The business of golf – “Comments . . . a broad spectrum of ideas and a few criticisms”

By Alan Prescott
February 1, 2021

Fernandina Beach Municipal Golf Club Putting Green,

Today’s discussion is an attempt to integrate all of the comments that I have received into a plan to increase revenue and is limited to the bits and pieces of such information. Shortly, I am sending information of a “new approach” to increasing revenue to Fernandina Beach Municipal Golf Course. Since I am NOT very computer literate, I will send the “artwork” (rough drawing) directly to the Observer this week to discuss what I called “The Ultimate Golf Center” at Fernandina Beach Municipal Golf Course. For now, I feel that I must re-group and discuss the comments that I have received and how it affects your facility.

In previous articles, I have discussed how lack of staff training, golf course management indecision, failure to have an annual overall golf course maintenance plan, and the obvious indecision as far as what to do to change things. Discussion is a definite benefit to improving any golf course of any type. Herein lies a huge benefit because the information garnered draws on local talent. I am not a contractor, an arborist, an accountant, or a lawyer. What I am is an experienced golf professional, golf course superintendent, and a golf course marketing professional. BUT, I am NOT the owner of your golf course. I urge you and the powers that be to take my years of experience to be one significant point of view to help make your facility more enjoyable, and more profitable, for its patrons.

The comments that I have received have a broad spectrum of ideas and a few criticisms. Let me tell you that the negative opinions, in part, have come from non-golfers who question why Fernandina Beach Municipal Golf Course still exists today. Those people must realize that they are an infinitesimally small part of the local opinion. These people seem to have at least a few family members in every community across the world. Take, for example, the Upstate New York area where I live fulltime, the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains. Each year, during our four seasons, downstaters rush up here for a quick weekend getaway or a longer vacation. They race up here, use our facilities, and leave hastily as their “time runs out”, leaving a path of ecological waste and negative treatment to the local people behind, along with some feelings of negative indifference for the locals. However, the locals do nothing but count the money that they have earned from these tourists and get hardened against the abuse of next time.

I am not suggesting that all people should not have their opinions heard. What I’m suggesting is that, instead of trying to alter things singularly, they participate in the development or re-development discussions and meetings before just rushing to judgement. So, my question is, what should be done to fix the problems that exist at your municipal golf course.

In the early days, before the huge development of both residential and resort/tourist facilities, Amelia Island, and Fernandina Beach was a mill town. The municipal golf course was built so as to provide recreation for the mill workers. As the population grew and the demographics changed, resorts popped up and the commercial entities signaled a distinct emergence of a different local landscape. For whatever reason, the prices for golf followed the expansion of the local resorts and skyrocketed upward. The new resorts, with their many amenities, also came with a higher price tag for those who enjoyed them. Once the visitors enjoyed the area’s climate and resorts, residential properties were developed and the need for local, more private golf courses increased. These new private golf courses had the golf ambiance of the resorts and well-appointed clubhouses with well-maintained, challenging golf courses available to local homeowners. And that, too came with a higher costs of operation and accompanying higher greens fees. What was neglected was the local municipal golf course. Instead of upgrading the local municipal golf course for both local golfers and visitors, it feel into various states of disrepair. Instead of updating the local municipal golf course and clubhouse, hiring qualified consultants, training staff and adequately training that staff, the local government increasingly neglected the municipal by doing a series of things. So, what should be done, you ask?

Several of the comments involve the deterioration of the clubhouse, which is still attempting to hold banquets and events. Other comments involve objections to trimming trees on the golf course. Then, some people don’t see the need to remove a FEW trees that block and shade the greens, thus preventing the healthy growth of turf. The method of repairing a dead section of grass around at least one green was 100% incorrect. The dead turf was cut out and new turf was installed that way too high for the surrounding turf. When the area was mowed, the new turf was scalped and died. The sand traps need cultivation and their edges need trimming. The management group is costing money and just not doing the job.

A full-time qualified and licensed golf superintendent is critical to the success of a golf course and cost-effective.

So what should be done?

1. Have 2 different greens fees prices for residents and non-residents. Raise the walk rates by $1.00 for residents for both 9 holes and 18 holes. Make the riding rates $30.00 for 9 holes and $45.00 for 18 holes 7 days per week for residents. On weekends for non-residents, increase the greens fees should increase to $25.00 for 9 holes and $30.00 for 18 holes walking and riding fees should be $35.00 for 9 holes and $45.00 for 18 holes.

2. Allow pull carts to be used for a $3.00 fee daily.

3. Increase golf course budget by $100,000.00 as described in an earlier article.

4. Complete Top Tracer to include attached bathrooms and running water for a snack bar.

5. Expand all snack bar hours to 6pm for Top Tracer and Clubhouse

6. Provide a $50,000.00 addition to the budget for refurbishing the clubhouse

7. Hire additional golf course maintenance personnel and train them properly, as mentioned in a previous article

8. Appoint your PGA Golf Professional to the Committee that is directly responsible for golf course funding and operation with a
10% increase in annual compensation

9. Hire a trained and licensed golf course superintendent

10. Anticipate that it will require 6 months to hire that Superintendent, so renew the contract with the management Company
that you currently have (for 6 months with an option for another 6 months) and require them to provide an on-sight qualified
and licensed Superintendent during that time period to properly train the golf course maintenance staff.

It is VERY IMPORTANT that there is a presence of a qualified person with a golf background on the Board or Committee. Don’t just throw good money after bad in a Band-Aid effect to run the golf course. In addition, trim the trees and remove several of them to help your golf course breathe.

Next Article: Developing a Par-3 Executive Golf Course – Pros and Cons

As always, I am Alan Prescott and can be reached by email at [email protected]

Be safe and play golf

2 Comments
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Jim Mayo
Jim Mayo (@guest_60296)
3 years ago

Really appreciate your efforts. I hope that someone who can act on them is reading and believing. I came to Fernandina Beach in 1994. At that time the course was equal to any public course I had ever played and better than many rural private courses. The major culprit for its current condition is political mismanagement.

Neil Borum
Neil Borum (@guest_60300)
3 years ago

“Complete Top Tracer to include attached bathrooms and running water for a snack bar.”

a good example of the poor planning starting with City Staff, City Manager, and the FBCC for letting themselves be

bamboozled by this.

To complete now will add far more cost than properly planning them into the project in the first place.