The kids are playing outside on mini John Deere tractors. In the microbrewery, a group are whiling away an afternoon creating their own craft ale. Grab a helmet and you can take one of the bikes out around the site, or get your locks trimmed at the hairdressers. This is what life will look like at Royal Norwich. And if this doesn’t sound like your average golf club – well, that’s the point.
They were so determined to make a new start when they upped-sticks and moved to a new £10 million course on the Weston Estate in September they petitioned Buckingham Palace to be allowed to take the ‘Golf Club’ suffix off their title.
The buzz around the new venture has been immense. In the space of a year, they have tripled their membership – with numbers now around 1,200.
Of course there is something of the shiny new toy about that huge influx but it’s also because Royal Norwich have very purposely widened their remit away from just golf.
“We are 110 per cent a private members’ golf club but we operate on a hybrid footing and we are driven by sustainability and by the future,” general manager Phil Grice, pictured second from the right, explains to NCG.
“We wanted to cross reference everything with time and with families. We’ve got a customer journey from a time perspective – whether you want to go on the short game area, the putting green, the range, the six-hole course, or play nine or 18, there is a time window where you can find something to do.
“But not everybody always wants to come and play golf when they come to the facility. We wanted to make it everyone’s happy place.”
It’s not reinventing the wheel, Grice adds, but whether it’s choosing the toppings and putting pizzas in the newly fitted ovens or spending time using the gin still, the purpose is to cater for more than simply people who want to putt.
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“We always go back to Tesco for our fruit and veg and now you buy your petrol from them,” he says. “For us, we’ve got a big growing membership and it was looking at what other things they want.
“A lot of people in the industry want to get more women and girls into golf and, for me, that’s too narrow a driver. I think we want to get more families into golf and three generations of one family is absolutely at the core of what we are trying to do.
