Golf lessons. “Watch parties.” Online surveys. Increased advertisements.

All those tools will be used in coming months to attract more golfers to Eagle Bend Golf Course, the city-run course that is supposed to be self-sufficient but instead required a $150,000 infusion of city tax money in 2003.

Charlie Wilson, Shawnee, tees off during a November round of golf at Eagle Bend Golf Course as playing partner Bob Heacock, Lawrence, looks on. Eagle Bend's revenue dropped from about 80,000 to 95,000 in 2003.

“In terms of our marketing plan, we’re trying to get Eagle Bend in the forefront of the community,” said Roger Steinbrock, marketing director for the Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department. “It’s been five, six years since it opened — we need to keep the community informed of what we’re doing out there.”

The number of rounds played at Eagle Bend declined precipitously during 2003, from 37,328 in 2002 to 32,694. That meant a sharp drop in revenue during the same time: from about $980,000 to $895,000.

That, in turn, forced city officials to use taxpayer money to support what was originally intended to be a self-sufficient operation.

“If we didn’t have that, we couldn’t have paid expenses,” City Manager Mike Wildgen said in February. “We couldn’t have paid people.”

Poor weather and a poor economy were blamed for the 18-hole course’s declining revenues, and officials promised new efforts to woo golfers in 2004.

They also said it might take several years for the “golf economy” to rebound — nationally, golf courses saw business fall by 10 percent in 2003. And officials said other new courses in northeast Kansas had taken the luster off Eagle Bend.

When the project was sold to commissioners in the late 1990s, consultants said the course would “pay for itself.” According to projections from Municipal Golf Inc., the Omaha company hired by the city to build the course, Eagle Bend was to be open for a full season in 1998 and break even by year’s end.

Municipal Golf Inc. also said the city could consider using Eagle Bend profits to pay all or portions of the course’s water bills. As it stands right now, the course pays nothing for the water it uses for irrigation. The city also does not pay property taxes on the course, which is on land leased from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for $1.

Measures to increase attendance at the course will include staging “watch parties” for major PGA tour events, increased advertisement in Topeka and Kansas City and a free Saturday morning golf clinic. The course is also surveying golfers about its strengths.

“It’s time to re-evaluate what we’ve done and see how we can better market our golf course,” Steinbrock said. “There are so many golf courses out there — what distinguishes us?”

He also said there were plans to emphasize Eagle Bend’s environmental friendliness by touting the restoration of native grasses around the course.

“We’re trying to be a friend of the environment in the process of building our golf course,” Steinbrock said.

He said Eagle Bend could be successful.

“We’re continuing to do what we’ve done over the last five years, but we’re trying to expand it as well,” he said. “It takes time. … You have to develop an identity.”