Raising $5 Million in 19 Days: Lloyd McBean’s Journey Acquiring Las Sendas Golf Club

Anthony Codispoti (00:01)
Welcome to another edition of the inspired stories podcast where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they’ve overcome adversity. My name is Anthony Cotaspodi and today’s guest is Lloyd McBean, the executive director and managing partner at Lascendas Golf Club. This premier golf course in Arizona was designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr. and is often recognized among the top 10 golf courses in Phoenix.

The club offers memberships, dining, weddings, and special events, creating unforgettable experiences for visitors and the local community. Lloyd has been a guiding force at Lascendas since 2009, overseeing a talented team in areas like golf operations, dining services, and event management. Before joining Lasendas, he spent over 20 years managing Lakeside Golf Club, and he is known for his dedication to exceptional customer service and strong leadership.

McBean Lloyd (00:42)
Thanks.

Anthony Codispoti (01:00)
Under his direction, Lascendos continues to offer world-class facilities and scenic views, all while delivering a welcoming atmosphere for golfers of every level. Now, before we get into all that good stuff, today’s episode is brought to you by my company, Ad Back Benefits Agency, where we offer very specific and unique employee benefits that are both great for your golf course employees and fiscally optimized for your bottom line.

Imagine being able to give your employees free access to doctors, therapists, and prescription medications. And here’s the fun part. The program actually puts more money in your employees’ pockets and the company’s too. One recent client was able to increase net profits by $900 per employee per year. Results vary for each company and some organizations may not be eligible. To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at addbackbenefits.com. All right, back to our guest today.

Executive Director and Managing Partner of Los Zendes Golf Club, Lloyd McBean. Thanks for making the time to share your story today.

McBean Lloyd (02:02)
Well, good morning and thanks for having me on and that was a very, very kind introduction. Thank you.

Anthony Codispoti (02:09)
And well earned, think, as we’re going to find out as we get into your story here. So Lloyd, you’ve been managing golf clubs for decades. What first drew you into this industry?

McBean Lloyd (02:21)
⁓ I think golf in itself, being obviously a sport, which I’ve always enjoyed sports, was something that ⁓ was exciting. It’s got many facets to it. It’s got the personal aspect, meaning trying to play golf and ⁓ do well at it, something that’s not an easy task. But then there’s also a very robust

business side to it whether it be horticulture whether be food and beverage whether be golf operations ⁓ you’ve got hr you got accounting you’ve got the whole gamut as far as business goes in i’ve always enjoyed ⁓ the golf side but i’ve also really enjoyed the business side

Anthony Codispoti (03:02)
And then you ended up managing the Lakeland Golf Club for 22 years. Long time. What was the most

McBean Lloyd (03:08)
close lakeside

that’s okay I’m just going to correct you at lakeside golf club which is in ⁓ Calgary yeah

Anthony Codispoti (03:13)
Lakeside.

So are you originally from Canada?

McBean Lloyd (03:18)
Originally from Canada, born in Edmonton, Alberta, very proud Albertan. We became US citizens 12 years ago now when we made the move down here and ⁓ equally as proud to be an American citizen now. But yeah, we spent a lot of our lives ⁓ in Alberta.

Anthony Codispoti (03:37)
I appreciate the correction too. at Lakeside Golf Club for 22 years up there in Alberta. So what was the most memorable thing that happened to you there that still impacts the way that you approach course management today?

McBean Lloyd (03:42)
Yes.

Well, I was very lucky. ⁓ The PGA program, which I’ve been a member of for 42 years now, ⁓ really mentors young golf professionals, not only in the business of golf, but in the other aspects of business related to golf. I had some very, very good mentors in my day. I worked at Cannon Ascas Country Golf, of one of the premier resort clubs in Alberta. worked at… ⁓

Earl Grey, one of the oldest clubs in Alberta, I worked at Inglewood Golf Club, all three ⁓ different aspects of operations, the resort being Cananascus, a very private course being Earl Grey, and a semi-private course which was Inglewood Golf Club. In all three, they have different business operations, ⁓ different demands, different expectations, and different customers. ⁓ When I was provided with

Lakeside Golf Club. I applied as did many other golf pros. I was 21 years old at the time. was fortunate to be hired as the head pro and I was the youngest golf professional hired as a head professional at that time, which was back in 1991. And at the same point, a little bit of an old school concept. I also owned the pro shop back then. Therefore I was an independent operator or contractor.

with the inventory being at my cost and my requirement to be able to stock and manage. at 21, you think you’re ready, but there’s a lot of learning that goes on. And so I would say that getting into the golf business, again, I had great mentorship at 21. I don’t think anyone is prepared for…

the world and its business but you learn a lot and I think that as you’re younger you’re a sponge for learning and that’s where it started. were fortunate where my brother who was fourth overall, first round in the NHL, he was retiring from hockey at the same time that we had the opportunity to buy Lakeside Golf Club and that happened in 1994 I believe and at that point

My brother was looking for something beyond hockey. ⁓ I was now taking ownership in a golf course rather than just a pro shop and we became partners. And we have been partners ever since. An incredible ⁓ story behind two brothers, one in hockey, one in golf. we’ve been able to do it for 40 years or so. It’s been quite a run.

