Current Oro Valley Golf Model Will Not Work

At a Council meeting late in 2014, Troon told the Oro Valley Town Council that their goal was to have 318 golf members December 2016. The December membership numbers are in and , once again, Troon did not come close to meeting their goal. As of Dec. 31, 2016 there were only 231 members, of which 8 do not pay dues, either because they are over 90 or on a medical leave. So in reality, there are 223 dues-paying members for a golf course that needs 318 dues-paying members in order to survive.

At the January 18th council meeting, the council approved a “Request for Proposal” to hire a consultant to look at golf and food/beverage to see if there is something they can do differently. The Council does not need to hire a consultant to tell them that this model of having a “private/dues paying structure” will not work. Any person who can balance a checkbook can tell the Council what is needed.

The dues that the members paid into the club provided Oro Valley with $303,295 in revenue through the first 5 months of the fiscal year. (This is $60,659 a month or $727,908 a year.) The Troon forecast for yearly member dues is $1,153,665. At the current rate, they will be $425,757 short of this goal. This should not be a surprise to anybody who has followed Troon’s ability to forecast, since their forecasts have not been accurate or even close since their contract started. In fact, Troon offered to rebate Oro Valley 3 months of management fees if the Town would not hold them responsible for their forecast. Oro Valley took them up on their offer for FY 15/16, but, so far, not for FY 16/17.

What are the alternatives available to Oro Valley? One alternative is to STOP the private club scenario and become strictly a public course. They also need to offer resident rates to the citizens of Oro Valley as they had promised when the deal was being made, and they need to aggressively market the two 18-hole courses to the public.

In the current fiscal year, the non-member rounds played at the Oro Valley courses are as follows:

Oro Valley is currently offering 45 holes of golf. There are public courses within 5 miles of Oro Valley that offer only 18 holes of golf, but sell 3200-3500 rounds per month. If Oro Valley were to receive $45.00/round (a reasonable cost for winter golf) the revenue would be between $144,000 – $157,000 per 18-hole course, per month. If marketed aggressively, this would preclude the income currently received from the members.

It is not uncommon for the City of Tucson to have 200 rounds a day being played during the weekends and holidays during the winter months at their two courses, Del Urich and Randolph. This comes to about $72,000 revenue in weekend play a month, which is over $11,000 more than the current Oro Valley Community Center members pay.

Why doesn’t Oro Valley change their model? The current club members are strong supporters of the current mayor and council. The members of the golf association currently have a lot of power and their input is valued. Golf members were naturally catered to when the courses were owned by the Sheraton and then the Hilton, however, the courses are now owned by the municipality and must be run differently because there are 41,000 citizens who expect fiscal responsibility. As a result, something has to change.

There is another alternative, which stops the bleeding immediately. The Town could give up golf. The purchase agreement with HSL states that, if the Town no longer pursues golf, the Town must lease the Canada course to HSL. Let the “private members” work with HSL, and free Oro Valley from the golf business. The Conquistador and Pusch Ridge courses could be maintained as a linear park, and we can move on.