Wielding his clubs.

• Author: McConnell, John
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION - Interview

Why did you sell Medic?

My wife passed away in 1994, and we had three boys. I wanted to spend more time with them. And we had gone public in 1992, which was very challenging. It brought what I call 90-day pressure in which I found myself worrying more about shareholder expectations than customer expectations. It just wasn't fun anymore. So I started a venture-capital firm and got involved in another company called A4 Health Systems. Then around 2003-04, along came the opportunity to buy Raleigh Country Club.

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At the time, you were a member of North Ridge Country Club and Carolina Country Club but not Raleigh Country Club. What piqued your interest?

I'd played the golf course several times and loved it. The club was in need of a capital partner--it was pretty much dead. So I met with the board members, and in one of those seat-of-the-pants decisions, which is kind of how I've always operated, I bought it. The land was valued at around $12 million to $13 million, so even if the club failed, you still had the real estate. It wasn't like it was a big risk. But I wanted to make it work as a golf club. It's the best golf course in the region, five minutes from downtown and the last course designed by Donald Ross.

Was that the birth of McConnell Golf?

No. From 2004 to 2006, I was heavily involved here, and we did some great things. The old range had to be cleaned up, no matter what. It was an eyesore. Then I saw the map of the area, and there was all this property beside us. 1 could picture houses someday lining the No. 1 fairway. There was a church on this property, and I found out that they were in the process of building a church at another location. It so happened that they were looking for money. So I asked myself how I could compete against Carolina and North Ridge country clubs. What do they not have, and what can't they have because they're out of land? The answer was a state-of-the-art practice facility. Now, we have amenities as good as any you'll find. Before, we had the diamond; it just hadn't been polished. So we invested in the polish.

What factored into your decision to buy other golf courses?

I realized that single clubs have the same problem: There's too much overhead to ever get efficiency. So I figured that if you're ever going to make money, you're probably going to have to have multiple courses. In 2006, I bought: Cardinal, which is a wonderful Pete Dye design. Later that year, I added Treyburn, which was designed by Tom Fazio, who's probably the most effective architect since Ross in terms of designing a golf course that people want to play. Now you have McConnell Golf. Then I bought Musgrove Mill [between Spartanburg and Columbia], an...