“Dos and Don’ts” for Successful Club Improvements – Part II

As part of its annual “Outlook” Pulse Survey for 2026, McMahon Group asked club managers and Board members to identify the capital-improvement areas (beyond the golf course) that they feel are important for their club but have not yet been addressed. As shown in the table at right, survey respondents cited a number of different areas in their responses. 

In the April 2026 McMahon Report, we provided some “dos and don’ts,” based on our experience helping clubs with their facility planning, that should be kept in mind for capital-improvement projects in the two areas (dining-room updates and adding/expanding pickleball) that are at the top of the list, to give them the best chance for success. 

Here are some thoughts for the next two on the list: fitness/wellness and casual bars/lounges.

As always, keep in mind that a key metric for successful facilities of any type should always be to create them in a way that offers opportunities for members to have meaningful social interactions around the programs and activities that the facilities provide. 

Fitness/Wellness

DO: 

Provide multiple group-exercise rooms. At peak times of day, one or even two group-exercise spaces may not be enough to accommodate members’ demand.  Remember, the fitness program is another way the club can provide opportunities for creative programming to engage the membership year-round. The flexibility that multiple rooms offer for programming pays off in that creative engagement. 

Provide open space. Leave room for the plan to breathe. Remember, for group classes, people will arrive and leave at the same time. Set a deliberate plan that engages members before and after programs. Every opportunity to help members extend their stay and enjoy something extra builds community, loyalty, and support. We constantly see increased demand for space for personal trainers to work with members through bodywork, stretching, and sports-specific offerings.

Consider your wellness program carefully. Spas may sound enticing, but members often have set wellness regimens that they aren’t anxious to give up. Wellness in some cases may not require much extra building space while in others it may require thousands of square feet of building additions, as the potential services are many and varied. Vet a list of potential services with your staff and members. Use professionals to help ensure that you have, or can develop, the proper space to accommodate the desired services. Make sure the proposed services fit your club’s mission. If you are a neighborhood club, is it in your mission to have a five-star resort spa?  Or should you focus instead on offering a good massage and stretching program that supports your other athletic offerings?  

Be flexible. Plan improvements to your building to enable flexible use and changes in their purpose. Rooms may even vary in how they’re used from hour to hour throughout the day. There can also be seasonal changes, as different programs are put in place to create additional excitement and support club activities as they come into season. Plan to accommodate long-term changes, in response to trends and new activities, that should also be considered. Storage, sound insulation, and isolated controls for HVAC and sound area also important facility-design factors. 

DON’T: 

Chase trends. Fitness and wellness can be very trendy, with new activities, regimes, and treatments seemingly arriving weekly. In a club environment, where capital spending may require a significant capital campaign, improvements often occur over longer intervals. It’s important to identify the programs and activities that will engage many members over the long term.

Forget the long-range view. Fitness and wellness programs usually don’t spring up fully formed at clubs. It often takes a long-term commitment to build these programs over the years. We have seen many clubs start with a single room in the basement, converted from an old file-storage room or locker room. After several years in the basement, they decide to go all in and build a new, dedicated space. The new space often creates excitement and demand for even more facilities. So it is very important, no matter where your club is in the cycle, to take the time before undertaking an improvement project to think through the programming, size, and location of the ultimate facility.

 

Casual Bar/Lounges

DO: 

Plan for more than one bar. A single main bar can rarely meet all of your members’ social needs. The best clubs we work with create a family of purpose-driven bars that match the way different member groups gather—a golfers’ grill bar, an outdoor pavilion bar near the pool, a casual lounge bar near high-traffic member amenities, and a more refined bar adjacent to upscale dining. Each bar plays a distinct role, and together they help build the club’s inner culture in ways that no single bar ever could.

Give the bar a prime location. Casual bars work best when they enjoy great views, natural light, and direct access to outdoor patios, pavilions, and pool decks. The most successful club bars are destinations in their own right—anchoring the casual social life of the club rather than serving as an appendage to another space.

Design for interaction. A center-room bar in an oblong, island design encourages members to face one another, sparking the casual conversations that turn acquaintances into friends. When the bar shares space with a la carte dining, a three-quarter-screen wall or comparable architectural element can separate the standing and barstool areas from the lower seating areas, allowing each space to thrive without intruding on the other. Mix the seating—high-tops, lounge groupings, and traditional barstools—so members can linger, gather in groups of varying sizes, and extend their stay.

Brand the experience to your club. Use the club’s logo, colors, and traditions throughout the bar to make it feel uniquely yours. Curate a signature cocktail list, name a featured drink after a long-tenured member or a beloved hole on the course, and tie the accessories, finishes, and artwork to the club’s broader story. Members remember the places that feel personal, and a well-branded bar is one of the strongest cultural touchpoints a club has.

Plan for the outdoor connection. Covered outdoor bars, tiki-style bars at the pool, and pre-function ballroom bar service all extend the bar’s role in club life. Think about year-round usability with retractable walls or doors, heaters, ceiling fans, and shade so the bar doesn’t become a three-season feature. Convenient adjacencies—restrooms, water and ice stations, and food service—are essential to keep the bar functioning as a true gathering place, rather than just a drink-pickup window.

DON’T: 

Treat the bar as an afterthought to the dining room. Avoid placing a bar against an interior blank wall or tucking it into leftover space behind the dining room. A bar that exists only to keep dining guests occupied while their tables are being prepared misses the larger opportunity. The casual bar should have its own identity, its own programming, and its own social rhythm. Designing it as a standalone destination—even when it sits adjacent to dining—pays significant dividends in member usage and overall clubhouse activity.

Try to make one bar do everything. A single bar that is asked to serve golfers, families in sports gear, and couples dressed to the nines will inevitably disappoint someone. Match the size, ambiance, and finishes of each bar to the audience it is meant to serve, and recognize that your club will be richer for having more than one gathering space. The strongest clubs we work with embrace the idea that members in different groups deserve their own gathering places, even as they change their expectations, and who they’re with, throughout the day.

Forget that great bars are about more than space. The physical bar is only the framework. An engaging, conversational bartender with strong drink-mixing skills, combined with programming that coordinates with the dining schedule, wellness trends, and the season, are what turn a bar from a room into a true gathering place. Plan from the beginning for the staffing model, the drink menu, and the programming—not just the architecture.

Underestimate the cultural role of the bar. Members often say the bar is where the clubhouse becomes a club—where friendships are formed and the inner culture takes shape. Treating the bar as a small line item, or value-engineering it down to the bare minimum, sells short one of the smallest clubhouse areas with one of the largest impacts on member engagement. A well-conceived casual bar is among the most cost-effective investments a club can make in its long-term social health.

In future issues of the McMahon Report, our Architecture column will continue to take in-depth looks at the “dos and don’ts” for other areas of the club that showed up on the Pulse Survey’s capital-improvement “wish list.” (It should be noted that the respondents to the Pulse Survey added many other areas to the list that they would also like to see improved, including: ballroom space, the golf shop, kitchens, the lobby, maintenance facilities, office space, overnight accommodations, parking lots, and tennis facilities and courts, both indoors and outdoors.) 

And don’t forget, McMahon Group experts are always available to come take a look at any area or facility at your club that you’re targeting for improvement, as part of our complimentary First Impressions Visit that includes a report with recommendations for how to best approach making an effective change