Makefield Highlands golf committee hears operations update, reviews optional dynamic pricing and infrastructure review

Makefield Highlands Golf Committee advisers on Monday received an operations update showing rounds played through May lagged 2025 but revenue gains in merchandise and food-and‑beverage.

Eddie, who presented the month-to-date figures through May 31, said the course had recorded 13,321 rounds compared with 13,849 a year earlier, a shortfall of roughly 500 rounds that staff attributed in part to a rainy Memorial Day weekend. He reported year-to-date greens, cart and driving-range receipts of about $724,627 against a budget of $752,494 and said pro‑shop merchandise sales totaled $71,655 versus a budgeted ~$66,000; he added that cost of goods sold on merchandise ran near 61 percent, better than the 75 percent budgeted.

The committee also reviewed a proposed third-party booking and marketing integration. Mike, who described the vendor demonstration, said the proposed GolfBack integration would sit behind the ClubCaddie point-of-sale, keep resident bookings on the existing resident booking engine and give staff marketing automation and search improvements for nonresident customers. "Residents would stay on the ClubCaddie booking engine, so you all would see what you see today," Mike said, adding the vendor would charge a $1.50 booking fee for public (nonresident) reservations and that a portion of that fee would return to the township. He emphasized the dynamic‑pricing capability would be optional and that staff planned to monitor a pilot period before enabling automated price changes.

Committee members asked how the tool would treat resident guests and peak weekend demand; Mike said staff would retain final control over rate floors and caps and could run the vendor in back‑end, observational mode to collect data before changing posted prices. He also noted the integration would have no upfront cost to the township, per the presentation.

Separately, committee members said the Board of Supervisors has extended the operator contract through 2027 and contracted for an outside infrastructure review (committee members recalled an approximate $13,000–$14,000 contract) to assess course needs. Committee members asked to be included in the review deliverables and to see the scope once available; staff said they had provided background materials to the reviewer and would share findings when possible.

Staff highlighted other operational items: driving-range revenue was tracking near budget, Toptracer equipment remains in use while certain dispensers and range hardware age, and the food‑and‑beverage operation is about $42,000 ahead of budget year‑to‑date in part because of banquet bookings and promotions. Staff also noted a $5,000 Girls on Course grant the course received to support girls’ programming.

The committee took no binding action on the booking‑engine proposal; members asked staff to monitor results and return with analysis. The advisory board approved the April meeting minutes and adjourned; the committee plans to convey tonight’s discussion and any recommendations to the township and Board of Supervisors for any formal decisions.