Taylor, Worrel have wealth of management experience

By NAT WALKER

The two men who run Bryan Park Management Group, the firm contracted to manage Bryan Park’s two golf courses, have vastly different backgrounds but they espouse the same business philosophy – give customers value and make them feel welcome.

“You can have the greatest product in the world but if golfers don’t feel like they are taken care of and appreciated they are not going to come back,” said Greensboro native David Taylor.

His partner, Kim Worrel, echoed the same sentiment in different words.  “Our motto is personalized service with a sincere sense of urgency. A mark of our company is that we will go understaffed if we can’t find the right person who can convey our sincere appreciation for that customer being here today. We’ll take whatever time we need to find employees who will greet the customers properly and thank them properly.”

Taylor and Worrel began their business relationship as key management officials for the Robert Trent Jones Alabama Golf Trail. 

“We worked together for five years,” Taylor said.  “I was director of marketing and public relations and he was director of golf operations.  The two disciplines go hand-in-hand – each has to understand what the other does to be able to adjust to what needs arise.”

During that period, the two developed the idea that they eventually would like to form a golf management company and go out on their own.  The opportunity came first for Taylor.

“I loved the job but after nine years in Alabama I wanted to come back to North Carolina.  I hoped I could develop a golf management company and get big enough to lure Kim to move his family here, and that’s how it ended up.”

Taylor moved to Charlotte a couple of years ago and through contacts got together with golf course builder Greg Currie and Charlotte businessman Johnny Harris.  “This allowed Kim and all of us to get together and put a company together to stay in business for a long time. 

Harris Golf Services was organized a year ago to operate Birkdale, an Arnold Palmer signature golf course in the Queen City.  Since then the company has taken over management of Meadowlands at Wallburg near Winston-Salem and is scheduled to assume management of Oak Valley in Advance March 1.

Bryan Park Management Group is a separate company and only involves Taylor and Worrel.  “It is important to me in particular, being from Greensboro, to set up something separate for Bryan Park,” Taylor said.

Nevertheless, he said, involvement in three Triad golf operations offers opportunities for national marketing.  Bryan Park has a Rees Jones course and a George Cobb/Rees Jones course.  Meadowlands is a Hale Irwin course and Oak Valley is an Arnold Palmer course.  In the same neighborhood is Tanglewood, a Robert Trent Jones course, and Salem Glen, a course affiliated with Jack Nicklaus Design.

“Put those together and you have some powerful names,” Taylor said.  “Imagine an ad in Indianapolis with a picture of Palmer, Irwin, Rees Jones and Nicklaus.  All green fees at this point on those courses are under $40.  That’s a great package.”

Taylor said putting packages together to draw out-of-state golfers is part of what he did in Alabama.  “I see this as a great opportunity and now you’re talking about economic development.  Hotels, gas stations and restaurants, for example, will all benefit as golfers visit our area.  It becomes a much bigger picture than just golf.”

Taylor was born at Cone Hospital in 1967 and attended Greensboro public schools, including Page High School where he was place kicker for the Pirates.  His father, Bob, worked with Jim Melvin at NCNB (now Bank of America).  After graduating from UNC Chapel Hill, Taylor – with an introduction from Melvin – landed a job handling promotions for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.’s Vantage golf program, including the Vantage Championship at Tanglewood.

At about that time, Tanglewood’s head professional, Bobby Vaughan, went to Alabama to develop the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail.  When Vaughan found he needed help with marketing the courses and handling the news media, Taylor was in the right spot.

The nine years spent in Alabama prepared Taylor to accomplish his business goal and led him back to North Carolina and eventually Greensboro where, once again, Melvin entered the picture.  “It’s amazing how my career in golf started with Jim Melvin and because of that relationship I was able to come back to Greensboro and be involved with Bryan Park.”

Worrel, an Indiana native, grew up playing golf and was proficient enough to play on the Ball State University golf team.  He got into the PGA apprentice program after graduation and landed a job at Fort Wayne Country Club for five years.  He then got into the golf course management end of the business with the Jack Nicklaus organization for 10 years.  He was project manager in charge of opening Valhalla in Louisville, Ky., where the PGA Championship was played.  Worrel later opened two resort courses in Hawaii – the Kauai Lagoons – where the first Grand Slam was played.

He then returned to his home state and became involved with a public golf course development community.  Then it was on to Alabama and the Robert Trent Jones project for five years where he and Taylor worked together. Later he was director of golf operations at the Woodlands near Houston. While there one of the existing courses of the 81-hole complex was rebuilt and two new courses were added – a Gary Player signature course and a Jack Nicklaus signature course.

He then developed a golf operations division for Benchmark, a Texas golf company that operates 18 golf courses nationally. 

“David and I had been trying to put a company together for the last few years and suddenly it came into focus,” Worrel said.  He and his wife, Sue, and their three sons moved to Charlotte.

Taylor said he and Worrel will be at Bryan Park on a regular basis.  “We are not a management company where the key officials show up once a quarter.  People who come to Bryan Park are going to know us and we’re going to be friends with them.”