DATE: Sunday, September 21, 1997            TAG: 9709210088

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TERRI WILLIAMS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:  100 lines

CITIES TRY NEW COURSE, BANK ON GOLFING TO BRING CASH

There was an air of anticipation last Tuesday as city officials celebrated Curtis Strange's agreement to lend his name to Bide-A-Wee Golf Course.

Words like ``vision,'' ``energy'' and ``dream'' kept being repeated during the event at The Links at City Park. Strange and Mayor James W. Holley III hammed it up for the media as they both teed off at the second hole. Wide smiles. Energy. Cameras flashed.

Said Holley: ``If this is a good place for Mr. Strange to play, we think it will be nice enough for others to come and play.''

But city officials are banking on more than just Strange's celebrity name to draw new participants and their money to the game. They're betting on golf itself.

In Portsmouth and other Hampton Roads cities, public golf courses are increasingly being viewed as investment tools to draw surrounding commerce. Golf courses have long been the draw for residential development, but as the game gains popularity, they also have been seen as leverage to lure private investment.

``The golf course becomes more than a recreational center,'' Portsmouth City Manager Ronald W. Massie said. ``It becomes a business asset contributing to a city's fiscal strength.''

Jeff Fleishman, president of Golf Business Advisors, a Williamsburg golf consulting firm, said cities are realizing they can turn a profit by forming public-private golf partnerships. Fleishman, who was hired to work for Portsmouth, said the courses have a spinoff effect.

``I think a lot of the municipal golf boom in the last 10-20 years has shown that they can be profitable if they maintain them,'' Fleishman said. ``There are a lot of success stories.''

In Charlotte's Renaissance Park, city officials turned a worthless piece of landfill property into a multirecreational center that includes an 18-hole course, a softball complex and a tennis center, said Brian E. Cox, Charlotte's assistant director of parks and recreation. Cox said restaurants and office buildings moved in shortly afterward.

``It turned property that was not highly valuable into the most expensive office property in the county,'' Cox said.

In Richmond, Annapolis and Baltimore, city officials have used their golf courses to foster development.

Closer to home, Hampton Roads cities also are finding ways to turn aging greens into gold mines.

Earlier this year, Chesapeake officials spent $500,000 to make capital improvements to its Chesapeake Golf Club, formerly known as Seven Springs. But city officials say that although they still have golf in their master plan, there are no funds in the immediate future for such efforts, said Cyndy Perkins, a spokeswoman for the city.

Virginia Beach is making way for a new Tournament Players Club course.

The Beach plans to use its courses to attract tourists. It's roughly a $1 million annual business, said Ron Kuhlman, director of marketing and sales for the Department of Convention and Visitor Development.

To that end, Strange and golf architect Pete Dye will help officials there design the TPC course on a piece of property in the Lake Ridge section.

The Beach also is studying ways to improve two of its public courses: Kempsville and Bow Creek. But that effort has not been funded, said Mark R. Wawner, project development manager for the Beach's Department of Economic Development.

``The real jewel in the crown will be TPC; it will be the flagship,'' Kuhlman said.

Kuhlman said Beach officials are watching Portsmouth closely and hope they can eventually include Bide-A-Wee within a package of course offerings for hotel tourists.

Virginia Beach isn't the only city watching Portsmouth. Norfolk is keeping an eye on the moves of both cities, said Stanley A. Stein, director of Norfolk's Recreation, Parks and General Services.

``We are quietly studying, as well as watching, what the other cities are doing,'' Stein said. ``It's good competition.''

So far, plans to renovate Norfolk's Lake Wright course have been stalled as city officials continue to work with the owners of the nearby Lake Wright Resort and Convention Center, Stein said. City officials also are negotiating with a Maryland firm to build a $2 million 18-hole, par 3 golf park on an old city landfill in Lamberts Point. There are also plans to renovate Ocean View municipal course. But Stein said he recognizes the appeal courses now have for municipalities.

``There is a prestige that's out there in having a course, and it's a trend we're starting to see,'' Stein said.

City officials in Portsmouth are hoping their courses will add $500,000 to their coffers once renovations are completed on Bide-A-Wee and City Park. Industry numbers indicate there's plenty of demand.

The golf trade magazine ``Golf Market Today'' shows that over the past 10 years, the number of golfers has increased from 20 million to 25 million.

Between 1986 and 1994, total spending by adult golfers on playing fees and equipment increased over 90 percent from just under $8 billion to just over $15 billion, the magazine reported. And that's before you add the Tiger Woods craze.

Once construction is completed next year, the 18-hole Bide-A-Wee will offer among its amenities a clubhouse where golfers can relax as well as host meetings and seminars. Renovations will cost roughly $2.5 million to $3 million. The strategy at Bide-A-Wee is to build a commerce park nearby, similar to Chesapeake's Greenbrier commerce park.

Portsmouth officials also plan to negotiate their lease on the course they own in Suffolk, as well as build a new course on watershed property Portsmouth owns near Portsmouth's Suffolk Golf Course. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

Curtis Strange

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