JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – From bust to boom, Pete Brown Golf Course has quietly become a money maker for Jackson.
“About five weeks ago, we exceeded $12,000 in revenue in one week,” said Steve Hutton, with the city’s Parks and Recreation Department. “For the first time in the month of June, we exceeded $40,000 in revenue.”
“About four years ago, monthly revenue was approximately $4,000. We’ve now had two months in a row with an excess of $40,000 in revenue,” he continued. “Pete Brown, I feel like, is a success story that the city really needs to be talking about.”
Hutton discussed the course’s success during city council budget hearings last month.
The council is expected to adopt its 2025-26 budget at a special called meeting on Thursday.
Hutton explained the park’s success, saying, among other things, Jackson is doing a better job at marketing Pete Brown to college students.
“Most of our play was in the mornings with senior golfers, which is fantastic, but our afternoons were completely dead,” he told the council. “So, we really focused on the college golfers, and we created some programs that this body approved where we went to colleges, and we offered them memberships.”
“And now, we have so many Millsaps, Jackson State, Mississippi College, and [UMMC] students, and they all have daddy’s credit card, which we’re very, very thankful for.”
Hutton shared other plans for the department, as well, including putting GPS trackers on each Parks maintenance vehicle, and purchasing a robotic mower to help the city tackle grass at softball fields and similar sites.
“This is something that’s being used a lot in the athletic field industry, and also in the golf course industry,” he said, referring to the robotic mower.
Hutton told the council that the mower won’t necessarily replace anybody but will make the department’s grass-mowing efforts more efficient.
“We can’t keep up with the mowing we’re doing now. And, so, we have a softball tournament come to town, and somebody runs out [really] quick and mows the grass down, and it looks like a hay field because it hadn’t been mowed in three weeks,” he said. “That’s just kind of been the way things have been done.”
Hutton said the robotic mower will be able to cut five softball fields every 48 hours, and can do it 365 days a year, including at night.
“People don’t even know [when it’s] happening,” he said. “The grass stays at the exact same height all year.”
As for the GPS devices, Hutton said those will help Parks officials better track employees and city equipment.
“We now, as supervisors, [will] know where all of our assets are, know where our people are,” he said. “We’ll know how long they’re spending in any particular park or… how long they’re not spending in any particular park.”
Also, as part of next year’s budget, Hutton is seeking funds for dead tree removal.
“We already have flagged and marked 502 dead trees in our city parks,” he said. “The most are in Jamie Fowler Boyll Park, which is right beside Smith-Wills Stadium. We have 185 dead trees.”
Hutton estimates the city can have the trees removed for about $800 a piece, which would cost more than $400,000.
“We are going to start with this $550,000 that was given for additional park improvements last year, and we’re going to start just a little at a time and try to get the trees down in the danger areas,” he said.
“At Jamie Fowler Boyll Park, you have several that are near a nursing home. You have several that are near a road. So, we’re going to start taking those out now, and we feel like we can do that out of the $550,000.”
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