Mike,
You are extremely kind! We are just individuals trying to do the best thing for our community and golf just happens to be a part of the opportunity as it presented itself. We are extremely fortunate to be blessed with like minded participants in our venture, who are also on board to in essence, do the right thing.
Notre Dame Stadium is 1hr and 20minutes on game day if you plan a 4 hour tailgate.
Rich,
I can tell you of item after item in our project that came in on bid or inquiry with costs that ranged by as much as a multiple of ten. The first that comes to mind that is very common on all golf jobs is 4" black perforated drainage tile. Our prices ranged from $1.38 to $x.14 per linear foot.
Silt fence is also common on most jobs. After seeing the cost on most of the construction bids we got out the welder and four field shovels off a agricultural chisel plow and fabricated a unit that attached to the end of a dozer blade. Cost - shovels were free - 3" square steel tubing was scrap free - and about sixteen spot welds and a four foot chunk of chain - $25. We figured we got the linear cost of silt fence install under $x.30 per linear foot.
The mechanics lift in our shop is another, we ended up buying a full blown 10,000 lbs. automotive lift for less than a quarter of the 6,500 lbs. "golf lift". We did have to fabricate our own set rack which cost us about $35 dollars worth of stock steel and two welding rods.
The list is almost endless. from buying large equipment rather than renting and reselling at end of use to running onsite screening operations for soil mixes. Oh yeah, if you can find a 22 year old college student who grew up on a dairy farm, hire him for install. His work ethic and mechanical skill will be the biggest cost saver you can get. Throw in 3 more farm kids and you're off to the races.
Simply put - The only reason developers pay what the do for a course is because they can, not because they have to.
As for club accounting, welcome to the highest level of financial CYA in the world. When it comes to outings, many times the Pro sets up the outing and rings the days as golf 100% with the outing discount going to F&B. Or if the F&B manager enters the days sales food is entered at full price and golf is discounted to the gills. Oh yeah, don't forget that this will lead to the gratuity being hire and the F&B staff ooing and ahing over the Manager on Duty. Many F&B operations have their portion of Property Taxes laid on the Golf because the administrator knows F&B is a loser in a public club. Even the utility and phone bills are often mis allocated to "spread" costs. I have never seen an allocation method that couldn't be justified and conflicted at the same time.
As for comparatives I would suggest breaking operations into two qualifying criteria: A- Private Club, Country Club, Golf Club, Golf Course, and Municipal and B- construct a "zone approach" that groups clubs by season length and condition similar to planting and growing zones.
In General,
Clubs that are to common will lack the nitch factor needed to make them profitable. To perform well in any endeavor the question has to be "how are you special" rather than "how are you the common". CYA disease is also the greatest contributor to cost overruns and lackluster product in this industry. Freeing the creative artists within your vision should be the goal, not the limiting of artistic talent.
Cheers!
JT
all bunker sand in today
only 7436 items on list to go