Anthony Codispoti (06:44)
So that’s an incredible trajectory. First thing I want to ask about is what do you think they saw in you at the age of 21 to put you into this role, youngest ever?

McBean Lloyd (06:58)
Well, that’s a really good question. ⁓ I think keenness, I think that, ⁓ you know, I look at people today no differently than I tried to portray when I was young. I’m looking for people that want to come into our business here that are keen, that are energetic. ⁓ I was ⁓ top of my class with respect to all my scores and studies with the PGA program. ⁓ Energetic. ⁓

You know, obviously many, many other important things. Clean cut, come from a good family, good moral standards, those type of things.

Anthony Codispoti (07:40)
Excellent. And then the real question is, how did you pull off buying a course at the age of 25? Must’ve had investors, maybe some family that was helping out. How did this come to be?

McBean Lloyd (07:52)
⁓

Well, was ⁓ young at marriage. I had a home. I had to mortgage my house, which ⁓ my wife certainly had involvement in that risk. My brother, of course, being in the NHL, he’s the youngest in our family. I have a sister in the middle, ⁓ had just retired from hockey. And unfortunately, he retired because of injury. He had some injuries caused while playing, and that provided him with ⁓

⁓ Additional resources that he was able to use as well for us to be able to buy the course. you know, we had to go through the challenge of financing and ⁓ we did have some partners involved with us. We were still the operators of the club, but we definitely had some partners and over the years we were able to buy those partners out. it just, it was a long, slow process, much like a young family buying their first home. know, the large mortgage and the goal is to start paying it down.

Anthony Codispoti (08:52)
Okay, and you felt like at the age of 25, you were ready to take over the operations?

McBean Lloyd (08:59)
At 25 I thought I was ready to take over the operations. think now looking back at it I would have said that was probably maybe a little presumptuous, again as part of that whole youth and excitement and sometimes jumping into the deeper water that you may not know what’s underneath.

Anthony Codispoti (09:22)
And so Lakeside is still owned and operated by you and your brother, correct? Okay.

McBean Lloyd (09:27)
No, we had

some exciting scenarios with us buying the golf course down here in 2009. We both operated the club up in Calgary and down here. And we did find it to be challenging, even though the seasons are opposing. The golf club here in Arizona is a year round golf club. runs year round and the club in Calgary is closed essentially from mid October through April. The first couple of years I tried going back and forth.

and operating both courses along with my brother and I just found it to be too difficult to be gone from this course ⁓ for the entire summer which is kind of a requirement up there. We do almost as much business in Calgary in six months as we would do down here for tee times and rounds based on sunlight. again, understanding that Calgary, you know, we’re putting golfers out at six in the morning and at six at night they can still go out and complete their game by

You I think our latest tee times or daylight was 11 o’clock in our longest days. So you have to be up there to do it. ⁓ five, six years ago now, ⁓ my brother wanted to continue the ownership of, of Lakeside and he and I did a buyout for myself and, I think it’s been at least 10 years now that I’ve been operating this full-time year round and he goes back and forth. He comes here. ⁓

the winter months and he manages and operates the golf course up there in the summer months.

Anthony Codispoti (11:00)
And so how did the Lucendis opportunity come about?

McBean Lloyd (11:06)
The send us came about really and truly through my brother. ⁓ both of us, ⁓ owning Lakeside, we’re looking for a winter vacation, winter time away from the club. And I had joined a golf club right next door, neighboring golf club called red mountain ranch. And the reason I joined it was because my first mentor and a club professional, Wayne by Graves from Canon Ascus.

was a member there and he and i had become long-time lifetime friends he’s actually a member of my club here and he’s a member at lakeside as well at this point in his life he’s retired ⁓ he recommended that i that i come down and join a club here and and i joined at red mountain about home in red mountain and kind of committed my wintertime vacation time to ⁓ red mountain my brother his wife and their children ⁓ kim which is my brother’s wife was from hershey pennsylvania

⁓ And Wayne always promised Kim that once he had retired from hockey that they would move back to the US. And so to try to complete his promise to Kim, they agreed to move to Arizona and Wayne found Los Santos, which is again the neighboring community, to be a bit better fit for their family. And in doing so, they did a full commitment like we did to our community. They bought a home in Los Santos and they joined the golf club.

Unfortunately in 2008 and 2009, the economy was really failing here in the Southwest and the golf course was near bankruptcy. Wayne saw what was happening and really just came to me and said, listen, I think there’s an opportunity that we could buy Los Angeles and really turn this thing around. It’s got great bones, it needs a lot of investment, it needs a lot of love and TLC, but I think we could do that.

And ⁓ we talked about it for almost a year, ⁓ doing as much research as we could. Neither of us had ran golf courses in the US. ⁓ Again, a year round type of facility in a completely different economic place with a golf course that grass changes twice a year. You go from a winter grass to a summer grass. There was a lot of things we did not know.

