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Minutes 01-27-11 MINUTES OF THE GOLF COURSE ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING HELD IN COMMISSION CHAMBERS, CITY HALL, BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA, ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 27, 2011 AT 4:00 P.M. PRESENT Dan Hager, Golf Course Manager Arthur Matthews, Acting Chairperson Scott Wahlin, Golf Maintenance Susan Indilicato Manager Arthur Gabler Jerry Taylor James Smith (Arrived at 4:00pm) Corrado Giangreco, City Alternate Frank Scicchitano, City Alternate Ron Levy, County Alternate ABSENT Kurt Bressner, Non-Voting Member I. OPENINGS A. Call to order Arthur Matthews called the meeting to order at 3:59 p.m. B. Agenda Approval 1. Additions, Deletions, Corrections Acting Chairperson Matthews announced the prior Chair resigned. Motion With no one requesting additions, deletions or corrections to the agenda, Acting Chair. Matthews moved to accept the agenda as presented. Mr. Taylor seconded the motion that carried unanimously. C. Election 1. Election of Golf Advisory Board Chairperson MEETING MINUTES GOLF COURSE ADVISORY COMMITTEE BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDAJANUARY 27, 2011 Acting Chairperson Matthews nominated Jerry Taylor. Mr. Taylor appreciated the nomination; however, being the newest member, he felt someone else should be chairperson. Mr. Smith seconded the motion. The motion carried unanimously. 2. Election of Golf Advisory Board Vice Chairperson Chair Taylor asked for a motion to nominate a Vice Chairperson. Mr. Smith nominated Vice Chair Matthews. The motion was duly seconded and passed unanimously. D. Public Audience Rich Mesaw, a 26 year resident, can no longer play due to a heart condition; however, his 15-year old grandson enjoys playing at all the golf courses in town. Mr. Mesaw and his grandson approached the sign up desk and explained to the desk employee that he could not play, but his grandson would pay the fee and he would drive the cart since his grandson was only 15. Mr. Mesaw was told that could not be done and the only way the cart could be driven was to have a set of clubs on the cart. He again explained to the employee that he was not going to play and just wanted to drive the cart for his grandson. Discussion ensued between them about why the rates were so high and the employee explained that due to insurance regulations, they could not put him in the cart without a set of clubs of if he was not going to play. Mr. Mesaw and his grandson walked out upset. The cart attendant asked why they were leaving and Mr. Mesaw explained the problem. First, it was $38.00 for a junior member and a senior citizen to drive the cart. His grandson is a junior member at the West Palm Beach course and pays only $5.00. Now that he is 16, he can drive his own cart although he still enjoys having his grandfather with him to give him a few tips. The young man who took care of the cart offered to settle the problem by loaning Mr. Mesaw a set of clubs to place on the cart. Mr. Mesaw felt the rules were wrong and junior players should be allowed to go out with an observer. He reiterated that in West Palm Beach, they allow him to use a cart for $5.00 or don’t charge him at all. He requested the Board discuss the insurance company’s position about people going onto the golf course. He felt that if he walked onto the green to do practice putting without buying a ticket, the risk would be the same as if I were on a cart. He wanted to know why he was treated the way he was treated and whether the Board had anything to add to this discussion. Chair Taylor indicated they were following the rules that have been in place since the beginning. He explained he had a similar experience when he took my wife out and she was going to ride but not play. The rule is observers are not allowed on the course with the player. It is up to the Board if they want to change or address the rule. 2 MEETING MINUTES GOLF COURSE ADVISORY COMMITTEE BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDAJANUARY 27, 2011 Mr. Mesaw felt the rules would discourage a lot of people, especially young people. Okaheelee charges $7.00 when he goes out as an observer. Chair Taylor stated the rate is charged the same for all because it is on County land. Residents cannot be charged any less than the fees of other courses in the County. Mr. Mesaw stated Okaheelee and South Winds are County courses also. When Mr. Smith inquired of Mr. Hager how long the policy has been in effect, Mr. Hager replied since the day the doors were opened on June 6, 1984. Everything has to do with liability. Every decision is based on liability. In cases of municipal courses, the liability falls on the entire City. Cities are usually self insured and as an enterprise fund, the Golf Course is not permitted to use any tax money. According to the National Golf Foundation, an Ohio