Operations, may 30, 2014

     Troon Golf can check another U.S. state off its to-do list. Troon Privé, the company’s private-club division, has been hired to manage its first property in Rhode Island, Alpine Country Club in Cranston. Alpine, which Troon describes as “one of the premier country clubs” in the state, features a Geoffrey Cornish-designed, 18-hole golf course that opened in 1961. As it does at its other properties, Troon has set out to provide “an enhanced lifestyle experience” for the club’s members and guests. According to a listing at its website, Troon currently operates courses in 32 states.

     Billy Casper Golf has been tabbed to operate the longest golf course in Indiana, a 7,754-yard behemoth at Purgatory Golf Club in Noblesville. The 18-hole, Ron Kern-designed course is also among the state’s most difficult, as it features 125 bunkers, fairways lined by thick, tall grasses, and, according to an online reviewer, “wickedly contoured greens.” Mike Merchant, the club’s owner, calls the playing experience “sweet misery.” Peter Hill, the chairman of BCG, believes the course is “one of the best in central Indiana” and promises to “enhance golfers’ experiences time and again.” BCG operates two other golf properties in the Hoosier State, Blackthorn Golf Club in South Bend and Sand Creek Country Club in Chesterton, neither of which pose comparable challenges.

     After a year of trying, the city of Phoenix, Arizona and Arizona State University have hammered out a 30-year agreement for the management of Papago Golf Course. The contract solves programs for both parties, as the city needs an experienced, dependable operator for its most popular golf venue and ASU needs a home for its men’s and women’s golf teams. Papago, which features an 18-hole, Billy Bell-designed course, is on track to earn nearly $500,000 this year, according to the Arizona Republic. ASU will begin to operate the course in July, and it’s agreed to complete the facility’s long-delayed clubhouse within three years. Since 1989, the university’s golf teams have played at ASU Karsten Golf Course, a Pete Dye-designed track that slated for development.

     The only golf venue in an Illinois state park has been turned over to the private sector. Green Golf Partners, an Indiana-based company, has been enlisted to manage the Ken Killian-designed Eagle Creek Golf Course, a facility in Findlay sometimes called the National Golf Course at Eagle Creek. The 18-hole track is the main attraction at Lake Shelbyville State Park, a 34,000-acre spread with a resort that’s been plagued by miseries -- mold, most recently -- since it opened in the late 1980s. “Finding an experienced golf course manager is an important first step for Eagle Creek Resort,” a state official said in a press release. Green Golf manages 13 U.S. golf properties, six of them in Illinois. The latter group includes the University of Illinois Golf Course outside Champaign, Danville Country Club in Danville, and Kemper Lakes Golf Club in suburban Chicago.

     The First Tee of Northern Nevada has agreed to short- and long-term contracts that will enable it to operate a deeply troubled, municipally owned golf facility in Reno. The city will shed no tears as it walks away from Rosewood Lakes Golf Course, which has reportedly lost $4.6 million since 2007. The First Tee’s short-term lease agreement, which begins this month, remains in effect until local road construction impacts the site of by 18-hole track. The long-term lease kicks when the road is built, as long as the First Tee believes it can successfully operate a nine-hole track on the property. By turning the course over to the First Tee, the city expects to save roughly $620,000 a year.

     After years of searching, the city of Augusta, Georgia appears to have identified an operator for its financially distressed 18-hole golf course. The city is negotiating a five-year contract with Orlando, Florida-based Cypress Golf Management, which believes it can turn a profit at Augusta Municipal Golf Course -- known locally as “the Patch” -- by late 2016 or early 2017. Doing so may be a challenge, as Cypress has promised that greens fees will remain in the mid $20s, cart included. “The mission is to provide affordable golf,” a councilmember told the Augusta Chronicle. Cypress is led by Bill Stine, one of the founders of International Golf Maintenance Company and Meadowbrook Golf. The company currently manages one property in Georgia (Durham Lakes Country Club in Fairburn) and six in Florida, among them Hernando Oaks Golf Club in Brooksville, Remington Golf Club in Kissimmee, and Twisted Oaks Country Club in Beverly Hills.

     The city of La Junta, Colorado has assumed control of its municipal golf course. In recent years, the nine-hole track had been operated by a group of members who were having trouble making ends meet. “It is our goal to make this among the best municipal golf courses in Colorado,” a city administrator told the La Junta Tribune-Democrat. The course, which was designed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, opened in 1940.