Tag: Municipal Golf

This soon-to-be municipal Massachusetts golf course might get a new clubhouse — at the cost of $5 million

The first order of business will be to replace the course’s clubhouse, which is almost 100 years old. The city assumes control on Jan. 1.

QUINCY, Massachusetts – Commissioner of Natural Resources Dave Murphy said major infrastructure improvements are coming to Furnace Brook Golf Course now that the city is preparing to take over operation of one of the three courses in the city.

At a city council meeting Monday, Murphy told councilors that one project is in the design phase, another is on deck and his department is thinking of new ways to market the course to a wider audience.

The first order of business will be to replace the course’s clubhouse, which is almost 100 years old. Quincy assumes control of the course on Jan. 1.

“The current clubhouse is basically a converted house that was built in 1926. It doesn’t meet a lot of the standards required for a public building,” he said.

Murphy said the project is “very early” in the conceptual design process, but he estimates it will cost between $5 million and $5.3 million to replace the clubhouse. He would have to come back before the council to ask for the money before any construction could begin.

The existing maintenance building also needs work. Murphy described it as “basically a lean-to.”

“It’s an old cinderblock building with a leaky roof and they’ve kind of converted some pieces of metal to cover equipment,” he said. “It’s far from the best way to operate.”

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Murphy said no major capital improvements have been done at the golf course in some time, which made sense because the previous operators knew the city would be taking over.

“We’re going into this eyes wide open,” Murphy said.

Ward 4 City Councilor Brian Palmucci asked if the golf course had made enough money to sustain itself – or even make a profit – when it was privately run. Murphy said it had, but that the city is looking to expand its membership-driven model of operation.

“I do think this will be marketed as a public course, in addition to maintaining the membership business model up there and a few of the night things that generate quite a bit of revenue,” he said. “The city’s goal will be to market this as a public course and generate more tee times.”

Murphy said that even with upcoming capital expenditures, the course should come close to breaking even each year. He also said the city sees the course as “an opportunity to work with our recreation department and really introduce many more of our residents.”

“Golf is a pretty exclusive sport,” he said. “They’ve done a very good job with some clinics there, the Quincy High golf team plays at Furnace Brook, but the truth is that there is an overwhelming percentage of our community that will never get a chance to play golf. We are hoping to utilize this asset in a manner that expands opportunities to play golf.”

The city’s relationship with the golf club started in 1971 when then-Mayor James McIntyre proposed a 50-year lease on the course. At the time, the club was unable to pay its 1970 property taxes – a $17,500 bill – and “saw no prospect of improvement in its financial future,” a 1979 Patriot Ledger article states.

Under the lease, the club was to pay the city $1 per year for 50 years in lieu of taxes. At the end of that time – June 2021 – the land would be given to the city. As the end of the lease approached, Koch said he and his staff spent time meeting with the club’s management to discuss the best course of action. It was decided the land will remain a golf course, but the city will take over its maintenance and management at the start of 2022.

The course has been known as the Furnace Brook Golf Club since 1938, when the name changed from the Stoney Brae Golf Club. Stoney Brae was built in 1923.

At the council meeting, Palmucci said he was concerned residents of the city would be “on the hook” paying for a golf pro, major upgrades and other expenses that aren’t necessarily in the city’s purview. He voted against giving the course $400,000 for expenses Monday, as did Councilor-at-large Anne Mahoney.

The appropriation did pass after a discussion assuring councilors that they would have the authority to cut golf course operations out of future city budgets.

Reach Mary Whitfill at mwhitfill@patriotledger.com.

National Links Trust hosting symposium to share what it has learned about municipal golf

The NLT symposium in Washington D.C. includes noted speakers with a wide range of expertise on how to save municipal golf courses.

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In just more than two years since its inception, the National Links Trust has developed a wealth of information that might help municipal golf operators around the country restore courses that are often considered a community’s gateway to the game.

Now the National Links Trust wants to share that information, starting with a symposium Nov. 8-10 in Washington D.C. More than 100 attendees are expected to discuss five pillars: sustainability, community impact, growing the game, architecture and alternative programming. Interested parties can learn more at nationallinkstrust.com.

