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Counting The Ways

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 26, 2008

I've always had a major problem with arithmetic. It's on the wrong side of my brain. But I can remember poetry and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, whose sonnet I quote in the headline, sprang to mind as soon as I got off the adding machine.

It all came to pass when I was standing at the North Lakes Golf Course last weekend and a lady, a CA member, came in and paid for one round. It cost her (including tax) $32 and change.

The question is: How much does it cost to play golf here, round by round, if you are a full dues-paying member? And what do you get for being a full dues-paying member?

Elementary, my dear Watson: You take the membership fee ($1,521.05 including tax) and the golf cart permit, aka 'trail fee' ($1,096.75 tax inclusive) and add them together and then divide by the number of rounds, give or take, you'll play next year.

I average three rounds a week - four most weeks, but then I travel some on business and pleasure and it's been known to rain here in the summer. At three rounds a week, 156 rounds, the cost comes to $17.42 a round.

Two and a half rounds a week? $20.91. Twice a week? $26.13.

108 Holes of Golf

Now, for this you get Sandpiper (27 holes); North Lakes (18 holes); Falcon Watch (27 holes) and two executive courses, one at Kings Point and the Caloosa Greens course (36 more holes). That's 108 holes of golf and you're simply not going to find a better deal that what we have here for that much golf. And having your own cart adds to the convenience and lowers the greens fee costs at other places.

No wonder Larry Brown, president of the Sun City Center Golf & Social Club, Inc., said last week we need to be positioning ourselves to be ready: "Sun City Center could be a Mecca for golf!"

Brown presided over the annual meeting of the SSCG&SC, hereafter to be referred to as "Golf and Social, and gave a half-hour report on what this non-profit organization has accomplished in a year. He noted that it was formed to try to - by persuasion or legal means - get the North Lakes Course back for member play. Brown noted a financial assessment on the members had been levied and less than 50 percent had paid it, but they still had $14,451 left in the "assessment account."

He said the Golf & Social was designed to run a golf course (a reference to a possible buyout of the North Lakes Course) but it doesn't want to run a golf course.

Board Elected

Twelve members of the Golf & Social members were elected to its Board of Directors. For a one-year term, the board elected Ken Defreeuw, Ron Jewell, Dorothy Morris and Ester Stever. For two years: John Armstrong, Larry Brown, Jim Cosgrove, and Jim Rottman. For three years: Don Churchill, Ed Jacobs, Shirley Johnson and Udea Onslow-Thompson. The Board will elect its officers from this group.

But what stuck with me was Brown's statement that "SCC could be a mecca for Golf." I firmly believe that. But it's going to take some doing. It's going to take a campaign of partners and the ones I see as partners are the Community Association, WCI, the realtors in town and the Golf & Social. It's going to cost money, but that money will result in homes being sold, of house prices rising instead of stagnating and in a much more vibrant town. The CA Board has had a slot for a Communications Committee, and inexcusably, it has been unfilled for years through at least three administrations.

It's Time To Promote
Sun City Center has been hiding its light under a bushel. No promotion, talk only to yourselves and the God of ever-rising home prices will take care of everything. Not so. After 50 years in the communications world, I am now allowed to tell you: If no one knows this is a golf mecca, if no one knows homes are decently priced here, if no one knows there are 150 or more clubs and the place is rife with volunteerism, then no one will come here. Few will inquire - and those mostly friend referrals.

Being fat, dumb and happy is a wondrous thing. Only we should be none of these things. If we don't get a marketing plan together for SCC and/or Kings Point, then our houses will continue to decline in price and we may jolly well lose some or all of our golf courses.

We should be talking about this. We should be doing something about it.

Bob Black is a member of the board of directors for the Sun City Center Community Association.

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