Golf, even during the recession of the past few years, has held its own in Lewis County.
"It's doing quite well," said Steve McNelly, golf pro at the Riverside Golf Course in Chehalis. "With the economy where it is now, people are not willing to give up the game, but they play at a lower cost."
"Our rounds of golf and revenue have been very consistent since I bought the course in 2000," said owner Darin Thompson. "Rather than saying the economy affects us, I think the weather affects us more than anything."
Riverside is the grandfather of golf courses in Lewis County. It was built as a nine-hole course in 1927 by a man named Donahoe who was also involved in the building of the Centralia-Chehalis Airport.
In 1971, then-owner Joe Mehalik added another nine holes. The course changed hands a few times and was purchased by a Japanese company in the late 1980s. The absentee owner, who also bought four other courses in the U.S., came over once a year to play golf at Riverside
"That's when the Japanese economy was really booming," said McNelly.
When the boom faded, the Japanese sold off Riverside to Thompson, a Yelm native who worked his way up from the greens crew at High Cedars golf course to superintendent over the course of 14 years.
Today, Riverside gets 24 percent of its revenue from Olympia-area golfers, with another 28 percent coming from Centralia and Chehalis. The rest comes from around the county and Western Washington.
Thompson spends most of his advertising dollars in Olympia, which has several golf courses, but with higher greens fees (the charge for playing) and slower rounds, said Thompson.
While Riverside keeps the game moving quickly by careful management, Newaukum Valley Golf Course south of Chehalis keeps the players from waiting behind holes by having a lot more holes — 27, in fact.
"For us, Newaukum gives us tremendous freedom," said Alan Browning, general manager. "I can have Toledo High School on my west nine, I can have Centralia on the right, and I can still get you on."
Newaukum was constructed by Henry Date in 1979 as an 18-hole course. In 1995, his son, John, added another nine holes.
Like all golf courses, the main revenue comes from greens fees and cart rentals. The owners get a bit from their restaurant, club rentals for parties and memberships. Their pro shop, however, is a fading source of income.
"Our pro shop is a pro shop of convenience, rather than one that adds to the profit margin," said Browning, adding that golf discount stores and purchases over the Internet have taken a majority of the business golf courses' pro shops once had.
Being located in a rural county such as Lewis County has actually been an advantage for public courses such as Riverside and Newaukum Valley.
"There was a big boom in golf construction over the last 10 years," said Evan Rothman, executive editor of Golf+ Magazine "What a lot of people call the Tiger Woods effect. The number of players just hasn't grown to equal that."
That's particularly true in Washington, said John Bodenhamer, executive director of the Pacific Northwest Golf Association in Bellevue, which represents 90,000 golfers in Washington.
"In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the National Golf Foundation completed a study of demand which projected that if a golf course was built every day (in the U.S.), it would meet demand," said Bodenhamer.
Golf course developers took the study and ran. In Washington, most of those courses were being built within 30 to 90 minutes of urban areas. That trend continued until the late 1990s. Then came the dot.com crash and the Boeing layoffs.
"People used to have a 'Fields of Dreams' attitude," said Bodenhamer. "If they build it, people will come. Those days are over. People don't have a pocket full of cash anymore. In the late 1990s, it was no big deal to pay $120 to play a new course."
In 2000, 398 golf courses were constructed around the country, according to the National Golf Foundation in Jupiter, Fla. While courses are still being built, the rate dropped in half by 2003.
Golf courses are expensive to build. A decent one easily costs more than $6 million, not including land or even a clubhouse. That means high greens fees, particularly in more urban areas where land is more expensive. While the number of golfers has continued to increase, those people are not necessarily willing to fork out $60 to $100 to play, let alone $50,000 to become a member of a private club.
"People are looking for less expensive options," said Bodehamer. "They are still playing. They might cut out the trip to Pebble Beach or Las Vegas to play golf. They'll stay home and play. They're definitely looking at honest, affordable, middle-of-the-road green fees."
Which leads golfers to moderately priced public courses such as Riverside ($23 to $29) and Newaukum ($20 to $28). Other options in Lewis County include the private High Valley County Club in Packwood and the Maple Grove RV Resort and Golf Course, whose main business is an East Lewis County recreational vehicle park.
Incidentally, Mark Twain, who seems to have had a quote for every occasion, once said, "Golf is a good walk spoiled." Thompson laughed when he heard the quote.
"He's just saying he had a bad round of golf that day," said Thompson.
Mark Lawton covers economic and energy issues for The Chronicle. He may be reached at 807-8231, or by e-mail at mlawton@chronline.com.
