How would you like to own a golf course?
Sounds like fun. Then it hits you; the tab comes. You've got to pay to water and groom it with all those fancy mowers and trimmers and workers that crawl over every blade of grass and sand trap. You must hire a staff to operate it, find players to play it and somehow meet budget in an area that's witnessed nine other courses crop up in the last competitive decade.
Meet Provo businessman Doug Horne, a member of Riverside Country Club and owner of TalonsCove at Saratoga Springs, west of Lehi, just off Redwood Road next to Utah Lake.
Horne is doing something unique — doing a high-wire act. He's out there on his own, the wind in his face, taking all the risks, hoping for the rewards which may not come until this community of 10,000 approaches its projected 100,000 population.
Horne has no safety net, no city, county or state department of recreation to fall back on. He's not tethered to a bottomless well of bailout money.
His real estate partners around the land have gone their own way. Horne is one of five original businessmen who scratched wells and water out of pastureland that led to creation of the city of Saratoga Springs. The real estate folks went their way and Horne got the golf course with another guy.
One day, that guy called Horne and said he needed to gather some money to pay some of the bills. Horne scraped some money together and delivered it.
The guy filed for bankruptcy the next day, leaving Horne the course.
Good luck.
Horne, bless his birdie-loving heart, never walked away from the picturesque Gene Bates layout. Not his style.
Those who know Horne say he's too competitive and honest to let go. He's battling Thanksgiving Point, which has a corner on local corporate outings.
He's battling The Point with Fox Hollow, which has poured millions into a new clubhouse, carts and irrigation, and Orem's Sleepy Ridge, a busy layout that's just weeks away from opening a monster clubhouse. All want events, weddings and players. All want to win over the golf dollar.
Horne's not blinking. "I'll put what we've got up against anybody."
Horne's a guy you'd trust with your diamonds, if you had any. His honesty is off the meter. He's so nice, if he hits a couple of bad shots in a row, you just hope he swears for normalcy sake, but he says "shucks" and "oh, golly."
"That's pretty much Doug," says Riverside head pro Robert McArthur. "He's competitive and honest, just a good guy and a very good businessman. He likes to do things right."
Horne's latest strategy is to put TalonsCove in the hands of a longtime golfing pal, somebody he trusts, a guy with a proven business track record.
He just asked Steve Watts, voice of the UVU Wolverines, to take time away from his partnership with Brent Norton (voice of BYU baseball) in a plastic picnic bench company, to manage the course.
Watts, who has won a zillion Riverside club championships, is an Energizer-Bunny type, whose older brother Joe just retired as the executive director of the Utah Golf Association. Steve Watts has represented Utah in the USGA Senior Amateur and, like brother Joe, knows every good player in Utah.
Steve Watts replaces Resort Management Group, which operates Homestead in Midway.
"My job is to help players find their way to one of the state's best courses, a place that's hosted two Utah Open championships right out of the chute," said Watts.
Horne likes Watts' vision.
Watts knows golfers struggle to get to and find the course. With Redwood Road undergoing a facelift, he insists the 13-mile drive from Bangerter Highway isn't that tough and many Salt Lake City players frequent the layout.
"We just have to get them pointed this way," he said.
Watts, who could sell Bin Laden a razor, is a ball of enthusiasm.
"It's as beautiful as Hobble Creek, and takes the same travel time to get to from Provo," said Watts.
Watts hired Justin Bloxham, the former head pro at Sand Hollow in Hurricane. A graduate of ASU's school of golf management, he had previously been an assistant at both Thanksgiving Point and TalonsCove.
"Steve is obviously very personable, a great guy, very creative, fun to be around and talk to," said Bloxham.
One of the first orders of business is friendly customer care. No Nazi stuff by staff. "Gotta be friendly. Make it pleasant, fun," is Watts' mantra.
"Doug really trusts Steve. He knows he's got his back and is loyal," said Bloxham. "We have a pretty good culture started here. It's more relaxed, friendly, that sort of thing. Steve isn't afraid to try new ideas."
Watts loves to tell the story of how he hired starter Rachel Anderson.
"I was riding a cart past the driving range one day when I saw this young woman hitting balls. She had perfect posture and as I stopped and watched, she had a perfect swing. I complimented her on her golf swing and got to talking with her. Turns out she used to work here. I hired her back."
He told me the story twice in three days. Vision.
So, Horne is reshuffling the deck at TalonsCove. He's got his army in place to make a run as solo owner in a business that's as challenging as ever in this economy. It takes guts, political maneuvering, tough choices, marketing, customer relations and the right faces. Any trip-up could mean financial disaster.
"We gotta get some water cups on this cooler," Horne said on a front-nine tee box last Tuesday. "We can't let that go."
Golf.
It's more than hooks and slices.
Ask Mr. Horne.
e-mail: dharmon@desnews.com