, my name is Dominique.
I am a golfer marketing managerat Augustine golf club.
Primarily I was a golfer.
I was on the other side of thecounter and I wanted to find a
way to stay attached to thesport without getting a little
too competitive about it, andAugustine provided that outlet
for me.
So very grateful to Ron and toDoug, our other head pro at
(02:21):
Augustine, for giving me a shotat being in part of the business
and kind of exploring differentavenues, and that we found a
lot of opportunities with themarketing aspect as well.
And they asked me to kind ofstep into that role.
And golf, as you know, is a very, very progressive sport.
It's definitely reaching out todifferent demographics and we
(02:42):
want to find a way to keep italive, keep it engaging, keep it
interesting, and marketing hasdefinitely played its role in
that.
So we have just kind of triedto expand a little bit there.
Augustine has been a greatoutlet for understanding how we
can kind of explore ways to keepattracting new audiences.
(03:03):
We have the military, we've gotlaw enforcement, we have a
little bit more of the elderlyside, but also a lot of juniors
as well.
So that's kind of where I stepin.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Amazing, awesome.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
I think what Dominique humbly left out is
she's not just a recreationalgolfer.
She played college golf, whichis golf at a very high level.
So she is a talented golfer.
She has a wonderful eye fordetail.
In her capacity as a socialmedia manager, she's just been a
breath of fresh air for theproperty manager.
(03:39):
She's just been a breath offresh air for the property.
She's got a business acumenthat's continuing to grow every
day.
So she humbly, true to her core, left that out.
So she has championed a coupleof programs for us here at
Augustine in the last few years,one of which is our ladies
program, which has really takenoff.
We have a lot of ladies in thearea who really represent the
fastest growing demographic ingolf.
(04:00):
It's the female market and sowe have female golfers who are
coming to Augustine who reallydon't know the nuances of golf.
So they're learning the basicswith regards to how we hold the
golf club, how we swing the golfclub.
But they're also learning fromDominique how to get to the golf
course and what that looks like, because that experience is
very different than watching iton TV or practicing at the
(04:22):
driving range.
So Dominique's been a reallystrong advocate and champion for
women's golf.
We also have a great juniorgolf program here at Augustine.
We have two spring programs, asummer program and a fall
program.
So we're constantly trying togrow the game at the grassroots
level, which Dominique has beenintimately involved with as well
(04:43):
.
As for me, my nn is RonLeporati ".
I'm the general manager here atAugustine Golf Club.
I'm a member of theProfessional Golfers Association
.
I've been a member since 2001.
My wife is from Stafford,virginia, which is my strongest
tie to the area.
My in-laws live here as welland my primary background is in
(05:04):
the core competency of golf,specifically country clubs and ,
I had an opportunity to come toAugustine and take over a
day-to-day operation that I hadan opportunity to grow in a lot
of ways.
It had an opportunity to growwith our internal culture, our
customer relations, that culture, the HOA you mentioned.
(05:26):
Most people don't know thatwe're public.
We are 100% open to the public.
Our restaurant's open to thepublic, the golf course is open
to the public, we give lessonsto the public and the public can
use our driving range inaddition to play our golf course
.
So to your point.
I spent two and a half yearstrying to dispel that theory
that we're private.
We are absolutely not private.
We are open to the public andwe've grown our relationships.
(05:50):
Stafford County Schools hasbeen a great partnership for us,
frederickburg Chamber, staffordTourism, just to name a few of
the programs out there.
So we have, at the grassrootslevel, been intentional about
and authentic about therelationships we've built and
our membership has grown 30% inthe last two and a half years
and we've done that throughrelationships.
(06:10):
I think people look at golfcourses and say, oh, they're in
the golf business.
We're not in the golf business,we are in the people business.
And that's how we grow ourbusinesses through relationships
and fostering thoserelationships, not by one
transaction at a time, it's oneinteraction at a time, one
engagement at a time.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah, amazing.
Well, the two of you make agreat team.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
We do make a great team.
We've got our head golfprofessionals.
I'm not able to be on the callhere today, but Doug Walzak's a
great asset to the club.
We've got a great culinary team.
I will tell your audience thatwe have phenomenal food at
Augustine Golf Club.
