Golf: DeLorenzo transforms Gavilan Course

Gavilan Golf Course general manager Don DeLorenzo still gets asked the question: “How long is this place going to stay open?”
When he initially took over operations for Gavilan College in December of 2010, DeLorenzo wasn’t exactly sure of the answer. However, DeLorenzo planned on doing everything in his power to keep the 9-hole golf course opened for good.
His mission is nearly accomplished.
DeLorenzo – who also runs nearby Gilroy Golf Course – knew he had to improve the course conditions, get more golfers out on the course, and, lastly, convince Gavilan College Board of Trustees that the best usage for the land was being what it was built as in 1967: a golf course.
“The Board is behind everything that we’re doing,” said DeLorenzo, who mutually agreed with the Board on a new one-year extension to the golf course management agreement through June 30, 2014.
However, it comes with one important caveat: Instead of paying DeLorenzo a $1,000 per month salary for his operational services, Gavilan College will receive the same amount as a monthly rent fee from DeLorenzo.
“Donnie’s done an amazing job in transforming that back to a viable (golf course); it plays well,” said Gavilan trustee Mark Dover. “It’s been unbelievable the transformation that has gone on over there.”
The resolution, part of the June 11 meeting, states the move will “reduce expenses by $12,000 and increase income to the District by $12,000.” Additionally, the Board will “continue to review the long term use of the golf course property at the Gilroy campus.”
But Dover said that decision has already been made, albeit with a one-year agreement for now, and DeLorenzo has “the Board’s full support” in going forward with major renovations on the 1,818-yard golf course that sits on 24 acres south of campus.
“We have made a decision that it is going to be a community facility and remain a golf course for the foreseeable future,” said Dover, who praised DeLorenzo for turning the endeavor into a profitable one.
That, however, was not always the case. The college muddled over several ideas of transforming the 25-acre land where the course sits into some kind of residential housing for a senior community or dormitories for additional students.
DeLorenzo had another idea in mind, though, for the nine-hole, par 31 course.
“When we started here (at the end of 2010), we really had no idea what it was going to be like. This place barely had a pulse,” admitted DeLorenzo. “My goal back in 2010 was to keep it open, make improvements to the course and get the First Tee in there.”
Today, Gavilan is the home of the First Tee of Silicon Valley, which started in March of 2012 and runs several youth programs throughout the entire year. DeLorenzo said there are eight week-long summer sessions with two different classes, on the course and at the driving range, that have provided introductory instruction to more than 100 young golfers. Additionally, the First Tee holds a Saturday clinic that has brought out a dozen more youngsters.
“The future of this place was so clouded (back in 2010),” DeLorenzo said. “Now, the future is much brighter and a lot clearer in the fact that the golf course is going to be here for the long run.”
DeLorenzo started making improvements right away. He cleaned up all the sand traps and put in white bunker sand; got rid of 100 dead trees throughout the course; killed what he called “Chinese parsley” on the greens and planted a softer, more playable surface; did some rodent control to alleviate the gopher problem; repaired the irrigation system; and added six golf carts. At the driving range, he put in new mats and added a supply of 25 cases of range balls.
“The whole thing is it’s very playable now, and we feel it’s a very good value for your golfing dollar,” said DeLorenzo, noting the most a golfer will pay is $20 for 18 holes and that’s only for a the prime tee time on weekend mornings. Otherwise, the value rates during the week are $10 for nine holes and $15 for a full 18 holes. After 1 p.m., prices drop to $10 for nine and $14 for 18 holes, and, after 4 p.m., it’s $5 for unlimited golf.
“I remember when this golf course first opened,” recalled DeLorenzo, who used to frequent the course with his friends. “When I heard it might close down, I said I was going to do anything I could so that wouldn’t happen.”
The ace in the hole for DeLorenzo – and one that won over the Gavilan Board of Trustees – was the involvement of the Wadsworth Golf Charities Foundation, which has a mission statement of “improving society through the moral, ethical and cultural codes of golf.”
It is the Foundation’s new initiative, however, called “Links Across America,” that DeLorenzo hopes Gavilan Golf Course can immensely benefit from. The Foundation supplies grant money to “feeder short courses” such as Gavilan to “provide affordable golf for youth, families, adult beginners and individuals with injuries and disabilities from all ethnic backgrounds.”
Along with additional fundraising efforts through the First Tee, DeLorenzo plans to put “serious dollars into the course” by 2015 and work out a long-term agreement with the college, rather than the year-by-year contract. DeLorenzo and representatives from the
Wadsworth Foundation have already given a presentation to the Board on what they have in store at Gavilan GC. Some of the preliminary plans include re-routing some of the holes so the First Tee golfers can play without having to turn away other golfers and doing a full upgrade to the course “at no cost to the college or the taxpayer.”
“We are definitely moving forward with the remodeling,” said DeLorenzo, who also envisions the course being used by Gavilan for classes such as an agronomy program and others in golf course and landscape maintenance.
Dover further expanded on that rationale with the college possibly offering courses in horticulture, as well as sports and golf management.
“There are just endless possibilities,” Dover said.