Tim,
Contrary to popular opinion, not all government entities operate under tight budgets and low-cost bid requirements. Also, in growing areas, there is quite a bit of competition among the various cities to build trophy facilities (stadiums, arenas, golf courses, convention centers, theaters). In this part of the country, many municipalities built upscale golf courses targeting the more upscale golfer and the corporate market. Surprisingly, there has been relatively little taxpayer concern. From the standpoint of the city staff, developing a high-end golf facility is great fun. They get to play big time developer with no financial risk. It is pretty heady stuff to be courted by high profile PGA Tour types for the design job and to award multi-million contracts for construction.
Our concept for the same property would have cost $5 to $5.5MM, including the land. How did the city spend $3MM more? To some extent, that is a mystery to me, though the fact that motivations in terms of conserving capital and earning a fair return to the investor are diametrically different.
For example, I was working with a local architect who is arguably more technically competent than the "name" chosen by the city, and he would have cost me a fraction of the fee paid to the higher profile designer. The city opted to acquire additional land and spread the course over a larger area, a luxury that a private developer could not afford for this type of golf course. The city chose to build large, beautiful wooden bridges to cross a small creek four or five times. Our design used the creek more strategically (laterally), with one or two crossings only and relatively minor bridge work. The city imported large rocks to build walls on the creek on a few holes, purely for cosmetic reasons, and built 8' continuous concrete cart paths. The contract for the clubhouse was awarded to a "low-cost" bidder after consideration for minority status. This contractor walked off the site after collecting much of the money and completing only the foundation and some steel work on the building. The city completed the clubhouse with other funds some two years later, and is still involved in litigation with the bonding company which has refused to pay on the claim.
BTW, the city's two other 18 hole courses are reasonably priced (under $20 gf) and run some 60,000 to 65,000 rounds per year each. In comparison, the upscale facility is having trouble generating 32,000 rounds with rates of $38 to $45 plus cart for the locals, and $5-$10 higher for out-of-towners. While it is a much, much better golf course, it is clear that price is a major factor for the average golfer.