OCTOBER 2023
Savor
MEMBER NEWSLETTER
Although September 23rd marked the first day of fall, you would never guess, and we really should come to expect nothing less living here in Minnesota. We had multiple changes we've had to make on the fly when it came to annual golf course aerification schedules due to high temperatures, and most recently, damp turf conditions. Mother Nature will always have a mind of its own, but we're fortunate to have such a seasoned and well-experienced team in Eric, Jeff, Jon and their crew. We will be adjusting to what conditions allow this week for fall fairway aerification and sanding. Any modifications to our schedule will be communicated as far in advance as possible! We are on track for about a 1% increase in golf rounds played this year, tracking to finish just under 20k rounds for the year. Of these rounds, about 160 of them are donated rounds to non-profit, charitable foundations here in the Twin Cities. As we've shared in the past, we get asked year-round to support some incredible causes around the metro area. While we'd like to support them all, we generally cap these sponsorships to member-related requests and/or events. That said, Dellwood CC donated 42 certifcates for foursomes this year, which average between $400-$500 per auction, totalling ~$20,000 for non-profits in our area. We've also turned some of these donations into Club-sponsored events, one of them being the River Valley Charities Pro-Am. After partnering up just two years ago, the event this year quadrupled its raise to benefit local backpack programs, the WBL Area Food Shelf, and 21 Roots Farm located in Hugo. This Pro-Am, which took place back in August, would not be thriving if it wasn't for DCC Member Ron Linneman for his countless hours he volunteers on the RVC Board - thank you Ron! I speak for our entire team when I say we are incredibly grateful to be a part of an organization that gets the opportunity to give back to our community. We also understand it takes a membership to support these same values as well - thank you DCC Members. Keep in mind we will be getting information out to you all for some events/raises we take part in over the holidays. For the third straight year, we will be sponsoring the WBL Area Food Shelf's Give a Gobble event, which provides those in our area who are less fortunate a proper Thanksgiving feast. We'll also be a drop-off site for the Toys for Tots Drive. Please stay tuned for more details!
By Pete LaCoursiere, General Manager
A Quick Note from Michelle NOW THAT WE ARE IN THE FALL/WINTER MONTHS, YOUR F&B MINIMUMS WILL NOW BE CHANGING TO A TWO MONTH CYCLE OF $300 FOR THE FOOD & BEVERAGE OPTION, AND $250 AT THE FOOD ONLY OPTION. A-M LAST NAMES RUN 10/1-11/30, 12/1-1/31, AND 2/1-3/31. N-Z LAST NAMES RUN 10/15-12/14, 12/15-2/14, AND 2/15-4/14. *EXCLUSIONS APPLY FOR DINING MEMBERS PLEASE CALL OR EMAIL MICHELLE WITH ANY QUESTIONS!
From Your GM...
Our Head Professional Clayton Johnson will be looking to defend his Pro's Duel title in this year's Pro's Duel, set for Wednesday, October 11th. Our Professional Staff of Clayton Johnson, Cory Moran, Scott Springer and Sam Long play 18-holes for a purse that is made up of voluntary contributions by all Members, in appreciation for their hard work this year! If you would like to contribute, please click HERE to complete your entry! Thank you!
From Catering & Events:
by Katie Boyd Director of Banquets & Events
Hello Dellwoodians, The leaves have turned color, which means some of our favorite Dellwood Country Club Holiday Events will be happening soon! You may be asking, what holidays? What do these events look like? Well, here’s the inside information for you: Halloween Boo Bash 10.22.23: Dellwood is transformed into an age appropriate spooky scene with a room length Boofay in the ballroom, dessert & candy stations, crafts in the lower level, build-your-own dirt & worms, pumpkin painting, a grab bag for all the kids, and a pumpkin carving for everyone to take home out of the Dellwood Country Club Pumpkin Patch out front. Sign-ups are live! Thanksgiving 11.23.23: A DCC family tradition! A true Country Club style Buffet with all of the traditional Thanksgiving fixings, plus a few of Chef’s special touches. Let us cook, feed, clean up and do the dishes for you this Thanksgiving! We will have you home just in time for the 4:30 pm football game, or just in time to take a very good tryptophan nap. We are also able to accommodate large parties, so don’t be shy. Bring the whole family! We will some crafts for the kiddos too! Sign-ups coming soon! Santa Brunch 12.3.23: Not only will Mr. Claus be attending the Santa brunch this year, but Mrs. Clause as well!! They are also bringing some elves that are taking family photos with the jolly couple. Of course, no gathering is complete without Dellwood CC’s traditional buffet in the ballroom, a small gift for all kids, crafts, Chef Peter’s famous hot chocolate, cookies, and horse drawn sleigh rides on the course! We have it all! Come celebrate! Thursday, November 2nd kicks off the first of many Thursday night Family Bingos over the winter months!! If you are new to the Club, or may just don’t know, the Dellwood Bar & Grill is the place to be Thursday nights. On Thursday’s there will be a rotation between Family Bingo, Bar Bingo, Family Trivia, & Bar Trivia. Please see the calendar of Thursday night fun! A friendly reminder: Please keep in mind that we have three great spaces to host gatherings here at the Club. The Tamarack Room, The Fireside Room, and The Ballroom. Our Dellwood CC staff assists in creating and executing events that boast warmth, elegance, amazing culinary tastes, and legendary libations. Most importantly, it is an honor to provide a space where our guests are able to relax and enjoy an event that they helped to create. The best part is, DCC staff takes care of the cooking and the clean-up! See you around the Club! Katie Boyd
From the Pro's