judge ruled that a woman who paid a cart fee and was hit on the head sued and won 286,000. She said she didn’t know there was even a possibility of danger. Mr. Hager advised that he asks his staff not to recommend people rent clubs when they come to the counter and imply they are going to be spectators. Mr. Mesaw reiterated he was told it was a rule, not an option to go out with clubs. Mr. Hager interjected that a spectator would not have a set of clubs, so if a person has a set of clubs, although they cannot be forced to play, they are players and they fall under a different category. When staff is asked about being a spectator rather than a player, he asks staff to quietly recommend neighboring courses that allow spectators. He apologized to Mr. Mesaw for his staff neglecting to do that. In the case of junior golf, graduates from the Links’ junior golf program are charged $3.00 to play golf everyday of the year on a stand-by basis. During the summer they are allowed to ride at a $3.00 rate as long as they are with a full paying adult. He apologized to Mr. Mesaw that he was not made aware of that option. If the juniors have not graduated from the Links’ school, they are charged half price. Mr. Hager was of the opinion that information was not given because Mr. Mesaw was not a golfer but a spectator that day. Mr. Mesaw stated as an adult, non-playing member, he signed the cart ticket and I took the risk by signing. The back of the ticket does not say the game is being played at your own risk. His grandson could not play because he was 15. Now that he is 16, he can drive himself. He advised he has played all the courses, attended tournaments, has ridden in the carts without signing and does not understand why it is different at Boynton Municipal Golf Course. Mr. Hager advised they have a special waiver they use in the case of high school events. They follow FHSAA rules, having to stay 50 feet away and that is the only exception there is on a spectator clause. The paper that was signed on the golf cart is not worth a whole lot if presented to a judge. It is not about the money; it is about the fear that someone could get hurt. It only takes being wrong once to devastate the golf course. Mr. Hager further advised he called the National Golf Foundation and asked for their opinion and they said they thought more courses were 3 MEETING MINUTES GOLF COURSE ADVISORY COMMITTEE BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDAJANUARY 27, 2011 like the Links than were not. When people get hit by balls, invariably because a municipality is involved, people are ready to sue. As a golfer, you are okay. When you are not, that is when there is risk. Mr. Smith inquired if someone comes to the golf course that wishes to be a spectator and is willing to bring or acquire a set of clubs and they are willing to pay the green fees and cart fees, are they in violation of the spectator rule or are they permitted to be spectators? Mr. Hager replied they technically are permitted, but the Links does not encourage this because they are spectators. Mr. Smith suggested possibly making the spectator rule more stringent and possibly put it on a future agenda for Board discussion to see if they want to change the current situation. Mr. Hager has been hesitant to ask the Legal Department for an opinion; however, he will approach them. Vice Chair Matthews indicated he had planned to discuss strategies. In order to grow the game, it is necessary to go through different strategies and use the strategies to enhance the younger players to come to the City’s course. Perhaps it is possible to have some kind of cooperative agreement for juniors across the state. There are some young people and the women that need to be attracted to the golf course in order to continue to grow. Mr. Mesaw reiterated how he felt about the whole situation and added that after he played the 18 holes, his grandson wanted to go to the driving range. When they went to the machine and put one dollar in, he thought the machine was not working properly when he got 10 golf balls for one dollar. At the range in West Palm Beach, his grandson goes to the driving range and gets balls for free. The Committee thanked Mr. Mesaw for bringing this to their attention. II. MINUTES A. Minutes of Golf Course Advisory Committee Meeting of June 3, 2010 Motion Vice Chair Matthews moved to approve the minutes of June 3, 2010. The motion was seconded by Mr. Giangreco and passed unanimously. III. REPORTS A. Manager of Golf Maintenance report Scott Wahlin, Golf Maintenance Manager, gave a PowerPoint presentation and advised they had a good summer this year in golf course maintenance. They concentrated 4 MEETING MINUTES GOLF COURSE ADVISORY COMMITTEE BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDAJANUARY 27, 2011 primarily on conditioning, mowing and aerification. They also resurfaced the family golf course greens and did