WOLCOTT — Almost a year has passed since Wolcott taxpayers approved a bond to buy land to expand the town-owned golf course, but golfers may have to wait five more years before they can take their first swing on the land.

Taxpayers approved raising $410,000 last December to purchase more than 30 acres off East Street to add nine holes to the Farmingbury Hills Golf Course.

The town golf commission hired a surveyor in the spring for a land and aerial survey.

Southington-based Kratzert, Jones and Associates completed that work in August, a few months later than expected. The commission now hopes to hire an architect in the next few months, according to Robert Larson, commission vice chairman.

In the next few weeks, Larson will walk the new acreage with the surveyor and decide where to put boundary markers.

At each point where the course abuts someone else's property, the commission must set a pipe or a concrete stone, said Russell Emons, a member of the commission.

When this process is complete, the commission can start the search for an architect, begin cleaning up the property and apply for permits. There are a few junk cars on the land, Larson said.

"We're waiting to assess the number of acres we have. And then we have to announce to the world that we're looking for people to design an additional nine holes for us.

"Then we have to assess what it's going to cost. Then we have to go for funding," Emons said.

Once a design is approved, the commission may have to go back to the town to request yet another bond to pay for construction of the course, a process that could be more than two years away.

Even if another bond must be approved, commission members say there will be no cost to taxpayers.

The survey was paid for by funds generated by the golf course, and commission members said it is likely they can pay for an architect with these funds as well.

"The town will have to bond, but the golfers and the revenue the golfers bring in will pay for the bond," Emons said.

And even with the few minor delays, commission members say the process is on schedule.

"We knew it was going to be three to five years when we bought the property, a year of planning and permits, a year of rough construction, a year of growing in," Emons said. "Several of us on the commission are just hoping we'll be alive when it's time to play."