Call it the smalltown golf course with big ideas. Really, really big ideas.
Hickory Sticks Golf Club in rural northwestern Ohio has defied the odds for nearly 60 years, trudging along in an area with a modest population that has always hovered in the neighborhood of 9,000-10,000 people. It's a conservative area where playing it safe can be a way of life.
The golf course entered a new era last month when former owner Mark White, a local businessman who owns a string of nursing homes, donated the 27-hole facility to the YMCA of Van Wert County. And YMCA director Hugh Kocab and new golf course superintendent Mike Fast are ready to usher the course into the future and make the property a regional showcase for golf enthusiasts.Their strategy includes improvements to the golf course and a business plan that consists of a renewed focus on women and junior players and innovative membership options that target this family friendly farming community. Their plan for the future also includes converting nine holes into a four-hole course that includes free lessons and free play for juniors and an area for footgolf and disc golf, both of which also will be free.
"We're going to embrace those groups," Kocab said. "Everything can't be about money. Sometimes, it's also about providing opportunities for exercise and recreation for the community."
Still, turning a profit shouldn't be much of a problem.
"We don't have a lot of competition here," Kocab said. "We are working hard to include women and juniors. We know what they want and what they're looking for and how to present it to them."
The Van Wert area is anything but a golf mecca.
More than 600 farms occupying nearly a quarter-million acres comprise the bulk of Van Wert County. It is so flat here that it is home to the state's largest wind farm. More cows than people call it home.
Like many farming communities, there is an emphasis here on families and traditional values, which Kocab and the Y's board of directors see as an opportunity for the golf course to reach local residents.
Who can blame them for their optimism?
The Y has about 3,500 members, which equates to a market penetration rate throughout the county of about 35 percent, and that gives the golf operation a pretty good pool from which to start. Membership plans include an option that combines enrollment in both the Y and the golf course. That's something the former owner and other nearby courses - the few that are here - couldn't offer.
When it came to unloading the course, White contacted only the Y.
"I looked at it as a community asset," White said. "And I think the community will rally around it.
"There was nobody ready to write Mark White a check for a golf course."
As White predicted, the community already has embraced the concept of a Y-owned golf course.
In one of the coldest, snowiest winters in northwest Ohio in the past decade, Hickory Sticks has been a hot topic throughout the county. Memberships already are double what they were a year ago under the previous owner. Even non-golfers are buying memberships because, "they want to support what we're doing," Kocab said.
We don't have a lot of competition here. We are working hard to include women and juniors. We know what they want and what they're looking for and how to present it to them."
The Y director attributes part of the excitement to the option to join both the Y and the golf course together in one fee, as well as the improvements that are being made to the course under Fast.
A native of Haviland, Ohio about 10 miles from Van Wert, Fast is a 1992 graduate of Ohio State's turf program. For the past 22 years, he was the superintendent at nearby Delphos Country Club. Making the move to a Y-owned property was not a decision he made lightly.
"There are some issues here," Fast said of Hickory Sticks. "There are a lot of dead ash trees and the bunkers aren't in the best shape. I thought 'do I want a change like this?' The YMCA and the board have committed a lot of money to equipment to improve the conditions. I'm up for the challenge. I see this as a good opportunity."
What equipment the club had prior to Fast's arrival was decades old and much of it didn't run. A fairway mower was used to mow tees because the tee mower wouldn't start.
The Y has put up money for a new tee mower, another fairway unit, a sprayer, roller, topdresser, aerifier and blower and just about whatever else Fast needs to bring the course up to standard.
"For chemicals and fertilizer," he added, "they told me 'whatever you need, get it.' "
Discussions about donating the course to the Y began almost a year ago in a local drug store when Kocab and White bumped into one another as each sought a remedy for a late-winter cold. It's one more example of the closeness of this community, where everyone knows just about everyone else - even if your closest neighbor is a mile down the road at the next farm.
Still, this was not a deal the Y entered into blindly just because it was getting a golf course free of debt.
There are only a handful of YMCA-owned courses across the country, making it a unique business model. Before deciding whether to accept or reject White's donation, Kocab and members of the Y's board went to North Carolina, home to at least two such golf courses, to begin the process of conducting due diligence. In fact, Y officials attacked the project like a group of seasoned golf industry professionals.
"We've done our research. We know the golf economy is not good and that courses are closing," Kocab said. "We looked into why they are closing are most are because of market saturation, debt ratio and changing demographics.
"It wasn't just me. Our executive committee had to make sure it was a viable option. Three attorneys, two accountants and all 16 of our board members all looked at it, and everyone had the same reaction: It was a no-brainer. We are debt free. We're reaching out to women and juniors and we're going to develop programs that are exciting for these groups and we're offering knockout membership deals for everyone in our community. All those things combined; that's what's going to set us apart."
Improvements to the golf course will include all new bunkers, including new drainage and new sand, a new agronomic program courtesy of Fast, something the course never had in the past, and a regular greens aerification schedule.
"Down deep, this is a good golf course," Fast said. "It just needs a little TLC, and now the YMCA is backing it.
"We're buying a lot of equipment, and I already have about three-quarters of what I need to get the job done."