About
Dennis Shirley
Everyone makes decisions about who will be their friend, who
will be their partner, who they will take a call from in
the golf business, who they will buy from based on two basic
sensations: Pleasure and Pain. If they associate your call
with pleasure, you win. A lot of people in the golf industry
associate Dennis Shirley with FUN, a constant smile, and a
sincere caring about them personally as friends.
Dennis Shirley does not believe his friends in the golf
business need to be SOLD. He see his role as being the best
person in the golf industry to help them find the best
products and services they need to most efficiently operate
their firms: he helps them find great new employees for
FREE, recommends his vendor network to find specific
products they need on a daily basis, he refers them to golf
courses that need management help, he let’s them know when a
golf course is for sale, Dennis Shirley is their librarian
source for up to date golf industry information about what
is happening with their peers throughout the country. His
database of 28,000 golf-guys has been extremely helpful for
his clients and many friends over the years. Dennis works to
sincerely help his friends in the golf industry get what
“THEY WANT”.
Dennis Shirley has worked extensively in the private club
industry for the past twenty years. Mr. Shirley’s industry
experience encompasses all phases of sales, marketing and
management; however, he is especially known for his ability
to help in the development of a golf related business from
the ground up.
Mr. Shirley’s club industry experience began with a degree
in Recreation Management from Pittsburg State University in
Kansas, which was followed by a five-year tenure in all
aspects of public recreation with the Johnson County Park
and Recreation District. During the last year of his
employment, the Johnson County Park and Recreation District
were honored as the number one park and recreation district
in America by N.R.P.A.
Mr. Shirley entered the private sector as the regional
sales manager for Nautilus Sports/Medical Industry. During
this time he consulted on the start-up and design of over
200 fitness clubs in thirteen mid-western states. Mr.
Shirley was a member of the marketing team that established
the brand name “Nautilus” as the best exercise machinery in
the world during the late 70’s and early 80’s.
Mr. Shirley’s club management experience has been focused
in the start-up and development of five-star private golf
and city clubs in the southern United States. Mr.
Shirley served as the first Director of Sales and Marketing
and Assistant General Manager of the Four Seasons Resort and
Club in Las Colinas, Texas. This $90 Million resort
project was the second Tournament Player’s Course
(TPC) developed in the United States and is the home of the Byron
Nelson Classic. In 1987, Mr. Shirley was hired by USAA
insurance to return to this property as General Manager. He
successfully took the club’s finances from a 1.87M dollar
loss in 1986 to a $2.6M net operating profit in less
than three years.
Mr. Shirley worked directly with the Bass Family of Fort
Worth,
Texas, to
develop a 15M dollar downtown executive City Club. Mr.
Shirley served as the first General Manager of the City Club
of Fort Worth project and implemented a targeted marketing
program which more than doubled the first year’s membership
goals.
With his proven track record in high dollar golf
developments, Mr. Shirley was recommended by Tom Weiskopf
and Jay Morrish to become President and General Manager of
the Harbor Club in Greensboro, Georgia. Mr. Shirley was
instrumental in all stages of design and development of the
club’s five-star amenities, including an 18-hole Weiskopf/Morrish
golf course that was nominated the “Best New Private Course
of 1991” by Golf Digest. Mr. Shirley also worked with Tom
and Jay on the remake of the TPC course at Las Colinas. He
also consulted for the owners of Mira Vista Country Club in
Fort Worth, Texas.
Following the completion of the Harbor Club start-up, Mr.
Shirley teamed up with Byron Nelson and D.A. Wiebring of the
PGA tour, to form a golf management company known as Golf
Resources in Dallas, TX. Mr. Shirley built the management
firm to nine (9) contracts in various parts of the United States.
Mr. Shirley had back surgery in 1992 and had to restrict his
travel and leave the firm in early 1993. He served a very
limited time as General Manager and Chief Operating Officer
for Stonebriar Country Club located in Dallas, Texas.
in 1994, Mr. Shirley was named National Sales Manager of Club Card
Corporation, a firm that specializes in outsourcing
of club billing and later moved into the arena of point of
sales solutions for private clubs under the name of ClubTec.
This firm also owns the Private Club Advisor, a business
letter for managers, owners, and officers of private clubs.
The Private Club Advisor is read monthly by more than 18,000
paying private club subscribers.
Over the past twenty years, Mr. Shirley has sustained a
reputation in the golf industry for being a solution
provider for fellow club managers in both member-owned and
corporately-managed clubs. Mr. Shirley has the best Rolodex
in the golf industry. His current ACT database is approximately 28,000
golf professionals, general managers and golf management
administrators. No one in the golf business has done a
better job of networking with the key decision-makers and
experts in golf club management. When they have a golf
course for sale, need to reach the right person in a
management company, find a replacement for a key employee,
find the best product or a specific service provider, or if
they need an introduction in the golf business of any kind...
they say “ call Dennis”.
Today Mr. Shirley manages his own highend golf
telenetworking company with interests in a wide variety of
club industry assignments and direct sales opportunities.
His professional relationships have included project
specific work and outsourcing services for a variety of
companies in the golf club industry.
Mr. Shirley has spoken at national and regional meetings
for the Club Managers Association of America, and at the
Crittenden Golf Expo. He has also been published in the
Private Club Advisor, Boardroom Magazine, and the Club
Management Magazine. He also wrote the procedures for the
Department of Interior on how to properly handle the
registration of recreation participants for a public entity.
With his wife Sandra, Mr. Shirley resides with his wife and
their three children in Plano, Texas. He has been an active
member of the Club Managers Association of America and the
United States Golf Association.
