FIX GOLF – authored by Tom Blakeman, June 25, 2019
Thank you Golf Department for trying to halt rapidly increasing golf “Subsidy” – a user-friendly name for losing money. Golf Lost almost Two Million Dollars last year. June board reports show the Loss on track to be much worse this year.
POA considers weather to be the problem. But, Golf has lost money every year for the last 10 years. Weather, in almost every case, was the noted cause. While weather is the “go to” excuse it is NOT the issue.
POA will now close courses judiciously to reduce “supply” and reduce costs by freezing certain unfilled jobs. This is similar to reducing the output of a manufacturing plant by cutting one daily production shift. Cutting maintenance and operations staff is NOT a solution. When a course is “offline” for a period that is when maintenance needs to be increased. Lots of things need fixing on the courses.
More Revenue is the answer. That does NOT mean raising Member rates either. Utilization of the courses needs to be dramatically increased. Reports mentioned increases in stay and play packages which is great, but far from enough. We have tens of thousands of unused tee times. The Answer: More Local Non-Member Play.
POA should actively market to every golfer in a three hour drive radius. Make them want to come and fill empty tee times daily. That means special rates, promotions, advertising and the like. Run a golf bus from Little Rock if you have to. Whatever it takes. This has not been getting done.
City of Little Rock is closing two popular public golf courses, War Memorial and Hindman Park. Our Golf Department needs to capture those players who now need a new golf venue. Pricing & Promotion equals Revenue.
Authored by Tom Blakeman, Hot Springs Village
Formatted by Cheryl Dowden
Photography by Joe Dowden
John Dethardt
06/25/2019 — 6:37 am
We have many agronamist, we DON’T aneed a head agronamist. The director of golf can handle most of his duty. Meet with the coarse superintendent regularly. Either way we don’t need both two director in the golf department. I’ll save you a lot of money.
Wes
06/25/2019 — 9:36 am
They have more than two that run or think they run the golf dept
Lloyd Sherman
06/25/2019 — 8:37 am
Tom Blakeman is correct about cutting costs not being the answer. However, cutting costs becomes necessary only when the revenues don’t meet the need. Rain and weather keep getting “blamed” as the cause. It is not the cause; it is the symptom. On playable days, golf revenues are down over $500 per day and that has nothing to do with weather; it has to do with usage. Golf is not our only amenity, however, due to the number of courses, it is the largest amenity and the one that can either help you or in our case right now, hurt you! There are plenty of places where costs could be cut, but closing the golf courses isn’t the answer. I echo Tom’s stance! This is a revenue issue!
Linda Anderson
06/25/2019 — 9:01 am
Tom, You are right on. Golf is the most neglected and under rated of all the amenities used to raise funds for growth and stability. Where is the Leadership, Media, and the Ingenuity to show enthusiasm for this great sport. Create tournaments with prizes and publicity. Even a little lottery to spark involvement. It is a sad state of affairs.
Mary Szczepaniak
06/25/2019 — 4:17 pm
Linda, I agree that we should host tournaments. . . big ones. I like Tom’s idea about getting a bus to transport people from LR or HS.
Mel west
06/25/2019 — 12:32 pm
What about golf tours from other states? Fly in for golf and stay at local condos or other facilities. California loves golf but hard to get T times are hard to get and expensive
Mary Szczepaniak
06/25/2019 — 4:18 pm
Good idea, Mel.
Walter Chance
06/26/2019 — 1:43 pm
Closing a golf course should never be an option. I have personally seen the results. Property owners loose value, once you close it, reopening cost a fortune. Again, we need a marketing program to promote golfing. Revenue ideas have not even been studied. But tournaments, non resident memberships, promotions in Little Rock, newspaper and internet. With the two golf closures in Little Rock. That is an opportunity. I have a good friend that owns one of the top 10 courses in Texas. When I was trying to save a course from closing, he said on many occasions that Driving Ranges drive memberships. I think we should offer free time on the range. Get the people’s email and email blast specials. Start a Jr membership program. So many solutions. I could list a variety of ideas.
