From stepchild to golden child: a run-down golf course in California gets updated.In October 2004, Long Beach Department of Parks, Recreation and Marine (LBPRM) re-opened Skylinks golf course. This was the first time the 160-acre course received a wide-scale makeover since it opened in 1959. "It was flat and ... kind of boring," says Bill Townsend This article has multiple issues: * It does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by citing reliable sources. , former chairman of the golf commission. Townsend learned how to play golf on the course, but was in agreement with the rest of the commission's citizen members that it now needed a major renovation. "Basically, everybody referred to [Skylinks] as the stepchild step·child n. 1. A child of one's spouse by a previous union. 2. Something that does not receive appropriate care, respect, or attention: "Demography has a reputation for being the stepchild of . . . of the golf system," says Phil Hester, director of LBPRM. Long Beach, Calif., is home to almost half a million active residents, with its municipal golf course system considered one of the busiest in the nation with more than 500,000 visits per year. LBPRM owns five courses, two of which were newer and flashier than Skylinks. It wasn't until a private operating company operating company A business that engages in transactions with outsiders. took control of LBPRM's five courses in 1985 that a decision was made to move forward with the updates. Prior to the switch, the city of Long Beach reaped only $75,000 a year from the courses for its budget. After the change in management, Long Beach now receives $4.5 million a year for its general fund, the LBPRM receives 1 percent of green fees for its junior golf program and the private operator sets aside 25 percent of its green fees revenue to a capital fund for LBPRM to use for continuing improvements to its properties. With the amassed funds, and at the urging of the golf commission, the city finally embarked on the $6 million, one-year Skylinks project. The new, par-72 course features larger greens, revamped fairways, water features including four lakes Four Lakes, chain of canalized lakes in S Wis.: Waubesa, Kegonsa, Mendota, and Monona. Between the last two lies Madison, the state capital. Largest of the four is Mendota, c.6 mi (9.7 km) long, on which the Univ. of Wisconsin campus is located. with fountains, 80 newly designed bunkers and 1,700 pieces of vegetation vegetation /veg·e·ta·tion/ (vej?e-ta´shun) any plantlike fungoid neoplasm or growth; a luxuriant fungus-like growth of pathologic tissue. . A waterfall waterfall, a sudden unsupported drop in a stream. It is formed when the stream course is interrupted as when a stream passes over a layer of harder rock—often igneous—to an area of softer and therefore more easily eroded rock; the edge of a cliff or has also been added between the 1st and 10th tees, which will serve as a backdrop Backdrop may refer to:
"You want the end product to be beautiful, challenging, affordable and something that ... turns out to be something special, and I think all those things were achieved with Skylinks," says Townsend. Prior to the renovation, Skylinks brought in about $500,000 in revenue for the city. By the end of its first year, Hester anticipates a profit of $1.2 million, plus $250,000 for LBPRM's capital improvement fund and $30,000 for its junior golf program. What was once an afterthought af·ter·thought n. An idea, response, or explanation that occurs to one after an event or decision. afterthought Noun 1. for Long Beach residents is now a premier golf course, and also an award-winning one--Golf Inc. magazine recently named Skylinks the "Renovation of the Year" winner of its municipal category. |
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