HARLINGEN — The first count is in — a month after the city commission’s new majority re-opened the Tony Butler Golf Course’s nine-hole short course.
From Nov. 1 to 28, golfers played 456 rounds on the course’s Executive Nine, pumping $7,504 into the golf course’s revenue stream, General Manager Jeff Hart said Monday.
As more Winter Texans drive into the Rio Grande Valley, Hart expects numbers to climb, noting the Executive Nine is known as their favorite short course.
During the period from Oct. 1 to Nov. 14, the golf course generated total revenues of $73,161, he said.
Meanwhile, Tony Butler’s jumped to its best start in at least three years, Hart said.
From Oct. 1 to Nov. 14, the golf course generated a total of $101,776, compared to $94,076 during the same period in 2020 and $82,416 during that time in 2019.
Hart said he didn’t have information readily available to determine the golf course’s total expenditures for the period from Oct. 1 to Nov. 14 this year.
“It’s doing well,” Hart, who took over as general manager at the end of 2019, said. “It’s getting better every day.”
In part, he attributed this year’s big start to the golf course’s transforming greens.
“The greens are in much better shape,” he said.
‘Good start’
Last summer, City Commissioner Frank Puente helped lead the push to re-open the short course.
“It’s a good start,” he said. “It’s costing a little bit but the returns for our investment will pay for itself. I’ve heard nothing but good things. We’re excited we’re seeing people out there playing.”
In July, the commission’s 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, Puente has said, adding voters would have to decide whether the city could sell the land.
Start-up costs
In their budget, officials set aside $342,156 to cover start-up costs including repairs to the golf course’s irrigation system along with an overall of its greens.
As part of the package, they earmarked $73,000 for the purchase of two mowers, $50,000 to buy 10 golf carts along with $219,000 in start-up costs, including $50,056 to fund the salaries of four part-time grounds keepers.
Meanwhile, officials are projecting the short course’s annual costs will run about $174,000.
For more than three months, Hart and his crew worked to bring the Executive Nine back to playing condition after the past administration closed off the short course.
“I’ve never seen greens improve as much as those are improving,” Tim Elliott, a member of the city’s Golf Course Advisory Board who owns Tim’s Custom Golf, said.
Counting players
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.
However, player Saul Gonzalez believes the number of golfers teeing off on the short course is higher than the software program counted.
Like Gonzalez, many Tony Butler members don’t stop at the clubhouse to sign in because they’ve got their golf carts waiting for them.
“The numbers will not reflect a true reading of how many people play,” Gonzalez, a businessman, said. “I’m guilty of being one of those who doesn’t sign in at the office, partly because of COVID. I just take my cart and take off.”
Drawing Winter Texans back
Like Gonzalez, Elliott noted many Winter Texans have yet to pull into the Valley for their annual stay through spring.
“Right now, there are a lot of Winter Texans coming in so the numbers will be up,” Gonzalez said.
But it’s going to take time to draw some Winter Texans back to Tony Butler, Elliott said.
After the past commission announced officials were closing the short course, 15 Winter Texan leagues made up of as many as 400 players pulled out of the golf course, many leaving for Stuart Place Country Club, which runs a nine-hole golf course, he said.
“It’s going to take time to get confidence back,” Elliott said.
Pulling Tony Butler out of the hole
Now, commissioners are counting on the re-opening of the short course to help draw more players — and money — to help Tony Butler pay for itself.
During this summer’s budget workshops, financial reports showed the golf course generated $666,986 while taking $983,470 in expenditures, leaving a shortfall of $316,484 last year.
According to the city’s report, the golf course has run annual deficits ranging from $419,713 in fiscal year 2015-2016 to $223,731 in 2018-2019.
After running shortfalls for about eight years, the golf course’s total deficit stands at $846,548, a report showed.