But after a year of negotiation and discussion and talk, we made the move. We were very fortunate that it was kind of the perfect storm. The Canadian economy at the time was very strong, especially in Western Canada. Oil and gas, the industry was extremely strong. The currency was no pun intended ⁓ at par with the US currency. And we at this point had already operated our golf club in

Lakeside for almost 20 years. So we had a very strong following of members. They knew how we operated they knew how we ran a club there and we put out a private offering to our membership and We said, you know, we’re gonna buy this golf course down in the US. We’re looking for ⁓ investors in that club. We are looking for a hundred thousand dollar investment which would include ⁓

refundable golf membership it would it would include lifetime dues lifetime cart fees food and beverage discounts if you’re interested come and talk to wainwright and Within and and this is an amazing statistic, but within 19 days we had 50 of our members and close friends ⁓ Put a hundred thousand dollars in each that was a half a million or a

Anthony Codispoti (14:54)
Wow. Five

McBean Lloyd (14:55)
Yeah, yeah, was

Anthony Codispoti (14:56)
million.

McBean Lloyd (14:56)
significant. So we had five million from them and we put another half or another five million in and ⁓ we were able to acquire the golf course and at the same time start a number of the capital projects that were required here that the club didn’t have. So not only did we purchase the club, but we were able to build a pro shop. We were able to build a clubhouse. We were able to complete cart paths that weren’t ever complete.

course when we acquired it had porta-potties out on the golf course, which if you can imagine at 115 degrees in the middle of the summer, not a good thing. So we were able to put rest stations and comfort stations on the course. We were able to do a lot of the things that were always promised but never got completed in our first two years of ownership. it really, it brought this community of Lesindes together again.

Lesentos at the time had a lot of homes that were upside down. The HOA was in the red. There was a lot of communities down here at that time period that were not in a good place. to see a group of individuals coming in, at the time foreign investors, ⁓ but not only coming in, but buying homes within the community, ⁓ doing what they promised, improving this resource that’s here in the community.

It really struck the nerve of a lot of the community and in a real positive way. And it’s just been a, uh, an incredible journey since then.

Anthony Codispoti (16:34)
Yeah, that’s quite a story. ⁓ I didn’t realize during what was the economic downturn, the crisis here in the US that the economy there in Western Canada was still really strong. from, you know, ⁓ a currency arbitrage point of view, economic arbitrage point of view, what a great opportunity for you guys to come in from a place of strength and be able to take over a club that was really struggling.

and then make those improvements that had been promised and not delivered for a long time. How long did it take, again, keeping in mind that the economy here in the US was not strong at the time, how long did it take before the membership numbers really started to pick up?

McBean Lloyd (17:19)
When we began, there were I think 18 members at this golf club is all. So was a really small, small number. ⁓

We, I think we had a hundred memberships sold four years into operations. So it took a while because again, we had a struggling economy still. And it also took, I think a little bit of a, we had to prove ourselves. There had been two prior owners to this property who had made promises and never were able to complete those promises. And I think that there were people that

were simply skeptical of whether this would actually happen or not. We had many people who passed on our ⁓ investment opportunity because of the fact that the economy was so poor down here ⁓ that they thought that we were jumping into an acquisition at a really poor time based on the fact that the economy was poor, people didn’t have expendable income. ⁓

But what we had hoped, which fortunately came true, was that we were able to not only acquire the course, we did it all with cash and without financing. So when we did our initial ⁓ perspectives, when we did our forecasting, we were very conservative in our numbers. We felt that we could operate the golf course. We could do so.

provided we didn’t have ⁓ and economic or financial tied to a bank that we that we used again ⁓ private funding and and it it ⁓ it really worked out great and and for the people that were in the and still are in the the ⁓ investment opportunity with us ⁓ i don’t believe today and i think everyone of our shareholders would tell you that that there’s been a better golf story

with respect to a private investment opportunity than what we’ve been able to provide here at Los Indos.

Anthony Codispoti (19:28)
That’s incredible. And I the course was designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr. And you guys are now today considered one of the top courses in the region. From your perspective, what really makes this course special?

McBean Lloyd (19:34)
Yes.

Well, my brother said it to me ⁓ before we bought it. It’s the bones. And so you just said it yourself, design of Robert Jones Jr. ⁓ He built an incredible golf property. We have elevation changes, we have desert. We don’t have any fairways that run perpendicular or parallel to each other. Every fairway is cut separately and independently amongst the homes here.

But most importantly is the golf course was designed and built first. All of the homes of course were built following that. The ability to change elevations, I think we change elevation here by 900 or 1000 feet from ⁓ where our driving range and some of our settling ponds are to our highest points on the golf course. have a mountain that you play around. have just breathtaking ⁓

landscape. The wildlife is incredible. When people come and play this golf course, it’s 100 % wow factor. ⁓ From the opening hole, is dynamic and dangerous and crazy hard, to our finishing hole, which you play over two lakes, you’re looking at Camelback Mountain and the West Sunset views, which again, because we sit higher in elevation in the valley, we’ve been able to really

I don’t like the word, I use the word because it’s accurate. We exploit what we have, which is this incredible view, incredible scenery to the West. It’s magnificent. People fall in love with the place. It’s a love story.

