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Tom Parteleno struggles to keep young golf business going
Tom Parteleno struggles to keep young golf business going
By JON MOFFETT
Youngstown
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Dan Lageson, 18, of Howland, tees off at Parto’s Golf Learning Center. Lageson visited the course for the first time after coming across somecoupons.
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Tom Parteleno, left, works with Michael Curran, 9, of Hubbard, on the putting green at Parto’s Golf Learning Center on Coitsville-Hubbard Road in Youngstown. Curran has been coming to the course for four years, originally once a week. He now comes almost every day, often times practicing for three hours at a time.
If you were to tell Tom Parteleno he is crazy, he probably wouldn’t disagree with you.
After all, he did leave a well-paying job as a golf pro at a course in Florida, where he worked roughly 15 hours a week, to operate a struggling course in Northeast Ohio and put in 20-hour days. But he doesn’t really seem to mind.
“It’s been a labor of love,” Parteleno said.
Parteleno and his wife, Tammy, of 16 years, own and operate Parto’s Golf Learning Center in the city. He’s a Struthers native, and she’s originally from McDonald, but they met in Florida.
“She’s pretty much crazy,” Parteleno said of his wife. “But she’ll do anything I ask her to do.”
But the move back home was based more on tragedy, rather than nostalgia for the Partelenos.
In a 15-month span, the Partelenos lost several relatives — parents, uncles, cousins and siblings — to death, and were making frequent trips home for funerals. After what seemed like the hundredth service, Parteleno said he was done.
“It seemed like we were driving back to Ohio every three months for a funeral,” he said. “Finally, I just got tired of it and said it was time to move back home.”
Having lost much of what was important to him — and anyone who knows Parteleno knows family is No. 1 — Parteleno decided to bring back something else he had lost: golf.
“I did this to get over everyone I love dying,” he said. “It’s been hard, but it’s all been worth it to me.”
The golf center is currently on the expanded five-year plan.
It started with a simple driving range and chipping area. Now, the patchwork complex features those, as well as a 9-hole par-3 course, putting green and nine more holes of miniature golf.
But the Frankensteined facility wasn’t exactly easy to create.
“We’ve done way more with a shovel and a rake than anyone should,” the always-jolly Parteleno said. “We built this whole thing basically with a backhoe and a tractor.”
The whole place — about 25 acres, he said — sits nestled just off Route 616 near the Hubbard border. It’s a prime location, it’s affordable and it’s got something for everyone.
The only problem? It’s also empty.
“People don’t know we’re here, really,” Parteleno said. “I’ll get people who have lived in Hubbard their entire lives and they’ll ask if we just opened.”
Well, yes and no.
The facility has been there for five years. But the par-3 course is new this season. Parteleno said he opened the course on a trial basis last fall, but closed it due to weather shortly after. So this is the first people will get to play it.
That is, if anyone bothers to show up.
Parteleno admitted he’s hurting financially. He said he’s never needed hired help and has relied on dedicated volunteers and good friends. But if he wants to maintain the course — and the future expansion he covets — he knows he needs bodies as well as birdies.
If business doesn’t pick up, Parteleno said the course may not survive another season.
Parteleno knows he could say as much as he wanted about his course — which he has in various advertising platforms — but he wants the course and its patrons to speak for themselves.
Luckily, there are several course veterans who are more than willing to stick up for Parteleno and his oasis.
They, Parteleno said, are the driving force behind the course — pun intended.
“It’s a great family, and the owner is a terrific guy. What more could you ask for?” said Jim Shaffer, who has the honor of being the first customer Parteleno ever served at the course. “He treats every customer like they’re his No. 1 priority. You won’t find a nicer guy anywhere.”
“Big Tom,” as Shaffer calls him, is an easy sell. But what about the course itself?
“The par-3 is a real challenge. You have to be a real good golfer to score well. But it’s really fun to play it even if you’re not,” Shaffer said. “And the driving range, you always have good grass to hit off of. And for the children, the mini-golf is great. And the price is great, which is important today.”
The price, Parteleno said, is one of his biggest selling points. Nine holes of golf is $5.50. Add another $4 and you get 45 balls for the driving range.
“I’ve been to a lot of the par-3 courses in the area, and I think we have as good a product as anyone,” Parteleno said. “We’re trying to provide a service. I always hear people say there is nothing to do around here. Well, come out here for a day of golf and it’ll cost you less than it would to go to a movie.”
Parto’s also offers summer-long youth camps and clinics. Children are another of Parteleno’s passions. He’s taken Michael Curran under his wing, and the 9-year-old has impressed.
Parteleno would be happy to answer any and all questions. He’s on the property — his home shares the same land — from sunup until sundown. If he’s not mowing the grass or instructing someone on their swing, the PGA pro is more than happy to take a break from his 20-hour day to talk.
“I think he’s very helpful; he can pick out all kinds of things that you’re doing incorrectly and be able to break it down so you understand it,” said Bill Petrunak, another who has frequented the course since its inception. “Some people know what they’re doing, but don’t know how to convey it to average people.
“Most instructors try to use mathematical talk, saying you have to move this angle or that degree. Tom uses laymen’s terms so you can understand it.”
Parteleno also understands that his dream course will never be complete until business booms. No more $20 days, he said.
“We’ve been lucky so far,” he said. “But we need to get some people out here if we want to stick around.”
The last thing he needs, Parteleno said, is something else he loves to die.