Lakewood’s RedTail Golf Club to raise prices, cut maintenance building as it awaits new clubhouses

Lakewood village trustees have approved an increase in the rates of the village-run RedTail Golf Club by $2 on weekdays and $4 on weekends.

The higher price could help cover the costs of the new clubhouse construction, which encountered financial concerns that prompted officials to drop a maintenance building from the plans to stay within the $3.9 million budget.

The 2024 costs will be $54 for a round of 18 holes, including a cart, Monday through Friday, and $75 Saturday and Sunday. Membership rates will remain the same, according to village documents.

Prices are similar to five nearby golf courses, including Pinecrest in Huntley, Foxford Hills in Cary and Randall Oaks in West Dundee, which also are government-owned.

Turnberry Golf Club, also in Lakewood, was not compared because only 2021 rates were available, RedTail general manager Kenny Goodwin said.

RedTail also discontinued its GolfNow software, which allocated four tee times per day to use the service. Now with all the tee times going back to RedTail, Village Manager Jean Heckman estimated that if 60% of the tee times are sold this year, the village would get an extra $81,000 in revenue.

“With our new software, we can take some of our slower days and do dynamic pricing and lower the rates so we can sell more,” Goodwin said.

Trustee Lonnie Jeschke requested that RedTail focus future pricing based on the amenities the golf club can provide, compared with more lavish locations.

“Where is our pricing in relation to the condition of our course, as compared to the conditions of other courses, so we don’t price ourselves out of the marketplace?” he said.

RedTail will be partnering with Barstool Golf Time by being included as one of the 25 Illinois golf courses in its membership.

In 2022, the village started including a $4.48 fee per round to pay for the clubhouse, halfway house and maintenance building. The fee will be $6.48 per round, which is included in the overall costs, Village President David Stavropoulos said.

“It will be a separate line item that we’ll be able to see and track on the financials, as well, going forward,” Stavropoulos said.

The golf club had 14 leagues and more than 170 events last year, according to village documents. RedTail staff expects both numbers to grow this year, with the new clubhouse expected to be completed in the spring.

The extra revenue could help pay for the new clubhouse and halfway house that is being constructed. The village already hit a snag in its plans in November, when it canceled building a maintenance building to avoid going over budget.

The construction project is budgeted at $3.9 million, but updated projections showed the village would go about $460,000 over budget if the maintenance building were constructed now.

Cost savings dropped from $200,000 to $20,000 within three weeks after estimates were finalized by contractors.

“To be very frank, three weeks ago, these numbers had extra zeroes after them on these savings numbers,” Village Trustee Trisha Babischkin said. “That bothers me in my core.”

The maintenance building will be built in the “second phase,” but a timeline on that is undetermined, Heckman said at the Nov. 14 meeting.

The village went forward with the halfway house that would serve food and drink because it has the potential to generate more revenue, while the maintenance building does not, Stavropoulos said.

“I think it’s very important that we take a giant step back and realize that this all began with a need for a clubhouse,” Babischkin said. “That was the original project.”

Further concerns about the construction were raised at the Jan. 23 meeting regarding wood columns going into the ground rather than having concrete below ground.

Skipping the concrete piers saved about $11,000, but having wood in the ground is “not a best practice,” Jeschke said.

“We want this building to be a lasting building,” Jeschke said.

This story has been updated to correct that RedTail could gain $81,000 in revenue by dropping the GolfNow software.