City staff propose substantially reduced Westwood fees

Competition from lower priced-area golf courses, coupled with a decline in season pass sales across all golfer age ranges, has prompted the City of Newton’s parks and recreation department to propose substantial base price reductions at Westwood Golf Course.

Staff-recommended changes to the city-operated, 18-hole course still need to be authorized by the Newton City Council in order to implement the new fee structure for the 2019 golf season. Council is expected to read and take action toward the proposal during its Dec. 17 meeting in city hall.

The Newton Park Board, which serves as an advisory board to the city council, was introduced to the suggested changes by Community Services Manager Brian Laube during its monthly meeting Wednesday night. Citing a decrease in rounds played, Laube determined a drop in fees would entice more golfers to the course and boost play numbers.

Since “everything (at the golf course) was down across the board by about 14, 15, 16 percent,” Laube supported his decision to lower fees by attributing the loss of rounds played also affecting other important factors of revenue.

“If we’re down 14 percent on rounds, our rentals are down 14 percent, our concessions are down 14 percent, merchandising’s down,” Laube said.

Westwood Golf Pro Brad Sponseller told park board members the course recorded about 4,000 rounds less than the total acquired the year before.

“Typically, we run around 16,000 to 17,000,” Sponseller said Wednesday. “We were just under 13,000 this year. Daily fees were roughly pretty close to the same, but we were down about 40 season passes from the previous year. That equates a lot into that 4,000.”

In addition to competing prices, Laube said poor weather and the state of the aging clubhouse were likely determinants to the low number of rounds played, albeit to a lesser extent.

According to the proposed 2019 Westwood Golf Course fees submitted by Laube, season passes for students ages 21 and under would decrease from $210 to $169; young adults ages 22 to 35 would decrease from $420 to $389, while the young adult couple package changes from $630 to $589: adult singles ages 36 to 65 would decrease from $630 to $539, and the corresponding age group couple package would drop considerably from $1,018 to $779; and senior singles ages 66 and over would decrease from $567 to $499, while the senior couple would reduce from $927 to $749.

Also listed in Laube’s proposal to the council is a set deduction for local golfers.

“Since this is a city-owned and city-supported course with city tax dollars, city residents would get an additional five percent discount on those season passes year round,” Laube said.

The five-percent, Newton resident discount also works for the 10-punch punch cards offered by golf course staff. As per the proposed fee revisions, the cost of nine-hole green fee punch cards would decrease from $135 to $96; nine-hole cart rental punch cards would decrease from $77 to $64; 18-hole green fee punch cards would go down from $189 to $128; and 18-hole cart rental punch cards would reduce from $119 to $112.

Daily fees during the weekdays would decrease from $15 to $12 and $21 and $16 for nine-hole and 18-hole games, respectively; likewise, weekend fees would decrease from $20 to $14 and $26 to $21 for nine-hole and 18-hole games. Daily cart rentals per person would also drop from $10 to $8 for nine-hole games. Eighteen-hole games for daily cart rentals will still remain $14 per person.

Laube said he also plans to suggest changing the course’s twilight hours to 3 p.m., allowing golfers to play until the sun goes down. Following the time shift, twilight game fees would also decrease from $15 to $12, or $25 to $20 with cart rental.

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com