Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
In the classic movie "Caddyshack," Bill Murray's character, greens keeper Carl Spackler, fought pesky gophers to keep Bushwood Country Club in top shape.
At the Mt. Lebanon Public Golf Course, a nine-hole layout on Pine Avenue, the biggest pests aren't furry creatures, but rather a dogging need to increase play and shore up finances.
For about a year, an ad hoc committee of 17 golfers has been working on ideas for the publicly funded course and they recently presented their ideas to the board of commissioners in hopes of improving the facility in time for the course's 100th birthday in 2007. Their recommendations include:
* Develop a marketing plan and budget.
* Hire a golf course architect to analyze the facility and recommend improvements.
* Monitor operations and management to make sure it is efficient.
* Increase revenue by adding amenities.
The committee recommended several improvements, including three that commissioners had budgeted for this year.
The first items are a new irrigation system for $390,900; multiple tees to help players of various abilities participate for $35,000; and a new point-of-sale software system to keep track of rounds of golf played for $10,000.
The report says more revenue could be created by upgrading the clubhouse and pro shop with improved restrooms and locker facilities; adding a casual grill and snack area, and building a picnic pavilion and a learning center.
Other items that would help, the committee said, include adding course rangers to speed play, rebuilding bunkers, buying more carts and adding a structure to store them, installing ball washers and benches at every tee and completing the cart path.
The committee came to its recommendations with the help of the first phase of a $1,800 study, which asked local golfers what they wanted.
The study had 200 participants in its first round and subsequent rounds could garner as many as 400, Recreation Director Bill Moore said.
Commissioners last month asked the committee to prioritize items and present a proposal, but said that the 2007 birthday seemed like a natural kickoff to any improvements.
The goal of the course is always to break even or make money, Moore said.
But sometimes, he said, the purchase of new equipment can throw those figures off for a few years.
The 2004 figures aren't in, but it looks as if the course will have operated about $30,000 in the red because of record rainfall, he said. In 2003, the course lost $1,500 and in 2002, it had its worst year in recent memory, losing $62,000, Moore said.
The course's operating budget this year is $420,800 and it is projected to lose about $10,000 because of the purchase of the software for the course, municipal Manager Stephen Feller said.
Moore credits some of the lost revenue to an increase in greens fees for nonresidents. In 1998, when residents and nonresidents paid the same fees, the course made $24,000, he said.
Current rates for residents are $8 to $9 for nine holes and $13 to $14 for nonresidents. The rates are scheduled to change in April, when residents and nonresidents will pay the same, Moore said, in hopes of encouraging nonresidents to play more rounds.
The course began as the Castle Shannon Golf Club on July 4, 1907, when men in white flannel pants, flannel coats, straw hats and ties set off fireworks and putted some balls on the former William Smith Farm, according to the course's official history.
In 1918, the club was temporarily closed because of World War I, but it reopened a year later as the Castle Shannon Country Club. The municipality bought it in 1948.
Historians estimate about 1 million rounds of golf have been played on the course since it began.
