by Brian Duthu
Pro Shops
February rounds played for all courses posted the 2nd highest total since 2009 and posted 462 more rounds than last year. Year-to-date rounds remain behind the prior year (due to January weather). Despite January performance year-to-date, rounds remain on pace with the prior eight year average.
The first annual Can/Am event was well attended with 100 participants. The field was evenly split with 50 participants each, representing America and Canada. In the end the American team prevailed by a margin of 26 strokes. Participants enjoyed a Texas Roadhouse catered dinner following play at the Fairway Center. The second annual event has already been scheduled for March 10, 2016; we are hoping to have a full field of patriotic participants.
The demo day on March 9 proved successful, with over $1,000 in sales for the day. Well over 100 golfers came out to test equipment from Orlimar, Mizuno, Wilson and Cleveland. We thank everyone for their attendance and remind everyone that we can match prices on current year equipment with most vendors, which supports golf in Sun City.
We have scheduled our first night golf event of the season for April 25, at Lakes East Golf Course. Check-in will begin at 6:00 p.m., dinner will be served at 6:30 p.m., and play will begin at 7:30 p.m. The cost of the event is $30 (includes dinner, first night golf ball, night golf accessories, prizes and more). Applicable green fees will be paid on the day of play. Sign-up sheets are available at each pro shop.
Snack Shops
Additional play and good weather continue to help snack shop performance as well. Total revenue for the month was $5,187 ahead of budget. We continue to thank everyone for their support of the snack shops.
Golf Courses
The Riverview project remains on schedule, with irrigation complete on the front nine and in process on the back nine. Gravel blankets for the greens are in place on the front nine. We have taken advantage of the warm weather and have begun irrigating areas of disturbance from the construction wherever possible. Full grassing will begin late May or early June, once stable summer temperatures are reached. Grassing will be complete in July.
The new well at Lakes West has completed the airlift and development stage and the large rigging has been taken down. The next stage will be testing and determining the proper pump size for the new well. Once this process is complete, the pump will be ordered and work will begin on the required infrastructure.
We received test results back for the lake on hole 17 at the South Course. The brown tint is a result of type of pennate diatom named Achnanthes. The algae is brown in color and can result in a change of water color if found in significant numbers. We have contacted our lake specialist to provide treatment.