some irrigation updates and some minor cart path repairs. The greens in the family golf course were sprayed twice with Roundup on June 2 and June 9. A sprig bed was created by opening up the surface, cutting it heavily in four directions and scalping it in four directions. It was aerified in two directions and top dressed heavily after that. Following that, a chemical called Basamid was used, but on the championship course greens, Methylbromide was used. Basamid was used on these because it was less than a quarter of the cost. It goes out at 530 pounds per acre and is incorporated into the soil using irrigation. The regimen for irrigation is to use it for 72 hours to get the fumigant down into the soil. It comes up a bit and then it gets pushed back down. We do that for 72 hours and then let it come up out of the soil. It worked extremely well. On June 13, the greens were sprigged at 40 bushels per acre, but the idea was to get them growing in as quickly as possible. The sprigs were top dressed over again and buried back in the sand. Eight weeks later, after the sprigging, the greens were open for play. Mr. Wahlin continued to advise that heads were installed around all the greens that are directional heads. Right now, there is only one head per corner of the green, but the intent is to eventually add another head so that there can be heads shooting out and shooting in. If a really bad drought situation occurs and there is only a certain amount of water, staff can go out and adjust all the sprinkler heads around the greens so that only greens are being watered. Staff either replaced or completely gutted 150 heads on the golf course through the summer. There is a total of 563 and that will be ongoing as there is still a lot of work to do. Last year, one FTE, part time was eliminated. That is over 2,000 hours of labor that is no longer available. In addition to that, other changes were made. There has been a 48.5% increase in budget. Half of the increase is in the pension contribution and health insurance and the other remaining number is for salaries. Ten years ago, the Operating Expense Budget was $316,000. This year, the budget is $270,000. The price of fuel has not gone down and the price of fertilizer has not gone down. The price of electricity has not gone down. In order to find money, the fertilizer budget has been reduced by $15,000 and chemicals were reduced by nearly 20%. Dollars were removed from temporary services and that was the money that was used to trim the lake banks. When the lake bank trimming and naturalizing were stopped, that $30,000 was removed. The Golf Course is on a shoestring budget right now. The bottom line, over the past years, the budget has increased by 23.6%. Considering the capital line, the Golf Course is budgeted to spend $122,500 on equipment and will probably end up spending about $60,000. Overall the Links would have had about a 14.5% increase over a ten year period. A new material called EZ Street has been secured to patch roads. Those patches will last forever. The original intention was to spend around $100,000 on cart path overlay; 5 MEETING MINUTES GOLF COURSE ADVISORY COMMITTEE BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDAJANUARY 27, 2011 however, $2,000 was spent on cart path patching. Many times overlay will break and come off, this will not come off. Mr. Wahlin confirmed for one of the members that the water for irrigation is taken from the lakes. The way the golf course is designed, any rain water that falls on the property either goes through the aquifer or into the lakes. If the lakes are low water comes in from the canals and replenishes the water in the lakes. About 130 million gallons of water are added to the aquifer every year, after accounting for the water that is used. B. Manager of Golf Operations Report 1. Business Report Dan Hager, Manager of Golf Operations, advised through a PowerPoint presentation, that the rounds comparison for the fiscal year that ended September 30 compared to the previous year, increased in the championship course by approximately 5,000 rounds due to the fact that in the summer of 08/09, the greens were resurfaced. There were temporary greens for 90 days. On the family course, there was a decline of 4,000 rounds. This current fiscal year is the first full year in three years where everything has been open at the Links. The total starts were about the same through fiscal years. In looking at the first quarter, the championship course totals were down 8.4% due to bad weather days in the first quarter. Bad weather days are determined by taking in less than 60% of a budgeted daily amount. One of the disheartening things is the play on the family course was down 17%. In both these cases, starting with the championship course, it is important to look at the economic picture and what is going on in the industry. The Links closest counterpoint is Boca Raton Municipal