Source: Ventura (Calif.) County Star
The way Jim Walker likes to tell it, it took an errant golf shot to secure $6.5 million worth of improvements for the Buenaventura Golf Course inVentura.
Walker, Ventura's former community services director, recalled the day he took then-Mayor Jim Friedman to the cramped, city-owned course to convince him of the need to fix growing safety and irrigation problems. A wicked, slicing shot from a nearby golfer almost cracked the mayor in the head, Walker said.
"After he recovered and got his heartbeat under control, the mayor looked at me with a sly smile and said, 'OK, I'm convinced. Let's do this,' " Walker said.
This weekend -- three years later -- Buenaventura will reopen with a redesigned layout, fresh grass, a new irrigation system and a relatively modest $23 weekday greens fee. The course, originally built in 1932, has been closed for 10 months during the renovation.
Officials say they are confident the par-70, 6,000-yard course will keep local golfers happy and lure visitors from a regional golf market that has become increasingly competitive. Others aren't so sure.
"Our goal first and foremost is to make sure all Ventura residents have a chance to play," said Lee Harlow, the course's general manager and golf pro. "But we have a very special course here. Iwould put the caliber of this course against any municipal course in the country."
In Ventura County, Buenaventura must compete with more than a dozen courses, including Ventura's other municipal facility, Olivas Park, and Los Robles Greens in Thousand Oaks, River Ridge in Oxnard, Camarillo's Sterling Hills and Camarillo Springs, Simi Hills in Simi Valley, Saticoy Regional, Port Hueneme, Elkins Ranch in Fillmore, Tierra Rejada in Moorpark and Ojai's Soule Park.
In recent years, golf courses have opened up faster than new golfers are filling them, according to Joseph Beditz, president of the National Golf Foundation, an industry-funded research group based in Florida.
Bob Thomas, editor and publisher of the Southern California Golf Association's Fore Magazine, said the industry perception 10 years ago was that Ventura County had a shortage of courses, considering its growing, aging population. Today, it "probably has too many," he said.
But Buenaventura will lure at least as many golfers as the 80,000 a year it was drawing before the renovation, and likely more, he said.
"As a general rule, city courses are holding their own in terms of play and popularity," Thomas said. "A lot of people are going to flock to Buenaventura to see what they have done."
Number of courses increases
Otto Kanny, general manager of the municipal River Ridge Golf Course in Oxnard, said demand for golf in the past decade has leveled out, while the number of courses in the region has soared.
"The competition has gotten much keener since we got here in 1993,"he said. "Since then, there have been no fewer than 14 public golf courses added in our market area."
The reason, he said, is that golf courses are being built to sell homes. "Homes on a golf course have a lot more appeal than homes next to homes,"he said.
In 1997, River Ridge had about 80,000 rounds of golf. Today, Kanny said, the number is closer to 72,000. River Ridge opened nine new holes in November, but the response so far has been restrained. This winter's heavy rains have hurt business, Kanny said.
"Are we concerned about Buenaventura re-entering the market? Absolutely, but there are enough golfers that we're all surviving and doing OK."
The recent surge of new and expanded courses in the county has waned, Kanny said, and "people are still moving here in droves."
The city of Thousand Oaks spent $11 million about five years ago to renovate its Los Robles Greens Golf Course. It reopened in 2002 with a new clubhouse, banquet facility and parking lot.
Facilities Manager Tom Hare said that since the renovation, revenue and the number of players have been steadily increasing. In 2001, the course recorded 70,000 rounds. In the following year, it rose to about 80,600 and in 2003 was 83,050. Before the renovation, however, the course had about 90,000 rounds a year.
'It's really not a gamble'
Greg Gilmer, Ventura's golf services manager, said Buenaventura historically has been a profitable operation, generating $600,000 to $800,000 a year. Of that, $400,000 to $500,000 is used for course administration. The rest goes back into a golf account for future renovations.
The city needs a minimum of 80,000 to 84,000 rounds a year to meet revenue projections.
"It's really not a gamble,"Gilmer said. "That's what we were getting before the renovations, and we have a $400,000 savings to cover any shortfalls, if needed."
Harlow isn't worried, either. He contends the renovation will reduce complaints about slow play while creating a more interesting and aesthetic layout, something that will keep visitors coming back. Traditionally,50 percent of the course's golfers live outside the city.
"Players will continue to be drawn to those courses that offer the best value," Harlow said. "Those that suffer will likely be the high-value courses that have a high debt service to maintain."
Gone from Buenaventura are more than 100 non-native palm trees that lined the fairways, some of which have been replanted on Ventura's historic Main Street. Though distinctive, the palms didn't sit well with some players and officials.
"They never belonged on the course to begin with,"Gilmer said.
Several holes were rerouted
To eliminate the concerns about a cramped, often dangerous layout, several holes were rerouted. This allowed the removal of metal fencing that had been installed on parts of the 95-acre property to protect players.
In addition, the city revamped the playing surface, replacing a patchwork of grass species with a durable rye on all fairways, tees and rough. The greens are 100 percent bent grass, a hardy, disease-resistant variety that provides a surer roll, Harlow and others said.
The bunkers were improved, and a practice putting green more than doubled in size. A snack bar, pro shop and other facilities were repainted.
"We wanted to bring the course out of the 1960s,"Gilmer said. "It looked old.We wanted to give it a fresh look but yet keep the integrity of the original."
Perhaps the most important, yet least visible, improvement is a new irrigation system. More than $1 million was spent on a system that controls every sprinkler head electronically from a central computer, Gilmer said. The computer is connected to an on-site weather station that gauges wind speed, temperature and precipitation to calculate how long each sprinkler should run.
The city hired Texas-based Evergreen Alliance Golf Limited, one of the nation's largest golf course management firms, to oversee the work. The course's layout was designed by Phoenix-based architect Forrest Richardson.
The $6.5 million tab was picked up by the city's golf enterprise fund, an account separate from the city's general fund and supported solely by golfer fees and other related revenues.
Now that Buenaventura is completed, the city will overhaul the nearby Olivas Park course. The estimated $10 million renovation is expected to take 12 months.
Critics of the Buenaventura renovation predicted it would greatly increase the cost of play, but greens fees have risen by only a few dollars. A Saturday morning tee time will cost a Ventura resident $29 and a nonresident $34. During the week, it's $23 and $26, respectively.
In comparison, Simi Hills Golf Course on the county's eastern end charges $26 weekdays for residents and $28 for nonresidents, and $37 and $39 on weekends.
Greens fees, Gilmer said, are reviewed annually and based on comparable fees at other public golf courses in the region. Buenaventura's greens fees are expected to increase an average of $1 annually over the next four years, based on the competition's rates. "The cost to play would be virtually the same today whether we spent $1 or $7 million to improve the golf course,"he said.