Former Southern Hills Golf Course General Manager Nick Sidorakis and golf course designer Randy Heckenkemper have put in a bid to operate the city’s municipal golf courses, according to golf professionals familiar with the effort.
“Every time I’ve ever dealt with Nick, it’s always first class, and I think that he would bring that passion that he had at Southern Hills to the Tulsa golf courses, which I think is needed,” said Kevin Stanton, executive director of the Oklahoma Golf Association.
Brian Davis, executive director of the South Central Section of the PGA of America, sits on the board of First Tee-Tulsa, a popular, long-running youth golf program Sidorakis helped establish and operate at Mohawk Park Golf Course.
“So I get to see everything he does there,” Davis said. “With the background of Southern Hills, and like I said, the relationships he has within the city, I don’t see any of that that would be a negative as far as the manager of those golf courses.”
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Tulsa owns four 18-hole municipal golf courses — two at Page Belcher and two at Mohawk Park — that were once considered among the best municipal golf courses in the state.
But in recent years, the city has struggled to maintain the courses, which led to a private fundraising effort led by Sidorakis and others to help pay for course improvements.
Troon, which operates under the Indigo Sports brand, has operated the city’s golf courses since 2008. With Troon’s contract set to expire at the end of the year, the city in September issued a request for proposals.
According to the RFP, respondents will be evaluated on a scale of 0 to 100 using the following criteria: qualifications and experience (25 points), quality of overall operations plan (25 points), pricing and cost proposal (25 points), staff capacity and oversight (8 points), service delivery and timeline (7 points), project management and reporting (5 points), and player growth and outreach plan (5 points).
The city is expected to select a management firm by the end of year, with the new operator to assume responsibility for the courses in January.
Parks Director Anna America said the city received multiple responses but that she was prohibited from identifying them at this stage of the selection process.
“We were excited to receive nine solid proposals — a sign that the industry thinks we have great potential here in Tulsa,” America said. “We are taking the time to thoroughly evaluate them all to determine which will do the best job of continuing to improve our courses and program.”
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