that had temporary greens in October. They are down 8.4%. John Herrick, who is in charge of the four County courses, reports a decline of 8.5%. The National Golf Foundation says across the country, rounds are down 8-9%. Although it is the economy, it is still disheartening because the revenue needs to meet expenses. The City asked for a 4% or 6% budget reduction and the Links, being an enterprise fund, did 8%. Staff is tightening our belts but it is difficult when it starts to affect the value of the product you are selling because it affects the revenue side. 2. GAP Survey This is a survey sent out annually to 900 people that have a Links Club Card and everyone with an annual permit. The way the GAP survey works is the first thing requested is a rating simply how important this function is to you. It has nothing to do with the Links at Boynton Beach. It has to do with were you greeted politely and were the people friendly when you went to the golf course? The second part of the survey represents rating on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being perfect. The gap that you have between the two notes where you would channel your resources and how you did. In a 6 MEETING MINUTES GOLF COURSE ADVISORY COMMITTEE BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDAJANUARY 27, 2011 gap survey response, the bottom line should be, “we do not have any problems.” This is a good report and does not require any major changes because the public is very satisfied. 3. Promotional Events Mr. Hager advised he has tried promotions, some with success. There is a way to promote called a value add. When checking around the industry, if something is done like lowering the price, it is difficult if you set a time like from 7am-11am, the price is $59 and then you lower the price to $49. You get all the people that pay $59 and then get a certain amount at $49 to make it a wash, possibly more to make it profitable. By using a value add-on, instead of lowering the price and getting people that are only loyal to price and not necessarily loyal to your course, a value is added on. Mr. Hager advised he went to the Wilson Company and purchased Ultra golf balls at a 15 ball pack for $7.06 a box. When people came out to the golf course to play, if they signed up to play 18 holes with a cart, they were given a box of balls. To the customer, it looks like a $15 value, when in reality you are only giving $7; however, you end up with a lot of happy people. That worked well. It is not possible to do this everyday, but Mr. Hager is trying to do some kind of promotional event twice a month, targeting Monday and Wednesday, the slow days at the Links. On New Year’s Day, which is the worst holiday of the year for the golf course, Mr. Hager tried to do something but failed because it was too late to get the word out to get people to come to the golf course. A Links Card Guest day was one effort that did not work. Another attempt at that will be made. The golf ball promotion was tried again and worked a second time so a large bulk order was placed for a good price so it can become a regular event. Golf hats were also ordered for part of the promotion. Mr. Hager advised he found that newspaper ads are too expensive. The price of inserting an ad in the Sunday paper was $438 and that was half price. Friday’s ad was $350. He is able to go into the computerized reservation system and people are registered, approximately 4,000, are able to go in and book eight days ahead. When he th made the announcement for the 24, he sent an email blitz for seating when he knew the ad came out on Friday. It allowed him to go behind the wall to see how many were booked Thursday and before as opposed to Friday and after. The number booked Friday and after was only five groups, whereas the majorities were booked before that. He will pursue his email blitz in the future. 4. Junior Program The golf course currently has 331 juniors in its database that have been through the school. Once a junior has gotten in our school, until the day they turn 18, they are given 30 range balls any day they practice at the course. West Palm Beach does the same. 7 MEETING MINUTES GOLF COURSE ADVISORY COMMITTEE BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDAJANUARY 27, 2011 The school is held in the winter, fall and spring, with three done in the summer. The Links also hosts one event a month for juniors on the family course. 5. Pace of Play Mr. Hager advised new golf carts will be purchased next fiscal year. The industry standard says a golf cart would last four years. The Links has always gotten six years out of the carts. They are due for batteries, as well, which is a $50,000 expense. Pace of Play is going great. One person a day on average says something about Pace of Play and the majority of the players are impressed. 