Oak Hills numbers up; restaurant rent paid

NORWALK, Conn. – Efforts to market golf Oak Hills Park are paying off, putting the course’s revenue well above where it was last year, Oak Hills Park Executive Director Shelley Guyer said.

Revenue from sales of ID cards is up $14,000 from where it was in mid-April last year, and while the revenue from cart rentals is down $4,700 from last year, the overall picture is that the course’s revenue is about $19,000 more than it was at this time last year, Guyer said at Thursday’s Oak Hills Park Authority (OHPA) meeting.

First the bad news.

“March was a horrible month. Last March was a horrible month. This March was worse,” Guyer said.

Rounds were down 50 percent in March; revenue was down 45 percent.

“We opened later this year because of the weather. After we opened the weather stayed very cold,” said Guyer. But, looking at the bottom line in terms of fiscal year (July to June), things are “still well ahead of where we were last year,” Guyer said.

Judging by how the course is doing in April, “The future of the rest of this year is pretty bright,” Guyer said.

April 5, the official Opening Day, was very busy, Guyer said. There were about 300 ID cards sold; 232 of them were new ID’s, and 43 of those went to Norwalk residents.

Opening Day featured promotions revolving around the number “45,” as this is the 45th year for Oak Hills. That included ID cards for $45 and a $4.50 lunch special at the restaurant.

“We made over $19,000 that day, which is probably the biggest single day I’m aware of that we have ever had,” Guyer said. “So the promotion worked, a fantastic promotion… It just kept going all day. It was a fabulous day for us.”

For the first half of April, the greens fees revenue is up 17 percent from last year, Guyer said.

“The weather has been terrible, yet we’re up 17 percent,” he said. “I believe our marketing efforts have a lot to do with that as well as that Monday special. We’re seeing a lot of new faces”

Total ID sales from January to mid-April are up 31 percent over last year, he said.

“We continue to see people coming back who didn’t have ID cards last year. They’re coming back and renewing,” he said. “Our greens fees are even with last year in spite of what happened in March.”

The cart rental revenues are down because the course has been too muddy to use them, he said.

A Groupon promotion sold out, he said. The course is being marketed on GolfNow, where golfers can sign up for tee times, but Guyer is going to try a 30-day trial with Golf18Network.

“It’s free, we’ve got nothing to lose,” he said. “We’ll see how many more golfers they’ll drive to the course.”

Guyer and others discussed a possible Mother’s Day promotion and said they wouldn’t be checking to see that the women who come to play are really moms.

Guyer said he’d be able to present a Fiscal Year 2015 budget in the next meeting. “We’re late, but nobody is bugging us,” he said.

Restaurant’s rent paid

Last month, Guyer said the bottom line was lower than it should be because the Oak Hills Restaurant on the Green was behind two months in rent. On Thursday, Guyer said the restaurant has caught up.

The owners have paid through March, he said. While they hadn’t paid the April rent yet, it won’t be considered overdue until April 30, Guyer said.

OHPA Chairman Clyde Mount said he had a long talk with restaurant co-owner Amar Haouri.

“They want to make it work. I told them we want them to work it out. I got a strong sense of commitment from him that he wants to make it work. He did say that March was way better than last year,” Mount said. “April is tracking above last year, so he was very positive. I did say to him that you cannot fall behind ever again. I don’t want the calls from the BET about what we are going to do about it and he can’t fall behind again, otherwise we will talk about a Plan B. I told him we were looking at Plan B … I said, ‘If you’re going to be late on the rent, you need to let me know personally.’”

Authority members expressed some concern over some service issues, but recommended the food. User reviews on online restaurant directories Yelp and Urbanspoon are nearly unanimous in their praise.

“Last year the Mother’s Day brunch was wonderful,” Ernie Desrochers said. “… The food there is very good, it really is. It’s just a matter of making it work, that’s all.”

“His food is unbelievable,” Mount said.

Considering incentive for the first hour

Authority members discussed procedures and processes at the course and the effectiveness of the starters and the rangers at keeping play moving.

It was suggested that an incentive be given to the foursomes that go out in the first hour, such as a discount in the restaurant if they finish before their allotted time. That’s because studies show that if players in the first hour get done on time the schedule is maintained for the rest of the day, it was said.

Master plan coming soon

The draft version of a master plan for the park is 119 pages long and will be posted on the park’s website after authority members submit comments on it, Desrochers said. Mount said he expects to hold the first of two public hearings in early May.

It includes detailed plans for a golf learning center, a nature center, a Nordic track, an outdoor fitness center and park upgrades and improvements, as well as a complete economic analysis and a budget, Desrochers said.

Elsa Peterson said she understood some people would see it as just semantics, but she has a problem with the wording of the mission statement, which says the primary goal is to become the premiere golf destination.

“Our primary purpose of existing is to be good stewards of that park and within that stewardship the golf course is absolutely the top thing,” she said. “… But to say that our first mission is to become a golf destination I just think goes against the idea that we are stewards of the park.”