Since its founding early in 2019, the non-profit National Links Trust surprised itself in some ways by earning the contract to renovate the National Park Service’s three golf courses in D.C.: East Potomac, Rock Creek and Langston.

The mission: provide accessible, affordable and engaging municipal golf courses to positively impact local communities across the U.S. That mission started in D.C., and the NLT hopes to expand its reach at the symposium and beyond.

The three D.C. courses have plenty of pedigree and have served their community as an introduction to golf and as civic hubs for decades. But as with many municipal golf courses, conditioning and funding ebbed and flowed, leaving the layouts in various states of disrepair after decades of deferred maintenance. The NLT was founded by golf-architecture experts Mike McMartin and Will Smith to address the problems. With pro-bono plans by course architects Tom Doak, Gil Hanse and Beau Welling, work has begun.

Historical photo of Rock Creek Golf Course in Washington, D.C. (Courtesy of National Links Trust)

“Things are going very well,” NLT CEO Sinclair Eaddy Jr. told Golfweek. “We continue to be very busy at all three golf courses. We’ve made some improvements to things like the golf shops and cart paths, with an eye toward moving toward the longer-term improvements.”

In tackling the three D.C.-area courses, the NLT has learned much about navigating many of the issues that municipal golf faces. It’s not as simple as growing grass. There are political pitfalls, funding issues, usage and accessibility problems that any community is likely to face. Golf has seen an incredible uptick since the COVID-19 pandemic began and as players look for relatively safe experiences outdoors, but saving a golf course  – or three – involves much more than rounds played. The level of planning is intense, and NLT wants to share what it has learned.

“We think there’s a successful playbook for renovating and rehabilitating municipal golf courses,” Eaddy said. “We’re doing it here in Washington D.C., and NLT is really focused on the three facilities in the nation’s capital as a model for how to do this around the country.”

Eaddy said NLT has received requests for information from project operators around the country on how to establish leadership teams, recruit talented renovators, fundraise and more.

“Our goal, and this is part of why we created the symposium, is to be a thought leader about thoughtful rehabilitation and renovation of municipal golf courses,” Eaddy said. “That’s how we are able to contribute to other projects around the country right now. While we focus on Washington D.C., we have resources and partners in the industry who helped NLT in its bid to renovate the D.C. golf courses. …

“We think there are some potholes out there for people who are thinking about rehabilitating or renovating municipal golf courses. We’ve gone through that process, and we think we can be helpful to other individuals and organizations that are even considering these types of projects and let them know what the pitfalls are. The hardest process is not just the bricks and mortar or the grass and sand of golf courses. Part of it is project planning and coming up with a roadmap that makes sense for the golf course, the patrons and also the local officials. For most people and most groups, that is the hurdle.”

The NLT has recruited a considerable group to participate at the symposium. Guests include PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh, USGA senior management director of public services Rand Jerris, PGA of America honorary president Suzy Whaley and more than a dozen other guests with expertise in everything from land finance to marketing.

On the golf architecture side, Doak, Welling and Jay Blasi – also a course architect and a Golfweek contributing writer – will present on the importance of good design.

Expertise in such a wide range of topics has worked for NLT, Eaddy said, and all these featured guests are willing to share what they have learned to promote community-based, affordable public-access golf.

“We want to be thought partners, Eaddy said, “and we want to help in any way we can.”

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An Ohio golf course went from red to black in four years by cutting an $80K pro, adding sponsors and more

How did this Ohio course become profitable? By cutting costs, realigning staff and improving fundraising and community support.

ASHLAND, Ohio – Brookside Golf Course, which sits in this small city almost equidistant from Cleveland and Columbus, is seeing more green this year — as in profits.

The course is up $100,000 over expenses so far this season, a stark contrast to its deficit just four years ago.

The city had to subsidize Brookside a total of $232,362 in 2017 to help offset annual operations. In 2019, the city contributed $65,000 to the golf course, Mayor Matt Miller said.

By the following year, the course officially climbed into the black.

How? By cutting costs, realigning staff and improving fundraising and community support.

And more people are playing these days, which helps maintain a higher revenue stream.

