Adding a par 3 course to eisting facility. Cancel The title field is required!

1. Christopher Thuer

   

   101 posts
   
   11/7/2017 11:11 AM

   Anyone at daily fee courses, especially those in the OH, IL, MI, IN, who might have a par 3 course along with a regulation 18 willing to share round, revenue, and expenses for the par 3 course?
   
   I am proposing the addition of a par 3 course to our facility. We have plenty of unused land surrounding our driving range. I have cut out a potential layout with a bush hog with a nice variety of holes ranging from 88 to 180 yards with some unique character for a par 3 course.
   
   The owners have asked for ideas to increase revenue. I have been toying with the idea for over a decade and now that urban sprawl is upon is this might be the time to do it.
   
   Email responses welcome.

   
   Chris Thuer, CGCS, Bear Slide Golf Club, Cicero, IN
   
   
2. Kevin Fateley

   

   5 posts
   
   11/10/2017 7:11 AM

   Chris,
   
   If your owners are serious I would recommend incorporating 18 holes of Footgolf into the lay out.
   I think you poked around on the forum about Footgolf earlier and was hesitant about incorporating it into your regulation course. I think it would be a good fit for the par 3. Our Footgolf revenue is down a tad this year but it almost will pay for my 2100 yd course's chemical budget. I would think you would do well near the Indy market.
   Cost to put in $4000 tops. Annual cost @ $500 ( mostly balls).A couple of things we did on our executive course to keep maintenance cost down.
   1. One large tee that we can mow with our 1880 (no dedicated tee mower)
   2. No ball washers any more (par 3 players tend not to care).
   3. No tee markers (again par 3 players tend not to care).
   4. Carts will be rented. I did not think so but par 3 players want carts).
   5. Keep bunkers to a minimum.
   6. As an owner and using 20/20 hindsight I would have spent $750,000 on a Fitness Center first. We are in the Fitness business now (65% of our income and growing with golf remaining flat) and we are getting ready to expand our fitness center area by 7000 s.f.
   25 years ago I would have never dreamed that we would have to modify our business plan to include fitness.
   Bottom line the modification saved saved our asses!

   
   
   
   
3. Christopher Thuer

   

   101 posts
   
   11/10/2017 3:11 PM

   Thanks.
   
   We did talk about incorporating foot golf and disk golf into the par 3 layout. Foot golf in this area hasn't really taken off and I know of at least 1 facility about 10 miles from ours that that had it for 1 or 2 seasons before removing it. I talked to another last week that said their foot golf income for this season was about $6,500. They have an 18 hole par 3 that includes foot golf along with 27 championship holes. I guess any extra $ is better than none.

   
   Chris Thuer, CGCS, Bear Slide Golf Club, Cicero, IN
   
   
4. Douglas Hoeh

   

   0 posts
   
   11/16/2017 11:11 AM

   Chris,
   
   We have four 18 hole courses and 1 par 3 course. Our par 3 course (called "Threetops") kills it. Guests love to play before or after an 18 hole round and groups like settle their side bets out there. We charge $55 a round, no exceptions. Some walk away but more stay and play it. We average 18,000 to 20,000 rounds a year. My expenses are just over $200k to manage. Our's is very high maintenance and if we had to do it again, we could make it a lot more maintenance friendly.
   
   Feel free to email if you have more questions but for us it has been a very good addition.
   
   Doug Hoeh
   Treetops Resort

   
   
   
   
5. Christopher Thuer

   

   101 posts
   
   11/17/2017 6:11 PM

   Thanks.
   
   Looked at the google earth view. Nice. I do remember the par 3 tournament on tv and the ace.
   
   I am not looking at doing a whole lot of bunkering, if any, at first. Trying for minimal maintenance figuring about $10k for chem and fert and one additional seasonal for maintenance for about $25k total. Break even would be less than 15 rounds per day on average in season.
   
   My 15 year old son worked on the crew this year doing anything that didn't require running the machinery. Hand water, pins, buffalo, asphalt patch, assist with bunkers, irrigation repairs, paint. He loved it and is thinking of making a career out of it. He wants to make the par 3 construction his project. He will be 16 in Feb so he will be able to do as much as I will let him.
   
   Several neighborhood projects are going in within a mile and one developer called without knowing my idea and offered to deliver as much excavation left overs as we want and have it dumped anywhere we want it. He figures there will be about 300 triaxle loads available. I then told him my idea and he said to go for it. His development will butt up against the course.
   
   Working on my proposal for the course owners.

   
   Chris Thuer, CGCS, Bear Slide Golf Club, Cicero, IN
   
   
6. James Smith

   

   112 posts
   
   11/19/2017 6:11 AM

   I think it is a great idea! I would however consider adding anything into your design that you may think you desire later. case in point, you may not want sand bunkers but no reason to not build the greens with large grass bunkers that can be changed into sand bunkers later. just install the main drain lines and leave it where it is easily maintained but can be dug out and add sand down the road if needed.
   
   I say this because at my course I have always strived to build great golfing bunkers which was great 15 years ago when our income was good but now I have bunkers that are not feasibly managed by a very small crew. We are now in a bunker rebuild project (very low cost) where my goal is to eliminate 40%-60% of the total sand on our course. what may have been 1200sqft bunkers are now becoming 400-500sqft bunkers with the lips running down gradual slopes that any mower can cut.
   
   We have footgolf at our club which was brought in this last year. it does bring in some income but not enough to pay the bills. my issue is with their equipment not lasting (flags mostly), too many tee markers which takes extra time to move and cut around, and having to take in and put out their flag every night. One thing I did with the tees is install a 4' tall orange plastic pipe like our yardage markers. this is in a removable sleeve that can be cut over. this eliminated one tee marker for every spot which is 54 markers we do not have to move now. my goal is to get rid of the other round ball tee markers and only use the stakes.