I think most people would thinkit's a burger and dog, and
that's about as far as we go.
We go much further than that.
(06:54):
We also do a number of eventsholiday season and wedding so
pretty robust food and beverageoperation.
If you come on out and give usa chance, I'm sure we'll impress
you Amazing, amazing.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
So what are some myths or misconceptions, other
than the public versus privatething that you find, people that
you need to dispel, whetherit's about the industry or about
Augustine in particular?
Speaker 3 (07:23):
That's a great question.
I think most people think ofour property because we're in
the only neighborhood golfcourse in the Stafford area that
we're high priced.
We're not high priced.
We're very much for the workingman and working woman.
Our price points are veryaffordable.
We're on.
(07:44):
Our pricing is on a modelcalled yield management.
So the earlier you book yourtee time, the more you're saved.
It's very, it's very consistentwith booking an airline, a
flight on an airline, or arental car or a hotel.
The earlier you book, the moreyou're going to save.
So we want to encourage ourgolfers to book seven to 10 days
(08:06):
in advance and capitalize onthe best available rate.
But we're absolutely for theworking man and the working
woman.
We've got a very largepercentage of our members are
active or retired military andit's really a wonderful
community that we have here atAugustine.
The membership is warm, they'reengaging, they're welcoming,
they're friendly, they've beenvery supportive of the things
(08:27):
that we've rolled out in thelast two and a half years, which
Dominique's played a part in.
And that's what I can say aboutthe club.
It's probably assumed that it'sa little on the snooty side.
We're absolutely not on thesnooty side.
We're absolutely not on thesnooty side, we welcome anybody.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Nice, thank you for sharing that.
So you mentioned membership.
So is it a membership only typeof thing, or can someone just
you know kind of come for youknow one time or a couple of
times, or do you have to be amember?
Speaker 3 (08:58):
You do not have to be a member.
We have a couple of times.
Or do you have to be a member?
You do not have to be a member.
We have a couple of differentmembership categories.
We have what we call theweekday membership, which is
Monday through Friday.
We've got a seven-daymembership, which is seven days
a week.
We've got some introductorymemberships for young executives
, for juniors, and we also havea limited membership which we
call the associate membership,which is a reduced price and
(09:19):
then you pay a green fee as yougo.
So again, we're open to thepublic.
We have an annual membership,so call us semi-private, if you
will.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Amazing, amazing.
What is something that you wishthe listeners knew about?
Augustine Golf Club.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Augustine Golf Club.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
I'll speak for myself , and then I'll defer to
Dominique.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
When I took over as the general manager here in
February of 2023, I knew thehistory of Augustine Golf Club.
It had opened at one of themost prestigious public golf
courses in the country.
It had slowly prestigiouspublic golf courses in the
country.
It had slowly its reputationslowly deteriorated and then my
(10:09):
commitment to the investors wasif we build the right team and
we deploy the right model, wecan bring it back, and we have
slowly been bringing it back.
The course conditions arebetter.
Our staff is much more engagedwith our customers in person,
via the telephone.
We're quick to respond tofeedback via email.
We have grown our business.
We have grown membership.
We've grown our events businessand, like I said earlier, we
(10:31):
did that relationally.
We did that through grassrootsefforts and people have
responded to that because wewere authentic.
We didn't look at it as atransaction, we looked at it as
a partnership, and so Augustineis making its way back.
We're two and a half years intomy tenure here, but the point I
made when I interviewed wasit's all about the culture here
(10:53):
at the club and we've hiredpeople like Dominique.
We've hired people like ourhead golf professional.
We've retained our chef, who isexcellent, and that's how we've
done it.
We put the right people in theright places and we got out of
their way.
Quite honestly, is what we did,and so from that point, I'm
going to defer to Dominique.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
And I'm really happy to hear that from Ron and I'll
add on to that it's a wealth ofopportunity at Augustine Golf
Club, and I'm not just referringto the employment, I'm not just
referring to the membership,but playing ability.
I think, if we can summarize itall, you know we don't bite at
Augustine Golf Club.
You know we want people to comeinto the pro shop ask us
questions.
We welcome playing ability ofall levels.