Bryan Salerno
07/15/2020 — 10:19 am
Walter, I really liked your ideas. Can you reach out to me at 5015298686? Thanks, Bryan
Jim Erickson
07/02/2019 — 10:25 am
Close golf courses? What’s next drain the lakes, close the restaurants and suspend the gate guards?
We moved here after investigating many other areas of the country and chose HSV because this is the Total Package. Yet after playing golf for 60 years in our home state of Michigan as well as around the globe we had never heard of HSV. We came here on a whim just to see what in the world Arkansas could have to offer and bought a house on our fourth day here. Many friends from the Midwest have come to visit and are incredulous about what we have found and all look forward to returning.
Those who say are problem is underdevelopment and underutilization are spot on!
The answer to our problem can be summed up in one word – MARKETING.
For all the naysayers why don’t you move? Answer-because you all know there is not a better place to retire for the money.
So rather than looking to save money via diminished services and amenities perhaps we need to invest in an outside marketing agency to properly market this hidden gem that we all now call home.
Kirk Denger
07/03/2019 — 9:23 pm
We have a CEO who is driving us into the ground, the deeper she can bury us the better for her objectives in repossessing the Village. As an agent of the Congress of New Urbanism the CEO is directly responsible for the complete rewriting of our Articles of Incorporation in Jan. of 2017. Hot Springs Village Property Owners Association, by its Secretary, does hereby certify
that at a meeting of its Board of Directors, duly called and held in accordance with its Bylaws
and applicable law, on January 17, 2018, by a majority vote of the Directors, the following
Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation were adopted: TENTH: Upon dissolution of the Association, the assets of the Association, both real and
personal, shall be dedicated to an appropriate public agency or utility to be devoted to purposes as
nearly as practicable the same as those to which they were required to be devoted by the
Association. In the event that such dedication is refused acceptance, such assets shall be granted,
conveyed and assigned to any nonprofit corporation, association, trust or other organization, to be
devoted to purposes as nearly as practicable the same as those to which they were required to be
devoted by the Association.
The Congress of New Urbanism is a non-profit 501 (c) (3).
Enjoy yourselves, It is later than we think.
Linda Anderson
07/13/2019 — 3:17 pm
NO sincere effort is being made to market ” GOLF “. More emphasis is placed on the faulty CMP which makes no sense. Where is the leadership so desperately needed to maintain and protect ” Golf ” which is vital and necessary to bring in the revenues to keep the Home Values up and promote growth? Will it come down to Golf Courses being totally shut down and people trying to sell and leave? The situation continues to get worse. Home Values are circling the drain now and will go down the drain if people don’t unite against what is going on. A scary situation is developing.
Gary Godfrey
07/17/2019 — 6:44 am
For me to talk about golf in the Village is and always will be annoying to me. I went to many board meetings in the past as the prices just kept going up every year. 1996 when we bought our lot golf was 12.50 a round with cart. Now I dont expect that to be that price today for sure, but since then a lot has been taken away from the members. Rain seems to be the answer to everything, but if you look back in the early 2000’s we had 87 inches of rain one year and still had well over 300,000 rounds of golf played. Whats the difference? 1. Every year the raising of green fees and cart fee. 2, Family rates went up to the point that family members didnt play anymore. The cost was about ten bucks more them member rates. Its 50 to 60 dollars. The POA charging for a cart seat on a private cart. Look at your yearly annuals for cart leasing and annual green fees. They have really gone down every year. Remember when you could buy a book of coupons for guests to play at a member rate, Taken away. Friends wont come down to play at these prices that are in place today. Charging more for playing certain courses! Dumb.
All of these things added up over the years to reduce the amount of play in the village. I can remember on any Saturday the Range, the putting greens and the parking lot being full with members and visitors to play golf. Need to think about bringing some of this stuff back if you want to bring family members, guests and visitors back.
In my home state as a senior prices are very good and now much cheaper then playing in the Village.
HSVP C
07/17/2019 — 6:49 am
Thank you, Gary. That was very well stated.
Anonymous
08/11/2019 — 12:21 pm
Right on Gary