The Woodland Hills Golf Course Advisory Board met Feb. 1 at the course clubhouse.
On the agenda was raising revenue for the course.
“It’s a good golf course,” Shannon O’Neil, clubhouse manager said. “Greens fees, we are 50 cents less than Girard, a couple bucks less than Four Oaks. ”
“We are trying to catch up with area courses,” Jon Kindlesparger, golf course superintendent said in a later interview.
“The season cart (rental) is the biggest discrepancy,” O’Neil said. When a large group plays they’ll all have one cart, he noted
O’Neil said renting a cart is a good deal for the golfers.
“It’s just like having your own cart, (but) based on availability. I can’t promise a cart in a tournament,” he said.
Currently, the golf cart season rental fee is $350 per year.
Following discussion by the board, it will seek approval from the city to raise the fee to $425.
Additional fee increases, if approved by the city commission:
Nine-hole greens fees will increase from $10 to $11, weekday; weekend fees from $12 to $15.
Single memberships will increase from $400 to $440; family memberships (a family of four) from $550 to $595.
O’Neil said he would like to change the procedure for memberships.
“I’d like to have them due all at the same time,” he said. “If all are due at a certain date, as a business I can see if what we are doing is growing the business. It’s easier from a management perspective. I’d like May 1 to be the (renewal) date.”
Jon Garrison, finance director for the City of Fort Scott agreed with the proposal and said it would be pro-rated the initial year.
The city owns the approximately 148- acre golf course.
O’Neil and Kindlesparger were asked by Garrison to attend the next city commission meeting, Feb. 6 to seek approval of the fee increases.
Another item on the agenda was the new golf cart barn that is in the preliminary stage.
Agricultural Engineering Associates, Uniontown, is the firm hired to design the barn.
“I hope he gets the specs together, then we can go out to bid with it,” Garrison said.
“I hope it will be constructed this spring,” O’Neil said in a later interview. “It will be a Morton Pole Barn. We’ll house 30 rental carts. We’ll sell 10 season cart passes a year.”
The barn will be located straight north of the clubhouse, “where the old clubhouse used to be,” O’Neil said.
Some of the statistics for the course:
There are 127 memberships.
There were 9,100 rounds of golf played on the course last year, of those, 5,100 were played by members, 4,000 were green fee rounds.
There are three full-time employees, six part-time employees during the season which runs April through October.
The new clubhouse was completed in February 2016.
There are 25 tournaments a year.
Uniontown and Fort Scott High Schools play at the course.
“We are unique here, a member of those golf teams can play here for free,” O’Neil said.
Fort Scott Community College is starting a girls golf program this year and will play at Woodland Hills, as well, he said.
The board is comprised of Steve Harry, Kenneth Holt, John Leek, Mitch Quick and Jeff Sweetser.
The board meets quarterly or as needed.
“We’ve got a good board,” Garrison said. “They use the course.”
“They are emotionally and financially invested,” O’Neil said.