Toccoa Commission Hears Third Golf Course Proposal

Toccoa City Commissioners hear one final proposal regarding operations of the city-owned Pines golf course.

Monday, the city commission met with David Shirley during a work session to talk about the nine-hole course off of Black Mountain Road, which has been closed since late August when the previous operator announced he could no longer run it.

Shirley is a Toccoa native with eight years of golf course experience and is currently the Assistant Superintendent at a golf course in Idaho.

Shirley said after looking closely at the current situation, he feels the city should manage the course and he feels he would be interested in working for the city to run the course.

“If you guys decide to do this and want to bring somebody in, I would definitely be interested,” said Shirley, who added he wanted to use his proposal to sell the course and himself.

Shirley agreed that the greens need to be renovated and re-done and that the irrigation system needs to be modernized, focusing on the greens and the center of the fairways.

One area where he did not agree with some others who have looked at the course is on the future of bunkers on the course.

He said he does not believe in re-grassing all of the bunkers as some have suggested, but instead perhaps cutting back and then taking other steps to reduce maintenance on the bunker.

“Some bunkers, if you can make more of a natural bunker, it definitely seems like that is the wave of the new courses is that they are un-maintained on the edges,” said Shirley. “The idea is there is you are not wasting man hours making it manicured on the edges,” said Shirley.

Shirley carried that same philosophy to other areas of the course, where he suggested allowing areas on the edges of the fairways and off the fairways to go to a more natural area to reduce mowing time and costs.

He also said the city will need to upgrade its maintenance equipment for the course.

When it comes to staffing, Shirley said the course should have a full-time golf course superintendent.

He said he feels the lack of that has been a problem in recent years.

However, Shirley said that person must have other skills and abilities as well.

“It has to be a superintendent and a manager that not only runs the grounds, but also is trying to get new golfers,” said Shirley.

He also suggested one full-time staff person for maintenance and one for the pro shop, supplementing that with seasonal employees.

As far as demand, Shirley said he feels the course can create a demand by re-establishing a core group of golfers, while reaching out to juniors and others who do not play regularly, while promoting that it takes less time to play 9 holes than 18.

He also suggested that the city offer basic concessions and more in the pro shop to help generate revenue.

Overall, Shirley said he feels the course can be an asset to the city of Toccoa.

“It obviously lost a lot of faith of the public because of how it has become and it will definitely take some input and hard work to get that back, but I believe the opportunity is there,” said Shirley.

City commissioners thanked Shirley for his presentation.

They are expected to make a decision on future operations of the course by the end of the year, with the goal of operating the course next year.