6. Restaurant Report Mr. Hager gave Mr. Foley’s report as he was not present. On a per round sales average, they are holding steady. While the hope is for it to grow, restaurants at golf courses like to measure how much per round. If you had 100 rounds and they took in $100 that would be $1 per round. The response received is very good. On the beverage cart, sales on Saturday and Sunday were almost doubled. Wednesday night league this summer was a rousing success. Thursday night scramble was a success, although small. From listening to the golfers, the restaurant has introduced new items this year. This includes potato salad, salads with choice of meats, egg salad, a tomato blossom with hard boiled eggs and chicken salad and a barbecue pork sandwich. Items to be added in the next month are ham and cheese grilled sandwich, pancakes or French toast and a Zegg, which is a fried egg sandwich with cheese and horseradish sauce. Terry Foley has a concession at Park Ridge and Okaheelee as well. He also sits in on all the meetings. This participation has become a good source of information. He wants to institute a number of programs in the future like a golfer appreciation dinner once a quarter. The caterer will come in and offer a steak dinner at a very low price. Markup will not be charged but the restaurant will make money from drinks. This will be a way to get golfers come in. The monthly special will be geared to the family course golfers. People who had concerns over the “lightness” of the menu were invited to the restaurant. Before the Links went out to bid for the concession, the restaurant was losing $100K a year. The menu was cut back as much as possible to reduce the loss to $75K. Now, nothing is being lost. Finally, he wants to introduce RecGolf. While working with our other company, Innovative Leisure, Inc., we are going to introduce this fun approach to get new golfers onto the course. Using the family course and putting green, we will play games to introduce kids and their parents to the game. Innovative Leisure, Inc. ran a nationally 8 MEETING MINUTES GOLF COURSE ADVISORY COMMITTEE BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDAJANUARY 27, 2011 recognized soccer program for the Town of Lantana and the City of Boynton Beach will use the same approach. IV. NEW BUSINESS 1. Spectator Rule Vice Chair Matthews mentioned the spectator rules. Mr. Hager wanted clarification and inquired whether he should contact the City Attorney for research. Vice Chair Matthews indicated when he looks at the golf course and the Pace of Play, and the Links’ Pace of Play is different from all the other golf courses in Palm Beach County, he thinks the City is assertive in doing that. It worked out well. His feeling is in order to continue to grow and do things that other courses are going to adopt, thought has to be given to attracting the two publics that need to be attracted for more business. Those two publics are females and juniors. He fully believes that if a program were designed the Links could be the cutting edge on attracting those publics long before other golf courses do. Mr. Hager added, with respect to the juniors, although the Links has always had a school and won an award or two, it was always the place needing attention because that is the future of golf. Unfortunately, it is usually 30 years before they are able to afford to play golf as an adult. That investment is always a good investment. Women have the money and have been ignored in this game. From way back, they play from tees where they cannot play the game the way the architect designed it. For every 10 women that play, nine quite according to the USJ report a few years ago. Part of the fact is that the courses are not set up right, so one of the things being discussed is stepping out of the box and building another set of tees. Perhaps the Links could use the mounds on the side and actually shortened the distance for the red tees. Women gravitate to those tees even though they are not ladies tees. They are forward tees. Perhaps those tees could be pushed up about 500 yards for the whole course. When they play at a Par 4, it would be 210 instead of 250. What that means to a woman is that many hit a drive at best 130 or 140 yards. If a drive is hit at 130 and the hold is a short Par 4 for women at 250, that would mean there would be a three wood left to the green. The Links feels woman-friendly now; adding another set of tees, pushing the red up and then putting a set of orange tees behind that so that women would have a choice. Vice Chair Matthews inquired, after discussing this with more females, what is their response to that suggestion and what does the research show needs to be done in attract females to the course? Mr. Hager advised most women have bought into the way it is now and some say we are right. The majority have responded that they can chip and putt and get a par. They should be on the correct course. By his findings, 12% of the golfers are female and 50% of the