(Seguin) — The Max Starcke Park Golf Course is slated to eventually undergo a total overhaul. The Seguin City Council has taken another step toward that major renovation plan, which will see the golf course close for months. The council last week agreed to hire Ross Golf Design to handle the architectural designs for the updated course, and to oversee the construction that will be needed in Starcke Park.
Bruce Allen, general manager of the city’s Starcke Park Golf Course, says this is the next step in the city’s plan to create a first-rate golf course for the community. He says what started as an irrigation improvement project, eventually grew into a much bigger plan for the golf course.
“About a year ago, the council approved $1.5 million of American Rescue Plan Act, ARPA funds for irrigation improvement. With that in mind, we hired the National Golf Foundation to come and do a survey of the golf course to see what else we needed, and they presented their findings to the council in August, and they recommended a tee-to-green renovation. The first step of that is the architect selection and that’s why we’re here tonight,” said Allen.
Allen says when they started looking at the irrigation work, it immediately became clear that they needed to do much more than that. He says that’s why they are opting for a total overhaul of the entire golf course.
“People ask us about ‘why not just do the irrigation?’ Well, the grass on the front-nine was planted in 1938. Nobody has any idea what that was, other than common (grass). So, there’s not too many golf courses that have grass from 1938. If we just did the irrigation and you wanted to make the course nicer five years later, you’d have to tear up some of that irrigation and start all over. So, it would be better if we just did it all at once,” said Allen.
Allen says they looked at a number of proposals for the design and construction work. He says Ross Golf Design, based in Austin, offered the best overall vision for the course. He says once the design is complete and the construction work is started, the golf course will be closed at that time.
“We would probably start killing all the old grass off in August of 2024, and then start growing new grass in April and May of 2025, and then reopen in October of 2025,” said Allen.
City Manager Steve Parker says this work will make the golf course viable for decades. He says the community deserves to have a first-rate municipal golf course. He says once the work is done Parker says the city knows there will need to be additional investments made to make sure the golf course is operated the right way.
“There’s a challenge when you have mutated grasses like we do. It’s very hard to come up with a mowing height, the herbicide schedule, (and) watering. You know they’re all different. The results of that (study), it also stood out that we have not given Bruce the adequate things to — as far as staffing levels comparative to other communities and golf courses – to get that top tier golf course that we all want. If we are going to put our money where our mouth is and to do something really nice and high end, then we’ve got to invest in our own stuff. (This is) stuff that hasn’t been done in 30 years with mutated grasses and all those types of things. The council has been very good over last few years. We’ve updated our equipment, we’ve updated salaries, (and) we’ve added some personnel. We were going to need to add more once this project is finished,” said Parker.
The golf course renovation project will cost approximately $6 million. Now that Ross Golf Design has been hired, that redesign work can begin. Once those plans are finished, the city can decide if it will officially close the course and begin the major construction work that will be a part of that plan.