Idea Exchange

IDEAEXCHANGE

Raising Their Game

By Betsy Gilliland, Contributing Editor

CHRISTMAS VALLEY (ORE.) GOLF COURSE may be a small place, but the creative minds there think big. After all, when the nine-hole municipal golf course, which is managed by the Christmas Valley Park and Recreation District, shares a $76,000 budget with a manmade lake, a rodeo grounds, an airport, a community hall, a library, and a multi-purpose field, it takes a little ingenuity to keep the facilities up to par.

Drawing from a small tax base, the District does not always receive enough money in annual property taxes to fund major capital expenditure projects. As a result, Karen Morgan, Manager of the Park and Recreation District, formed advisory committees comprised of community members to oversee the District’s various assets, and last summer the golf committee brainstormed to come up with ideas to help finance capital improvement projects for the course.

The three-man committee, led by Dan Maple, who reached out to other golf courses of similar size for inspiration, decided to hold a golf tournament—dubbed the “Christmas Valley Harvest Golf Tournament”—to raise funds.

While course conditions have never been better—which, Morgan says, golfers attribute to Superintendent Robbie Newport, who came to the property about a year ago by way of the Bandon Dunes Golf Resort maintenance staff—the aging infrastructure of the golf course, which opened in 1964, needs attention. Upcoming capital projects include the installation of a new irrigation system, construction of a storage shed for the golf cars, and the purchase of general maintenance items.

The tournament was held Sept. 25, 2021 and 52 people participated in the nine-hole scramble. The outing also included a lunch catered by a local restaurant and a live auction of items donated by area businesses and individuals.

“It turned out to be one on the best weather days for golf. It was beautiful,” says Morgan.

The golf course charged local businesses $500 for a sponsorship, and each sponsor received a free, full-page, color ad in the Park and Recreation District’s bi-monthly periodical, Desert Whispers, and a 4-footby-8-foot vinyl banner that was posted at the golf course.

“There was a $100 entry fee for players, but nobody had to pay because of the sponsorships,” says Morgan.

Auction item sponsors received a 3-inchby-5-inch ad in the Desert Whispers. Since the golf course is located in a rural area, many of the items were farm related. The biggest prize was a tool chest with a fuel tank that fit on the back of a pickup truck, but others included artwork and rounds of golf at different courses.

Volunteers also manned a drink cart, which was donated by a local group that puts on concerts in the park every year.

Through the tournament and the live auction, the property raised almost $15,000. The amount also included $650 from the sale of mulligans, which cost $10 each.

The first project to get underway this year will be the construction of the storage shed for the carts, and in another cost-savings measure, the agricultural department at nearby North Lake School will build it.

Christmas Valley also plans to apply for matching grant funds from the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department for the new irrigation system. Morgan says the District needs to come up with 20% to 50% in matching funds.

Because the tournament was such a success, Christmas Valley plans to host it again next year.

“I don’t know what they have up their sleeves,” Morgan says of the committee members. However, they probably will make a few tweaks to the outing.

For instance, Morgan says, they would like to increase the number of auction items and create more incentive for people to stay for the live auction after the tournament. In addition, she says, “We put a limit on mulligans, but next year we’ll have unlimited mulligans.”

If other properties want to hold a similar event, she advises them to start out slowly and maintain realistic expectations.

“Keep it simple, keep it friendly, and start early,” Morgan says. “Our guys put this together in a couple of months. They all worked 24/7 on it.”

She also recommends keeping good notes, and she made sure to get the names and addresses of all the tournament participants.

“I sent a thank you note to everyone and included a membership application with the note,” says Morgan.

Her efforts must have paid off. “Prior to this year, we had 15 members,” she says. “This year we have 36 members. We’re in the middle of nowhere, but people have come from far away.”

Christmas Valley Golf Course raised nearly $15,000 with a scramble to supplement a modest maintenance budget.