A decisive 4-1 majority of the Palm Coast City Council is opposed to selling the Palm Harbor Golf Club, but not to seeking to outsource its management next year if it doesn’t break even under city management. In essence, city staff at Palm Harbor faces an ultimatum.
The council’s history was not as clear-eyed.
The course was under the private management of Kemper Sports from its opening in 2009 until 2017. It was an unhappy history. It lost money every year, usually in sums even larger than it has since despite successive councils’ attempts to at least break even there: private companies charge management fees on top of operational costs. The city does not.
The city’s Dennis Redican Jr. has taken over management since spring. The course is on pace to run up a $100,000 deficit this year. The course lost $168,000 last year, $435,000 the year before that, though it all but broke even for two years in a row before that. Deficits must be made up through the general fund, whose reserves are large enough for a sovereign wealth fund.
“We have been in the hole. We continue to be in the hole, even year to date,” Council member Charles Gambaro said. “I’m always for finding a way to self- improve, but I think we needed to look at other options.”
Soon after his appointment to the council last fall, Gambaro–picking up where former Council member Ed Danko left off–has been pushing to sell the golf course, as long as the deed restricts all uses to golf.
In June the council deadlocked on the issue, with Gambaro and Council member Dave Sullivan favoring a sale, and Mayor Mike Norris and Council member Theresa Pontieri opposed. Council member Ty Miller was absent.
Miller was present when the council took up the issue again Tuesday–and fell on the mayor’s and Pontieri’s side. Sullivan switched camp. Any possibility of a sale vanished, at least for now: come next November, the council will have a new majority as three seats are up in that election.
“For me, the intent is not to sell the golf course,” Miller said. “I’d still be okay with an RFP either for outsourcing operations or the entire thing, just so we have more information about it. Ultimately, though, my intent is that it stays a public golf course in Palm Coast, operating in a great way so that we continue to enjoy this.” An RFP is a request for proposal.
That’s still a possibility. Norris wants to keep the course under city management and review its operations in the second quarter of 2026. “If things are not changing and moving in the direction we want, then put it out for RFP, for private management of the course,” the mayor said. Norris said he’s willing to revisit an RFP “for sale or outsourcing it for operations. But to me, I’m never going to agree to sell the golf course. It’s just not going to happen.” The audience applauded.
Gambaro saw no reason why the city would not explore selling it. Pontieri gave him two reasons why not.
“It’s a blow to staff. It’s not giving them the chance that they’ve been working very hard to prove to us they can turn things around and they can make this happen for us,” Pontieri said.
The city employs 13 at the course. They have implemented a series of changes. The group rate has increased from $43 to $46 for a round, summer rates increased on May 1, morning tee times have been added and 3 percent charges added to credit card transactions. There’s no appetite on the council to charge public school students to pay when they use the course to practice. Special Olympics athletes’ fees are also waived. Pontieri wants to see a full year’s worth of those changes’ effects before discussing the future of the course again.
To keep discussing a possible sale while that’s ongoing is also “kind of a gut punch to the residents,” Pontieri said. “They treasure this course. Our community has treasured this course for a really long time, and it’s almost like, well, we’re putting a price tag on something that’s priceless.”
“I think this golf course is a jewel, and it’s very, very important our community,” Gambaro said. “Why not make it better? Why not make it a lot better than what it is now? Is the city going to invest the funds to make it a greater destination than it is now and then? And then, you’re assuming the outcome of the RFP. We don’t know for a fact. That’s why I’m like, Hey, let’s see what comes back.”
Council members on repeated occasions have mischaracterized past management of the course, saying the city has not sufficiently invested in it or attempted at least to make it break even or attempt different strategies, even when it was under private management, to generate more revenue, or to include all expenses on its balance sheet. Council members have also been under the impression that previous councils were not as interested in making it break even.
None of claims are accurate. All those approaches have been tried at one time or another, by councils that year after year, until 2017, agonized over Palm Harbor as the current council has. The difference in 2017 was the council’s decision, prompted by then-City Manager Jim Landon, to fold the club into the city’s parks and recreation operations and consider it an amenity on the same level as, say, Holland Park or Ralph Carter Park, at least for accounting purposes: parks aren’t designed to make money. Nor should the golf club, went the city manager’s reasoning–flawed as the reasoning was: city parks don’t charge user fees.
But then as now, the fear of selling the course is hinged to a door that would open the course to development. Whatever restrictions a current council imposes can be overridden by a future council. Keeping the course in the city’s hands creates a greater barrier to that possibility.
The city appraised the course at $1.8 million. The value includes several restrictions on what may and may not be done at the property. “Pragmatically speaking, I don’t think we’re going to get a big bid with all of those restrictions,” Pontieri said.
Pontieri had floated the idea of revisiting the lease with Loopers, the restaurant at Palm Harbor Golf Course, so the city could get a small share of its alcohol sale profits. It’s not a new idea: Flagler Beach gets substantial revenue from the Funky Pelican, taking revenue of 3 percent on all gross sales in excess of $1 million each year, and thus generating well over $100,000 a year on top of rent. Loopers rebuffed the idea.
“There’s nothing in the contract that says that Loopers has to negotiate with us, and so they were okay with where they are at and very supportive and happy with their current contract that they have in place,” Interim City Manager Lauren Johnston said.
For now, the Damocles sword hanging over Palm Harbor Golf Course has once again been pulled back, but it still hangs over city management.
Gary says
We the tax payers should not be carrying it. Right now the million to run it is hidden in the maintenance budget. If you want to play golf pay for it. The cost should be divided among the players not the tax payers. A healthy membership fee / year and green fees to cover the maintenance of it. We ended up with it because 3 members a few years back on council wanted it. They played golf.
