Yarmouth Selectmen Tee-d Off at Golf Clubs’ Poor Financial Performance

YARMOUTH – Yarmouth Selectmen expressed surprise at their latest meeting to learn that the town’s golf courses have been hemorrhaging money and nobody had mentioned it to them.

The revelation came at a hearing during which the board had intended to approve an across-the-board fee increase at Yarmouth’s two public courses.

Golf Director Jim Armentrout told selectmen that part of the reason for the increase would be the fact that the courses had not kept up with their contributions to the an employee benefit program and as a result had seen their enterprise fund fall from $300,000 to less than $100,000.

Town Administrator Daniel Knapik indicated that the entire program’s business structure may need to be reconsidered moving forward.

“In 2018 we’re going to need to put effort into what the turnaround plan is going to look like,” he said.

“The entire golf market has changed significantly. There are models that are out showing a lower fee to try to get higher volume.”

Knapik mentioned the possibility of trying to bring in a new restaurant partner to the courses to draw more people to the clubs.

In the meantime, Yarmouth Finance Director Ed Senteio told the board that the town would need to cover golf related expenses next year to the tune of nearly half a million dollars, even with fee increases.

Both Armentrout and Senteio indicated that the financial predicament is he result of bad weather, course construction, competition, and the fact that fewer people are playing golf nowadays.

After calling the revelation “troubling” Selectman Eric Tolley made a motion to keep resident fees unchanged, while upping the others which was unanimously approved.

“I think one of the things I’m concerned about is obviously don’t want to raise fees,” said Board Chairman Tracy Post.

“I think we’ve been doing that, it has not proved to be beneficial. However we just made a $2 million investment and if we don’t maintain it, what does that look like to investment?”

The board indicated that they would be taking a closer look at the golf budget in the future in order to determine how best to move forward.

By DAVID BEATTY, CapeCod.com NewsCenter

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