CourseCo has plans for improvement at Juniper Golf Course

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Redmond’s golf committee at its Tuesday meeting approved CourseCo’s new annual plan for the city’s Juniper Golf Course, which the golf course management company hopes will help correct Juniper’s recent financial troubles as well as lead to the addition of a pizza oven and other amenities to the course restaurant.

CourseCo, with whom the city renewed its management contract on Jan. 1, went over its plan at the meeting, including how a $100,000 capital investment from the company will be used to improve the course’s food and beverage operation and bring in more customers. Both the plan and the investment are required elements of the city’s new four-year contract with CourseCo, which the city revised from the previous contract to include incentives and safeguards that aim to prevent the bookkeeping problems an independent audit highlighted in February.

“We were able to put some things in there we know that we want achieved,” Jason Neff, deputy director of central services for the city of Redmond, said last month.

Among the audit’s criticisms was the reduction of controls over deposits, collections and billings and monitoring of past-due accounts; an increase in food and beverage costs; the consistent overstating of revenues and payroll costs in the budgeting process; as well as issues in the monitoring and proper recording of accounts payable and accounts receivable.

The company’s $100,000 investment is going primarily toward the course’s food and beverage operations, CourseCo Vice President of Operations Tom Bugbee said. The restaurant, according to a draft budget, will see new furniture and amenities inside and on the patio, as well as new carpet inside, paint touch-ups, and additions to the kitchen like an $8,647 pizza oven.

“We look at this as step one,” Bugbee said. “We have a limited budget, so we’re trying to get the most bang for our buck. We really want to build this up and create extra revenue that can be invested back in the property.”

The goal is to slow down rising restaurant costs, which increased from $285,753 in fiscal year 2014-15 to a little under $300,000 this fiscal year.

The new plan also details certain initiatives that CourseCo will implement this year in order to meet city performance measures and address criticisms, like hosting at least seven community events and increasing membership to 150. Travis Kane, Juniper’s new general manager who started on Feb. 1, said that January and February membership numbers were better than expected.

“Sales look right off the bat to be going the right direction — we picked up 60 memberships since I’ve been here,” he said. “Thats a big win, especially for the time of year. There’s lots of optimism as we get closer to the actual season.”

Regarding revenue, the number to beat is $1.5 million, which the performance measures state would be considered non-performance. The 2016-17 budget that’s included in the plan projects $1,728,201 in course operating revenue, up from $1,618,731 in 2015-2016.

“We consider those attainable numbers,” Bugbee said at the meeting. “We’ve got to work to get them, but they’re not pie in the sky numbers.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7829,

awest@bendbulletin.com