Golfdom Report: 21 at last

Graph: Golfdom Staff

Mike Fast, CGCS, spent 22 years as superintendent at Delphos CC in Van Wert, Ohio, before leaving to take a different superintendent position. After two years, he returned to Delphos, a course with a reliable crew comprised mostly of retirees and his son in the summers. While the clubhouse revenue has been negatively affected by COVID-19, the course has been busy, memberships are up and he expects an increase to his maintenance budget.

“I think COVID-19 has really helped the industry; that’s what I’ve seen in Ohio and talking to other superintendents,” he says. “Everyone is busy and having a good year. Ever since 2000, our memberships have been going down, but, this year, we rebounded — 40 to 50 new members. COVID has helped, and we’ve also done a lot of improvements to the course.”

Kevin Rotti is the superintendent at the Legacy Club at Alaqua Lakes, a Tom Fazio design in the Orlando area. He echoes what Fast says — membership is up, and if the budget is approved, his maintenance budget will go up “substantially.”

“We’re owned by Concert Golf, and we have two properties. This one, the Legacy Club at Alaqua Lakes, then down the road a mile is Heathrow CC. Both of our golf courses have been extremely busy all year long,” he says. “We’ve had no issues with lack of play, and even our membership has gone up over the last month or two.”

The Cliffs in Salem, S.C., features seven different courses including Keowee Falls. This year, Keowee Falls added an additional forward tee to the Nicklaus course and implemented switching tee setup almost daily on all seven courses. (Photo courtesy of The Cliffs)

As far as the maintenance budget, the increase of almost 10 percent is coming simply because it’s due.

“We’ve got a lot of low handicappers, a lot of good players,” Rotti says. “They’re trying to turn a profit as good as they can, but my particular club, we’re a golfers-only club. They know we have to step it up a notch or two to keep everyone happy and to keep up with the premier courses in our area.”

Genesis Turfgrass serves customers in seven states. Merrick says the Early Order Program (EOP) of fall 2020 was “shockingly great.”

“The big question was, are people going to pay their bills (in 2020)? Is it going to be really bad? Is EOP going to be bad? Everybody went through that period, early order, then COVID hit, the fear hit. We’re human,” he says. “It was absolutely reverse. More people paid their bills (in 2020), even with clubs closed and wedding losses, more people paid their bills (in 2020) than ever. To see an EOP improve over last year, it shows you the state of the industry. To me, what people want to do in this situation and what they want to do next year … golf is going to boom.”

— S.J.

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