INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Most days this winter, more than 500 rounds are being played on Sandridge Golf Club’s two public courses, producing monthly totals of 9,500 in January and 11,100 in February.
That’s a 3 percent increase over the combined 20,200 rounds played on The Dunes and The Lakes layouts during those same two months in 2014.
January rounds were up from 8,100 in 2014 – a 17-percent jump – while February rounds dropped from 12,100 a year ago.
Both the rise and fall were due, to some extent, to golf days lost to rain at the 28-year-old complex owned and operated by Indian River County.
“We’re at the mercy of the weather,” Sandridge golf director and head pro Bela Nagy said. “We lost eight days to rain in January 2014, and we lost four days to rain last month. When you’re talking about 500 rounds a day, losing even one day makes a difference.
“Fortunately, for the most part, the weather this year has been good,” he added. “It’s not the busiest season we’ve ever had, but, compared to some of the other local courses, it probably looks that way, because they’re down a bit.
“But we have been very busy.”
Not as busy, though, as Nagy and his staff were 10 years ago, before the real-estate market crashed and a recession rocked the national economy.
In January 2005, in fact, a total of 11,437 rounds were played at Sandridge.
The January numbers dipped into the 10,000s in the latter half of the decade, then dropped to 9,700 two years ago.
“In our heyday, we’d have 600 rounds in one day, so 500 in a day is nothing out of the ordinary for this time of year,” Nagy said. “Like I said, a lot of it is weather-dependent – rain, cold, even frost can cost you rounds – but this is kind of the new normal.
“And it’s not bad,” he added. “Barring weather delays, the first groups tee off at 7 a.m. and we’re booked solid until about 3:30 in the afternoon. We turn people away every day.”
Prior to the arrival of Daylight Savings Time, many golfers with tee times after 1:30 p.m. who didn’t want to race against the setting sun would elect to play only nine holes.
Groups tee off at eight-minute intervals until noon, when starters add an extra minute between tee times.
“We went to nine-minute intervals after noon a few years back, so that groups were a little more spaced out and there wasn’t as much of a wait on the courses,” Nagy said. “That’s at least part of the reason the number of rounds has decreased. But it’s no fun to have to wait on every shot.
“Nobody wants to play a 5 1/2- or 6-hour round,” he continued. “This time of year, most of our rounds come in at about 4 1/2 hours. On a slow day – Mondays are very busy – it can be five hours. We’ve got rangers on the course to try to keep things moving, but that’s the hardest job out there. Sometimes, if people are playing slow, there’s just nowhere to go.
“That’s the tightrope we walk, being a public course,” he added. “We’re contemplating going to nine-minute intervals all day. If that’s what it takes to make the experience even better for the golfers who play here, that’s what we’ll do.”
Sandridge, with its two 18-hole championship courses, driving range and golf school, has been recognized by Golf Digest and other national publications as one of Florida’s finest public facilities.
That was exactly the type of top-shelf, public golf club Dick Bird was hoping to create when, serving as a county commissioner in the 1980s and at the urging of a large group of residents, he began his push to build it.
“If we were going to do it, we were going to do it right,” said Bird, who was a golf pro for 14 years before seeking public office. “We were going to build and operate a first-class facility.”
The Dunes course opened in 1987 and was so successful that The Lakes was added in December 1992. Both courses are well-maintained and smartly run by a staff that takes pride in offering the feel of a private club at public-course prices.
Roughly 95,000 rounds were played at Sandridge last year, with the 75,000 18-hole rounds and 20,000 nine-hole rounds almost evenly split between the two courses.
Before the 2004 hurricanes and the economic downturn that began in 2008, the number of rounds annually had reached as high as 115,000, Nagy said.
Yet Sandridge generates enough revenue to fully cover its operational expenses, as well as fund renovations and improvements to the complex.
In addition to resurfacing its greens, Sandridge recently has undergone upgrades to its driving range and cart paths. A new irrigation system was installed on The Dunes course last summer, and Nagy said he hopes to replace the irrigation system on The Lakes course in the next three years.
“We’re self-sufficient,” Nagy said. “We don’t cost the taxpayers a dime. Everything we do is supported by our fees.”
Depending on the time of year, time of day and whether someone is a county or state resident, the cost of a round of golf at Sandridge can range from $20 to $50, including cart.
Nagy said 70 percent of Sandridge’s revenues are generated from January through mid-April, adding that seasonal residents and visitors play 90 percent of the rounds during the winter months.
The courses are busier on weekdays during the winter months, he added. The reverse is true during the summer, when more rounds are played on weekends.
“I’d say this is a normal season, and normal is a good thing,” Nagy said. “I like normal. Normal means we’re busy.”
