Source: St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
Tarpron Springs, Fla. - The city will raise its golf course fees next week, but being a resident will still pay off - at least before noon.
Greens fees will increase across the board, but golfers who live in Tarpon Springs will get a $4 discount on 18-hole morning play.
The City Commission approved the fees Tuesday night.
At a commission meeting this month, golf course manager Chuck Winship presented proposed fees that would have required residents and nonresidents to pay the same price for teeing up.
But commissioners objected to the proposed fees, saying city residents should still get a discount. The commission asked Winship to come to the next meeting with a new set of fees.
At Tuesday night's meeting, Winship presented a new list of fees with some resident discounts.
Before noon, 18-hole play will cost residents $24 and nonresidents $28, a $2 increase for each. And 9-hole play any time will cost residents $12 and nonresidents $14, a $1 increase. Fees are lower May through November.
Discounted rates for early bird and league play, however, will be the same across the board.
City Commissioner Peter Dalacos asked Winship on Tuesday night whether those discounted rates could be increased for nonresidents.
"I feel we should be making our nonresidents pay a little more," Dalacos said.
But, Winship said, increasing fees further might discourage people from using the golf course.
"We're trying to bring anybody that we can to use our facilities," he said.
Winship said he expects the increased rates, which will go into effect Sunday, to bring in about $55,000 in additional revenue for the golf course. The course pays about $275,000 into the city's general fund every year.
The course's annual budget tops $1.5-million. The city took over the golf operation at the course in 1996, but the course's history dates to 1907, when the first nine holes were developed. The other nine were added in the late 1920s.
Even with the fee increase, Winship said, the city's golf course is still one of the cheapest in the area.
Last year, 62,130 rounds were played at the golf course, 160 more than the previous year.
That's a good sign, he said, because several factors made the 2003-04 fiscal year a "goofy" one for the golf course.
"We started out October with six sinkholes on the golf course," Winship said.
"That set us off a little bit right off the bat."
Then came the hurricanes. The course lost 52 trees, Winship said, and play dropped off drastically.
October and November were good months for golfing, he said, but the outcome for December is uncertain.
"Everything depends on this last week," Winship said.
"It's the largest week of the year for golf courses in this area. If we have good weather, December will be a good month, too."