(11:35):
I think it is scary when you getonto the golf course, even as a
player, and you just you don'tknow what to do, you don't know
where to go, you don't knowwhere the red driving range is,
you don't know what the drivingrange is.
And we have people myselfincluded, ron doug and I can
keep going because our list ofemployees is just a fantastic
list of people who care and wewant to make sure that you feel
(11:58):
welcome when you walk in and youwant to come back when you walk
away.
And even though the seasonshave changed and maybe the
climate has given us a hard time, and, like Ronna said, with the
changes in management that evenI wasn't there to physically
see, or changes in leadershipthat I wasn't there to
physically see, I think thatAugustine is starting to slowly
(12:21):
and gradually reclaim its glorydays with the team that we
currently have in place.
So we definitely hope that wecan continue to grow our
audiences, who can um you know,live and experience that with us
.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
That's great to hear the having a a great team.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Uh, is everything.
One thing I'll add to that is umas we engage our customers, uh,
in person, at in the pro shopor just walking through the
clubhouse.
You know we always ask them ifthis is their first time, and I
would say to a high degree.
For a lot of folks it is stilltheir first time.
We still experience a lot ofthat.
One thing we've been saying alot to our guests as they check
in, for whether it's a bucket ofballs for the driving range or
(13:01):
I'm just out here checking itout because I've never been here
before, or how do I get to thefirst tee.
The last thing we end with ismake yourself at home.
The grill is open for you,there's water in the coolers for
you.
Let's walk you to the golfcarts.
We'll help you get to the firsttee.
We'll introduce you to thestarter, all the people you need
to know to help you get aroundthe golf course, which is code
(13:25):
for all the ways we plan tointeract with you while you're
here.
And again we want you to feellike you're at home.
If you're going to spend fourhours with us on the golf course
or one hour on the drivingrange, that's an investment of
your time and probably aninvestment of your money.
We want you to make yourself athome.
Stay as long as you want.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Yeah, what a great culture.
I love it.
I love it.
So if the listeners want tolearn more about Augustine and
all that you have to offer,where's the best place for them
to find you Give?
Give us your address and maybeyour URL.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
So our URL is www.
golfaugustine.
com, and there is a wealth ofinformation on there.
All of our teachingprofessionals, all of our
profiles are on there.
You can learn about membershipon there.
You can book tea times on there.
You can check out ourrestaurant are on there.
You can learn about membershipon there.
You can book tee times on there.
You can check out ourrestaurant menu on there.
You can contact a staff memberfor more information about all
(14:17):
the above, whether it's juniorgolf, women's golf, membership,
what have you.
That's always the best place tostart.
I equate it to buying a vehicle.
In all likelihood, that processstarts online, right?
They're doing their onlineresearch, they're looking for
something specific.
They're going to a website andonce they find what they're
looking for, they take the nextstep.
(14:38):
Then maybe they pick up thetelephone, maybe they fill out
an online inquiry, or maybe theytake a drive out to the club
and check it out for themselves.
So that's what we encourageCheck us out online, or take a
drive out to the to the club andcheck it out for themselves.
If that's what we we encourage,either check us out online or
take a drive to 76 MonumentDrive in Stafford, virginia,
nice.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Nice.
Well, Dominique and Ron, thankyou so much for joining me on
the podcast today and sharingAugustine Golf Club with us.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Thank you for having us.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Thank you for listening to the Fredericksburg
Neighbors Podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show, go tofxbgneighborspodcast.
com.
That's fxbgneighborspodcast.
com, or call 540-534-4618.
This is the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast
, the place where localbusinesses and neighbors come
together.
Here's your host, Dori Stewart.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome back to another episode of the
Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast, where we share the stories of
our favorite local brands.
I'm excited to introduce you tomy two guests.
Today.
They are joining us withAugustine Golf Club, Dominique
and Ron.
Welcome to the podcast.
Thank you for having us.
Thank you so much.
(00:33):
Yeah well, I am looking forwardto diving in and learning all
about each of you and about thebusiness.
So let's start there Tell usabout your business.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Dominique Golf Club.
Augustine Golf Club is open tothe public.
It's been open for almost 30years.
Actually, when it opened in1996, it was one of the top five
new public golf courses in thecountry, so it has a storied
past.
