The greens are playing about 50 percent faster, bunkers are being removed and the restaurant is more casual at the Centennial Park Golf Course in Munster.
The season-long effort to transform the course — and operations throughout the park built on the former site of the Munster Landfill — is the work of Billy Casper Golf, which the town hired to manage the facility in hopes of generating more revenue.
Any Munster Parks & Recreation Department employees who were working at Centennial Park became employees of Billy Casper Golf if they applied and were hired.
The company retained Matt Meneghetti as Centennial’s head golf professional, and he said he’s excited about all of the improvements.
“What stands out to me are the quicker greens and shorter rough,” he said. “A lot of golfers have noticed the changes, including cutting down on the fescue (grass).”
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Some 10 of 47 bunkers on the nine-hole course are being removed, and the remaining ones are being improved.
Ken Vespa, of Lansing, said he plays the course four to five times a week and that it’s in beautiful shape. He does wish some of the plant growth around the parking lot near the Centennial Park clubhouse could be trimmed..
“There’s been a big improvement since Billy Casper took it over,” he said.
Town Council President John Reed, R-1st, noted changes to The View Restaurant located inside the clubhouse. It is a bit less formal, allowing people to order at a window rather than wait for a server.
“Now a golfer can come in and order a hot dog or something and get back out on the course,” Reed said. “We have new menu items now that our new chef designed.”
Billy Casper Golf receives $8,000 a month from a performance-based contract, Reed said. The town placed $117,000 in a joint account to be used as startup capital. The course had been running a deficit, which Billy Casper projects will drop to approximately $32,000 by the fifth year of the contract in 2020.
The town, which has kicked in $200,000 a year for operations, last year saw revenue of about $1.1 million against expenses of about $1.3 million.
Besides revenue from golf, the restaurant, concessions, banquets and other events, the course sells methane — produced from gases mined from the buried landfill. In 2015, methane revenues sold to NIPSCO totaled $689,851. Also, the facility runs on methane.
Jim Masters is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.