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Monday, November 5, 2001
Kleberg golf course might turn private
It has consistently lost money for the last 4 years
By Jeremy Brown
Caller-Times
   The Kleberg County public golf course might soon be in the hands of private managers.
   Since it opened in the mid-1970s, the L.E. Ramey Golf Course has been run by the county, then by a succession of private groups and then by the county again.
   For the last four years, it has been in county hands and has consistently lost money, leading the County Commissioners Court to accept proposals earlier this month from two groups seeking to lease the golf course.
   "It's harder for a governmental entity to manage things," said Commissioner David Rosse. "It's a little bit harder because of all the bid laws, and sometimes we're bogged down in paperwork."
   An independent operator would have more freedom to run the golf course and to respond to changing demands, he said.
   One proposal came from the Kingsville Men's Golf Association, which has pledged to run the course on a nonprofit basis, using its own money to improve the course, then giving half of future profits to the county and devoting the other half to course upkeep, Rosse said.
   The other proposal is from Golf Course Managers, a local group that has said it would run the course like a business, Rosse said. It would pay for its lease by returning a small percentage of the course's revenue to the county, regardless of whether it makes a profit.
   But critics say past experience proves that the course cannot turn a profit and that it would attract more players if it were maintained better.
   "Golf courses in small towns are not money-makers," said Lindell Ramey, a Kingsville doctor and golf enthusiast for whom the course was named. "We have a lot of winter Texans that play golf here in the winter time, but if you don't keep it in good shape, they won't come back."
   Built in the 1970s
   The course was built in the 1970s on land that was a part of Naval Air Station-Kingsville but no longer used, Ramey said. The county applied to the federal government for 531 acres at the air station on which it also built tennis courts, a skeet shooting range and an outdoor area for children's groups.
   With its low fees, the course was not intended to make money, he said. Green fees are $9 during the week and $11 on weekends, with electric carts renting for $8.
   The course has a good design but has deteriorated in recent years as droughts have dried the fairways, and the aging irrigation system has not been able to replenish them, said head pro Frank Monsevais.
   "We've probably got one of the best greens in the area," he said. "This golf course used to be one of the best ones, I would say, in the whole state of Texas when we built it."
   Of the 17,108 golf courses in the United States, about 15 percent are government-owned, according to the National Golf Foundation.
   But as economic ideas about privatization have grown in popularity over the last two decades, more and more golf courses have been opened to private management or even sold to private owners.
   Between 1987 and 1995, the number of cities contracting their golf courses out to private firms increased 67 percent, and a quarter of all U.S. cities with golf courses contract out for service and maintenance, according to the Reason Public Policy Institute.


Contact Jeremy Brown at 886-3746 or brownj@caller.com

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