With additional revenue being gained from incremental green-fee hikes instituted at both Elmwood GC and Walking Stick GC that have yet to have any noticeable negative impact on play, new clubhouses are being planned for both properties, along with a full slate of other improvements. Pueblo is also trying to attract golfers from California and other parts of Colorado with advertising promoting its year-round golf weather.
Course managers from Elmwood Golf Course and Walking Stick Golf Course, the two city-run courses in Pueblo, Colo. laid out a five-year capital improvement plan for their respective properties at a city council work session on November 18, The Pueblo Chieftain reported.
Additional revenue from incremental green- fee hikes at both courses that were instituted in 2018 and will last through 2020 have allowed the courses to begin addressing the many capital improvement needs each course has, The Chieftain reported.
According to Randy Bregar, PGA, Elmwood’s Golf Pro and Manager, the five-year improvement plan for his property includes a new clubhouse, cart path replacement, tree replacement, perimeter fencing, parking lot renovation, an executive course restroom, a maintenance storage building, parking lot entrance landscaping, marquee sign replacement, and landscaping along the roads where the course is situated, The Chieftain reported.
The clubhouse project is the most expansive one on the list, and there is no set date for it to get started, The Chieftain reported. The cart path replacement will take place from 2020-2024.
Dave Lewis, PGA, Director of Golf and General Manager at Walking Stick Golf Course, reported that the five-year improvement plan for his property includes replacing the clubhouse/restaurant roof in 2020, course restroom renovation, kitchen expansion, course weather shelter repairs, parking lot renovation, parking lot entrance landscape/renovation, and maintenance compound parking lot repairs, The Chieftain reported.
When asked by the council if the green-fee increases have had any negative impact on the usage of either course, The Chieftain reported, Bregar said he hasn’t noticed anything. other than some senior golfers cutting back on playing a bit. Revenues at Elmwood are solid, he added.
Lewis said he hasn’t seen any sort of decreases, The Chieftain reported. “We’ve stayed pretty flat through that,” Lewis said. “The economy is much better, and people are spending more money.”
Television and digital ads created earlier this year that target Southern Colorado and southern Denver-region golfers and promote taking advantage of Pueblo’s year-round golf weather have been running, The Chieftain reported, but neither of the city’s courses have yet to institute any sort of mechanism to track where golfers are coming from and to see what impact the advertising may have had.
Pueblo Mayor Nick Gradisar asked the course managers to begin keeping track of where golfers are coming from, The Chieftain reported, so the city can analyze the ad campaign more effectively.
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