Palmetto Proving Grounds

This all sounds fine and dandy. But you put a true "university" course near campus the golf teams would have to fight with faculty, staff & students to get time on the greens. Schools that have them " on campus" try to recruit against us with the fact that we play off site. Yet fail to tell recruits it's open to all employees etc.

The Walker Course at Clemson is not run by Clemson employees. The management of the course is outsourced to another company. I suspect the land is leased and the university makes money off the lease payments. They have bundled that operation with a conference center and the Marten Inn, which is why they are semi successful. Duke University has a big fancy hotel next to their golf course also, which I know helps them. Clemson does benefit from the abundance of labor from all of their turf / ag students.

If I was building one near USC, I would take a hard look at building a small, minimalist clubhouse ( way too much overhead) and combining it with a sure fire food / beverage operation. I have to believe the cost of land anywhere near USC would be prohibitive. We are talking 110+ acres if you want a driving range. And construction costs go up quick if there is "lots" of earth moving. So the property needs to be semi ready for golf.

As a golf course superintendent for 13 years and having been involved in the construction of three different courses, I can tell you the cost to build a new course with practice facility and clubhouse would exceed the $15 million mark. Cost would depend greatly on location, soil type, acreage, and expectations. Maintenance cost of the course typically run $5 - $8,000 per acre so looking at your average 120 acres of maintained turf that would be a maintence cost of $600,000 to $960,000, again, dependent upon expectations. Overall operating budget would be in the neighborhood of 2 to 2.5 million per year. And as far as Clemson goes, remember they have a huge Turfgrass program with alot of "free" labor. Their costs are very limited. I am sure they also get help from the govt with agricultural grants.

It doesn't hurt that they've got a few guys on tour to promote Clemson either.