HARLINGEN — Nearly a year after pushing back the project amid soaring material costs, city officials are ready to request construction bids for the Tony Butler Golf Course’s $3.1 million transformation.
For months, officials have been working to cut costs, scaling back the proposed irrigation system while planning a project aimed at renovating the iconic 18-hole course to draw more players to help pull it out of the red.
Next week, they’re set to request construction bids while planning to open them Jan. 26, Jeff Hart, the golf course’s general manager, said Wednesday.
Last April, city commissioners rejected a lone bid from Baytown-based contractor Greenscapes Six, which proposed an offer of $6.3 million — more than double the project’s $3.1 million budget amid soaring costs stemming from the supply chain crisis.
“I’m real interested to see the bids come in and what they are,” said Ben McCampbell, the designer of the project’s irrigation system who worked to cut about a third of the original layout.
“The price of materials has increased 50- to 60-percent in the last three years. The prices have dropped a little bit and they’re leveling off,” he said. “We cut down the size of the system. It’s not wall-to-wall — the money won’t allow it.”
Now, officials are planning to launch the project in April, when they’ll close the 18-hole course until about mid November, when Winter Texans return to play, Hart said.
Replacing irrigation system
Since last year, Houston-based golf course architect Jeffrey D. Blume, whom the past commission hired for $217,000 to design the project, has worked cut costs without paring down his vision.
After months of work, officials have revamped the proposed irrigation system, which will replace a 40-year-old network of PVC piping.
“That’s the most important part,” Hart said. “You have to have a good irrigation system. Everything’s being replaced. All the sprinkler heads and piping will be replaced.”
On the drawing board, Blume cut about 200 sprinkler heads, Hart said, adding each costs about $2,500.
Now, the project calls for 817 sprinkler heads aimed at irrigating tee boxes, greens and fairways, McCampbell said.
“We really can’t cut much more,” he said.
14 miles of underground piping
The proposed irrigation system calls for about 14 miles of underground, high-density polyethylene piping ranging in dimensions from 2 to 16 inches, including 10 miles of 2-inch pipe, McCampbell said.
“It doesn’t leak,” he said. “It’s fused instead of glued.”
The new system will replace aging lines of leaking pipelines, Hart said.
“We have leaks everywhere because the old pipe is breaking down,” he said.
A central control system will operate the irrigation system, McCampbell said.
“It is a computer,” he said. “It’s highly technical. Part of the system is a central control system. It turns the system on and off. It controls each sprinkler head — when it turns on and how long it runs. It becomes kind of an art.”
Revamping greens
The project will also transform the course’s greens, expanding them from 3,000 to 6,000 feet while installing a sand base, Hart said, adding the course’s greens are clay-based.
“Water will get down to the root so the greens will be healthier — the greens will be more receptive to the ball,” he said. “With a clay base, it’s very hard to get water to go down to the roots.”
Meanwhile, officials are planning to boost the number of tee boxes from about three to five, he said.
“This will give players different options” based on their skill levels, he said.
As part of the project, officials are planning to expand the course’s water features, Hart said.
“It’s going to make the ponds much wider,” he said. “It will make the course more difficult and more challenging.”
Replacing turf
As part of the bidding process, officials plan to request proposals on Champion G12, an ultradrawf bermuda, and paspalum, a dense, adaptable turfgrass, Hart said.
“It’s a salt-tolerant grass — and we get a lot of salt from the Gulf,” he said, referring to paspalum.
The market will help determine if officials replace the fairways’ burmuda grass, Hart said.
“That’s in the air, depending on the cost,” he said.
Last year, the city’s original bid called for the replacement of the fairways’ bermuda grass with Latitude 36, a tough, lush bermuda, he said.
Background
After years of planning, last year the past commission dipped into the Harlingen Community Improvement Board’s budget, funded through a one-eighth sales tax earmarked to finance so-called quality of life projects, to fund the golf course’s $3.1 million overhaul, counting on drawing more players to drive up revenue to help pull the course out of the red.
