FXBG Neighbors Podcast
Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast
FXBG Neighbors Podcast
EP #50 Making Golf Accessible: How Augustine Golf Club Creates Community Through Sport
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
This is the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Dori Stewart.
Speaker 2: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 to my two guests. Today. They are joining us with Augustine Golf Club, Dominique and Ron. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you for having us. Thank you so much. Yeah well, I am looking forward to diving in and learning all about each of you and about the business. So let's start there Tell us about your business.
Speaker 3:Dominique Golf Club. Augustine Golf Club is open to the public. It's been open for almost 30 years. Actually, when it opened in 1996, it was one of the top five new public golf courses in the country, so it has a storied past. We, in addition to golf, we have clubhouse events, weddings, quinceaneras, retirement parties, holiday parties. We have an annual golf membership driving range. We've been a fixture here for 30 years almost and it's an honor for us to be part of the golf landscape in Stafford County and feeding into Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania and points north as well.
Speaker 2:Amazing, amazing. So why don't? So thank you for sharing that. It is interesting to learn that it is public. I imagine some people might think that, since it's part of the neighborhood with the same name, that it might not be public. So thank you for for sharing that with us. Why don't each of you share a little bit about your own um, maybe your own background and in your role within augustine golf club?
Speaker 4:absolutely so. Um, my name is Dominique. I am a golfer marketing manager at Augustine golf club. Primarily I was a golfer. I was on the other side of the counter and I wanted to find a way to stay attached to the sport without getting a little too competitive about it, and Augustine provided that outlet for me. So very grateful to Ron and to Doug, our other head pro at Augustine, for giving me a shot at being in part of the business and kind of exploring different avenues, and that we found a lot of opportunities with the marketing aspect as well. And they asked me to kind of step into that role.
Speaker 4:And golf, as you know, is a very, very progressive sport. It's definitely reaching out to different demographics and we want to find a way to keep it alive, keep it engaging, keep it interesting, and marketing has definitely played its role in that. So we have just kind of tried to expand a little bit there. Augustine has been a great outlet for understanding how we can kind of explore ways to keep attracting new audiences. We have the military, we've got law enforcement, we have a little bit more of the elderly side, but also a lot of juniors as well. So that's kind of where I step in.
Speaker 2:Amazing, awesome.
Speaker 3:I think what Dominique humbly left out is she's not just a recreational golfer. She played college golf, which is golf at a very high level. So she is a talented golfer. She has a wonderful eye for detail. In her capacity as a social media manager, she's just been a breath of fresh air for the property manager. She's just been a breath of fresh air for the property. She's got a business acumen that's continuing to grow every day. So she humbly, true to her core, left that out. So she has championed a couple of programs for us here at Augustine in the last few years, one of which is our ladies program, which has really taken off. We have a lot of ladies in the area who really represent the fastest growing demographic in golf. It's the female market and so we have female golfers who are coming to Augustine who really don't know the nuances of golf. So they're learning the basics with regards to how we hold the golf club, how we swing the golf club. But they're also learning from Dominique how to get to the golf course and what that looks like, because that experience is very different than watching it on TV or practicing at the driving range. So Dominique's been a really strong advocate and champion for women's golf. We also have a great junior golf program here at Augustine. We have two spring programs, a summer program and a fall program. So we're constantly trying to grow the game at the grassroots level, which Dominique has been intimately involved with as well.
Speaker 3:As for me, my nn is Ron Leporati ". I'm the general manager here at Augustine Golf Club. I'm a member of the Professional 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 well and my primary background is in the core competency of golf, specifically country clubs and , I had an opportunity to come to Augustine and take over a day-to-day operation that I had an opportunity to grow in a lot of ways. It had an opportunity to grow with our internal culture, our customer relations, that culture, the HOA you mentioned.
Speaker 3:Most people don't know that we're public. 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 and the public can use our driving range in addition to play our golf course. So to your point.
Speaker 3:I spent two and a half years trying to dispel that theory that we're private. We are absolutely not private. We are open to the public and we've grown our relationships. Stafford County Schools has been a great partnership for us, frederickburg Chamber, stafford Tourism, just to name a few of the programs out there. So we have, at the grassroots level, been intentional about and authentic about the relationships we've built and our membership has grown 30% in the last two and a half years and we've done that through relationships. I think people look at golf courses 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 our businesses through relationships and fostering those relationships, not by one transaction at a time, it's one interaction at a time, one engagement at a time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, amazing. Well, the two of you make a great team.
Speaker 3:We do make a great team. We've got our head golf professionals. I'm not able to be on the call here today, but Doug Walzak's a great asset to the club. We've got a great culinary team. I will tell your audience that we have phenomenal food at Augustine Golf Club. I think most people would think it's a burger and dog, and that's about as far as we go. We go much further than that. We also do a number of events holiday season and wedding so pretty robust food and beverage operation. If you come on out and give us a chance, I'm sure we'll impress you Amazing, amazing.
Speaker 2:So what are some myths or misconceptions, other than the public versus private thing that you find, people that you need to dispel, whether it's about the industry or about Augustine in particular?
Speaker 3:That's a great question. I think most people think of our property because we're in the only neighborhood golf course in the Stafford area that we're high priced. We're not high priced. We're very much for the working man and working woman. Our price points are very affordable. We're on. Our pricing is on a model called yield management. So the earlier you book your tee time, the more you're saved. It's very, it's very consistent with booking an airline, a flight on an airline, or a rental car or a hotel. The earlier you book, the more you're going to save. So we want to encourage our golfers to book seven to 10 days in advance and capitalize on the best available rate. But we're absolutely for the working man and the working woman.
