Lake Worth is lucky to own a fabulous property located 1.2 miles on the Intracostal Waterway--the Lake Worth Golf Course. We have had our own course since 1927. It is an 18 hole, par 70 comprised of 6,100 yards of greens, fairways, bunkers with a water view. You can buy an annual membership, rent a cart or even walk the course. We have a beautiful restaurant overlooking the course and the Intracoastal, The Lagoon. You can also rent the facility for parties or banquets. To get to our golf course, just take 7th Avenue North east.
Juan Ruiz is the Recreation Services Manager who is now in charge of our course. Two years ago, the City Manager talked the Commission out of outsourcing the management of this facility and talked them in to hiring a golf pro. I was there for that meeting and also supported the idea of our own golf pro. Chris Waller was hired and was our manager and golf pro. He was laid off this year after only two years of turning the course around. He now is working in Georgia I was told.
The golf course was reorganized and is no longer an Enterprise Fund. The golf course paid for itself as far as operational expenses but the huge administrative fees, debt and capital improvements always showed it operating in the red. There were always those who would say, "See, it can't make any money; we should sell off 9 holes for development." It is now a Special Revenue Fund and it will be treated like other parks within our city thus giving it a chance to survive, at least on the books. It has never been marketed and the restaurant has been totally ignored by the City. Once again, they are ignoring our course by taking out the improvements from the CIP.
We were supposed to renovate the bunkers and irrigation heads and the greens, doing the back nine greens first. The City Manager described the greens as "the backbone of every successful golf course." It was approved and in our budget just a year ago. The goal was to improve the overall playing experience for members and attract new visitors and memberships. We were going to hire a Food and Beverage Manager to make our restaurant and banquet business profitable. Now, from what I have been told, we don't even have a chef. What was approved by a former commission got changed. All of a sudden, that "backbone of a successful course" was all but forgotten. The CIP now reflects no money to get our greens in tip top shape and Juan Riaz is doing the best he can to maintain a good course where players will still want to come.
There were other capital projects approved such as replacing the irrigation pump house on the back nine which services 55 acres including the greens that were to be replaced and replace the on-course rest areas offering vending machines for players to order snacks and beverages.
We can spend thousands of dollars moving parking lots at Bryant Park and giving city owned buildings away for a dollar a year that end up costing the people of Lake Worth hundreds of thousands of dollars but we neglect our assets that if marketed correctly, would be extremely profitable for our City. We have always neglected the very things that make our City so great. Even a few years ago we had to have citizens volunteer to paint benches at our beach. Instead, we concentrate on new priorities, never finishing the ones that are important to the health and success of Lake Worth. Next I will hear from some Commissioner that "no one plays golf anymore and send in the stats proving it is a worthy enterprise" just like they told me to do with shuffleboard.
Well, I don't play golf, but think the course is beautiful and convenient , being right on the intercoastal. What I don't understand is why it's not marketed. I wanted to try the restaurant and it took me 20 minutes to find the entrance...How about signs on Lucerne and Dixie or Federal at the crossroads? Or even at the entrance... Is it supposed to be a secret? As far as expanding to different groups, what about setting up a 9-hole night course? That would increase customer usage to the younger groupon crew just looking for fun things to do...It's cooler at night. And the Restaurant...could so SOOO improved...it's an intercoastal eatery...why not take advantage of that and go for the non-golf crew in addition.....seriously someone needs to market this place a bit...
ReplyDeleteIt is the best kept secret in Lake Worth. Always has been, always will be. Unless the CM has her way, and we turn it into a passive park.
ReplyDeleteGreat piece Lynn. The golf course is one of the most overlooked assets Lake Worth has. When the new club house was built it was suggested that it be conctructed on the south side off Lucerne and the bridge so people driving by could see it and just turn in. In any case the marketing of this asset is dismal at best. Not a sign anywhere. It will not be long before there will be soccer fields on the intracoastal.
ReplyDeleteMoguls, sand, water and blind shots are what make a course interesting and exciting to play. Lake Worth Golf Course has only a couple of these. To make the course an attraction would require a few hundred thousand in improvements. But, once completed, it would lure out-of-town players to LW, and they would pay handsomely to play the course and to frequent the 19th hole after the round. It would also require foresight and I do not believe that is an attribute that is prevalent in either the CM or the Commission. As we have seen, it is better to have a wind farm at the beach that has virtually no chance of generating a single kwhr, then to spend the money to grow the commerce in the city.
ReplyDeleteIf they put soccer fields on our golf course you can bet that signage will appear all over the City in all 3 languages.
ReplyDeleteA good restaurant there, would draw people far and wide. Everybody wants to dine on the water...lunch and dinner - a sure moneymaker.
ReplyDeleteAs for golf, a golf course in good shape could be a gold mine. Golf fanatics travel all over to play different courses and pay the fees gladly!
I will venture to say that commissioners past and certainly present are oblivious to the sport and have not bothered to see what an asset is under their noses. Shame on them for not looking past their personal causes.
(or has it been that the golf course would not serve the immigrants, so phooey to that?)
I have listened over the last 3 to 4 years the various commissions talk about what a great thing it is to have a Golf Course.....
ReplyDeleteLynn your right! This is another Bone Head thing that is happening in Lake Worth and this wonderful asset should be marketed and signage needs to be up. Frankly I have never seen an ad for the course in any local rags.
But to be fair Its a couple of different commissions that have allowed this to continuously fall out of favor. This is a SOURCE of Revenue and since it is not a tax based revenue they will continue to ignore it.
It's a rich white man's sport with nothing to offer the undocumented citizens. Serve tacos and tamales at the restaurant and Lake Ave will be deserted.
ReplyDeleteAlong with our crack administration and design team, who placed the bar so that customers look at a wall and the bar tender has a beautiful view of the intercoastal waterway all during his shift and you start to get a feeling of where lake Worth is going.
The greens were getting much better but now have fallen back and are like putting on the fairway.
In the middle of summer, it is still the best course in the county as a constant breeze flows easily from the southeast making it much cooler than the pasture courses out west.
Very nice staff there as well. We go for lunch when we can and if you go in the late afternoon for your own happy hour, you'll be alone with the wildlife that now is part of the Snook Islands project. Really quite nice.
I don't play golf either but it is a great asset to the city of lake worth. We have a better course than WPB and our course location is almost as great as Palm Beach's course, being right on the water. Our city is unique in that so much of our waterfront is public.
ReplyDeleteThe club house is beautiful but agree with others, no one knows it is there, no one knows eats there except the golfers.
The course should be well marketed, I'm told by friends who do play golf, not city dwellers, that it is a great bargain.
City residents should pay less, out of towners should pay more since tax dollars go to keep it up.
Why doesn't the city take some of its bike lane money and use it to market the golf course, including putting up some signs to point people in the right direction, if you didn't know it was there you'd never find it.