So far this year, golfers have played 16,800 rounds. That’s more than played the entire year (16,788) of 2017.

Brookside is exceeding expenses by $101,519 so far this season with a few more months to continue the upward trend, Miller said.

Making Brookside profitable again: ‘Three things we needed to change’

Mike Raubenolt and Conner Brittinger watch as Mayor Matt Miller putts at the 4th annual Mayor’s Golf Classic at Brookside Golf Course on Aug. 13.
When Miller ran for mayor in 2017, he focused on addressing the realities of the operation’s financial books.

“There were three things we needed to change,” Miller explained, all centering around staffing.

The city eliminated the golf pro position with its $80,000 annual salary.

Billy Christian was appointed superintendent. Mick Briggs took over a part-time position overseeing the clubhouse. Another key player in the economic transformation is Steve Fast, a part-time employee who has a history in banking.

Fast, who retired from the course in April due to health concerns, worked at Brookside for 10 years, he said.

“Briggs and Christian were very instrumental in turning the course around,” Fast said. “I think everybody came together and all the employees came together and even people who were not employees of the course came together and really worked, and we got the course built back up.”

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Community steps up to play golf

Fast credits Ashlanders for the increase in money coming into the operation.

“I think the community had a lot to do with it,” he said. “They didn’t want to lose the golf course. We had a pickup in golfing.”

People like Gene Haberman helped raise money, Fast said.

Haberman came up with the idea of adding sponsorships to the golf course via golf carts and golf holes, Miller said.

Another way the course has increased funding is by hiking prices for nine-hole rounds by 50 cents and 18-hole rounds by $1.

“In 2017, we held the Mayor’s Golf Classic to help raise money to keep the golf course open,” Miller said. “It was to raise money to help cover the operating costs and to make improvements.”

The 2021 Mayor’s golf classic ushered in $1,300, Miller said.

Donations fund pavilion, pavement

Other members of the Ashland golf community helped bring new life to the course through donations.

Lloyd and Norma Wygant talked with the mayor about donating money to build a new $115,000 pavilion.

Over the last three years, donors Stan and Mary Miller contributed money to redo the pavement and put seal coating on the golf cart paths, Miller said.

“Assistant Superintendent Brent Cherry and Billy Christian have done an outstanding job on making the course look the best it’s ever looked,” Miller said. “We involved them personally going out and adjusting the sprinklers to keep the grass green and playable.”

With profit margins continuing to gain upward momentum, Miller believes once the season is over the profits will carry over to next year’s golf season.

One way the money might be used is for a new irrigation system, which will cost roughly six figures.

“I found some paperwork in the files that the superintendent back in 1986 was trying to get a new irrigation system put in,” Christian said. “We’re possibly looking into building a deck out of the pro shop that way people can sit out and enjoy the weather.”

Reach Grant at gritchey@gannett.com; On Twitter: @Ritchey_Grant

Muni golf case study: This Utah city is pumping more money into its courses, but expect rates to rise

The city plans to increase green fees and summer pass costs while eliminating free rounds with a loyalty card and shoulder season rates.

(Editor’s note: With the recent U.S. Open at Torrey Pines finished, there are no municipal golf courses on the majors schedule for the foreseeable future. In a series, Golfweek has been shedding a spotlight on municipal golf, why it’s a crucial piece of the golf industry and how it’s evolving. To see why some courses fail, why some succeed and where the industry is going, click here.)

ST. GEORGE, Utah — This southern Utah city is set to spend more than $1 million dollars on renovations to improve clubhouses on its golf courses in the upcoming year, according to the proposed city budget for 2021-22.

The city plans to spend $1.3 million on improving and renovating the clubhouses at the Southgate Golf Club and St. George Golf Club. This commitment to improving the golf courses is part of a “continual investment” that St. George has towards its golf courses, according to city council member Bryan Smethurst. The total budget for the golf department of the city is close to $7.4 million, according to the proposed city budget.

The city just finished renovations at the Southgate clubhouse that cost $755,000, adding a wrap-around deck, improving the kitchen and other facilities. The city will also give the 40-year-old clubhouse at the St. George Golf Club a “facelift” in 2022, according to Colby Cowan, the director of golf for St. George.