Anthony Codispoti (21:28)
You know, one of the things you mentioned

about that goes into the management of golf courses, obviously, is the horticulture aspect. But there was something in particular about ⁓ the course here in Arizona, and maybe that’s typical of courses in that part of the country. You guys have to seed the grass twice a year? Did I understand that correctly?

McBean Lloyd (21:45)
Well, kind of, not completely. We seed the grass once a year, but we require two different types of grass. So we have an annual grass called Bermuda, and a Bermuda grass is a very sustainable, very hardy ⁓ grass that grows in high, high temperatures. And last year we had 91 days over 115 degrees consecutively. That’s a lot of heat over 91 days. ⁓

Anthony Codispoti (21:46)
Okay.

McBean Lloyd (22:15)
Bermuda can sustain that where most other grasses cannot. And when I say that, mean grasses that are conducive for golf. ⁓ However, in the wintertime, we do have a much more moderate ⁓ temperatures and that Bermuda does not do as well. And so basically we put it into remission and we put a ryegrass overseed down and we’re going to be doing that in approximately 10 days from now.

It’ll take three to four weeks to fill in and then we’ll be playing on that all winter long. And what our travelers and our members have is the opportunity to play this incredible winter wonderland with ryegrass. And ryegrass is a much friendlier grass to play on. We can achieve better conditions with ryegrass than we can with Bermuda grass.

increase the green speeds which people love. ⁓ So when we get the mass majority of golf, which is our winter months, we have pristine conditions with again a grass that is much more conducive to what golfers are looking for.

Anthony Codispoti (23:33)
What does it mean to put that Bermuda grass into remission?

McBean Lloyd (23:41)
⁓ I’m not sure where you’re from. If you have a winter, do you have a winter where you are?

Anthony Codispoti (23:48)
I’m in Columbus, Ohio, so we definitely have winter.

McBean Lloyd (23:50)
Okay, well you know, when snow comes, your grass in your front or your backyard turns brown and it stops growing. That has to do with temperatures ⁓ mainly. ⁓ Once you have a growing temperature that’s below a certain ⁓ degree, and again, it depends on the grass, it literally just stops growing. so dormancy is that scenario. We actually chemically help ours go to bed so that we can get that rye grass down.

Anthony Codispoti (24:17)
Hmm.

McBean Lloyd (24:19)
as quick as we can and we were trying to do is not have the Bermuda grow back. We’re trying to get that that rye seed into the ground and get it germinating so that we can get it to capture the surface and provide us with a real good blanket and have the Bermuda kind of sit behind it and stay dormant. ⁓ That’s the magic of what our superintendent and his staff do is

play that game with the two grasses and try to achieve, like I say, the best scenario for going into Overseed and then coming out of Overseed.

Anthony Codispoti (24:57)
And so what’s it like coming out of overseed? Because it’s not like the Bermuda grass goes away, it just kind of goes to sleep. So it’s, it’s cut back, it’s not really growing.

McBean Lloyd (25:04)
You got it.

Yeah, we do. So going into Overseed, we take the plant off the top, ⁓ which of course then minimizes the amount of nutrients the root is getting because it doesn’t have that plant on the surface to grab the nutrients. We’ve put that seed in and it’s going to do its job. But when we start to come ⁓ back into our summer conditions, the rye

does the exact opposite of what your bluegrass does. It says, whoa, it’s getting way too warm here. And it starts to check out. And checking out is just a term used. Simply it starts to slow down. And it’s not going to grow nearly as efficiently. Bermuda’s saying, hey, I like this temperature. This feels good. And all of a sudden, we start to see kind of a reverse situation happen. Unfortunately, ryegrass doesn’t survive the summer. Therefore, we have to, and I’ll just share with you,

⁓ We seed from fence line to fence line. We seed our rough, our greens, our tees, our fairways. Every aspect and part of the golf course is overseeded. Some golf courses will for ⁓ looks and so forth, they’ll overseed only specific areas. Maybe the fairway, but leave the rough and so forth. We do it all. It costs us currently

$150,000 in seed. No, that’s just the seed. It’s not the fertilizer. It’s not the water. And it’s certainly not the staffing. And the fact that we have to close three to four weeks in order to rebuild the golf course with this new grass every year. Something that, know, our course in Canada, when we seeded it, now we opened it in 1991.

Anthony Codispoti (26:36)
That’s just the seed that’s not the labor and the process that goes into it.

McBean Lloyd (27:00)
In 1989, we started seeding the golf course in Lakeside. We’ve never seeded that golf course since. We’ve had some sod work done, we’ve done some repairs, we’ve done maybe renovations where we’ve done sod work or seed. But basically, the original seed from 1989 is still the seed and still the grass that you play on at Lakeside. And that’s common at most golf courses where the golf course go dormant in the winter and then have their annual grass come back.

