We sat down with Christian Dunn, director of corporate development for Concert Golf, at the Golf Inc. Summit in September 2025 and talked about private clubs, the current trends shaping them, how to preserve a club’s traditions while implementing modern improvements and more.
Full transcript below (lightly edited for clarity):
From your perspective, what’s the biggest trend shaping private clubs right now?
I think what we’re seeing primarily is a big shift towards family memberships. The old boys club golf world has dissipated a little bit. There’s a lot more amenities that are obviously geared towards family utilization. So I think from our perspective, big time, is the pickleball, fitness, health and wellness, junior golf, tennis programs, aquatics, and just a move maybe not away from golf, but to accommodate more different opportunities for our members to use the clubs.
When you look at a potential acquisition, what makes a club a good fit for Concert Golf?
We look at culture first. We want to make sure that clubs align with our goals long term. We certainly look from just a health of business standpoint. We want to have a flourishing membership for a long time. And so we pay attention to all those details. But a club and a membership that has history and aligns very much with Concert’s goals, I think, is first and foremost to us.
What’s one operational change you think more clubs should be making right now to remain financially healthy?
Call Concert Golf Partners. All kidding aside, there’s so many good experts in the field. I wouldn’t give myself a root canal. I’d leave that to the dentist. So I think in our field with all the resources we have, professional businesses that do this for a living all day and every day, sometimes when we look at the old-school, board-governed equity model, it just feels a little antiquated. And whether it’s Club Benchmarking gathering data or a professional organization like ourselves, I think there’s a lot of good resources out there. And so I’d say, especially to accommodate some of the additional amenities and the size and scope of the business versus just a golf club — which so many private clubs, which is our space — seem to be today, I think I would involve the professionals and kind of let them make your experience in life a little easier.
How do you strike a balance between preserving a club’s traditions and modernizing for…
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