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Scott Steilen is president of Sea Island Resort in
St. Simons Island, Ga.,
where four of the 30
pros in last week’s Tour
Championship call
home. Steilen answers
five questions from
Stephen Hennessey.
What are the
advantages of
having top pros like Matt
Kuchar, Zach Johnson,
Davis Love III and others
based at Sea Island?
I think it’s a very important part of our environment. And I’d like to
think part of their success comes from living
where they do. OK,
maybe a small part.
They get to combine our
phenomenal golf facilities with world-class
instruction and share
time with their families
in a completely comfortable resort environment.
In marketing the
resort, how do you
focus on multiple demos?
We market Sea Island as
a destination resort first.
And golf is a crucial part
of that. So when you
include golf in that, you
can hit multiple golf
segments. We’ve seen
huge growth having
families of really good
junior players come
down. We’ve had a ton of
up-and-coming, really
talented junior players.
Extremely talented high
school and college kids,
getting ready to transition to the next level of
golf. In building a robust
golf program, you can
target multiple audiences with the same offerings.
The resort opened
the Inn at Sea
Island last year to go into
the buddies segment.
How successful has that
introduction been?
We really are pleased
with seeing more buddies groups coming into
the Inn. We had an
executive office building
that we weren’t sure
what to do with. So we
reconcepted it, which let
us extend our lodging
options beyond the
Cloisters and the Lodge
to a more affordable
price point. That’s really
helped our buddies-golf
business.
Given that ex-
tended buddies-
trip business, are there
changes that have come
from that?
What we’ve seen is
groups that would’ve
spent more on lodging
PUT ME DOWN FOR 5
SCOTT
STEILEN
Traveling targets: Sea Island is extending its lodging options.
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now can spend more
of their discretionary
dollars on golf, fitness
and spa programs at the
resort. We added a good
bar and nice spaces to
hang for their buddies
trips. So it’s had a positive effect all around.
Anything new
with Sea Island
for 2016?
First, we’re excited for
the McGladrey Classic
coming up this fall.
We’re also adding 63
rooms to the Cloister to
open in April. And at the
golf performance center,
our holistic approach
includes a new GEARS
system, a 3-D motion
program that deter-
mines a golfer’s play-
er-performance index,
which helps bring their
game to the next level.
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