Speaker 3:We've got a very large percentage of our members are active or retired military and it's really a wonderful community that we have here at Augustine. The membership is warm, they're engaging, they're welcoming, they're friendly, they've been very supportive of the things that we've rolled out in the last two and a half years, which Dominique's played a part in. And that's what I can say about the club. It's probably assumed that it's a little on the snooty side. We're absolutely not on the snooty side. We're absolutely not on the snooty side, we welcome anybody.
Speaker 2:Nice, thank you for sharing that. So you mentioned membership. So is it a membership only type of thing, or can someone just you know kind of come for you know one time or a couple of times, or do you have to be a member?
Speaker 3: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 different membership categories. We have what we call the weekday membership, which is Monday through Friday. We've got a seven-day membership, which is seven days a week. We've got some introductory memberships for young executives, for juniors, and we also have a limited membership which we call the associate membership, which is a reduced price and then you pay a green fee as you go. So again, we're open to the public. We have an annual membership, so call us semi-private, if you will.
Speaker 2:Amazing, amazing. What is something that you wish the listeners knew about? Augustine Golf Club.
Speaker 3:Augustine Golf Club.
Speaker 1:I'll speak for myself, and then I'll defer to Dominique.
Speaker 3:When I took over as the general manager here in February of 2023, I knew the history of Augustine Golf Club. It had opened at one of the most prestigious public golf courses in the country. It had slowly prestigious public golf courses in the country. It had slowly its reputation slowly deteriorated and then my commitment to the investors was if we build the right team and we deploy the right model, we can bring it back, and we have slowly been bringing it back. The course conditions are better. Our staff is much more engaged with our customers in person, via the telephone.
Speaker 3:We're quick to respond to feedback via email. We have grown our business. We have grown membership. We've grown our events business and, like I said earlier, we did that relationally. We did that through grassroots efforts and people have responded to that because we were authentic. We didn't look at it as a transaction, we looked at it as a partnership, and so Augustine is making its way back. We're two and a half years into my tenure here, but the point I made when I interviewed was it's all about the culture here at the club and we've hired people like Dominique. We've hired people like our head golf professional. We've retained our chef, who is excellent, and that's how we've done it. We put the right people in the right 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:And I'm really happy to hear that from Ron and I'll add on to that it's a wealth of opportunity at Augustine Golf Club, and I'm not just referring to the employment, I'm not just referring to the membership, but playing ability. I think, if we can summarize it all, you know we don't bite at Augustine Golf Club. You know we want people to come into the pro shop ask us questions. We welcome playing ability of all levels.
Speaker 4:I think it is scary when you get onto the golf course, even as a player, and you just you don't know what to do, you don't know where to go, you don't know where the red driving range is, you don't know what the driving range is. And we have people myself included, ron doug and I can keep going because our list of employees is just a fantastic list of people who care and we want to make sure that you feel welcome when you walk in and you want to come back when you walk away. And even though the seasons have changed and maybe the climate has given us a hard time, and, like Ronna said, with the changes in management that even I wasn't there to physically see, or changes in leadership that I wasn't there to physically see, I think that Augustine is starting to slowly and gradually reclaim its glory days with the team that we currently have in place. So we definitely hope that we can continue to grow our audiences, who can um you know, live and experience that with us.
Speaker 2:That's great to hear the having a a great team.
Speaker 3:Uh, is everything.
Speaker 3:One thing I'll add to that is um as we engage our customers, uh, in person, at in the pro shop or just walking through the clubhouse. You know we always ask them if this is their first time, and I would say to a high degree. For a lot of folks it is still their first time. We still experience a lot of that. One thing we've been saying a lot to our guests as they check in, for whether it's a bucket of balls for the driving range or I'm just out here checking it out because I've never been here before, or how do I get to the first tee. The last thing we end with is make yourself at home. The grill is open for you, there's water in the coolers for you. Let's walk you to the golf carts. We'll help you get to the first tee. We'll introduce you to the starter, all the people you need to know to help you get around the golf course, which is code for all the ways we plan to interact with you while you're here.
Speaker 3:And again we want you to feel like you're at home. If you're going to spend four hours with us on the golf course or one hour on the driving range, that's an investment of your time and probably an investment of your money. We want you to make yourself at home. Stay as long as you want.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what a great culture. I love it. I love it. So if the listeners want to learn 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 maybe your URL.
Speaker 3:So our URL is www. golfaugustine. com, and there is a wealth of information on there. All of our teaching professionals, all of our profiles are on there. You can learn about membership on there. You can book tea times on there. You can check out our restaurant are on there. You can learn about membership on there. You can book tee times on there. You can check out our restaurant menu on there. You can contact a staff member for more information about all the above, whether it's junior golf, women's golf, membership, what have you.
Speaker 3:That's always the best place to start. I equate it to buying a vehicle. In all likelihood, that process starts online, right? They're doing their online research, they're looking for something specific. They're going to a website and once they find what they're looking for, they take the next step. Then maybe they pick up the telephone, maybe they fill out an online inquiry, or maybe they take a drive out to the club and check it out for themselves. So that's what we encourage Check us out online, or take a drive out to the to the club and check it out for themselves. If that's what we we encourage, either check us out online or take a drive to 76 Monument Drive in Stafford, virginia, nice.
Speaker 2:Nice. Well, Dominique and Ron, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today and sharing Augustine Golf Club with us.
Speaker 3:Thank you for having us.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to fxbgneighborspodcast. com. That's fxbgneighborspodcast. com, or call 540-534-4618.