The Palo Alto Golf Course in California is to be maintained by an external company for the next two and half years, under a deal that the city council hopes will save it US$500,000.

ValleyCrest Golf Course Maintenance, part of a group that describes itself as America’s ‘largest integrated landscape company’, will taken on the management of the course on 1 November in a contract worth over US$1.8 million. The company already maintains more than sixty courses in nine US states.

The course is also slated to undergo a renovation programme in the near future. A flood control project, scheduled to start next summer under the aegis of the San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority, is likely to impact significantly on the Billy Bell Sr designed course, possibly requiring six holes to be rebuilt.