One potential commercial operator is showing interest in running the Bolado Park Golf Course in light of financial troubles experienced by the club there, an agricultural district official confirmed.
One undisclosed party submitted a proposal to operate Bolado Park Golf Course before a Nov. 30 deadline, said Mike Cullinan, chairman of the board for the 33rd Agricultural District that owns the golf course land.
“We’re talking with one outfit right now,” Cullinan said in an interview with the Free Lance on Tuesday. “I can’t say who. We are in negotiations with one outfit.”
There were no other proposals outside of the one interested party, he said.
Although the agricultural district board was set to meet tonight, Cullinan said he did not expect a decision until later in December.
That development comes after Bolado Park Golf Club’s President Ed Barrios on Nov. 8 sent a letter to members about the financially troubled, nine-hole course. The letter cited a membership decline and lacking outside play in telling members they would need to “create a miracle” to save the golf course that is on land owned by the agricultural district.
The document mentioned an immediate debt of $40,000—with a monthly deficit of about $1,500—while Barrios expressed hope that by sending the letter to local media outlets, it may create awareness and help to save the course. Bolado Park Golf Club last came public with its serious financial troubles in late 2010, when club leaders previously talked of a possible closure before finding the money to stay open.
On Tuesday, Barrios told the Free Lance the club is trying to liquidate all of its property—its members own the facility’s tables, chairs and other supplies aside from the golf cart shed—in an attempt to pay back members who already paid yearly fees.
“It’s the end of the road for us unless somebody came along and wanted to bail us out with deep pockets,” Barrios said.
Barrios said someone offered to lend the club $10,000 but that he turned the person away out of concern the club wouldn’t be able to pay it back.
He was hoping to find out information on the bidder—“The 33rd has kept us out of the loop,” he said—so the club could potentially negotiate with a new operator on equipment sales.
Bolado Park Golf Club was down to 36 members as of mid-November and needed to double that number to remain sustainable, Barrios said at the time. In its heyday in the 1990s, there were close to 300 members.
That downturn for golf has hit the local industry hard, as the two private clubs in the county have experienced difficulties of their own with decreased demand. Barrios said the club’s problem isn’t maintenance, which has been kept up well over the past year for a relatively inexpensive cost. Rather, it is simply a demand issue. That has the 33rd Agricultural District—which oversees the nearby Bolado Park fairgrounds as well—exploring options for a prospective, new operator.
The 33rd Agricultural District of the state owns the land on which the golf course is built and leases it to the club for $2,000 monthly, an amount lowered in recent years to help the club stave off debt issues. The club also spends about $2,000 monthly on water costs. There are additional costs for food and beverage supplies and the leased carts.
In late October, the district put out a request for proposals to attract potential operators. The deadline to submit a proposal to run the course was at the end of November.
Right now, there is a discounted membership charge of $500 annually for the first year, though it normally runs $900. A membership for residents under age 17 is $250, while those costs do not include cart fees of $600 annually if members choose that option. A membership for a “man and wife” combination is $1,350, according to the Bolado Park Golf Club website. There is also a deal for a one-month membership of $100.
As for course fees charged to non-members, the regular weekday fee is $17 while the weekend fee is $24 for adults—with lower fees for “twilight” play after noon.
