Staff reporter Hannah Poturalski contributed to this report.
HAMILTON — It’s golf season. And many taxpayers are chipping in for the gentleman’s game whether they ever tee up or not.
A Cox Media Group Ohio analysis has found that area cities pumped millions of dollars into paying for debt and operation of municipal golf courses last year.
And with a spring marked by soggy greens giving way to a scorching summer, local officials worry this year could be even costlier.
Together, the 18 municipal facilities in Butler, Clark, Green, Montgomery, Warren and Miami counties took in $4.1 million less in revenue than they spent on operations and debt.
While Hamilton’s two municipal golf courses — Twin Run and Potter’s Park — are just barely covering their operating expenses, the city is still paying off $2.3 million borrowed in 1997 to build a clubhouse at Twin Run.
That debt payment will cost the city $215,865 this year and $220,920 next year before it’s paid off.
Cara Stevens, of Hamilton, said the city’s income tax revenue used to pay debt relief could be better spent in other areas of the community, such as helping laid off teachers in schools, repairing streets and sidewalks, and building more shelters for homeless people.
“The city is already in debt and the taxes they put on us are taking away from doing extracurriculars, like golf, so they are wasting our money,” Stevens said.
With nearly $1.2 million in revenue in 2010, the city ended the year with $3,623 in profit — which became a $216,837 deficit with debt payments factored in.
The last time the golf courses were in the red operationally was in 2008, when their revenues fell short of expenses by $23,648. The city found a windfall that year, though, when the Rockies Express natural gas pipeline paid $160,000 for an easement on the course.
The golf courses currently have $211,665 in the bank to cover operating deficits. And with a tiny profit margin and a wet start to the season, the city may not be out of the weeds for another deficit this year.
“Weather is so fickle,” said Deputy City Manager Bill Moller.
Moller said the two courses get about the same amount of play. Golfers who like a challenge prefer Twin Run, he said. And Potter’s Park is more beginner friendly.
The city also offers free golf to a select number of retired city employees. In 2009 and 2010 about 1,120 free rounds of golf were played by about 30 individuals; the value of the rounds was $15,000, according to the city.
Fairfield’s two golf courses ran a $122,000 deficit last year, plus roughly $100,000 paid toward the $1.9 million borrowed for a new clubhouse at South Trace in 2009.
Fairfield Finance Director Mary Hopton said the city’s golf courses and aquatic center offset each other, and combined brought the deficit down to less than $90,000.
“Last year when it was really dry, our pool was unbelievable but our golf was down,” she said.
Some courses cost cities more than $1M
Mason’s city-owned Golf Center at Kings Island cost that city more than $1.2 million last year.
It has run at a massive deficit since the city bought the course — including the 18-hole PGA course dubbed the Grizzly, designed by Jack Nicklaus — for $9 million in 2006.
The only city that ran in the black in the six-county region was Dayton. Its three courses netted a profit of $168,963.
Many other courses were profitable operationally, but were dragged down by debt.
Yankee Trace Golf Course in Centerville, Montgomery County, took in $444,497 more than it spent running the course in 2010. But the facility still owes $10.5 million from building the course, which cost the city $818,613 last year.
Private courses struggle to compete
Steve Jurick, executive director of the Miami Valley Golf Association, sees publicly owned golf courses as community assets.
But with taxpayer funding, low-interest borrowing power and no property taxes, these facilities make it harder for private courses to compete, Jurick said.
“It artificially lowers the price of golf to some extent,” he said. “I would assume in the not too distant future you’ll see some golf courses go back to farms.”
All this comes at a time when the popularity of golf is “depressed,” Jurick said.
He said the recession — golf takes time and money, both of which are at a premium right now — and declining local population is taking a toll.
“Twenty years ago when we were building a lot of golf courses, it was because our population was spiking and people had more leisure time,” he said. “Now we have less leisure time and people are playing fewer rounds and we have less people.”
This has left the region with an embarrassment of riches in terms of golf courses.
A 2008 analysis by the golf association found Montgomery and neighboring counties had a combined 87 golf courses boasting 1,611 holes of golf.
Mason Finance Director Joe Reigelsperger said municipal courses are feeling this pinch.
“I think the problem is a combination of the recession as well as market saturation,” Reigelsperger said. “There are so many golf courses out there I think they’re fighting over fewer customers at this point.”
This has its upside, Jurick said: “It’s a great time to be a golfer right now.”
Profit only one motive
Motivations for cities going into the golf business have long extended beyond profit.
Mason — which subsidizes golf more than any local community — bought the course at Kings Island to keep the former owner from selling off the land for high-density condo development, according to local officials.
“It was primarily as far as being able to see the future development of that property, not necessarily to operate the golf course,” Reigelsperger said.
But in the process, it locked in a deal with a management company that keeps the city from cutting costs. The company spent $2.8 million operating the facility, which only brought in $2.1 million last year.
That contract expires this year. But the debt incurred when the city bought the course won’t be paid off for years to come. That cost the city $525,000 last year.
Miamisburg Finance Director George Perrine said Pipestone Golf Club was always seen as more of a catalyst for surrounding upscale development than a money-maker.
“City council members over the years feel it’s been a worthwhile development,” he said.
The course costs the city about $250,000 a year in debt payments, despite running a profit. The debt won’t be paid off until 2021.
Only one city making a profit
This spring’s soaking rain cost the city of Dayton’s three golf courses an estimated $200,000, according to Joe Parlette, golf manager for Dayton’s department of parks and recreation.
The city’s three golf courses — Community, Kittyhawk and Madden — have been in the black since 2005, which was the last year it had to go to the city for a handout. They profited $168,963 last year.
Parlette said decreased revenue may force him to put off improvements to parking lots and cart paths. He’s still optimistic, with an eye toward the heavens.
“Weather, far more than any other factor, dictates our revenue,” he said. “Barring a summer similar to 2010, I am confident that we will be able to finish in the black.”
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