Room for improvement: Plans call for a variety of changes at Salt Lake City's Bonneville and other golf courses

SALT LAKE CITY — Bonneville Golf Course has been around since 1929, yet it still uses much of the same antiquated 80-year-old irrigation system that involves dragging hoses and inserting sprinklers manually.

An ambitious plan by the Salt Lake City Golf Division will correct that long overdue problem, but it could also bring major changes to the venerable course that would include several new holes, a 500-yard-long driving range and a large clubhouse that could house the Utah Golf Association, the Utah Section PGA and the Utah Golf Hall of Fame.

Besides major changes to Bonneville, the other seven city courses would see some significant changes, ranging from renovation of existing holes and driving ranges at a couple of courses to building on-course restrooms and maintenance facilities at several courses.

Like everything else in life, it depends on money and everyone knows this is not the greatest time to be spending extra money on golf course improvements.

That's why David Terry has spent much of his four years on the job as Salt Lake City's Golf Enterprise Fund Manager working to come up with innovative ways to fund his golf courses.

He believes that Salt Lake City, unlike other municipalities, which subsidize their golf courses, should remain self-sufficient. To do that, he has come up with a $22 million plan that might involve selling a few acres on three golf courses and making improvements at each course that could generate more revenue, while also reducing expenses.

"To stay self-sufficient, we have to find some ways to increase our revenue generation capabilities because there is the day in the future (around 2018) where the golf fund can no longer stay self-sufficient," Terry said.

He said the infrastructure improvements, such as new restrooms and irrigation systems, are not enough. New driving ranges at Bonneville and Nibley Park and an expanded one at Rose Park can generate hundreds of thousands of extra dollars that can help the golf fund stay in the black.

"We've got to find a way to generate additional revenue," Terry said.

One of the problems Salt Lake City is facing is the oversaturation of local golf courses and a decline in overall play since the 1990s. The number of golf courses between Provo and Layton and Tooele and Heber has increased 95 percent since 1990, according to Terry.