RINCON — Jimmy Powell has kept Lost Plantation Golf Club in the financial fairway during his nine months as its general manager.

“One thing that I’ve really been impressed with is that Jimmy has a good business sense, which you don’t always see with golf professionals,” City Manager John Klimm said during a June 21 Rincon City Council workshop at the club. 

Powell suspended operation of The Bistro, the club’s restaurant, until he is confident that it can supplement the club’s income. He has also had to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and the loss of most of the course’s greens last spring.

“Despite all that, he has been able to increase membership from the eighties to over 100,” Klimm said. “... I think we are well served by him.”

In an effort to enhance club revenue, Powell has added “wellness rounds.”

“That’s basically a program that entices somebody to come play golf after work,” he said. “It’s really a time-based program. If I just wanted to come out and play for an hour — if that’s all the time I had — I could come out and play for an hour. If I wanted to play for two hours, I could play for two hours so we could structurally get away from a 9-hole and an 18-hole round of golf, and the cost that is associated with that.”

The extra rounds in the afternoon are unlikely to cause a logjam on the course.

“Really, after about two o’clock or 2:30 during the summer, we are not that busy,” Powell said. “(Wellness rounds) will create extra tee times in our space. The way I look at