HARLINGEN — The Tony Butler Golf Course is ready for a big make-over.
On Wednesday, city commissioners are planning to enter into a contract paying Houston-based Jeffrey D. Blume Golf Course Architects $217,500 to design a $3.1 million renovation plan aimed at drawing players back to the course that’s run deficits for more than eight years.
To fund the project, officials turned to the Harlingen Community Improvement Board’s eighth-cent sales tax earmarked to finance qualify-of-life projects.
Meanwhile, Tony Butler’s Executive Nine reopened Monday as part of the commission’s new majority’s plan to draw Winter Texans and young golfers to play their favorite short course.
“People are out there playing already,” Javier Mendez, the city’s parks director, said Tuesday. “This month, we’re going to see a lot of Winter Texans.”
Architect to design 18-hole course renovation
Last month, commissioners picked Blume’s firm over Arlington-based GolfScapes Inc. and Ross Golf Design in Austin to launch the project after about five years of planning.
On Wednesday, commissioners are set to approve Blume’s contract calling for the design of the 18-hole golf course’s renovation.
“The scope of work will include the design of a new irrigation system, renovation of the greens, drainage improvement design and renovation of the bunkers,” Mendez wrote in the meeting agenda’s executive summary.
As part of the project, officials plan a $1.9 million overhaul of the golf course’s old irrigation system, a $575,575 upgrade of its greens and the development of a $264,000 drainage system along low-lying areas.
Now, they’re working within a narrow window of time to complete the project.
“We’re trying to get Blume on board as soon as possible,” Mendez said. “Our window of opportunity to plant grass and turf is May. That’s the optimum growing period for turf. So we’ve still got to do drainage and irrigation.”
By January, Mendez is planning to request bids from contractors experienced in golf course renovations — “somebody familiar with the type of irrigation system we want to put in, somebody who can re-do greens and do drainage,” he said.
In February, he’s planning on launching the construction project.
Mendes said Blume will help determine the project’s timetable.
Executive Nine re-opens
Meanwhile, the commission’s new majority’s counting on the Executive Nine’s re-opening to drive in revenue to help the golf course start paying for itself.
In July, the new majority voted to re-open the short course after the past commission closed off holes 19 to 27 to cut maintenance costs while mulling the sale of 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.
At the time, officials were counting on using the money to fund upgrades to the golf course as part their plan to draw golfers back.
But they turned up a decades-old city resolution restricting the land’s use to parks and recreation, Commissioner Frank Puente has said, adding voters would have to decide whether the city could sell the land.
For more than three months, Jeff Hart, the golf course’s general manager, and his crew have been working to bring the short course back to playing condition.
In their budget, officials set the cost of re-opening the short course at about $36,882, with $23,312 going toward repairing greens through a program of seeding, aerating, fertilizing and mowing along with $11,816 to repair irrigation sprinklers.
“The fairway’s in good shape and the greens,” Mendez said. “We fixed all the sprinkler heads. We’ve got it all mowed and maintained.”
Now, officials are tracking the numbers of golfers playing the Executive Nine to help determine if they’ll continue to fund the short course.
Based on Commissioner Frank Morales’ request, officials tweaked the golf course’s point-of-sale software to track the number of golfers playing the Executive Nine, Mendez said.
“Every time we ring up a green fee and cart, it comes up,” he said, adding the golf course used to keep track of players on hand-written charts. “It tracks all our sales and inventory.”