We, in addition to golf, wehave clubhouse events, weddings,
quinceaneras, retirementparties, holiday parties.
(01:09):
We have an annual golfmembership driving range.
We've been a fixture here for30 years almost and it's an
honor for us to be part of thegolf landscape in Stafford
County and feeding intoFredericksburg and Spotsylvania
and points north as well.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Amazing, amazing.
So why don't?
So thank you for sharing that.
It is interesting to learn thatit is public.
I imagine some people mightthink that, since it's part of
the neighborhood with the samename, that it might not be
public.
So thank you for for sharingthat with us.
Why don't each of you share alittle bit about your own um,
(01:48):
maybe your own background and inyour role within augustine golf
club?
Speaker 4 (01:56):
absolutely so.
Um, my name is Dominique.
I am a golfer marketing managerat Augustine golf club.
Primarily I was a golfer.
I was on the other side of thecounter and I wanted to find a
way to stay attached to thesport without getting a little
too competitive about it, andAugustine provided that outlet
for me.
So very grateful to Ron and toDoug, our other head pro at
(02:21):
Augustine, for giving me a shotat being in part of the business
and kind of exploring differentavenues, and that we found a
lot of opportunities with themarketing aspect as well.
And they asked me to kind ofstep into that role.
And golf, as you know, is a very, very progressive sport.
It's definitely reaching out todifferent demographics and we
(02:42):
want to find a way to keep italive, keep it engaging, keep it
interesting, and marketing hasdefinitely played its role in
that.
So we have just kind of triedto expand a little bit there.
Augustine has been a greatoutlet for understanding how we
can kind of explore ways to keepattracting new audiences.
(03:03):
We have the military, we've gotlaw enforcement, we have a
little bit more of the elderlyside, but also a lot of juniors
as well.
So that's kind of where I stepin.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
Amazing, awesome.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
I think what Dominique humbly left out is
she's not just a recreationalgolfer.
She played college golf, whichis golf at a very high level.
So she is a talented golfer.
She has a wonderful eye fordetail.
In her capacity as a socialmedia manager, she's just been a
breath of fresh air for theproperty manager.
(03:39):
She's just been a breath offresh air for the property.
She's got a business acumenthat's continuing to grow every
day.
So she humbly, true to her core, left that out.
So she has championed a coupleof programs for us here at
Augustine in the last few years,one of which is our ladies
program, which has really takenoff.
We have a lot of ladies in thearea who really represent the
fastest growing demographic ingolf.
(04:00):
It's the female market and sowe have female golfers who are
coming to Augustine who reallydon't know the nuances of golf.
So they're learning the basicswith regards to how we hold the
golf club, how we swing the golfclub.
But they're also learning fromDominique how to get to the golf
course and what that looks like, because that experience is
very different than watching iton TV or practicing at the
(04:22):
driving range.
So Dominique's been a reallystrong advocate and champion for
women's golf.
We also have a great juniorgolf program here at Augustine.
We have two spring programs, asummer program and a fall
program.
So we're constantly trying togrow the game at the grassroots
level, which Dominique has beenintimately involved with as well
(04:43):
.
As for me, my nn is RonLeporati ".
I'm the general manager here atAugustine Golf Club.
I'm a member of theProfessional Golfers Association
.
I've been a member since 2001.
My wife is from Stafford,virginia, which is my strongest
tie to the area.
My in-laws live here as welland my primary background is in
(05:04):
the core competency of golf,specifically country clubs and ,
I had an opportunity to come toAugustine and take over a
day-to-day operation that I hadan opportunity to grow in a lot
of ways.
It had an opportunity to growwith our internal culture, our
customer relations, that culture, the HOA you mentioned.
(05:26):
Most people don't know thatwe're public.
We are 100% open to the public.
Our restaurant's open to thepublic, the golf course is open
to the public, we give lessonsto the public and the public can
use our driving range inaddition to play our golf course
.
So to your point.
I spent two and a half yearstrying to dispel that theory
that we're private.
We are absolutely not private.
We are open to the public andwe've grown our relationships.
(05:50):
Stafford County Schools hasbeen a great partnership for us,
frederickburg Chamber, staffordTourism, just to name a few of
the programs out there.
