HARLINGEN — The fate of the Tony Butler Golf Course’s nine-hole short course might be unraveling.
Last year, city officials closed the old “back nine,” planning to cut maintenance costs as they mulled selling a 30-acre tract running across holes 19 to 23, prime land along Interstate 69’s frontage road with an estimated value of about $5 million.
With the money, officials planned to fund upgrades to draw players back to the city’s 92-year icon that’s run in the red for about eight years.
But they turned up a decades-old city resolution restricting the land’s use to parks and recreation, City Commissioner Frank Puente said, adding voters would have to decide whether the city could sell the land.
Now, after the May 1 election, the commission’s balance of power has shifted, with its new majority calling for the reopening of the nine-hole short course to try to draw Winter Texans and young golfers back.
Next week, commissioners plan to discuss reopening the short course during a meeting, Puente said.
New majority calls for short course reopening
The call comes as City Manager Dan Serna works to balance a proposed $49.7 million general fund budget coming with an $854,132 shortfall.
“I’m feeling the pulse of the community,” Puente said Monday. “They want it reopened. We still got some time with the budget to see how we can pay for it.”
Newly elected Commissioners Rene Perez and Frank Morales are also calling for the short course’s reopening.
“I think if we want Tony Butler to be successful we can’t handicap it,” Perez said, adding the golf course lost many Winter Texan players along with young golfers after officials closed the short course.
“I understand it will take some money to get it opened,” he said.
On Monday, Serna did not respond to messages requesting the estimated cost of reopening the short course.
“The numbers are big, but there’s ways to lower that number,” Perez said.
However, Serna has said the decision to close the short course has cut maintenance costs, taking two full-time jobs off the payroll.
Now, he’s planning to pull $268,706 from the city’s general fund budget to help offset the golf course’s current deficit.
At City Hall, officials have released a financial report showing the golf course generated $666,986 while taking $983,470 in expenditures, leaving a shortfall of $316,484 during the current fiscal year.
Meanwhile, the golf course has run annual deficits ranging from $419,713 in fiscal year 2015-2016 to $223,731 in 2018-2019, the report shows.
Elliott: Closing short course led Winter Texans to pull out
Since opening in 1929, Tony Butler stood as Cameron County’s sole 27-hole golf course — until last year.
While the 18-hole course draws more experienced players, for decades the nine-hole short course became a favorite for players from Winter Texans to young golfers honing their putts.
Behind the scenes, Tim Elliott, a member of the city’s Golf Course Advisory Board who owns Elliott’s Custom Golf, said the city’s decision to close the short course led many Winter Texans to stop playing the golf course.
“When they closed the third nine, they sent away 15 RV parks that had scheduled tee-time for the entire season — and that’s league play,” Elliott said, adding the Winter Texan league had planned 10,320 rounds of golf from October to March.
“That’s money that’s lost,” he said. “Now, can we get it back?”
Cost estimates to reopen short course
In his memo to commissioners, Elliott wrote the golf course could have turned a profit if officials hadn’t closed the short course.
“Had 19-27 not been closed, we would have another $100,000 in the bank,” he wrote.
To put the nine-hole short course back into operation, Elliott’s memo states it would take two months to revive the greens around five of the short course’s nine holes.
Meanwhile, he put the cost of replacing sprinkler heads at $6,000 to $10,000.
