Minutes 09-12-02Minutes of the Golf Course Advisory Board Held Thursday, September 12, 2002 in
The Links' Restaurant, The Caddyshack Cafe
Present:
George Barrett, Chairman, City Member
Bill McCarty, City Member
Art Mathews, City Member
James Smith, Vice Chairman, County Member
Corrado Giangreco, City Alternate
Dan Hager, PGA, Head Professional
Joe Sciortino, MP, Golf Director
Kurt Bressner, City Manager
Absent:
Dan Winters, County Alternate
Diana Johnson, City Member
Robert Lee, City Alternate
Chairman Barrett called the meeting to order at 3:05pm.
Mr. McCarty moved to accept the agenda as presented, seconded by Mr. Barrett, and
passed 4-0.
Mr. Matthews moved to accept the minutes of the March 14, 2002 GCAB meeting as
presented, seconded by Mr. McCarty and passed 4-0.
Under the only order of business, the Golf Director's report, Mr. Sciortino went over the
report he had sent the committee in advance of the meeting. He covered several issues.
The first was that activity at the course was slightly down from last year on the
Championship Course, and about 1% down on the Family Golf Course, mirroring the
effect of the slowing economy. He went on to say that the Caddyshack Cafe was doing
much better than last year, although we were still projecting a loss of some $40,000 for
the year (compared to $60,000+ last year). However, many of our new programs were
just out, including our coupon of "buy 5 meals and get the 6thfree''.
Mr. Sciortino went on to discuss the marketing strategies for the course, emphasizing
greater value for our customers over discounted prices. He said that although the
National Golf Foundation had surveyed some 300,000 golfers with their "CLASP"
program and found that the national average was 21% of public rounds were played at
the golfer's "home" course, we had done a similar customer loyalty survey, based on
their model, and found that our customers played 40% of their golf at our course.
Art Mathews said that he has played many courses with his group of golfers and none
had the friendly feel of The Links. He said he did not know what they were being taught,
but that it certainly was the right thing and to keep it up. Mr. Sciortino thanked him for the
compliments and reminded everyone that The Links is truly a team effort of everyone
that works here. He agreed with Mr. Mathews that we currently had a great staff that
treated everyone extremely well.
Mr. Sciortino also discussed the evolving Links Club Card program as a viable
alternative to the annual permit program. He went over the rate adjustments for the
course as approved by the City Commission. Mr. McCarty asked how the approval
process worked. Mr. Sciortino responded that he provides the City Commission with not
only the recommended rates for The Links, but also a chart that shows the rates of its
competitors in Palm Beach County. The City Commission holds workshops with Staff,
and then formal hearings before the public as mandated by the Florida TRIMS bill. So far
the Commission had been through the staff workshops and had approved the City
budget as presented at the first public hearing held September 3rd. The second and final
hearing would be held September 17®.
Mr. Sciortino mentioned that one of the rate adjustments being recommended by him
was increasing the capital surcharge fee from its current 47 cents plus three cents tax to
94 cents and six cents tax. He told the Board that the CIP fee program, introduced by
him in 1986, had remained at 50 cents up until now. And over the past sixteen years
over a million dollars had been spent improving the course with it. However, the course
was now nineteen years old, improvements were more expensive to undertake, and it
was time for the current golfers to help with its future success, just as the golfers in the
past had paid for the improvements being enjoyed by them now.
Having said that he went over the draft Master Plan that Chuck Ankrom, Golf Course
architect, had prepared based on several meetings and tours of the course with Mr.
Sciortino and Mr. Wahlin, the course superintendent. He told the Board that this draft
was being shown to The Links' Staff, the Advisory Board, and others for feedback. He
mentioned that one of the Cutting Edge team members in maintenance had already
pointed out a potential safety problem with one of the newly designed tees, and that with
many eyes looking the plan over we could avoid many potential problems.
Mr. Bressner, the City Manager, asked if there might be some cost benefit to building the
bulkheads with metal instead of wood. He suggested that modern steel and metal
bulkheading could be made to look like wood, but that they would last longer than wood.
And if the cost was not as great as the increased life span then maybe metal would be a
good alternate. Mr. Sciortino said he was meeting with the architect tomorrow and would
pass this suggestion along to him for investigation.
Hearing no New or Old Business to consider, Mr. McCarty moved to adjourn the
meeting, seconded by Mr. Giangreco. The meeting was adjourned at 4:15pm.
Respe~c/~ully submitted,
J o, MP, Golf Director