Anthony Codispoti (27:08)
Yeah.

And so what you’re talking about with this double seating is this typical pretty much across the South in the U.S.

McBean Lloyd (27:37)
No, and again something that we had to learn. Southwest ⁓ US, so ourselves, Arizona, Nevada, ⁓ anywhere where you have really high temperatures, you’ll see an overseed program. there’s not that many, there may be four states in all of the US, there may be five, I don’t wanna be specific, but very few of the states overseed. We’re just forced to do it.

Anthony Codispoti (28:02)
So Lloyd, for any golf nerds that are listening that love to travel around and hit new courses, make your pitch. Why come to Los Angeles?

McBean Lloyd (28:05)
it.

Okay, that’s the easiest pitch I can give you. ⁓ Mountain, desert, golf at its absolute.

peak you can’t find a more challenging more demanding golf course anywhere you’ll find equally as demanding and equally as good of conditions throughout the valley we have some great golf here arizona is known for that we sit in east valley and we’re in mesa arizona and our golf course rates are

fifty to sixty percent of what the rates are in some of the ⁓ Scottsdale locations ⁓ here in the valley and so it’s value you you get incredible value coming to Los Angeles you get the experience of a lifetime you get like I said demanding demanding golf at half the price of what you would pay at some of the big names in in Scottsdale and so forth so it’s a it’s a really good value when people come out here

not only are they absolutely turned on by the game of golf and what we have to offer but they feel like they get really good value proposition for coming out.

Anthony Codispoti (29:28)
not even a golfer and I just want to come out to see sort of this mix of desert and mountains. It sounds beautiful. And I can already think of like a dozen of my friends that I’m going to be like, okay, this is one of my interviews that you have to check out because you’re going to want to travel to see this place. There’s another interesting thing about you guys though. ⁓ You’re a transitional club. What does this mean?

McBean Lloyd (29:51)
When my brother and I ⁓ made the decision to buy Los Indes, golf courses, as I mentioned when I was ⁓ in my internship, I worked at a resort course, I worked at a private course, and I worked at a semi-private golf club.

The golf industry over the last 40 years has had peaks and valleys with respect to success. We did not know what would be the best mix for Los Angeles Golf Club. Many golf clubs just simply try to go private and they try to be sustainable by a membership base who pay annual dues and support a clubhouse. ⁓ That wasn’t working as well as it…

should when the economy was poor. People look at golf as a, it’s an extra, it’s not a requirement, it’s not a need, it’s something that they do with fun, with free time, and only if it’s affordable. So when we made the decision to acquire Lucendis, we wanted to have a plan in place that would be sustainable with the least amount of risk. And so we took

private concept and said we will go private here in a hybrid fashion once we attain enough membership to ⁓ meet the inventory of the golf course. In other words, we only have so many tee times per day and if you can’t get on, it’s not good for a member. So we need to try to maximize the number of members with how much they play and so forth. But what we decided was

We’re gonna do it in a hybrid fashion. We’re gonna leave our clubhouse always open to the public for our restaurants. We have four restaurants on our property and I’ll share those in a minute. But we’re also gonna leave Monday as a public day, a maintenance day, a corporate day. Monday would be the only day that the membership would not play the golf course. They would have the golf course Tuesday through Sunday once we become private for them and their guests. But Mondays would be this flex day that we could use

for revenue if required, for maintenance if required. If there were tournament and corporate requirements or demands, we would have that flexibility. And that’s the way we’ve ran the course. We still are not private. We are getting closer to being private, which again to your listeners, this is the best opportunity, the best time for you to come and challenge the Lucendis Golf Club. We are still open to the public. We’ll always remain open on Mondays, but we’re open seven days a week still.

And you won’t regret it. It’s a place to come to.

Anthony Codispoti (32:38)
You know, and hearing about those four restaurants is a great segue. We’ve spent a lot of time talking about what an amazing course it is, but tell us about what makes the rest of the entire lessen this environment great for restaurants sounds like a lot. Can you tell us sort of what the different cuisines different environments are like?

McBean Lloyd (32:56)
Yes,

for sure. And so when I say four restaurants, I’m kind of ⁓ exaggerating a little bit, but not really. We, as part of our build out in our capital plan, we wanted a ⁓ pavilion, a tournament pavilion, a banquet pavilion, something that was separate from the clubhouse that we could ⁓ host our tournaments, host weddings, host private parties.

