If you haven't played LinRick Golf Course in a long time, you will notice two things right away when you visit Richland County's only county-owned course.
First: all the lush grass in the fairways.
Second: all the golfers in those fairways.
The grass is the product of a renovated irrigation system and a rainy summer. The golfers are there because, after years of poor conditions and worse management, LinRick -- located off U.S. 321 about 10 minutes north of I-20 -- is one of the better golf deals in the Midlands.
"Word of mouth," said John "E" Rutherford, LinRick's greens superintendent. "That's the best advertising there is."
It must be working. Nick Diener, LinRick's general manager since May 2003, said the golf course has turned from a cash drain to a moneymaker in the past 18 months.
Though the golf course is county-owned, it gets no regular funding from Richland County. Between 2001-03, LinRick had to borrow $117,000 from the county recreation commission to pay its bills.
"Last year (2002-03), we lost $40,000," Diener said. But through June, he said, LinRick showed a $150,000 profit for 2003-04, despite fees of $24 weekdays and $29 on weekends that are among the lowest in the Midlands.
How? "Five thousand more rounds," Diener said. "Plus we've reduced our maintenance costs, so there's less waste."
The changes are due in large part to the tandem of Diener, recruited by recreation commission deputy executive director (and fellow retired Army officer) Bob Redfern, and Rutherford, a golf maintenance veteran.
When Redfern asked him to take over, "I played a lot of golf, but I didn't know the business side," Diener said. "I had to do a lot of learning. Mostly, I applied the idea, How would I, as a golfer, want to be treated?'* "
His conclusion: Golfers wanted a well-conditioned course, clubhouse amenities, decent pace of play -- and, because it's county-owned, a good price.
These days, LinRick has all of those.
Start with the course. Rutherford, who previously worked at Indian River and The Country Club at Woodcreek Farms, said physical conditions at LinRick were poor when he began there in February 2003.
"The biggest thing was just cleanup, from years of neglect, and just putting fertilizer out," he said.
Trees were removed, more grass was planted and broken sprinkler heads were repaired. Some of Rutherford's work even helped speed up the pace of play.
"We grew rough at Nos. 3 and 9, so now balls don't roll into the water," he said. "My biggest complaint was the 51/2-hour round."
The clubhouse was next. Renovations, begun under previous professional Greg Hamilton, include new awnings, a covered patio area for postgolf gatherings, and a spruced-up pro shop offering name-brand clothing and equipment.
Still, Rutherford said, "you can get (customers) here, but if you don't give them good service, they won't come back."
So Diener brought in course rangers who monitor slow play. He and Rutherford built a "team concept," where maintenance workers alert the pro shop when slow play or other problems arise.
Also addressed was a covert system of "regulars" bumping back other customers' tee times, causing scheduling nightmares, and "freebies" that cut into the bottom line.
"A lot of guys had played free for years, and no one knew why," Diener said. "So we asked."
That eliminated much of the abuse, he said.
The changes at LinRick are, for longtime patrons, dramatic. In the late 1990s, the course was mostly known for its hard, baked-out fairways that earned it the pejorative nickname "LinRock." The course's image hit bottom in 2001 when longtime pro Charles Dymock was fired for embezzling pro shop funds.
Now, with head professional Billy Dillon and assistant Wes Norville (both most recently at Crickentree) on board, business is again bustling. Some 4,000 rounds were played in June, capping a 41,000-round year.
Diener said the course got a boost last summer when Oak Hills, less than 10 miles away, was closed for renovations. "People came here, and some stayed," he said. "They said, This is the LinRick I knew.'
"Now, people who can afford to go elsewhere are choosing to come out here."
The word is getting around.
Source: The State (Columbia, S.C.)