Firm Picked to Run Los Robles Greens

A Camarillo firm beat out golf pro Arnold Palmer and his management firm for the contract to run Thousand Oaks’ most popular golf course.

The Thousand Oaks City Council voted 4 to 1 to hire M.F. Daily to manage Los Robles Greens Golf Course for two years, rejecting a recommendation by city staff to hire Arnold Palmer Golf Management Co. Councilwoman Judy Lazar dissented.

City officials will now negotiate a deal with the operator, which, like Palmer Golf, only submitted a bid for a five-year contract.

The City Council selected Palmer Golf and M.F. Daily from a pool of finalists to manage the 32-year-old course, one of the most popular in Southern California for the past eight years.

The course’s current operator, Angelo Ruggiero Inc., is included in the M.F. Daily proposal.

Palmer Golf, which manages 17 golf courses around the country, came back with a bid of $6.45 million to run the course for five years.

M.F. Daily responded with a $6.72-million offer. City officials had recommended Palmer Golf based on the money difference, saying both companies were extremely qualified.

The City Council also discussed plans to relocate Los Robles Greens’ driving range in response to a lawsuit by an adjacent property owner who claims he was knocked unconscious by a stray golf ball.

Council members voted 5 to 0 to allow city officials to seek bids and award contracts to perform the work, which is expected to cost about $629,000, more than twice the original estimate.

The entire Los Robles Greens course will soon undergo a multimillion-dollar renovation.

In recent years, the course has brought in between $250,000 and $500,000 in revenue for Thousand Oaks.