O. C. Welch has won a 12-year contract to operate the city of Savannah, Georgia’s Bacon Park Golf Course.
The 27-hole complex suffers from “poor maintenance and low turnout numbers,” according to the Savannah Morning News, but Welch seems intent on engineering a turnaround, no matter how long it takes. “I hope I die there,” he told the newspaper, “but no time soon.”
Welch, an auto dealer who owns Black Creek Golf Club in nearby Ellabell, plans to eliminate nine of the complex’s holes and to restore its 18-hole, Donald Ross-designed layout. He grew up playing golf at Bacon Park and conducted a highly visible public campaign to win the concession.