Smethurst says the golf courses are great for the city because they provide a steady stream of income. These golf courses saw an increase in usage during this last year due to Utah opening up sooner from coronavirus restrictions than other states, according to Cowan.

“We saw a big influx at the start of COVID from California and other areas like Nevada that were locked down came as well,” said Cowan.

The city budget projects its four courses will make $5.6 million in revenue over the next year. Smethurst says the increased usage of these golf courses is advantageous for both the city and its residents.

“These courses really carried us through COVID,” Smethurst said.

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There are 13 golf courses in Washington County, a majority of which are owned by municipalities and thus managed by city governments. St. George owns four golf courses: St. George golf club, Dixie Red Hills, Southgate golf club and Sunbrook Golf Club.

In 2020, 739,292 rounds of golf were played in Washington County and 39.5% of those rounds were played by non-locals, according to Kevin Lewis, the Washington County director of tourism. Lewis says the extra money travelers pay to play golf in southern Utah is what allows the region to have so many courses.

“If we had to support the golf courses with resident usage the community could support two golf courses,” Lewis said. “The benefit to the residents of having visitors is that they get more courses.”

At the four St. George courses, there were 230,000 nine-hole rounds played this year on average. In the next year, the city projects up to 250,000 rounds will be played, according to Cowan.

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If golf is really on the rise again in St. George, the city is planning on increasing fees and rates. These include increasing the nine-hole fee by $1, eliminating free rounds with a loyalty card, increasing the summer pass cost and eliminating shoulder season rates which go from October to December.

These moves are projected to net an extra $370,000 and the money from these increases will be used to offset maintenance costs, according to Cowan.

The golf courses run by St. George all use non-culinary irrigated water to maintain the large swaths of grass. This water would be unusable as culinary water and using it to keep golf courses green saves the city millions of dollars in treatment costs, according to Karry Rathje the communications director for the Washington County Water Conservancy District.

To water nine holes on these golf courses for a year, it takes 65 million gallons of reused non-culinary water, according to Cowan. The four municipal courses have a combined 72 holes so it takes 520 million gallons of water to keep St. George’s golf courses green.

Using this less treated water allows the golf courses to pay next to nothing in water fees, the budget projects all four courses will pay zero dollars for water in 2021 and 2022. In 2020, the St. George Golf Club was the only course that paid water fees, $124,800, but the course switched to using irrigated non-culinary water and now doesn’t pay water fees.

Since the water is irrigated, the water costs are represented in pumping and electric fees, according to Cowan. For 2021 and 2022, these courses are expected to spend $84,000 on electrical and pumping costs.

Sean Hemmersmeier covers local government, growth and development in Southwestern Utah. Our work depends on subscribers so if you want more coverage on these issues you can subscribe

Save it and they will come: The story of Goat Hill Park

Goat Hill Park was a dying city-owned facility located 20 miles north of Torrey Pines, site of this week’s U.S. Open. Now it is a blueprint for other municipal courses to follow.

(Editor’s note: After the U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, there are no municipal golf courses on the majors schedule for the foreseeable future. In a series, Golfweek is shedding a spotlight on municipal golf, why it’s a crucial piece of the golf industry and how it’s evolving. Here’s the first part on Ben Crenshaw, and here’s the second part on finances, featuring Peter Hill).

OCEANSIDE, Calif. – If they ever make a movie about the unlikely success story that is Goat Hill Park, “Field of Dreams” could serve as its inspiration. Instead of “Build it and they will come,” the inspirational words that motivate an unlikely undertaking may instead be “Save it and they will come.”

John Ashworth, the visionary designer behind multiple golf lifestyle brands, is the Ray Kinsella-Kevin Costner figure in this story. Goat Hill Park was a dying city-owned facility located 20 miles north of Torrey Pines, site of this week’s U.S. Open, and less than a mile from the headquarters of Linksoul, Ashworth’s latest apparel company. He and friends viewed the lovable layout as a city park with pin flags, a public garden, a recreational-leisure amenity on par with a swimming pool or tennis court, and a community hub with golf as its centerpiece.