Hello Members, We've used this Newsletter in the past to discuss our newer option here at Dellwood, the Dining Preivew Membership. I wanted to take it a step further to share with you the benefits of this program, not just to those opting to partake in it, but also how this program benefits our Club as a whole. As many of you know, I stepped back into Dellwood in January of 2022 as Corporate Chef of both Brickhouse and Dellwood, right around the time we began this membership category. Since then we've begun incorporating our two restaurants more and more, something I believe you'll see transpire even further this winter. Under the same ownership, why not take the best of both and work them into both menu's? Beyond sharing best kept secrets between both restaurants, we also knew there was a benefit to our existing Membership at Dellwood by introducing a revamped Dining Membership. More bodies in our restaurant equals higher and more consistent year-round volume. This leads to offering more business hours, more labor hours to our staff, and ability to retain many more of our employees as a result. Of course, this translates into a better flow in the back of the house with my team who understands our standards we've set here at Dellwood. I also understand this has a tremendous effect in our ability to attract qualified applicants in the front of the house, which converts to offering higher levels of customer service to all of our Members and your guests. We continue to offer this Membership with the same terms we launched it with: $0 Initiation Fee, $0 Monthly Dues, and a $50 Food Only Minimum per month. If you have some friends who you know love our food and believe they would have some interest (or if you're tired of hosting them and picking up the check!), please have them reach out to our General Manager Pete LaCoursiere who can get them more information on enrollment. Thank you for all of your support and hope to see you in the restaurant soon. -Chef Peter
By Golf Professionals Clayton Johnson & Cory Moran
by Peter Christensen Corporate Chef From the Kitchen
Winter Simulator League The winter simulator league is right around the corner and are looking forward to another great year. The league will be for both men & women, with the season beginning December 1st and carrying through March 26th. We've made a couple of modifications to the league this year: Teams to consist of 3-4 players, of which you will take your best two individual scores for your team each week. Your team will be competing against the rest of the league, where points and payouts are awarded to each segment based on rank within the league. Handicaps for this year will be your November 1st Dellwood Handicap at 80%. This "League" handicap will be provided to you before the start of the first league round. The cost for the League is $300 per team, which goes directly towards payouts each segement (5 segments @ $50) plus $50 towards the Final Four. Simulator time is not included but offered at a discounted rate. Please email Cory or Clayton sign your team up!
By Eric Peterson, Superintendent
Fall is here, but I’m not bummed about the 70 + degree temps! Let’s live out the rest of patio season the best way we know how here at DCC. September seemed like it had somewhere to be and it flew by! We were jam packed with member events like Labor Day Classic, Live Music on the Patio, The Taste of White Bear Lake , Yappy Hour sponsored by Titos Vodka at the Pool, Oktoberfest, and our Wine Tasting Event with Small Lot Wines! To recap that last mentioned event, we hosted on Thursday 9/21, a Wine Tasting with one of our wine partners, Small Lot. Ryan, our rep, is one of a kind and came fully loaded with amazing wines to sample, compare, and contrast. 43 members attended the class and were able extensively compare and contrast Old and New World wines. Do you know the difference between Old and New world? Traditionally, Old World means wine produced in primarily Europe, or South America, Australia etc. New World categorizes any wine that’s grown and produced within the United States. During the class, members were given blind taste tests, two per round, and had to guess the grape varietal as well as if it was New or Old world. This was such a fun and approachable way to open the world of wine to those intimidated or unsure of where to start. I love being able to host events like these that foster great social relationships as well as are slightly educational too. Wine is a real hobby of mine and has been a part of my life for a long time. My dad is a Level I Sommelier (in his free time even – he’s got a day job!) and a lot of my passion for the wine industry comes from him. I remember when I was a kid and he would read Wine Spectator to me…. So it’s been ingrained in me for a while! Every time we as a club get to showcase wine for you all, I get really excited to share my passion. One of my goals is to someday be WSET Level 1 (Wine & Spirit Education Trust) certified so that I can not only pass my knowledge on to my staff to help them be more successful, but to our membership as well. I was going to wrap up by plugging our Wine Dinner coming up in October, entitled French Elegance Uncorked, but we are SOLD OUT! Small Lot will be joining us again with some incredible selections from France, showcased along side Chef Peter’s amazing tasting menu. If you missed this one, don’t worry, a little birdie told me we will do another one in early 2024…stay tuned! As always, Cheers!
CANADA GOLDENROD
by Brita Van Guilder Food & Beverage Director
Food & Wine
The majority of our time as a staff is spent focused on turf. What should the height of the grass be cut at, how do we manage our mowing schedule with the weather we are having, when should we spray and so on. As golfers the game of golf is played on turf and most of your focus is on the turf conditions. Recently a member asked me about a flower that is growing in the creek near the 13th green. I started to think about the course from a different angle. The golf course has many features that effect the golfing experience. The flora on the course, for some that play, creates a connection with nature that enhances their golfing experience. I thought I would share some photos of native plants that I have found recently.
PYEWEED
From the Course
DAISY FLEABANE
BEGGARTICKS
WHITE SNAKEROOT
CANADA THISTLE
by Michael Lopata Chef de Cuisine
DELLWOOD COUNTRY CLUB 29 EAST HWY 96 DELLWOOD, MN 55110 651.426.3218 CLUBHOUSE 651.426.4733 GOLF SHOP