Robjr says
Same song different verse.
The town council sang a similar song after Flagler Live exposed the money losing golf course’s real numbers a decade ago.
Many are subsidizing the golf course for a few.
Golf of murikkka says
Can’t afford to golf, or even groceries, so who cares. I like the course but maybe we should focus on helping humans in our local community. Food and shelter have become unaffordable and republicans have criminalized poverty. What’s the plan to help local humans?………
Mike P says
There are approximately 960 homes border the Palm Harbor Golf Club in Palm Coast, FL, with the golf course property snaking around this number of homes in the C-Section of Palm Coast, pay my taxes and have real concern for the future of the this golf course, and I’m one of them. The current Palm Harbor Golf Club green fees for an 18-hole round for a city resident are $35.69 in the summer (May 1–October 31) during the morning hours, as of August 26, 2025. For a family of two in Palm Coast, FL, the average monthly grocery cost is around $558. Golf of murikkka, I have a unique plan to help humans….get a job! There are currently thousands of job openings in Palm Coast, FL, with job boards listing between 2,000 and over 8,000 positions as of late August 2025.
Greg says
That’s a pretty crappy thing to say. I’ll bet most of the jobs listed are poor paying jobs. Palm Coast is not cheap to live in. We are fine with social security and two pensions, but many are not in as good financial shape. Sell the damn thing if it can’t turn a profit. Too much money in the city see seems to be pissed away?
Concerned Bystander says
I hope the County Commission gives the Adult Day Care Center for loved ones with dementia another chance like the city is doing for the Golf Course. It’s the only licensed facility in the county.
To be honest says
“… To keep discussing a possible sale while that’s ongoing is also “kind of a gut punch to the residents,” Pontieri said. “They treasure this course. Our community has treasured this course for a really long time, and it’s almost like, well, we’re putting a price tag on something that’s priceless.”
“I think this golf course is a jewel, and it’s very, very important our community,” Gambaro said. …”
I have to be honest here, I don’t share these sentiments.
The more I hear of this golf course, the more I think of it as a remnant of the supposedly long bygone “resort/retirement town” era of Palm Coast. It’s now just a yoke around the neck of some, and a tempting plumb for others.
Do everyone a favor and convert the property into a public park.
To do otherwise (keep it running at a loss, sell it to developers, etc…) is to do a disservice to the current residents of Palm Coast and to the memory of it’s past history… what little of it there is.
Just a suggestion.
Rick Peterson says
If the course has to make a profit so should tennis pickleball swimming. I pay taxes and play weekly. It should not be singled out. How about the loss from holland park renovations
To be honest says
… I should clarify my statement further.
Of what is it that those that feel the golf course is a “jewel” or a “priceless” asset to the community really speaking?
Well, I don’t play golf.
But when I drive by the golf course occasionally, I do feel there are benefits that that open, undeveloped (and admittedly maintained) space provides. It’s an asset in its (usually beneficial) psychological effects on the mind, which work to mitigate the tension between the constant juxtaposition of the natural and unnatural states of reality that the subconscious perceives… rightly or wrongly.
Some people need a reason.
They go out and buy golf clubs, they learn about the sport… perhaps taking lessons… and they join up with like minded individuals. Eventually, they “hit the greens.”
All basically to enjoy the experience of the outdoors (under controlled circumstances obviously) and its beneficial effects… perhaps of which I wrote.
Well, at least that’s my opinion. Ultimately, who knows right?
Me? I still gather some utility in the experience of just driving by the course (whenever I happen to) and seeing the mostly open space.
My point being, I could agree with considering the golf course a “jewel” to the community in some sense.
Hence, my suggestion to convert it into a public park or some form of a managed green space… perhaps highlighting groves of (low maintenance) natural (local) plant species. This would also allow the space to be converted back into a viable golf course one day, if demand exists.
The property was meant to be open land. It is exactly as it should be by (ITT) design. One cannot argue that it is part of those hundred thousand plots of land they sold and envisioned as homesteads for the newly retired back in the 1970s. And there’s no way to convince anyone now (except the developers) of the need for changing it.
Perhaps once there was… back when people realized many of these retirees weren’t building, and unsold vacant lots were hard to come by. So they perhaps built elsewhere, westward. Perhaps now there is a need and desire… or just an opportunity… to finally “build out” those old Palm Coast lots. But this property was not intended for “build out.”
I say enough.
Developing the property would be a public disservice to those immediately effected and the community at large… let’s not forget the hundred thousand (or whatever) already built homes, connecting to the prevailing infrastructure. Infrastructure that the developers don’t want to pay their share for.
This is Florida, developers will never want for work… nature will provide opportunities enough… and where it doesn’t, greed usually seems to lend a hand.
Again, just my opinion.
To be honest says
… I should say, “…developers will never go without opportunities…”
Not all developers are builders… a developer may never pick up a hammer in their life… so too some “builders.”
There is a difference.
Just a last clarification.
Mike P says
“To be honest” turning this golf course into a park is insane. It’s 160 acres, with 960 private homes around it. How will the public have access? walking though our back yards or do your land planning skills envision residents parking in the current lot at the clubhouse, and walking through the 18 hole layout? Daytona State College offers courses in land management through its Environmental Science Technology (EST) program, enrollment is starting soon if you’d like to brush up your skills.
To be honest says
I don’t pretend to think the idea of converting the golf course into a park is a perfect one, or that it would be the easiest one, only that it might be the best one among the many possible alternatives.
Just my opinion.
To be honest says
… I must admit that “Diamond In The Rough Condominiums” does have a nice ring to it… in keeping with the “jewels” original use.
Just a possiblity.