The 'wow' and the details

Gary Brafford tells the story about the fellow from North Carolina who, several years ago, was in his dentist's office in the Tar Heel state scanning a golf magazine when he came across a photo of the 15th hole at Reno's venerable LakeRidge Golf Course.

A subsequent trip brought him to Reno and, with golf clubs in tow, the man plunked down his greens fee and headed out to experience the island green, a 140-foot drop from the back tees.

"We've had golfers from all over the country visit us just so they can say they played our signature hole," says Brafford, director of golf at LakeRidge.

Today, having a "wow" signature hole is not sufficient to sustain golf course operators throughout northern Nevada. Customers have too many options for their discretionary dollar. They want a good deal. And they want to leave knowing they've had a good time.

"We pride ourselves in serving the needs of our customers," says Brafford. "We spend a lot of time training our employees on customer relationships. You treat them well and provide a good product and they will come back, good times and bad."

Across the country, many golf courses have shuttered their operations over the past several years. But a survey of more than a half dozen golf course operators in Reno, Sparks, Incline Village and Carson City reveals why many are optimistic during these uncertain times. Two reasons: keep prices reasonable, and manage your maintenance expenses.

Joseph Petrash is a principal with the Borders Golf Group, a Vail, Colorado-based consulting firm which also has a satellite office in Reno. He says getting into a greens fee price war will not save marginal operators.

"At some point, your customers will demand the lowest fees and suddenly you are in a death spiral and will be forced to park the golf carts and close the pro shop," he says.

The real solution, says Petrash, is to provide superior service and take back the golf course to what it was intended to be. "Maintain the course for the needs of the average golfer, not the great golfer," he says.

Michael Jory, director of golf at D'Andrea Golf Club in Sparks, would probably agree. Five years ago, his course dramatically lowered its greens fees and, over the past three years, has shaved nearly $300,000 off its maintenance expenses.

"We've been fortunate in that we got out ahead of the curve on fees," Jory says. "We used to have a pretty high green fee structure. We were charging $105 on a weekend and $95 during the week. When the economy was booming, we were getting those fees."

Jory also focused on the local golfer by creating a "players club" in which golfers paid one annual fee of $109 to join and would get the lowest rates available during the year. In the first year, 300 signed up. This year, more than 1,000 will play for $49 a round, seven days a week.

"This entire price-value equation has changed in our business dramatically," he says. "People are saying they won't pay $90 or $80 anymore, but they will pay $50 and that's where we are at."

D'Andrea also cut spending on water and daily maintenance. The course irrigates at night and realized off-peak pumped irrigation savings from NV Energy.

"We looked at every aspect of our business," Jory says. "We got more efficient with our mow patterns. We went to all part-time employees, yet did so without allowing any customer to see any change in quality."

Local favorite Wildcreek Golf Course is operated by the Reno Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority. Joe Kelley, vice president of facilities, says the course has never been in better shape.

"We are not seeing a decline in the number of rounds, and this year we expect to see those rounds of golf increase," he says. "We are being hurt in the number of tournament or event rounds because some of the nicer, newer courses such as Red Hawk or Wolf Run have dropped their rates so much that it is impacting us, but, still we do expect to make a profit this year."

Washoe Golf Course, operated by the county, is the second oldest golf course in Nevada and the oldest in the Truckee Meadows. It opened in 1936, was home to the PGA Reno Open in 1948 and 1949, which was won both years by Ben Hogan. Golf director Barney Bell says the public course did 40,000 rounds of paid golf in each of the last two years and expects to be very busy this year. The fee structure remains the same: $47 for 18 holes, which includes a golf cart.

There are nine golf courses in the greater Carson City and Carson Valley area.

Eagle Valley Golf Course has two 18-hole venues, and both have undergone significant changes since Jim Kepler took over three years ago as general manager and golf director.

"We've done what I consider a 500 percent turnaround from three years ago," Kepler says. "The East Course especially wasn't being taken care of properly. We've replaced most of the sprinkler heads and valves, changed the way we treat the soil to improve the quality of turf, and we've dropped our fee structure."

Kepler said there were also staffing changes.

"We brought in people who were more aggressive in taking care of the course and our customers," he says.

Eagle Valley also cut maintenance costs by 30 percent by buying used pieces of equipment and rebuilding them. A new mower, he says, might cost $25,000 to $30,000. Instead, Kepler would buy a used mower for $5,000 and rebuild the motor for $2,000.

One golf operation that has to scramble for revenues each season is Incline Village. Each spring, the operator must await the melting of the winter snow.

"We really have to make our money in roughly five months," says Bill Horn, general manager of the Incline Village General Improvement District which owns the championship and mountain courses.

He says the two courses did 21,000 paid rounds last year and are looking to sell 24,000 rounds this year. Fees remain high compared to fees available in the Truckee Meadows, but Horn notes the temperature at Incline is usually 10 to 15 degrees cooler in the summer months. "And we have the lake," he says proudly.