Christmas, New Year’s, Mother’s Day, Thanksgiving, you name it. So we have a large banquet facility with a separate kitchen, separate staff that is completely independent from our restaurants, which is one of our food and beverage operations. And so that is used by our members for their tournaments. used by public for all sorts of different types of weddings, parties, and everything I just mentioned. And then we have our main club hosts. And our main club hosts three

distinctly different operations. have a sports grill, 14 televisions, ⁓ dynamic, it’s fun, it’s got a grill menu, it’s football, it’s everything that anyone would love to do. Whether you’re a golfer or not, we’re within a community here. And one of the things that ⁓ a lot of non-golfers fear is going to a golf club. They don’t know the culture, they’re not certain if they’re welcome, they don’t know if they’re really

able to walk into a clubhouse where there’s golfers, we’ve really tried to change that persona and we hope that our community has found it to be a very welcoming place as a community ⁓ pub. So the Grill is a great place we find a lot of our community just coming to regardless of whether they’re a golfer or not. We also have a, and I would call it a semi-formal dining room, we do not have a formal dining room, we didn’t want one, we really

pride ourselves on not being a pretentious club. It’s a fun club. The word fun is what I try to share with my staff all the time. That should be our primary word whenever we think about anything, whether it be policy or otherwise, fun should be at the front of it. So our dining room is there for a great date night. great. It’s there for families who don’t want to be in the pub atmosphere with their children. ⁓ We have some elderly people who just want to have a more refined dinner. It’s there for them.

Then we have the most dynamic outdoor patio in the Valley. And I say that with pride because ⁓ for the last three years, two of the last three years, we are a top 100 alfresco dining experience through OpenTable. And now I just want to share with what that means. OpenTable provides a top 100 list in America.

Anthony Codispoti (35:29)
Wow.

McBean Lloyd (35:52)
In Arizona, three restaurants were selected in the top 100 in America. We were one of the three. We were and are the only golf course in all of America to get a top 100 ranking. So that in itself is unique. when I talked about exploiting our views, our patio sits on the west side of our clubhouse overlooking the valley.

It overlooks Camelback, it overlooks the sunsets. We have live music seven nights a week. We seat 180 people. We have a covered deck, we have an open deck, we have three different levels. We have a 16 foot smoker, we do prime rib every night. We have an upscale after five menu that will knock your socks off. It’s…

Comfort foods like ⁓ Bison meatloaf, ⁓ I mentioned we have a prime ribs, we do ⁓ a meat pie that our customers love, we do lamb, we do a lot of other types of cuisine there that it’s just fitting, it’s perfect, our service levels are ⁓ really good. ⁓

i’m bragging a little bit but i’m i’m in love with it it’s something that’s very unique and the final point i’ll make is this we’re in a one percentile and i say that because our food and beverage revenue equals our golf revenue and that typically does not happen at a golf course so you know if if we’re doing eight million dollars four million of that is in food and beverage and four million of that is in golf and that’s typically not something that you would see at any golf operation you usually see a much

heavier weight on the golf side and a much smaller amount of revenue coming from food and beverage.

Anthony Codispoti (37:46)
Was this part of the original plan to go in there and lean heavy on the food and beverage side or did this just kind of evolve organically?

McBean Lloyd (37:57)
We had hoped it would. When we bought the club, we of course had access to the prior year’s financials. And the club’s food and beverage was doing $375,000 out of a little kind of a canteen type of an atmosphere. We looked at where the clubhouse sat or at the time it wasn’t a clubhouse, it was a little cantina. We saw what the views were.

But again, when we did our first forecast, I couldn’t be too aggressive because I would have scared investors away. And so we put a very moderate increase in our food and beverage forecasting for the first five years so that it didn’t look like we were kind of overstating forecasts. In our first year, we exceeded our fifth year’s forecast.

We had already done a major renovation to the restaurant and to the kitchen, expanding all of it. And the food and beverage director that we had hired, who was a absolute professional, came to me and I remember ⁓ his comment, Lloyd, you’re setting me up for failure. And I said, what do you mean? And he goes, you didn’t build the kitchen big enough and our demand far outweighs what we can do.

And so in our second year, we had to renovate the kitchen and expand it again. And this time we expanded it to a much, much bigger ⁓ concept to be able to accept more customers, get more food out. And we’re now at a place where we did not set him up for failure any longer. We set him up for success and it’s worked great ever since.

Anthony Codispoti (39:45)
How do you pull off outdoor dining in Arizona in the summer?

McBean Lloyd (39:49)
We don’t. We’ve tried. We try, we try, we try because we would love to use the patio as much as we can in the summertime. But no matter what tricks we’ve tried, people do not like to sit outside at a hundred plus degrees. just, it’s not comfortable. And so we have instead really ⁓ made the dining room more comfortable in the summer. It’s all air conditioned. Of course we have walls that open that we keep closed in the summer.

Our grill, as I mentioned before, is phenomenal. 70 % and I think I’m pretty accurate with that number, leave the valley or not leave the valley, but 70 % of our golfers leave and go home, whether that be to a home in the US somewhere else or into Canada. So we have a smaller customer base that we ⁓ try to look after in the summertime and the patio just is not

We’ve used misters, we’ve done anything and everything you can imagine. We just have to understand that the patio is a winter place, not a summer place.

Anthony Codispoti (40:57)
Yeah, just have to accept that. Talk to me about why you emphasize community driven values at Lacenda so much and what that means.

McBean Lloyd (40:59)
Yes.