Those who regularly played the 18-hole, par-65 layout built on 75 acres right by the I-5 Freeway and that stretches just 4,500 yards in length loved it, but it was hard to ignore the truth: It was a neglected jewel, a loss-leader for the city in need of capital improvements and sitting on valuable acreage. In short, it was on the verge of going the way of persimmon like many other courses during the ongoing market correction that spans more than a decade and had drifted into disrepair.

“It was on life support. There wasn’t much grass. It was dirt, really,” Ashworth said.

John Ashworth (center) shown helping re-do the driving range has been a central figure in the revitalization of Goat Hill Park. (Matt Ginella/Fire Pit Collective)

In 2014, Ashworth enlisted a small army of supporters in a “Save Goat Hill” effort, including printing T-shirts with those three words that ended up being worn by celebrity friends Bill Murray and surfer Kelly Slater. Their campaign had one thing going for it: The land couldn’t be developed without the consent of a vote of the public. The course, which opened as a nine-hole layout in 1952, was built on prime Southern California real estate so there were serious suitors with their own visions to remake the course. The San Diego Chargers (before moving to Los Angeles) were proposing building a stadium there, and a separate group proposed a soccer stadium and adjoining soccer academy. The future of the land sparked great debate in the community, including at a city hearing where 45 impassioned golfers spoke.

“When you put in those soccer fields, those divots will be mine,” one of the golfers famously said.

The city awarded the lease of the land to Ashworth and his merry band, and they took over on July 1, 2014. He concedes that they had no idea what they’d gotten themselves into.

“It was like, honey, I bought a zoo,” Ashworth said. “Now what?”

John Ashworth examining the construction being done to the second hole at Goat Hill Park. (Matt Ginella/Fire Pit Collective)

In a show of civic pride, 60 local residents participated in a course clean up on Oct. 26, 2014. They have poured concrete and replaced the mainline irrigation, reduced the turf corridors and revamped the driving range all in an effort to remake this little engine that could into an informal dog-friendly place where juniors play for free, there is no dress code, music is played and a fire pit stays lit well into the night.

“He’s not just talking the talk, he’s digging the dig,” said Goat Hill Park regular Matt Ginella, who opened the headquarters to his media company, Fire Pit Collective, not far from the course.

Ashworth interchanges calling Goat Hill Park either “the Central Park of Oceanside,” or “the people’s park of Oceanside.”

“We look at it as a park, not as a golf course,” he said. “We have a disc golf course. We allow people to bring their dogs. We’ve got ‘The Playground’ which is our three-hole kid’s course, where kids play free. There’s even a sand pit for the littlest kids to play. It’s a throwback to Scotland.”

The Playground is open to all ages, with those who are kids at heart able to contribute to an honor box, and it’s well worth doing so. Noted golf course architect Gil Hanse, who built the golf course for the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, designed the kids course gratis between Goat Hill Drive and the driving range. (Origins Design architect Todd Eckenrode also contributed to the definition of the turf corridors and reducing the turf.)

The layout is quirky, demanding equal parts accuracy and imagination, and on a warm San Diego Saturday in January, was packed with a melting pot of golfers, foursomes of varying ability with coolers in their carts and speakers attached to their bags. The course, which previously went by names such as Oceanside Carlsbad Country Club and Center City Golf Course, was redesigned in the early 1990’s by Ludwig Keehn into an 18-hole layout and became known as “Goat Hill” to locals.

A foursome chasing the sun late in the day at Goat Hill Park. (Matt Ginella/ Fire Pit Collective)

It has evolved into a true community asset with a fun, low-key vibe and home to a popular Friday evening Skins Game. For proof of its successful formula, look no further than the 42,000 rounds it did in just 11 months last year – it was closed for a month due to COVID-19 restrictions – and providing a blueprint for municipal courses around the country to follow. It’s still scruffy around the edges and there’s plenty of work left to be done, but Ashworth remains undaunted.

“It’s definitely a work in progress,” Ashworth said. “It just needs a lot of TLC, you know, and that’s what we’ve been able to do the last seven years. It’s like the piano that never stops playing.”

The par-3 ninth in all its late-afternoon splendor. (Matt Ginella/Fire Pit Collective)

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