Getting back on course
BY ALYSSA MEIER
Editor
Change is in the air at Painted Woods Golf Course as officials work to rebrand, remarket and eventually pull the course out of debt.
“Right now, we’re at around 4,000 or 4,500 rounds a year,” Board secretary Rachel Retterath said during an interview Monday. “We need to be at 6,500 or 7,000 for this place to cash flow with the debt we have.”
Boosting rounds by about 2,500 per season will take time, Retterath and board president Newly Voigt said, so the course is hoping to do it in steps.
“We are kind of on a three-year plan to get up to that,” Retterath said. “We’re hoping to increase by 1,000 each year.”
In an effort to reach those numbers, the course has adopted a new marketing campaign, logo and slogan -- The Art of Golf. Retterath said she felt the new slogan matched the picturesque surroundings at Painted Woods, and an accompanying motto -- Are you up for it? -- helps capture the challenging nature of the course.
To push out the new info, Painted Woods is using $25,000 in Washburn Sales Tax money, which was approved for marketing and clubhouse operation expenses earlier this year. Retterath said the course is marketing toward both experienced golfers and women, who she said tend to make family decisions and may bring young golfers in. She said the course wasn’t directly marketing in Washburn, but many residents fit the core demographic that the ads target.
