It’s looking like three of the city’s four golf courses — Odana Hills, Glenway, and Monona — did well financially in 2014 but were dragged down by the 36-hole Yahara Hills Golf Course.
Overall, revenues from the four courses are expected to finish between $25,000 to $75,000 short of expenditures in 2014. For the fifth time in six years, Yahara’s revenues were worse than Odana’s, an 18-hole course.
City officials are trying to figure out a way to make Yahara more profitable, and those plans might include bringing back liquor sales, which the city stopped as part of sweeping changes voted in by the City Council in 2012. Those changes included replacing the four PGA golf pros who ran the courses with one head golf pro, some assistant golf pros, and unionized concession workers. The four displaced golf pros are currently suing the city as a result of their dismissal.
Last year, the first year under the new plan, the courses lost $105,000. According to a story in the Wisconsin State Journal, Parks Operations Manager Charlie Romines says the courses need to book an additional 4,000 rounds of golf to be self-sustaining, and Yahara could absorb all of them. Parks officials are now contemplating increasing the number of outings at Yahara, creating a discount card to drive traffic to the course, and asking the City Council to approve liquor licenses.
