OKLAHOMA CITY – The Reason Foundation reviewed financial statements of 221 local governments that reported operating golf courses, including eight in Oklahoma, and 70% of them operated in ‘the red.’
Of those local governments, 155 of them lost a collective total of $61 million operating public links in Fiscal Year 2020. In contrast, 62 of the local governments, including one in Oklahoma, broke even or turned a profit on their public golf courses in 2020. Four governments did not provide net income results.
The eight municipal golf courses in Oklahoma examined by the Reason Foundation ranged in size from Mangum’s six-hole course to Oklahoma City’s four 18-hole municipal golf courses and one nine-hole city-owned golf course.
Other government-owned courses in Oklahoma reviewed by the foundation were at Boise City, in the Panhandle; at Choctaw, in eastern Oklahoma County; at Broken Arrow, Sand Springs and Owasso, in the Tulsa metro; and at Purcell, in McClain County.
Of those communities, only the Oklahoma City Public Property Authority produced a profit in Fiscal Year 2020. OKC’s five municipal courses generated a $723,000 profit on $8.62 million in revenue that year.
Mangum’s 80-acre municipal golf course is owned by the city but has been managed by Mangum Public Schools since July 2021 through an interlocal cooperative agreement. City Hall provides the facilities, course and water, and the school district supplies the workforce to maintain and operate the facility.
The golf course bled $33,300 in red ink in FY 2020 because the greens were repaired that year and the coronavirus “affected us heavily,” Mangum City Manager David Andren said. The budget deficit was covered with a transfer from utility receipts, the U.S. Air Force retiree told Southwest Ledger.
“Cities lose money on everything,” said Andren, who received a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Central Oklahoma. “We’re not in it to make money. We provide these services for our communities.” For example, he pointed to public libraries and municipal swimming pools.
The Greens of Altus
Although the City of Altus was not mentioned in the Reason Foundation study, the Ledger contacted City Hall about its municipal golf course, “The Greens.”
The nine-hole course made a few hundred dollars in calendar year 2020 but lost a few thousand in fiscal year 2021 even though the rounds of golf played more than doubled, records reflect.
In calendar year 2020, The Greens recorded $319,390 in revenue and expenses of $318,960. FY 2021 revenues totaled $325,338, but expenses were $331,039.
The City of Altus contracts management of its golf course to West Texas Turf, so a management fee of $260,000 “is included in the revenue numbers for each year,” said Dr. Terry Mosley, Altus’ community development director.
For FY 2021 the true gross operating revenue, without including the management fee, was $223,462, Mosley said, “a very good year for our little course.”
Rounds of golf played at The Greens have increased significantly in the last three years: from 4,284 rounds in FY 2019 to 5,395 rounds in FY 2020, Mosley said. That number soared to “just shy of 15,000 rounds of golf last year,” said Greg Daugherty, the course manager.
The explanation for the dramatic growth last year in rounds of golf played at The Greens “would probably be a combination of course improvements, primarily our greens from 2018 to 2020,” Mosley said. “We lost our greens sometime during and/or around 2018-19. The greens were re-established and greatly improved during FY ’20 and were in really nice shape last year,” he recalled.
“I can’t prove this with any data, but I also believe (through observation) that we are seeing a renewed interest in golf from the 30- 40- somethings. On a pretty weekend, it is not uncommon to see couples and even families loaded up in a cart while Dad or Dad and Mom play a round. I’m seeing a lot of young people on the course today that I didn’t see just two or three years ago. It’s very encouraging.”
Daugherty founded a Junior Golf Association two years ago that has attracted dozens of youngsters, ages 4 to 12, to The Greens for spring, summer and fall leagues.
Approximately four dozen children participate in each of the spring and fall leagues, while about 90 kids flock to the summer league because it also includes a three-day clinic that’s “an introductory type of event” taught by two college students, Daugherty said.
The young golfers are treated to ice cream, snow cones, medals and trophies and swag, he said.
The golf course at Quartz Mountain resort north of Altus near Lone Wolf closed in 2020.
Lawton Muni course
profitable, COO says
The City of Lawton leases its municipal golf course to Don Dittsworth and Joe English; Dittsworth is the chief operating officer and English is the general manager. The 18-hole, par-72 course is 7,142 yards long, according to the GolfLink website.
The golf course has approximately 75 members who “play whenever they want to,” employee Herb Jacobs said. The facility does not maintain hard statistics on rounds of golf played annually and “does not run ‘in the red,’” Dittsworth told the Ledger.
The Reason Foundation study examined financial reports of golf courses in 38 states and Puerto Rico.
Of the 221 government-run golf facilities, five reported losses of greater than $2 million in 2020. Three of those are in California: Indian Wells, $4.16 million loss; Carlsbad, $3.61 million; and Danuba, $2.28 million. The Lake Charles, La., golf course ran a $2.24 million deficit, and the Kaua’i County golf course in Hawaii lost $2.06 million.
Seven city-owned golf courses surveyed by Reason lost more than $1 million each in FY 2020. They included Pleasanton, Calif., $1.51 million, and Palm Desert, Calif., $1.27 million; Lakewood, Colo., $1.6 million; Parsippany-Troy Hills Township, N.J., $1.55 million; Rye, N.Y., $1.34 million; Blue Ash, Ohio, $1.02 million; and Carrollton, Texas, $1.06 million.
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