Fort Scott city staff are trying to increase community use of the Woodland Hills Golf Course and even make it a Fort Scott activity center.
The employees spoke at this week’s Chamber Coffee hosted by the golf course.
“Steve and his clubhouse team have implemented many improvements for our customers this year,” said Mary Wyatt, FS’s director of city planning, housing and development, and golf course director. “We have contracted with a new golf cart fleet provider and replaced all of our old golf carts, installed new countertops, purchased a new TV for the clubhouse, and acquired new bar tables and chairs. We are also in the process of contracting for new point of sale hardware and software that will provide many new features such as tee time software, annual member passes, and a new website that we will be implementing soon.”
“As the golf course’s FS Director, I help execute and support projects, but it is the on-site management and its teams whose hard work and dedication every day ensure the customer experience is so outstanding,” she said.
New name for the clubhouse
“With all the changes this year, we thought it would be a good time to give the Woodland Hills Golf Course clubhouse an official name,” she said.
A suggestion box was set up in the clubhouse to ask for name suggestions. The top 10 were selected and included in an online poll. The community voted on the suggestions, determined the winning name by majority vote, and purchased a sign with that name, which was placed at the main entrance to the clubhouse.
“The new official name chosen by the community is The Clubhouse!” she said. “Key Industries, Inc. designed t-shirts with the official new name for employees and Jeff Allen wired and installed the new sign.”
The community is invited to use
“We’ve worked hard this year to create a more inclusive environment where every man, woman and child can do more than just play golf,” she said. “We want to invite everyone to come to the clubhouse to watch their favorite sports games, hold their volunteer group or committee meetings, have a weekly card game with friends or enjoy a burger or chicken sandwich for lunch or dinner.”
According to Steve Carter, club manager, there are currently golf leagues for men, women, children and families. Cart rental is $16 for 18 holes of golf and $10 for 9 holes of golf.
Groundskeeper
Dustin Fowler, head greenkeeper, and his team: Tyler Cook, Jonathan Allen, Rick McDaniels and Glenn Niemann have been working on maintaining the fairway, with weather conditions adding to the workload.
Fowler said the Fort Scott Public Works Department dredged a pond to make it larger and deeper so the greens could be irrigated. Additionally, Bermuda grass was donated from Wolf Creek Golf Course to replace grass that died due to drought or winter. He said the plan is to reseed the fairways next spring.
“Dustin and his grounds crew have been working a lot of overtime this year to restore our greens and fairways from the drought of the last few years and the flooding we had earlier this year,” she said. “The drought caused a lot of bare, brown spots throughout the property that are not easily repaired, and the flooding nearly destroyed the lower nine holes of the golf course.”
“It took a lot of concentrated and intense work to hand-rake the gravel from the greens and return it to the cart paths, not just after the flood, but every time there is a heavy rain. There was also a lot of seed planting, aeration, sod laying, watering and fertilizing to rehabilitate the facilities after the drought, and also to rebuild the lower nine holes after flooding and heavy rain.”
“Even though drought and flooding have impacted our teams and all the special projects they have been working on, they continue to work day in and day out to maintain the facility for golfers and host golf tournaments. They have also built a very special and beautiful section of paved golf cart path.”
Future projects
City Manager Brad Matkin announced over coffee that he is working on building a miniature golf course at the Woodland Hills Golf Club.
Matkin said he recently met with a business owner and there is a grant opportunity for a Fort Scott-style miniature golf course on the golf course. He will seek donations from other businesses for that project.
Additionally, “ground crews hope to concrete all cart paths in the future to provide a more pleasant driving experience for our customers and prevent the loss of cart paths during heavy rain or flooding. They also hope to create new attractive features such as decorative wooden bridges and detailed landscaping.”
“We hope to purchase new patio furniture so that people will enjoy sitting outside together and the environment will be more comfortable and inviting,” she said. “We hope to offer a full kitchen with a wider variety of menu options, golf simulators so customers can play golf year-round, mini golf and a driving range are also in discussion, as is landscaping the grass circle in front of the clubhouse.”