So we have, at the grassrootslevel, been intentional about
and authentic about therelationships we've built and
our membership has grown 30% inthe last two and a half years
and we've done that throughrelationships.
(06:10):
I think people look at golfcourses and say, oh, they're in
the golf business.
We're not in the golf business,we are in the people business.
And that's how we grow ourbusinesses through relationships
and fostering thoserelationships, not by one
transaction at a time, it's oneinteraction at a time, one
engagement at a time.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah, amazing.
Well, the two of you make agreat team.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
We do make a great team.
We've got our head golfprofessionals.
I'm not able to be on the callhere today, but Doug Walzak's a
great asset to the club.
We've got a great culinary team.
I will tell your audience thatwe have phenomenal food at
Augustine Golf Club.
I think most people would thinkit's a burger and dog, and
that's about as far as we go.
We go much further than that.
(06:54):
We also do a number of eventsholiday season and wedding so
pretty robust food and beverageoperation.
If you come on out and give usa chance, I'm sure we'll impress
you Amazing, amazing.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
So what are some myths or misconceptions, other
than the public versus privatething that you find, people that
you need to dispel, whetherit's about the industry or about
Augustine in particular?
Speaker 3 (07:23):
That's a great question.
I think most people think ofour property because we're in
the only neighborhood golfcourse in the Stafford area that
we're high priced.
We're not high priced.
We're very much for the workingman and working woman.
Our price points are veryaffordable.
We're on.
(07:44):
Our pricing is on a modelcalled yield management.
So the earlier you book yourtee time, the more you're saved.
It's very, it's very consistentwith booking an airline, a
flight on an airline, or arental car or a hotel.
The earlier you book, the moreyou're going to save.
So we want to encourage ourgolfers to book seven to 10 days
(08:06):
in advance and capitalize onthe best available rate.
But we're absolutely for theworking man and the working
woman.
We've got a very largepercentage of our members are
active or retired military andit's really a wonderful
community that we have here atAugustine.
The membership is warm, they'reengaging, they're welcoming,
they're friendly, they've beenvery supportive of the things
(08:27):
that we've rolled out in thelast two and a half years, which
Dominique's played a part in.
And that's what I can say aboutthe club.
It's probably assumed that it'sa little on the snooty side.
We're absolutely not on thesnooty side.
We're absolutely not on thesnooty side, we welcome anybody.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Nice, thank you for sharing that.
So you mentioned membership.
So is it a membership only typeof thing, or can someone just
you know kind of come for youknow one time or a couple of
times, or do you have to be amember?
Speaker 3 (08:58):
You do not have to be a member.
We have a couple of times.
Or do you have to be a member?
You do not have to be a member.
We have a couple of differentmembership categories.
We have what we call theweekday membership, which is
Monday through Friday.
We've got a seven-daymembership, which is seven days
a week.
We've got some introductorymemberships for young executives
, for juniors, and we also havea limited membership which we
call the associate membership,which is a reduced price and
(09:19):
then you pay a green fee as yougo.
So again, we're open to thepublic.
We have an annual membership,so call us semi-private, if you
will.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Amazing, amazing.
What is something that you wishthe listeners knew about?
Augustine Golf Club.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Augustine Golf Club.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
I'll speak for myself , and then I'll defer to
Dominique.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
When I took over as the general manager here in
February of 2023, I knew thehistory of Augustine Golf Club.
It had opened at one of themost prestigious public golf
courses in the country.
It had slowly prestigiouspublic golf courses in the
country.
It had slowly its reputationslowly deteriorated and then my
(10:09):
commitment to the investors wasif we build the right team and
we deploy the right model, wecan bring it back, and we have
slowly been bringing it back.
The course conditions arebetter.
Our staff is much more engagedwith our customers in person,
via the telephone.
We're quick to respond tofeedback via email.
We have grown our business.
We have grown membership.
We've grown our events businessand, like I said earlier, we
(10:31):
did that relationally.
We did that through grassrootsefforts and people have
responded to that because wewere authentic.
We didn't look at it as atransaction, we looked at it as
a partnership, and so Augustineis making its way back.
We're two and a half years intomy tenure here, but the point I
made when I interviewed wasit's all about the culture here
(10:53):
at the club and we've hiredpeople like Dominique.
