Operations, september 6, 2013

     While it digests its recent acquisitions in Georgia, Sequoia Golf Group is aggressively trying to ink management contracts in California. Since June 2012, Sequoia has begun to operate three golf properties in the Golden State, most recently Old Ranch Country Club in Seal Beach. The firm picked up Rancho Vista Golf Club in Palmdale last summer, and earlier this year it assumed control of Pauma Valley Country Club in suburban San Diego. Sequoia has assumed a 20-year lease on Old Ranch, which features an 18-hole, Ted Robinson-designed course that opened in 1967 and was redesigned by Robinson in 2001.

     The city of Savannah, Georgia is looking to replace the long-time operator of Bacon Park Golf Course. Bob Elmore will end his 16-year association with the 27-hole complex at the end of the year, and the city aims to hire a new operator by late November, in order to have a seamless transition on January 1, 2014. The 87-year-old facility has seen better days. It reportedly attracts fewer than half the rounds it did a decade ago, and the Savannah Morning News says that revenues have fallen from more than $1 million in 2008 to roughly $728,000 in 2012. According to a recently issued request for proposals, the city is searching for candidates capable of making almost $4 million worth of improvements to the Donald Ross-designed complex, including new greens and a new irrigation system. The city is accepting responses to its RFP until September 24.

     East Coast Golf Management, which operates a half-dozen golf properties in and around Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, has been hired to operate a financially troubled golf property in Longs. ECGM’s first order of business will be to address the property’s identity crisis, as it opened in 1988 as Colonial Charters Golf Club, operated for years as Palmetto Greens Golf & Country Club, and will now again be called Colonial Charters. “Everybody remembers Colonial Charters and what it was, and that’s what we want to bring back,” Mike Buccerone of ECGM told the Myrtle Beach Sun-News. “We want the members to be proud, and hopefully they’ll remember what Colonial Charters was and they’ll like the new version.” Pace Group, an entity led by Van Watts, has a lease-purchase agreement on Colonial Charters. By all accounts, it’s intent on restoring the property’s good name.

     In an attempt to eliminate red ink, the city of Janesville, Minnesota may seek a private-sector operator for Prairie Ridge Golf Course. “We don’t want to have an option out there that we didn’t explore,” Mayor Mike Santo told the Janesville Argus. The Joel Goldstrand-designed track -- the only nine-hole, reversible golf course in southern Minnesota, according to the Argus -- has, like so many U.S. municipal courses, found it difficult to turn a profit in recent years. The losses aren’t large -- $57,000 in 2008, $66,500 in 2010, $11,400 in 2012 -- but they’re enough to cause financial headaches in a city of 2,300. The mayor and his colleagues on the city council plan to spend the next few months researching their options.

     Sometime next year, the city of Springfield, Tennessee will seek a new operator for its 18-hole, Raymond Floyd-designed golf course. Billy Casper Golf has managed Legacy Golf Course since 2000, most recently on a series of short-term renewals, but the city thinks it’s time to see if it can swing a better deal. “Billy Casper Golf has done a good job,” Springfield’s assistant city manager told the Tennessean last month, “but after 14 years, it will be time to put the contract out for bid again.” BCG hasn’t yet announced whether it’ll challenge for the contract. Just weeks ago, responding to complaints about service and the condition of the clubhouse, it appointed a new general manager at the course. “We want people to walk in and feel like we’re taking care of the place,” said Josh Geppi, who assumed his new position late last month. “We want people to take pride in the Legacy.” BCG, which manages more than 140 U.S. golf properties, has four others in Tennessee, among them two municipal tracks in Knoxville.

     Pending approval of a recently negotiated lease, the city of San Francisco will soon turn over Golden Gate Park Golf Course to a local First Tee group. The city believes that the nine-hole, beginner-friendly track is operating at half-capacity, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, and is hoping that The First Tee of San Francisco’s youth-oriented approach will deliver more than $400,000 in fees by the fifth and final year of the contract. The new operator has also promised to make $150,000 worth of much-needed capital improvements at the 62-year-old layout.

     City officials in Tamarac, Florida are searching for professional help, as the operators of Colony West Golf Course have packed up and left. The city bought Colony West in 2011 and leased it back to the sellers, members of the Rack family, who abruptly fled late last month, citing continuing financial losses and an inability to pay their upcoming rent. The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reports that prospective managers are already knocking on the city’s door.