DUNEDIN — With the historic Dunedin Golf Course a month away from its 100th birthday, the city is bringing in a new crew to keep it in top shape.
City commissioners voted unanimously to hire BrightView Golf Maintenance Inc. under a contract worth $868,010 a year, or about $72,334 a month. The deal takes effect Dec. 1 and costs roughly $1,000 a month less than what the city pays now.
City Manager Jennifer Bramley said the push for a new contractor came from the club’s members.
“Members of the club encouraged us to go to market, and we listened to them,” Bramley told commissioners. “The result is a win-win for everybody.”
The city took over management of the Dunedin Golf Club on March 1, 2024. Its current maintenance contract was awarded in 2023 for a three-year term with two optional one-year renewals, the first of which the city exercised in July, said Tony Mulkey, the city’s parks and recreation director.
The city put the work out to bid in April and drew six bidders.
“We took it out to bid due to feedback, maintenance concerns and just in general it’s good to see what’s on the market,” Mulkey said.
BrightView, based in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, submitted the lowest bid. Its contract runs three years, with options for two one-year renewals. The company will be responsible for the greens, tees, fairways, roughs, practice range, bunkers, ponds, bridges, irrigation, trees and landscaped areas, with duties ranging from mowing, aeration and fertilization to changing cups and leveling tees.
Mulkey described BrightView as a large, established firm that maintains more than 80 golf courses, many of them in Florida, including more than half the courses in The Villages.
“They were the low bidder. We did our diligence,” he said. “We had a panel that researched and looked into them, checked the references ... and we were satisfied with what we saw.”
Much of that vetting fell to Blair Kline, the city’s general manager of golf course operations, who visited nine municipal courses BrightView maintains across the state.
“I took a tour of Florida, it felt like,” Kline said. “Ultimately it comes down to my relationship with them, and their ability to perform and take care of this asset for the city.”
Not every course was perfect, he acknowledged, but three were “bordering on wow.”
“I am 100 percent convinced they know what a good property should look like,” Kline said. “They know how to get that course to that position, and they know the Florida market.”
He noted that contracts vary from course to course — in Dunedin, for example, the contractor must supply its own equipment — which makes side-by-side comparisons difficult.
Commissioner Jeff Gow said a lower price alone wasn’t enough.
“It’s cheaper, but we’re looking for better,” Gow said. “Our members and residents in general are pretty picky about everything in the city. ... Some of their concerns had value and some were nitpicking.”
“Nobody’s going to take care of the home like the homeowner, so nobody’s going to take care of that course as well as we will,” he added, before asking what “measuring stick” would hold BrightView to the city’s expectations.
Kline said the bid documents spell out specific practices, including how much fertilizer must be applied and how often greens are mowed, cups changed and bunkers raked. They also require the company to be best in class.
“The RFP is the minimum, it’s not the maximum,” he said. “It’s where we start at.”
Asked by Commissioner Tom Dugard what three things signal a well-maintained course, Kline said first impressions, from the signage and parking lot to the bag staff and pro shop, set the tone for a round. On the course itself, the greens come first.
“They’re the most important, but also they’re the thing that people probably have the greatest opinion on,” he said. “If they miss a putt, it’s always the green’s fault.”
Next come the fairways, he said, then the finishing touches, such as whether the grounds are manicured and trimmed. Tee boxes matter less, he said, “because you get to put a tee under it.”
Dugard said he is excited about the new provider, and Vice Mayor Robert Walker called BrightView’s portfolio “incredible.”
“We obviously need a first-class maintenance company to manage one of our crown jewels,” Walker said.
Designed by famed golf architect Donald Ross, the course opened Jan. 1, 1927. It served as the home of the PGA of America from 1945 to 1962 and hosted the Senior PGA Championship for 18 consecutive years during that span. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.