The Police and Fire Youth Academy
Safeguard Palm Beach, a division of Palm Beach Police and Fire Foundation hosts a Youth Academy for Palm Beach residents ages 8 through 13
Palm Beach’s tennis and golf programs have surpassed revenue records for a fifth year in a row, Recreation Department Director Mark Bresnahan said.
Topping the charts was the town’s tennis program, which saw an over $300,000 increase in yearly revenue, from 2024s $532,000 to this year’s $849,000, he told the Recreation Advisory Commission on Oct. 23.
“I’m still amazed at this number,” Bresnahan said.
He noted those numbers came after the first full year since the town hired Dan Stover as the town’s tennis manager and the introduction of the PlayByPoint tennis booking application.
But the town’s highest-earning recreation programs continue to be its golf program, which saw its review increase from $5.3 million to $5.48 million.
It’s a revenue increase that came not out of increasing play at the town’s Par 3 Golf Course, but through the excellent services offered, Bresnahan said.
“We’re right inline with where we want to be,” he told the commission. “Yes, we could fit another 5000 rounds out there … but we made the conscious decision that we think is best for our residents and player experience is to limit the rounds to 49,000.”
Tony Chauteauvert, Par 3 Gold Course general manager, praised efforts to maintain a pristine range, with the town’s adoption of robotic lawn mowers.
He also noted the new turf rollers that Superintendent Tim Campbell team has implemented to improve how the golf balls roll on the course.
For the third-year running, Par 3’s Pro Shop has been nominated for Merchandiser of the Year by the national Professional Golfers’ Association, Chauteauvert told the commission. He credited that success to Assistant Golf Manager Sabrina Gordon.
“She took the Pro Shop sales from $400,000 a year … to almost a million dollars,” she said.
The only program to not see revenue growth was the Mandel Recreation Center and the recreation activities at Seaview Park, which slightly shrunk from $1.06 million to $1.03 million.
But Bresnahan said the change in revenue did not worry him, as this year saw the center have to pull back some of its programming while also increasing the number of free events it hosts.
“I anticipate based on the activity in the fall, that we will be breaking another revenue record this year,” he said.
Diego Diaz Lasa is a journalist at the Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at dlasa@pbdailynews.com.