population is female. The Links is missing the boat as far as growing the game because that is where the biggest potential is. 9 MEETING MINUTES GOLF COURSE ADVISORY COMMITTEE BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDAJANUARY 27, 2011 Ms. Indilicato wanted to mention the problem with rakes and sand traps. No one rakes a sand trap. She reported she goes out very early in the morning and there are some nice gentlemen who go out before her group. However, when men get to the golf course, they forget what a rake is and if they remember, they forget how to use it. Therefore, landing in footprints is always a problem. The other issue is the women are not immune to not raking. Many times the ball will go and you do not think it’s in the trap. You get out what you need, trying to remember Pace of Play, and your partner takes the cart to the other side of the green when you discover you are in the trap and the rake is in the cart on the other side of the green. The ladies would like the rakes placed back at the traps. Mr. Hager responded putting the rakes on the cart or next to the bunker is a labor expense. When the guys go out and use a Sandpro to rake the bunker, of which there are more than 60 bunkers on the championship course, there are the following choices: 1) Staff can put the rake next to the bunker or in the bunker, but when someone goes to mow the collar or use a Sandpro and do the bunker, he/she has to get off the machine, move it and then get back on and finish. Doing that slows down the process and costs labor time. What happens from there, in turn, the payback is every evening, last thing, out goes the sand pro and they do every bunker so we start the day with pristine, clean and smooth areas. 2) The other thing Ms. Indilicato also mentioned is the ladies play other courses. They brought up the fact that they say they cannot think of one course they play where they don’t have help when they arrive getting their clubs out of the car and putting them back in when they leave. The women think the Links ought to give that courtesy also. Mr. Hager responded that it had been the policy for a long time that staff does not touch the bags. The director prior to Mr. Hager believes it was not difficult for a person to reach into their trunk and pull their clubs out once and when they leave take them from the bag rack and put them back. They would be handling one bag all day. The golf course staff may handle 200 bags a day and at the end of the day, there are Workers’ Comp claims because of back problems. Furthermore, the former director was playing at a course and the clubs slipped out and dinged his car as they were being pulled out by an employee, so there is also a liability issue. What Mr. Hager has advised in his staff meetings is, if the person looks like they really need help, help them. Try to do it consistently because every opinion of who needs help differs. Vice Chair Matthews inquired of Mr. Hager if he was moving forward with the new tees and he responded he will move forward with the research. Finding the money is the hard part and it will probably have to be budgeted and occur next year. Mr. Giangreco 10 MEETING MINUTES GOLF COURSE ADVISORY COMMITTEE BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA JANUARY 27,2011 commented that he has received compliments from the public about the Pace of Play and gave compliments to the staff. 2. Solar Top Mr. Hager commented that with the City going green, he purchased a demonstrator solar top. It was tried back in the mid-80s and it was not a good return on investment. The new ones are only 12 pounds and they found a way to put them on the cart. He spoke to the company that builds them in Iowa and they promise three things that come from a solar top: 1) they boast they can reduce your electric bill from $70,000 a year down to a lot less. The Links electric bill, charging a fleet of 100 vehicles, is less than $8,000 a year because of an energy management system where it charges only at off peak; 2) if you can picture a golf cart with a battery level, it gets used. If you have two batteries and one of them used 30% everyday and got recharged and the other one used 70% everyday and got recharged, one is going to last a lot longer. The problem is with changes every three years. The Links would like for them to last six years and certainly they cannot guarantee six years. What is enticing is staff can get farther with a player assistant cart on a daily basis and not take the battery as deep because the batteries are only changed out as needed. V. OLD BUSINESS 1. GPS for Golf Carts Mr. Hager has not heard from the company that was pursuing him to purchase this product; therefore, this will not move forward. VI. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, the meeting properly adjourned at 5:15 p.m. ~. Cf2AJ<Af- Ellie Caruso Recording Secretary Transcribed from One (1) Recording 11