Port St. Lucie's Saints Golf Course needs up to $5.7 million in repairs and upgrades

Olivia McKelvey, Treasure Coast Newspapers
·3 min read

PORT ST. LUCIE— The city-owned Saints Golf Course needs as much as $5.7 million in maintenance and upgrades over the next five years

The City Council last week discussed necessary renovations and how the 18-hole course could generate more revenue, based on recommendations from National Golf Foundation.

It will be at least four months before the council reviews recommendations from the Budget Advisory Committee.

Those improvements range from $4.6 million and $5.7 million and include:

  • Drainage modifications

  • Irrigation system replacement

  • Driving range enhancements

  • Golf cart path resurfacing

  • Patio expansion

  • Repairing or replacing the existing maintenance building

  • Parking lot repairs

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The most significant repairs, according to consultants, involve drainage and irrigation systems and could cost a combined total of $2.9 million to $3.7 million.

Enhancing the driving range may include a technological component like Toptracer, a simulator that tracks the distance, height and speed of golf shots.

"A golf course is a living, breathing asset," Richard Singer, National Golf Foundation senior director of consulting services, told the council Jan. 18. "It always has something that is going to need to be improved, but right now you're looking at some significant improvements that are needed in the irrigation system and the drainage situation."

The city has been spending less than "standard" for golf course maintenance, according to consultants, and is understaffed by as many as four full-time positions.

Saints Golf Course, which has been owned by the city since 2001, has relied heavily on volunteers, saving the city about $1.6 million over the past three years, according to Parks and Recreation Director Sherman Conrad.

If Port St. Lucie makes all recommended improvements, it could see revenue increase by roughly $400,000 — from about $1.8 million in fiscal 2021 to $2.2 million by 2026, according to the the 114-page report.

Council members were cool to consultants' suggestion to transition golf course finances from self-supporting to the city general fund.

"It's been an enterprise. I don't want it weighing heavily on the taxpayers," Mayor Shannon Martin said. “There's been times when we had to fix the greens ... We had to take money from the general fund and subsidize that, but there have been years where the golf course has sustained itself.”

The golf course, 2601 S.E. Morningside Blvd., is the centerpiece of Sandpiper Bay, a 3,000-unit residential development just west of U.S. 1.

A National Golf Foundation survey in the summer of 2021 found that of the 176 respondents — 22% from Sandpiper Bay; 65% from other parts of the city; and 13% from outside the city — 82% said they would come to the golf course with the sole intent of using the driving range if the proposed improvements were made.

Olivia McKelvey is TCPalm's watchdog reporter for St. Lucie County. You can reach her at olivia.mckelvey@tcpalm.com, 772-521-4380 and on Twitter @olivia_mckelvey.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Port St. Lucie needs to spend up to $5.7 million on Saints Golf Course