Golfers take stand on 'embarrassing' course

By Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

GALLUP — The Gallup Golf Course looks greener but area golfers are still seeing red when the subject of the course's condition comes up.

It's gotten so bad that the head of the Gallup Men's Golf Association, David Bischoff, has decided to send a letter to 300 golfers and a few non-golfers in the area to get residents to "take a stand" on the course.

"I believe it is up to us golfers to take a stand and let the mayor and city council know just how upset we golfers are about the condition of our golf course," he said in the cover letter. "In order for something to happen, the golfers have got to get involved."

The Gallup course, he said, is "an embarrassment" to the point where if people from out-of-town suggest that they come to Gallup and meet him at the golf course, he would suggest instead that they meet him at the Grants course.

"Without any major funding, the existing golf course will be totally unplayable in a year," he said. "Our golfers and our community deserve better."

What Bischoff is trying to do is convince local golfers such as Gary Leloff that the time has come to make it clear that local golfers won't just sit by and watch the city's course get worse and worse each year.

He won't have to go very far to convince Leloff who has been watching the course deteriorate. "It's trash," he said, adding that its getting tougher and tougher for golfers to play the course and have any enjoyment.

"The greens are terrible," he said, adding that playing on the greens is a total challenge since you have no idea no matter how good a golfer you are - where your ball is going to go. "You can't read a putt."

City officials have agreed that the course has a lot of problems, but said they have taken steps lowering the pH level of water used on the course and using organic fertilizer in an effort to improve the general conditions of the course.

But golfers claim they have heard this kind of optimism before and each time it has only ended with the course getting worse.

Take the 11th hole, for example.

Golfers have been complaining for weeks the pond next the 11th is dry.

Alex Alverez, the pro at the golf course, said the problem stemmed from a broken pump and that's been repaired. The city is just waiting for a pipe.

Assistant City Manager Larry Binkley said the pipe is on order and should be here in the next couple of weeks.

But even with that problem cleared up, the golf course still has a long way to go before it gets to the point where area golfers can take pride in it.

Bischoff, who manages the local Rainbo Bread distribution company, is one of the five members of the new committee set up by the city to look at the golf course and make recommendations.

But he says local golfers shouldn't depend on the committee to come up with answers that will address all of the problems at the course.

"We'll probably be able to come up with short-term solutions," he said.

But as far as long-range solutions that will address the major problems of the course, he said that the city would be wise to look at the recommendations of the golf committee formed during the John Pena administration.

That committee, of which Bischoff was a member, said the city would have to do one or two things to correct the problem spend $15 million or so to develop a whole new golf course at a different site or spend several million completely renovating the current course.

Bischoff said he hopes the local golfers take the time to fill out the questionnaire and give their comments. He asked that once the form was filled out, it be turned in at City Hall.

"I thought about having them turn it in to me, but I don't want to listen to all of the complaints," he said. "So if people have complaints, they should address them to city hall; if they have suggestions, they can give them to me."