President's Message

2008 UPDATE

Welcome to all of our past and present Members of the Lloydminster Golf and Country Club.

Under "Course Fees" on our website, you will find our 2008 Membership fee schedule. There are some significant changes to both our Membership fees and structure. The past several years have been a financial challenge for the golf course due to costs that have risen at a rate that have exceeded our fee increases. Our buoyant economy has affected our labour costs, and items such as fuel have also increased dramatically. The Executive has attempted to keep our costs and Membership fee increases to a minimum, but the long term fiscal requirements of the golf course have forced an adjustment to our fees. It is important to realize that although the City of Lloydminster does not charge us rent or property taxes, and has taken over operating the Communiplex from the golf and curling clubs, the City of Lloydminster does not subsidize our golf course operations. We are required to be self sufficient.

By increasing our Membership fees and introducing a new Membership structure, the Executive has attempted to strike a balance to keep golf affordable for all. We have gone to a two-tiered system of adult memberships to offer a lower priced option for week day golf, and a higher priced alternative for those who wish unlimited access to the golf course. I firmly believe that the increased cost of the unlimited Membership is not as dramatic as it may seem at first, if one considers the actual cost per round if a person paid green fees.

Increases in green fee rates have outpaced the cost increases for our Membership, and our Membership fees in comparison to other similar courses have been much lower. We have been able to make up our financial shortfalls through increased tournament play, and will continue to allow more tournaments than some of our Members would like to see, without them our Membership fees would have to increase even further. There are a number of necessary capital projects that have been put off due to a lack of funds, including finishing the drainage system, improvements to tees and bunkers, and pond reclamation. One area the Executive has taken action on this winter was to arrange to finance the purchase of 45 new power carts to replace part of our old fleet that dated from 1999 to 2001, and those carts had lasted well beyond their expected usefulness. The carts are an example of the lack of funding for capital expenditures, the original goal was to replace a number of carts each year as a rotating fleet replacement plan, but that was continually put off because of a lack of money. Fortunately, due to the high Canadian dollar and some excellent work by Don Bilyk, we were able to get a relatively good deal.

All of our Executive would be happy to respond to your questions and concerns and look forward to seeing you at the course. A list of the capital projects we would like to see completed over the next 15 years can be found on Don Bilyk’s Course Superintendent page on our website.

Respectfully yours,

Don Smith
President
Lloydminster Golf and Country Club