The Saints Golf Course likely will end 2004 in the red, but city officials say the course could have a better year in 2005 thanks, in part, to a new maintenance supervisor.
Weather, maintenance issues and debt have kept the greens out of the black since the city bought it from Club Med in 2001 for $3.6 million.
Upgrades, repairs made necessary by heavy rains, and irrigation improvements have eaten up money and time. This is the first summer the course has been open.
Even with the extra months and rounds played, the course is $9,000 over budget and likely to finish the fiscal year in September even deeper in debt.
"It's not going to be huge. It's not going to be six figures," said David Pollard, director of the city's office of budget and management. "It'll take a year of profit to get a cumulative break even."
Upkeep, or lack of it, has been one of the major factors handicapping the course.
In June, city officials fired Superintendent Jim Miscoski because of inadequate maintenance.
Last month, Curtis Wichern took the superintendent's job, finding a course with packed soil, weedy fairways and high grass. Wichern, a former assistant superintendent of the Lost Lake Course in Hobe Sound, will not talk about how the Saints got into the shape it's in.
But the new superintendent is quick to discuss his plans for the 180-acre course.
This week, Wichern aerated the soil, a task that merits a five-minute lecture about how roots need to breathe. Later, he gives a 10-minute soliloquy about mowing the fairways short so they are clearly marked.
Source: Fort Pierce (Fla.) Tribune