Source: The Journal News
With the 2005 golf season just weeks away, Westchester County has finalized a deal with a private company to take over the management and maintenance of underperforming Maple Moor Golf Course in White Plains.
Now the question is if the new operator, Billy Casper Golf, can make headway where the county couldn't.
"We think the golf course will improve," said Peter Hill, CEO for Virginia-based Billy Casper Golf. "The golfers will like what they see, and they'll like what they experience."
Among the company's early plans for the course are to improve turf conditions on the fourth, fifth and sixth holes by putting in new drainage pipes; and by gradually increasing the size of the putting surfaces by cutting down some collars around the greens. A more ominous task involves addressing drainage problems on the low-lying eighth and ninth holes aligning the Hutchinson River Parkway, but both the county and Billy Casper Golf executives say that process is going to take more time.
"Putting in drainage pipes (on holes 4, 5, and 6) is a project, but it won't be a disruption to the guests," said Brian O'Hare, Billy Casper Golf's regional vice president for the Northeast. "People will see it but they can play through it. The eighth and ninth holes are much larger projects."
After Billy Casper Golf managed the first-year Hudson Hills Golf Course in Ossining, the county's controversial decision to turn over another one of its courses to a private operator was prompted by poor playing conditions at Maple Moor the past few seasons, as well as a disappointing bottom line. Although rounds at the 81-year old course last year increased more than 23 percent from a rainy 2003 season, Maple Moor's 2004 revenue was $209,000 less than what had been projected. And with an operating budget of more than $1 million last year, the county figured a private firm could provide golfers with a better product while also running the course more efficiently.
"We feel that we're going to get a better deal for the golf course and we're going to save the taxpayer money," said Larry Schwartz, Westchester's deputy county executive. "Billy Casper Golf has a proven track record where on every public golf course they've come to, they've managed to increase rounds."
Many county golfers, already frustrated with the county's management of its courses, say they won't be convinced the courses will improve until they see so for themselves.
"To really get a golf course in shape you need people who know what they are doing," Eastchester resident Stephen Massa said. "Will that happen? I don't know. I've seen money wasted where conditions were supposed to improve and they didn't."
In the five-year agreement with Casper that was finalized earlier this month, the county would pay the firm an annual maintenance fee, beginning at $775,000 for this year but escalating annually to as high as $865,000 in 2009, for a total of $4.09 million over the five years of the contract. For its management of the golf shop, Billy Casper Golf would also get half of the course's cart revenue, and could also get a share of the course's greens-fee revenue should that number eclipse $1.1 million.
In return, Billy Casper Golf would pay the county an annual licensing fee beginning at $8,000 and would also put between $25,000 and $40,000 of its own money back toward capital improvements at the course each year. Greens fees for golfers will remain the same for 2005, and parks commissioner Joe Stout said there are no plans to raise fees for 2006.
Schwartz said the county was impressed by not only the company's experience at other high-volume municipal courses around the country, but also its specific plan for Maple Moor. In the proposal submitted to the county, the company listed, among other things, work on bunkers and tees that it hoped to complete by the end of 2007. It also listed renovations to the clubhouse it hoped to complete this spring.
But Casper's contributions toward capital improvements, a maximum of $160,000 over five years, is only likely to go so far. Redoing one green alone, for instance, can cost as much as $30,000. And Schwartz himself said the county would consider approaching Westchester County's Board of Legislators about a larger county-funded capital improvement project at Maple Moor if not enough progress was made.
"My biggest concern is the ninth hole. At some point down the road we might need to redesign that hole. That would be a separate capital project," said Schwartz, who said that project could cost more than $1 million. "But I don't think we could make that decision for at least a year. We have to give them a chance to see what they can do."
In some eyes, Billy Casper Golf already has been given that chance at Hudson Hills, and given the lackluster results there, concerns have been raised about why the firm is being rewarded with a second county contract. Under Casper's management, the high-end sixth county course, with greens fees almost three times higher than those at the other five county courses, ended up losing more than $190,000 last year.
But while Hudson Hills in its first year was an unknown entity, Maple Moor's customer base already is established. And those golfers, while skeptical, are hoping they see a difference.
"I don't think as a golfer we care who runs it, but whenever there's a private company involved, what is the main motivating factor? Profit, profit, profit," said Steve Iasillo, a White Plains resident and a Maple Moor regular. "But if they can improve the golf course and hold price, they should give all of the golf courses to them, because that would be a miracle."