We've hired people like ourhead golf professional.
We've retained our chef, who isexcellent, and that's how we've
done it.
We put the right people in theright places and we got out of
their way.
Quite honestly, is what we did,and so from that point, I'm
going to defer to Dominique.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
And I'm really happy to hear that from Ron and I'll
add on to that it's a wealth ofopportunity at Augustine Golf
Club, and I'm not just referringto the employment, I'm not just
referring to the membership,but playing ability.
I think, if we can summarize itall, you know we don't bite at
Augustine Golf Club.
You know we want people to comeinto the pro shop ask us
questions.
We welcome playing ability ofall levels.
(11:35):
I think it is scary when you getonto the golf course, even as a
player, and you just you don'tknow what to do, you don't know
where to go, you don't knowwhere the red driving range is,
you don't know what the drivingrange is.
And we have people myselfincluded, ron doug and I can
keep going because our list ofemployees is just a fantastic
list of people who care and wewant to make sure that you feel
(11:58):
welcome when you walk in and youwant to come back when you walk
away.
And even though the seasonshave changed and maybe the
climate has given us a hard time, and, like Ronna said, with the
changes in management that evenI wasn't there to physically
see, or changes in leadershipthat I wasn't there to
physically see, I think thatAugustine is starting to slowly
(12:21):
and gradually reclaim its glorydays with the team that we
currently have in place.
So we definitely hope that wecan continue to grow our
audiences, who can um you know,live and experience that with us
.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
That's great to hear the having a a great team.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
Uh, is everything.
One thing I'll add to that is umas we engage our customers, uh,
in person, at in the pro shopor just walking through the
clubhouse.
You know we always ask them ifthis is their first time, and I
would say to a high degree.
For a lot of folks it is stilltheir first time.
We still experience a lot ofthat.
One thing we've been saying alot to our guests as they check
in, for whether it's a bucket ofballs for the driving range or
(13:01):
I'm just out here checking itout because I've never been here
before, or how do I get to thefirst tee.
The last thing we end with ismake yourself at home.
The grill is open for you,there's water in the coolers for
you.
Let's walk you to the golfcarts.
We'll help you get to the firsttee.
We'll introduce you to thestarter, all the people you need
to know to help you get aroundthe golf course, which is code
(13:25):
for all the ways we plan tointeract with you while you're
here.
And again we want you to feellike you're at home.
If you're going to spend fourhours with us on the golf course
or one hour on the drivingrange, that's an investment of
your time and probably aninvestment of your money.
We want you to make yourself athome.
Stay as long as you want.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Yeah, what a great culture.
I love it.
I love it.
So if the listeners want tolearn more about Augustine and
all that you have to offer,where's the best place for them
to find you Give?
Give us your address and maybeyour URL.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
So our URL is www.
golfaugustine.
com, and there is a wealth ofinformation on there.
All of our teachingprofessionals, all of our
profiles are on there.
You can learn about membershipon there.
You can book tea times on there.
You can check out ourrestaurant are on there.
You can learn about membershipon there.
You can book tee times on there.
You can check out ourrestaurant menu on there.
You can contact a staff memberfor more information about all
(14:17):
the above, whether it's juniorgolf, women's golf, membership,
what have you.
That's always the best place tostart.
I equate it to buying a vehicle.
In all likelihood, that processstarts online, right?
They're doing their onlineresearch, they're looking for
something specific.
They're going to a website andonce they find what they're
looking for, they take the nextstep.
(14:38):
Then maybe they pick up thetelephone, maybe they fill out
an online inquiry, or maybe theytake a drive out to the club
and check it out for themselves.
So that's what we encourageCheck us out online, or take a
drive out to the to the club andcheck it out for themselves.
If that's what we we encourage,either check us out online or
take a drive to 76 MonumentDrive in Stafford, virginia,
nice.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Nice.
Well, Dominique and Ron, thankyou so much for joining me on
the podcast today and sharingAugustine Golf Club with us.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
Thank you for having us.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Thank you for listening to the Fredericksburg
Neighbors Podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show, go tofxbgneighborspodcast.
com.
That's fxbgneighborspodcast.
com, or call 540-534-4618.
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