The city offers two types of passes, according to General Services Director Jay Valentine: a birdie pass and an eagle pass. The eagle pass includes a golf cart.

Those passes allow users to get discounted rates to use the golf courses. Valentine said if someone plays about 20 times that covers the cost of the pass. Both passes are good at Tiara Rado and Lincoln Park.

“Each time you play above that, your average rate keeps going down and down and down,” Valentine said.

The birdie pass increased from $400 to $500 this year, and the eagle pass has increased from $700 to $800.

“We haven’t raised our pass rate in over four years,” Valentine said.

Day rates have also increased, according to Valentine.

At Lincoln Park, the daily rate is going from $11 to $12 for nine holes. At Tiara Rado, the regular rate is going from $46 to $50 for 18 holes.

Valentine said the rates for Tiara Rado and Lincoln Park used to be so comparable more people would go to Tiara Rado.

“Tiara Rado’s a much different type of course,” Valentine said. “Quite frankly, it’s 18 holes and the scenery is better. It’s a great golf course, so people were like, ‘I’m not going to go pay that at Lincoln when I could go play Tiara Rado for $2 more,’ so what we were seeing was the play kept declining and declining.”

Valentine said the city’s golf courses have to pay for themselves, so rates sometimes have to be increased in order to keep the playing conditions at high quality levels. However, he said, the city isn’t going to price itself out of the market.

“Expenses keep going up and up,” Valentine said. “Fertilizers that we use have gone up over 20%, sand material, everything’s up. And so to keep up with rising costs, just like everything else we have to adjust rates.”

The city’s golf courses are funded through an enterprise fund, which means they are paid for through user fees instead of taxes, Valentine said. That means those funds have to operate more like private businesses.

“That’s the reason that we have to adjust rates accordingly,” Valentine said.