- May 2, 2024
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All the non-believers can now back off. The new management and owners are doing a terrific job for Pine Lakers, Cypress Knoll and, one day soon, the re-opening of Matanzas.
Take Frank Vignati, for example. A long time successful business man and ardent golfer, Vignati was asked by fellow team owners to take over management duties. He is the perfect person for this task.
Why is Vignati so important to Palm Coast Golf? He plays the game at every opportunity and plays it very well. Taking over full-time management was the right thing to do, but his time playing the game has to have been cut, and that hurts. Ask him today how he feels about losing appearances on the first tee for the good of the team and the members. I’ll wager a small coin that a silent hurt forms in his mind.
But that’s my point.
The many who questioned the new team’s ability to properly run a golf course failed to consider their business experience and their love for the game. Who better to run the show than the people who play the game, most on these same Flagler County courses.
The future
As long as I’m digging into the whys and wherefores of golf courses, there is one factor that is rarely discussed. Can a golf course survive on membership alone?
Back when the economy was booming, this was not a topic of discussion. It made no sense to even consider such a need. But the times have changed all of that. The picture is no prominent for all to see.
Most golf courses around the country can’t solely on memberships. They need outside play to foot the bills. They must have a good paying plan to draw the public as players on their courses, but also maintain faith with the memberships as well.
Don’t blame the golf course management wherever it may be. Throw the snowballs at the economy and the damage it has done. When and if it returns to normal figures, golf course memberships blossom from coast to coast.
Are you a tournament volunteer?
I want to tell you a story about the game of golf that may or may not find you in agreement. It happens in tournaments around the nation as it did in Palm Coast some years ago.
I wrote a story about golf tournament volunteers with the hope that a magazine such as Sports Illustrated might have some interest.
It didn’t.
The thought that bugged me is that these pro golfers walk off with $40,000 and sometimes more than $1 million on each tournament, but the volunteers have to pay for the privilege of giving labor for free.
Without the volunteers, there wouldn’t be any tournaments. That’s why I thought then, and still do now, that they deserve more respect and a better deal.
Anyhow, I did considerable research. What I found was the volunteers were actually paying to provide labor for players who get paid the big bucks.
Strangely, what I found is that the best volunteer treatments were those when the LPGA played Daytona and the last few years with the Ginn Tournament, in Palm Coast.
I asked an editor to critique it for me. He got back to me by saying, “They won’t print it. Your story is too opinionated.”
He was right. They never responded.
The bottom line is that these golf magazines make big dollars writing about pro golfers and events. It’s a big business and they will not do anything to destroy that income. And I agree with that summation.
So, whatever happened to the free press? Well, it’s not as free as I thought it would be.
Anyhow, I gave up on the idea, destroyed the story and let all those days of research fly out of the window. Sadly, I might have gained a fairer deal for those thousands and thousands of good people who work their hearts out on golfers who earn handsome numbers.
