PANAMA CITY — The former operator of Bay Dunes Golf Course is preparing an offer to present to Bay County to once again run the course slated to close Feb. 17.
Tony Ray said his attorney is drawing up an offer that will be presented to officials next week.
“I am preparing an offer for the county,” Ray said. “They haven’t offered me anything, so I’m preparing them an offer.”
Ray had operated the course since 2011 until the county a few months ago sent him an eviction notice. County officials said Ray could not produce a $25,000 bond the county required in the event the landfill liner over the course was damaged. Ray said he couldn’t get the bond because of the way the requirements were worded, and he decided to leave voluntarily.
After he left, the county put out a request for proposals for anyone interested in leasing the property for nothing and operating the course without a county subsidy to put in an offer, but no one responded.
The county was planning to shut down the course in early December, but commissioners decided to hire Holiday Golf Club to operate it with a county subsidy of $25,000 a month for three months to give officials time to gauge the course’s finances and advertise for a golf management company to it take over.
Commissioners agreed last week to not require a bond, and Commissioner Mike Thomas said he would like Ray to know that in case he wanted to come back.
Ray said Friday that before he returns he wants a longer-term contract than the five-year deal he had with the county. That would allow him to get financing to help maintain and repair the course. He said he also wants to be compensated for the cost of having to move his equipment from the course and reimbursed for lost golf revenues during the winter months.
“I have lost all of the winter revenue I would have taken in,” said Ray, who declined to disclose the figure.
If he does take over the course, Ray said he would handle course maintenance as was the case previously. He also would not ask the county for a monthly subsidy like the one it was paying Holiday Golf Club.
Kenny Eastham, who golfs at Bay Dunes, said “it would be wonderful if the course could just remain open without a lot of cost to either party.”
Regulars speak out: The regular golfers at Bay Dunes on Friday included snowbirds and local seniors who enjoy socializing and playing a round for exercise. They were angry at the County Commission for deciding to shut it down.
They said commissioners made a hasty decision after they were informed by the temporary operators that it could take up to $750,000 to get the course into decent shape.
Curt Wolstenholm, who organizes several leagues at the course, said it might take that much money to fix the course if they were trying to turn Bay Dunes into more expensive courses like the Hombre. But he said Bay Dunes, with a greens fee of $25, is more for working folks and retirees who accept that the course isn’t up to those standards.
The repair work “doesn’t have to happen within the next two months or six months,” he said.
Wolstenholm said the county could have kept the course open for a minimal amount of money by using existing park staff to help with mowing and other maintenance.
“The county has assets that they can put on this golf course, and they already have all the parks and recreation” staff, he said. “They have irrigation staff.”
The course is next to H.G. Harders Recreation Complex, so parks and maintenance staff wouldn’t have to drive far to the course, he said.
“The irrigation system is in place,” Wolstenholm said. “The only thing they need is to work on the control system, and they have the personnel to do that. Then they could take and do some things out here that would make the maintenance costs a lot less, like filling in all these sand traps here.”
Cal Brincefield, 84, is a regular at the course. He also was unhappy with the commission’s decision.
“I think they are very short-sighted,” he said. “I think they take a negative attitude towards the course. They don’t want this thing open.”
He said prisoners could help with course maintenance.
“They do it on the highway. Why not out here if the county wants to run it? The county doesn’t want to run it,” Brincefield said.
He said if the course closes, he will lose his only source of exercise.
“It’s the only exercise I get,” he said. “I golf out here three times a week.”
Brincefield said the county keeps hearing about all the work that has to go into the course, but a lot of players enjoy it now in its current shape.
“It’s playable now. We’ve been playing on it,” he said.
Eastham said the course is an amenity for golfers that needs to stay open.
“It’s already built, and the feasibility of doing another public golf course in the coming decades is totally out” of the question. “It takes 180 acres.”
Eastham said commissioners should have contacted the PGA about how other communities have been able to keep their municipal courses open.
“There is a huge history of these situations for public golf courses across America. This is not the first public golf course,” he said.
Doreen Leigh, a Canadian snowbird who was golfing Friday, said she hopes the course stays open. Golf is the main reason they bought a house in the area.
“We bought a place just for this purpose” of golfing, she said.
Louis and June Lemenn, who are from Calgary, Canada, also were playing. Louis said he also hopes the course stays open.
“June and I have played all of the courses around here. This is my favorite one in terms of difficulty,” he said.