Well, I’m going to share that with another story. I came from Alberta, where I presumed…

Alberta beef was the best beef in the world. That’s what I was always told and that’s what I grew up on. I also felt that our school system and our religions and our family values were the highest of high and that anywhere else that I would go in the world would be lower and less. And I came to realize very quickly that that’s not the case. Moving to the United States, I always thought that was the big, you know, strong country and that we were little Canada.

and they were overpowering and

I’m very proud of the United States. ⁓ What I was more surprised with and very pleased about was the family values. ⁓

are equal to and or better than what I came from in Alberta. The school systems are more supported. They have more funding. There’s more ⁓ sporting opportunity, but also after school activities for those that aren’t into sports, whether it be drama, band, or other options. The PTA is way more ⁓ supportive in the US than it is in Canada.

⁓ Religion is a very strong thing. We have a real strong Mormon presence in Mesa. They’re very strong valued families. We quickly realized that the community, we need to be a part of the community. wanted, again, to promise them that we were going to build up this golf course. over a period of probably two years, ⁓ they finally started to believe in us.

And that’s an important relationship to have. for us to be in the Lucentis community, a part of the community, we’re all homeowners in the community and have the community thankful that we’re here and operating this golf course is a really, it’s a huge blessing.

Anthony Codispoti (43:22)
That’s amazing. And no surprise. mean, you grow up in a, you know, particular part of the world, particular part of whatever country, and you’re proud of that place. I mean, you should be right. You’ve got friends, you’ve got family there. ⁓ But man, the ability to travel and to be able to see different points of view and the way other folks do things and, you know, so great that the community there has not only embraced you, but sort of vice versa. Now, you know, you guys are sort of one together, it feels like.

So I want to shift gears now, Lloyd, and I’d like to hear about a serious challenge that you’ve overcome in your life, maybe something personal or professional. can see you’ve already got something in mind there.

McBean Lloyd (44:03)
No, ⁓

Choosing the golf industry as a career.

⁓ it, it, it’s a, you know, there could be, there’s a lot of other jobs that would be a lot worse than being in the, in the, business that I’m in. The biggest challenge of the business that I am in is customer service. We, know, there’s an expectation and, ⁓ trying to meet that expectation on a daily basis for four plus decades is I would say the biggest challenge. It’s something that, ⁓

I don’t think that there’s a day that I go home and say that I’ve met every accomplishment or goal that I’ve wanted. There’s always a continued stride. ⁓ I could have done something better or we could have done something better. We could have made that one person happier. That’s it in a nutshell. ⁓ I love being in the customer care business.

but it is a challenge and it always will be. And I think you just have to be a certain personality to do it. You do have to have strong shoulders at certain times because it is impossible to make everybody happy. the goal is to try to make everyone happy.

Anthony Codispoti (45:23)
Can you think of a particular challenging customer experience that you had to navigate?

McBean Lloyd (45:27)
Okay.

Absolutely, and I’m definitely not going to share it.

Anthony Codispoti (45:33)
⁓ Fair enough.

can respect that. Well, talk to me about your team. You guys have got a great course. These amazing restaurants, the one in particular, you know, that’s on the top, they only golf course in the country that’s in the top 100 list. To pull all this off, you have to have an amazing team working with you. How do you guys approach a tight labor market?

McBean Lloyd (45:38)
you

Anthony Codispoti (45:58)
And what have you found success with in terms of both recruiting good folks and then holding on to them?

McBean Lloyd (46:07)
We have 125 employees here at the club. have seven managing directors. you we have a horticultural team, a superintendent, we have a food and beverage director, we have a banquets director, we have a operations manager for the restaurant, we have an operations manager for the banquet. We have a director of golf, we have an outside operations director.

We have of course our CFO and our office manager and then my brother and I, we try to be the captains to these people. One thing that my brother and I learned long ago and I mentioned to you before, he’s a hockey player so he’s strong and he’s big and he’s tough, is not to fight with them because he’ll win. So we learned to separate our responsibilities a long time ago and that’s also good as far as ⁓ management goes because

In all of our departments, we really try to provide a clear ⁓ organizational chart of their responsibilities and provide them with success and opportunity for success and not failure, just like I told you with the story of our food and beverage director. ⁓ We’ve been able to build this golf course with the amenities and the services that we wanted and we learned from our Canadian golf course.

When we built out the clubhouse and so forth in Canada

We put our tournament center in the same clubhouse and shared a kitchen. And that’s like putting water and vinegar together. It doesn’t work. you know, if all of a sudden we have a big tournament and we have members who want to have a nice dining experience and you got one kitchen, you’re setting your staff up for failure. You’re setting the membership up for disappointment and potentially the corporate tournament or wedding isn’t happy either. So all of a sudden you’re losing out in many different

aspects. When we built this property, we learned a lot of the mistakes that we had made. And so when we did the build out, we corrected those and we tried to create an environment that would allow our team to succeed. Now, when we start to talk individually about our team, Wayne and I do not hire anyone below our directors. They are responsible for their own staff.

They’re also responsible for firing them and they’re responsible for keeping within their budgets. But what we do is we have, and we have been very fortunate in hiring some incredible leaders who we try to give them as much rein as possible for them to succeed, for them to show their skills and talents. And we listen, you know, we have a weekly manager meeting where

We all sit, we used to do it in the boardroom since COVID, everything now seems to be on computers with Zoom and so forth. But it also makes it a little bit easier for them. ⁓ We have great communication, but we have great, great, great experts in each of their fields.

