It’s the weather.

And it’s golf.

And it’s tourists….and this is what sports tourism can look like.

For Hamilton County and Webster City, the Briggs Woods properties are one of our best attractions. From overnight stays in the campgrounds, rentals in the cabins, conferences and golfing events at the newest buildings near the golf course, the team handling Briggs Woods brings a lot to the table when a group starts talking about tourism. And it’s an important topic.

Those tourism dollars often bring with them new residents, new jobs, and creation of new businesses.

One of the catalysts for bringing new people to the community is the Briggs Woods Golf Course.

The Briggs Woods Golf Course and clubhouse is one of the areas managed under the Hamilton County Conservation office. Management is under Brian Lammers, the executive director, but there is a staff fully focused on making the golf course successful.

General Manager/Superintendent is Travis Brown and Dave Louk serves as the golf pro. Kelly Yates is the clubhouse manager and Tyler Olson is the assistant superintendent.

These four people are responsible for maintaining the Briggs Woods Golf Course, with Brown and Olson providing extensive knowledge with turf management. Brown has worked at some of the most well-known courses in Iowa, and knows the business of the game of golf in addition to the science of turf management.

“Travis has an extensive background as superintendency and turf management,” said Louk,” And he is very well respected.”

It’s a lot more than just mowing the grass, Louk explained. Louk works with tournaments and outings, in addition to giving lessons.

“In relation to Briggs, we’ve had a lot of people who come because it is well maintained,” Louk said, “It takes a crew to keep the golf course manicured to be in great shape for the golfers, and I hear a lot of compliments about the grounds.”

The golf course and facilities have been beautifully maintained and is very visible off of Highway 17 leading into Webster City. It isn’t a route everyone takes so there has been a lot of effort to market the course beyond Iowa.

The Briggs Woods Park brings many people to Hamilton County all year round to camp, fish, hike, bicycle, or stay in a modern cabin. But especially in the spring, Briggs Woods and Hamilton County are visited by many Minnesotans to play golf on the beautiful 18 hole Briggs Woods Golf Course.

Stu Vogelbacher is one of the volunteers who has worked hard to promote the golfing events. Recently honored for 50 years of working to help at the Golf Course, he has gone with the golf team to events to promote the Briggs Woods course, and organizes events and tournaments for both locals and visitors.

“Stu has been doing volunteer work at the golf course for over 50 years.” said Lammers. “He’s been phenomenal, he’s run the leagues for all these years, he has been up to the Minnesota golf shows helping out. “He’s a good face for the Briggs Woods golf course.”

When Vogelbacher was honored with a bench outside the clubhouse this past week, it was clear the staff and golfers who helped raise the money for the bench were thrilled to surprise him, and spoke highly of his efforts.

“Stu has been a mentor to many, including myself,” added Louk “He has been here for the longevity of it, he has been a great resource, helpful in the clubhouse, helpful with tournaments and outings.”

“He’s been a blessing to have around.”

The marketing beyond Iowa begins in the winter, when a team attends the Minnesota Golf Show to promote the golfing season in Iowa. And they market beyond Minnesota, according to Lammers.

“We purposely target that area of the midwest for a reason,” said Lammers. “The plan is intentional, that area has snow pack much later than here, and they play this area before their courses are up and running.

The golf course is an economic driver for the county, Lammers continued. “The amount of money they are spending in our community, just because of the golf course, is above average.”

In the past the golf course has surveyed some of their visitors, and determined that a weekend golfing trip can easily generate $1500, not counting the golf fee expenses. Meals, shopping, hotels, and other excursions benefit from the attraction.”

Sometimes they go on to other golf courses. And they are not the only golf course, so other courses can also benefit.”

According to Louk, the Minnesota show has made a huge impact.

“The Minnesota golf show is held in a huge conference center, with hundreds of booths with golf courses like us and golf equipment,” he explained. “This is where we promote our course and book a lot of golf packages in the spring and early summer. Many of our golf packages will have 10 to 25 golfers and they’ve been coming for many years.”

Like most things this just didn’t just happen. It was a process started by Golf Course manager in 1993, Russ Appel. Russ had gone on a golf package to Lawrence, Kansas with a group of friends and thought, “why can’t we do something like this at Briggs Woods?” They wanted to attract golfers from up north before their courses opened.

Appel put a small ad in the Minneapolis Star Tribune with bold letters that said GOLF, to get people’s attention, and a few details and a phone number. He had some interest the first year and doubled their numbers nearly every year after that.

Russ and the staff originally worked with the owner of the Executive Inn on a deal for room prices for the golf package. The owner also threw in a 5% rebate at the end of the year to be used for marketing. They also worked with Central Iowa Tourism to get matching marketing dollars.

In 1996 the course was run by Scott Roth who had been a pro in Northern Minnesota. Roth was aware of the Minnesota Golf Show held annually in the Twin Cities.

“Roth was our first golf pro,” said Appel, “He tipped us off that this was where we needed to be.”

Briggs Woods has maintained a booth at that show since 1997. They continued with the Star Tribune and eventually various radio stations in the Twin Cities. Russ established a relationship with a daily sports show host with KFAN, Dan Kohl (The Common Man).

Kohl frequently talked about golf on his show and started doing a live interview with Appel or Roth during the Minnesota Golf Show. Kohl also brought a group of golfers down (30 players) in a custom coach two years in a row. He did live remotes while at the course.

The golfers who came down on the packages loved the fact that the staff lined up all their golf and lodging, and they paid for everything at the course. Briggs Woods continued to have great relations with the local hotels and they continued the 5% rebate for marketing.

Vogelbacher attended the golf shows several times with Appel.

“He was quite the salesman,” Appel said, “If he got them in the booth, he really put the sales pitch to them.”

In more recent years Briggs Woods has established a relationship with Tee Times, a golf publication circulated in the Twin Cities area. Each person attending the golf show would receive a copy of the magazine with our ad and a nice feature article. Briggs Woods golf packages retention rate is something to be proud of as some of the groups have been coming here for close to 30 years.

When golfers filled out the survey they received a Briggs Woods logo hat with the year on it. Many of those hats were seen at the golf show year after year. Word of mouth would become one of the club’s best marketing tools. Often, past players would stop by the booth and share their experiences at Briggs Woods with people checking out our golf packages.

So, when you see a Minnesota license plate in town this spring, chances are they learned about Webster City and Hamilton County at the Minnesota Golf Show and the people are taking advantage of one of the best buys in golf.

“The last two years golf has been really good for us.” said Lammers, “We are seeing growth here and continue to see this grow.”