Bobby Jones committee pitches vision for future

After a whirlwind — and occasionally tumultuous — first two months, the city’s Bobby Jones Golf Club Study Committee is finally getting its bearings and preparing to take a big swing at the challenge it’s facing.

The city established the committee late last year to help create a long-term plan for the golf course, which is facing structural issues and ran up an operating deficit of more than $100,000 each of the past two years. The goal, commissioners said, was to review various options for improving the facility and to gauge the financial viability of those options. At some point after that, they said, a full master plan might be developed.

When the City Commission appointed seven members to the board in February, commissioners praised candidates for having reasonable and realistic outlooks on the future of the course — driving home that cost would be a driving factor in any eventual improvements.

To familiarize itself with the subject matter, the group held seven meetings in its first five weeks, all of which were more than two hours long. The most intensive was a site visit held in February, a crash course on the operations and infrastructure at Bobby Jones.

Over those first five weeks, they became acutely aware of many of the problems facing the course — most of which have been raised in past studies, but which have been difficult to address financially.

“Excellent drainage and efficient, reliable irrigation are really necessary,” committee member Norm Dumaine said. “Bobby Jones is crying out for that. The very structure of the course — the way the banks are built up the canal — really forms a kind dish that drops water into Bobby Jones.”

At the March 16 City Commission meeting, the committee provided an update on its early work to the commission. To do its job right, compiling the report would take 3,000 to 4,000 hours, the group said. That meant not only maintaining a busy schedule, but also working until the end of the year to compile a report rather than the initial summer deadline. 

At that meeting, the commission gave its blessing to the committee to extend the timeline. 

However, at an April 7 committee meeting, city administration informed the board that it could not commit  the staff hours needed to that work schedule. Although most board members were fine with scaling back, Chairman John Bondur was not — and so he tendered his resignation immediately.

“I understand the approach,” Bondur said at his final meeting. “I don’t agree with it, and I think it’s unfortunate that there’s an unwillingness from whomever the parties may be.”

Still, the board is charging forward. Now that it’s identified obstacles to address, the group is focused on gathering more public input and developing a work plan for completing its directive. At a meeting earlier this month, members of the committee took one last preliminary look at the big picture, sharing their personal visions for the future of the facility (see right).

VISION BOARD

On April 2, the Bobby Jones Golf Club Study Committee gave its members a chance to offer their outlook on improving the course.

Norm Dumaine

There are so many golf courses in this area, even within five miles of Bobby Jones, that if Bobby Jones can’t somehow create some kind of niche in this market, some kind of thing that makes it really special, I’m not sure in the long run that we would be doing Bobby Jones a great favor if we just simply focus on budget. I think, at some point, you may have to spend a little bit of money to make more money. … It seems to me, over a long period of time, you might accomplish what you can’t do at this very moment.

Millie Small

My vision for Bobby Jones Golf Club starts with a question: How can we effectively create a plan for the future if we don’t face the reality of the present? It starts with the reality of the current condition of all three courses. … It is apparent that the courses and buildings have not been maintained for several years as they should have been, but budget cuts and other policies enacted by past commissions have created the present situation of replacements rather than repairs and regular maintenance. I have never envisioned dramatic changes to either of the 18-hole courses — just do what is needed.

Dan Smith

If we don’t deal with the really big issues, making a few changes to greens and tees is going to get us back to square one in two, three, four years. It’s an unfortunate situation. We all were there, took the tour and saw the condition of the property and the dysfunctional nature of the irrigation system and the drainage and the bathrooms and all the problems there. … To think there’s $8 (million) to $10 million to do a whole bunch of work — we all know that’s not there. But to be fiscally responsible, we have to acknowledge maybe minor isn’t the answer, either.