August 2010 - Parks & Recreation - 53

go l f

By Douglas Vaira

Out of the Rough
in Ann Arbor
How public courses in this Michigan
city put their operations back
on sound financial footing

et's face it: Golf has faced some tough times

across the past decade. And, if you operate a public course, it's likely that you felt the crunch even
more than private operators.

This was certainly the case with the two public
courses run and managed by the city of Ann Arbor
(Mich.) Parks and Recreation Services, which after a precipitous drop in business, managed a nice
turn-around.
" Obviously, the first major drop occurred after
9/11, " says Douglas Kelly, director of golf for the city
of Ann Arbor Parks and Recreation Services. " Golf,
as well as many other extra-curriculum activities,
were re-evaluated as 'not as important,' either personally or financially. "
This shift in attitude, says Kelly, combined with an
explosion of new courses in the area and the city's
overall lack of attention to customer service, resulted
in a " death spiral " at his Leslie Park and Huron Hills
courses. First came a drop in rounds played which
was compounded by the city's less-than-nimble
response. Discounting of greens fee followed, further driving down revenues. " We were not the only
course in the area with the sudden drop in rounds, "
Kelly says, " and this caused a knee-jerk reaction by
many operators to start discounting and panicking to
get golfers through the door. "
The operating losses created a deferral of capital expenditures and in turn a deterioration of
course conditions which accelerated a drop in
rounds and revenue.
" From 2001 to 2007 our play declined over 50
percent, compared to the national average of 12 percent, " Kelly says. " Our revenues fell over $500,000,
and we cut expenses by almost the same. "
To compensate for the loss of revenue, Ann Arbor
stopped spending money on both capital and other
needed improvements and repairs. The conditions

of the course and clubhouses
bore the brunt of the neglect. Staff
moral and customer service dropped
to all-time lows.
For golf in this central Michigan city of 115,000 it
was the worst of times.
However, in early 2007, the city started taking counter measures. It hired an outside consultant, Golf Convergence Inc., to step in and
evaluate the situation. Ann Arbor Parks and Recreation Services simultaneously hosted a pair of
community meetings to gather input and suggestions on how to improve golf course operations.
The result was a comprehensive analysis and a
business plan for the future of golf in Ann Arbor.
Right then and there, says Kelly, the city decided
that if it was going to be in the golf recreation business, it was going to do things right.
With an emphasis on course conditioning, customer service, and green-space stewardship, the
city implemented a six-pronged approach to restoring golf in Ann Arbor. Here's how they did it:
1. A one-time purchase from millage monies for
$500,000 worth of maintenance equipment.
" The fleets at both courses were well beyond
their normal life expectancy, " and the conditions
of the courses were suffering, " Kelly explains.
2. A significant increase in dollars allocated for
marketing.
3. Better use of information technology. " We created Web sites and purchased a point-of-sale system to allow better direct golf-related reporting
and future integration with online capabilities for
tee times and marketing, " Kelly explains.

www.NRPA .ORG

SEPTEMBER 2010

Parks & Recreation

August 2010 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of August 2010 - Parks & Recreation