Worth the fees?
Only time will tell at the golf course

Zach Evans chips onto the putting green at the Fox Run Golf Course on Wednesday morning. — © 2009 Gallup Independent / Adron Gardner

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Independent staff

GALLUP — If Scott Hamilton had put all of the money he has spent on golf over the past 45 years and invested it wisely, he probably would have enough to retire now with a couple of hundred thousand dollars in the bank.

But Hamilton spent it on his passion — golf.

He plays about 80 times a year, mostly in Gallup, but he goes to places like Grants and Albuquerque where he can actually come up with an accurate idea of how good a golfer he is.

“You can’t do that with the golf course here,” he said, adding that the condition of the course here is so bad that its only value to golfers like him is to practice their swings.

Another good thing about the course here in Gallup is that it’s cheap, which is one reason why the course loses so much money each year.

Gallup golfers pay $13 on weekends and $10 for a cart. On weekdays the fee is $10 for the game and another $10 for the cart. For really serious golfers like Hamilton, a year-long golf pass costs $400, but this doesn’t include the cost for carts.

The cost to play here in Gallup is about $2 cheaper than Grants.

The last time that the city raised its golf fees was in 1999, but in 2005 the city took the unusual approach and lowered the fees because of the condition of the course.

Many golfers still complain about the condition of the course and many, like Hamilton, would not like the fees to go up, even if it meant that the city would lose less money.

“With the condition of the course the way it is now, I wouldn’t want to pay any more money,” he said.

If the conditions of the course do improve, golfers have indicated that they wouldn’t mind seeing the cost go up a buck or two a round. Whether that happens depends on one person — Bob Weekes, the greens superintendent at the golf course.

Weekes is now in his third year as greens superintendent, and while golfers say there has been some slight improvements in some way, the course is still unplayable for serious golfers.

David Bischoff, who is one of the leaders of the Gallup Men’s Golf Association, said this summer will either make or break Weekes.

“He’s going to have to step up now that Alex Alvarez’s position has been eliminated,” he said. Alvarez’s last day is June 30.

Even with the poor condition of the course, it’s booked almost every week throughout the summer and early fall with tournaments for this charity or another.

With no golf pro position, Bischoff said someone will have to be responsible for organizing the tournaments and making sure everything goes smoothly. And it looks like that person will be Weekes.

As for improving the condition of the course, city officials have indicated that Weekes still has some time to make the course playable, which means that golf fees will probably remain stable.

Actually, city officials haven’t been talking about raising fees at the course even though the golf course and other quality of life programs are costing the city in the neighborhood of $3 million a year.

The city is also not planning to close down the Aquatic Center, although that possibility was discussed last month as a possibility if the Gallup-McKinley County School District did not agree to take it over.

The district currently pays 20 percent of the operating costs but school officials have expressed doubt that the district would increase it’s level of ownership.

What the city is looking at, however, is the possibility of seeking state and federal grants to help defray the costs of operating the golf course and other programs.

Herrera was optimistic that there were some federal or state funds that could be tapped into.

State Rep. Patty Lundstrom, D-McKinley County, saying that if the city asked her to help get grants to defray some of the costs, she would, but they haven’t.