Minnesota Golfer - Summer 2011 - 17

(mga profile
)
I'm a Golfer
Longtime Bunker
Hills Professional
Dick Tollette Retires
Interview by Jon Roe
After 45 years as the general manager of one
of the busiest golf courses in the Twin Cities,
Dick Tollette, 72, has retired as the boss
at Bunker Hills in Coon Rapids.
Shortly after I was hired to work on the
planning for the new golf course in Coon
Rapids, the then general manager left and
put me in charge. All of the budget of
$350,000 had been spent and there was no
money to build a clubhouse, buy equipment
or build a maintenance shed. I didn't
know what we were going to do, but I finally
talked the city into letting us use $75,000
out of the liquor fund. We built everything
we needed within the budget. And we eventually
paid back the $75,000, too.
Bunker Hills has been successful for a lot
of reasons, but maybe the biggest reason is
because the city of Coon Rapids never took
any of the revenues the course generated
and used them for other city business. The
city allowed those revenues to be put back
into the golf course, to make it better, to buy
new equipment, to improve the clubhouse.
One of the biggest thrills I had was during
the first Coldwell Banker Burnet Classic
in 1993. It was on Tuesday when the players
were arriving to practice, and I got a call
that one of the players wanted to talk to me
in the golf shop. When I got there, Gary
Player asked if we could talk. " This is the
finest municipal course I've ever played, "
Player told me. I knew right then we were
going to have a successful tournament.
Bunker Hills was the right kind of
course built in the right place. David Gill
designed a wonderful course-a good test
for all levels of players. Building a course
in the northern suburbs in the mid-1960s
" At our best, we did 100,000 to 105,000
rounds a year.... That dropped after 9/11. "
was good timing,
too. There were only
8,000 people in Coon Rapids back then.
Now there are 70,000.
Bunker Hills has to be one of the busiest
courses. At our best, we did 100,000
to 105,000 rounds a year on the 27-hole
regulation course and the executive course.
That dropped into the low 80,000s after
9/11 and the economic downturn. But we
were back up to 90,000 rounds last year,
and our patron cards have grown from 500
to more than 1,700.
I've been very fortunate that all four of
our kids got into the golf business. Jeff is
the head pro at Rum River Hills. Jason is
doing a good job of resurrecting Izaty's
into what people remember from a few
years ago. Jon is the executive director of
the Minnesota PGA. Jenny runs a successful
women's sports apparel business out of
her home. I'm also fortunate that my wife
Marvy grew up with a dad who was a successful
businessman and wasn't home a lot.
That was my situation at the golf course,
and she did a great job of raising the kids.
Am I concerned about the future for
golf? Of course. It's right there in black
and white. The number of people playing
golf isn't growing. The number of rounds
being played is decreasing. It's obvious we
have built too many courses, and we're
probably going to have some courses not
being able to financially make it. I'm also
concerned because I see our junior golfers
more interested in twittering than going
out to the practice range to work on their
short games.
www.mngolf.org
Summer 2011 MINNESOTAGOLFER
15
PHOTO BY MATT SEEFELDT
http://www.mngolf.org
Minnesota Golfer - Summer 2011

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