Anthony Codispoti (49:25)
Thanks for that Lloyd. Curious to hear, setting all humility aside, what you consider to be your superpower.

McBean Lloyd (49:35)
my wife.

Anthony Codispoti (49:37)
Oh, smartest man I’ve met. Wow. Well done. Well done.

McBean Lloyd (49:38)
I had to put that in there.

The great fortune of being able to partner with my brother, that’s a…

You know, to have a lifetime of, a lifetime career and being able to do that with your brother is awesome. I love people, so.

Those are the good things.

Anthony Codispoti (50:10)
Aside from the ⁓ transitional club aspect that we’ve talked about, what does the future hold for Las Sendas?

McBean Lloyd (50:21)
As golf continues ⁓ again to strengthen in the industry, ⁓ I see that the golf course will go private in the next number of years. I can’t say exactly when, ⁓ which will really tighten the bond between the community and the golf course even more so. ⁓ Allowing that one Monday day to be a flexible day is really going to help for those that simply either can’t afford

financially or by time to be a member of the club, ⁓ the ability to still play the club and not be alienated from it. ⁓ I see the golf industry continuing to strengthen. One of the things that had happened prior to COVID is families had started to align with different ⁓

paths, boating, camping, not that those are bad things, but they were doing things that started to kind of fall away from the traditional golf, ⁓ first, second, third, fourth generational type of concepts. COVID, when many activities got shut down, Arizona, especially based on the governor and his decisions, made golf an essential business, allowing us to remain open. It really put a

a new spurt and excitement into the younger generation who have now found golf to be really great for family values, a great place to spend time with their kids. And I see that that’s gonna continue and I really think that we’re gonna see a growth from the younger generation because our older generation…

their kind of legacy, but we really need this youth to continue the strength in the industry.

Anthony Codispoti (52:18)
Are there any other movements that are sort of helping that along kind of get the younger generation interested and involved in golf that maybe we haven’t seen before?

McBean Lloyd (52:30)
Here in the United States and especially again in Arizona, the school systems promote golf. And we see world ⁓ class golfers coming from Arizona, from other areas of the United States, obviously.

Canada does not have, and it’s managed, ⁓ nearly the same ⁓ support system for golf. They have a great hockey program, ⁓ but it does have to do somewhat with geography. ⁓ Golf is inspired, promoted in grade schools, and so that does help our industry.

⁓ You’ve seen it also with the tours right now. We have this live tour. We have the PJ tour. We have the ladies tours. We have the development tours. There’s a lot of ⁓ players who have been able to reach out to different demographic groups and we’ve got more people interested in golf than we ever have before. Golf is a strong industry and I don’t see that going away.

Anthony Codispoti (53:37)
Hmm, what I’ve just got one more question for you, but before I ask it I want to do two things First of all everybody listening today. Thanks for joining the show pause for just a second open up that podcast app that you’re using right now Hit the follower subscribe button that’ll allow you to continue get more great content like we’ve had today with Lloyd McBean I’m also gonna let you know the best way to get in touch with Lloyd and las send us

So I’ve got three pieces of information here for you. First, their website, lascendus.com, and that’s L-A-S-S-E-N-D-A-S. So there’s two S’s there in the middle, lascendus.com. Their email address is info at lascendus.com. And they’re old school, man. So they got a phone number where a human being actually answers it. So you can call 480-396-4000. That’s 480-396-4000.

And we’ll put all of that in the show notes, but in case you’re driving right now, 480-396-4000. So that sticks in your brain. So Lloyd, you and I reconnect one year from today and you’re fist pumping in the air. You’re super excited. You are celebrating something big. What’s that big thing that you’re celebrating one year from today?

McBean Lloyd (54:52)
retirement. How’s that? Yeah, it’s something that my wife and I have been ⁓ looking forward to and planning for a long time. As I mentioned, it’s ⁓ 40 plus years in the industry. ⁓ I turned 60 in a couple of weeks and I had always said I would like to retire at 60. ⁓ My partners ⁓ who are in the process of buying me out at the moment asked me to stay for another year or two.

Anthony Codispoti (54:53)
Okay, big news.

McBean Lloyd (55:22)
and try to look for someone to follow up as a new general manager. that’ll be my job over the next year to try to do. But I would say that in a year from now or sometime in that near future, I hope to be one of the members here at the golf club playing the golf course on a more regular basis than I do now, enjoying it from that aspect versus kind of behind the counter.

Anthony Codispoti (55:47)
Well, that’s fun stuff. Well, good luck with that timeline. We’ll have to check back in and see how those retirement years are going with you. So Lloyd McBean from Lesen does golf club. I want to be the first to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate it.

McBean Lloyd (55:55)
Thank you.

Thanks for having me. It’s been great.

Anthony Codispoti (56:05)
Folks, that’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us today.