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Golf rounds and revenue jump as GCAC debates marketing, irrigation timing and pickleball safety
Summary
Lago Vista’s golf course reported sizable year-over-year increases in rounds and revenue, but the Golf Course Advisory Committee spent much of its meeting debating whether marketing and promotional work should wait until irrigation and course conditions are stabilized.
Golf course staff told the Golf Course Advisory Committee that rounds and revenue are up sharply compared with prior years, but committee members said marketing and promotion efforts should be contingent on stabilizing irrigation and course conditions.
“March I am 44% up in total revenue, I'm 43% up in rounds,” Greg Zadley, the golf course manager, reported during the meeting. He told members that a warm March and increased play pushed totals well above prior fiscal-year figures but that the recent irrigation problems — most notably the failure of one of the course’s two pumps — threaten fairway aesthetics and the ability to apply fertilizers and fungicides.
Zadley credited his staff for keeping the course playable by manually watering greens each morning. He also described a recent increase in outings and custom-fitting events and said he is arranging additional demo days for equipment vendors.
Committee members discussed a range of revenue and marketing ideas — from partnering with short-term-rental hosts and local restaurants to staging tournaments — but repeatedly returned to a “earn the right” theme: members said spending on marketing would be most effective after the irrigation and pond issues are resolved.
“I think we're beating our head against the wall if we don't recognize that we need to get the product — including primarily the golf course — in a good place,” committee member Gage said. Several members suggested conditional or staged marketing plans tied to an irrigation timeline.
The committee also discussed safety concerns at the facility’s pickleball courts after a social-media report that a ball struck a player; members debated low-cost and higher-cost responses. Ideas raised included temporarily closing the most exposed court, moving tee boxes, installing taller ball barriers or nets, and seeking Greg Zadley’s operational input on likely effectiveness and costs.
As next steps, committee members agreed to expand outreach: designate leads to meet individually with council members to discuss revenue-focused recommendations; coordinate with the parks-and-recreation advisory committee on overlapping priorities; and contact the city’s economic development group to explore tourism and short-term-rental partnerships. The committee scheduled its next meeting for April 29 and approved February minutes during a consent vote.
Two formal actions were taken during the meeting: the committee unanimously approved the February minutes and unanimously approved its next meeting date.
