Course Closings

[Bama Duffer]

I haven't visited the board recently, but I wondered how things are going for the rest of you.

A couple of months back, one of our long-time driving ranges in the Montgomery, Alabama, area closed. I didn't think much about it, since it had always been pretty run-down and the times I visited it there weren't many folks hitting balls.

Just the other day, though, I discovered that River Run, one of our few public courses, has been foreclosed on and is no longer open. So there are now 36 fewer holes of public golf in Montgomery.

River Run was not a great course by any means, but it has limped along since the late 1980's. I've also heard that another local public course may be looking at some financial difficulties as well.

I assume this is related to the economy. Has anyone else noticed other closings in your area?

 

[DouginGA]

The paper today had this forclosure article on a local private course Lender to take over golf club | [email protected]

It has hosted a nationwide tour event the past three years, and while not closing, not looking good.

The only positive on a lot of the courses around here hurting financially is that greens fees are down a bit.

 

[Louie_T07]

I assume this is related to the economy. Has anyone else noticed other closings in your area?

Times are tough there's no way around it. I really don't agree with it myself, but it looks like the Big 3 car manufactures will be getting a hand-out. In southern Ontario I haven't heard many courses closing down, I know a few have come up for sale recently due to a rough past few season. In my case because I work on a course in the area. The entire corporation had to lay a lot of us off at the end of November. I do realize the seasonal nature of my job, but it's never been this early and never company wide.

The only positive on a lot of the courses around here hurting financially is that greens fees are down a bit.

My suggestion is to live up the lower greens fees why not? It could be the chance you needed to go play a course you may not have been able to afford before. I think this is part of the problem with courses having financial troubles. It all comes down to greed! I'm only 25 yrs old but I consider myself old school. To me golfing with a buddy shouldn't cost you more that $80 w cart. That's $40 each depending on how split and you should be able to play some decent courses for the eighty bucks too. Now I know for a fact you can indeed do this at a lot of facilities. But my main point is there are a lot of courses who are 'hurting' right now who charged 65-75 a person. When IMO at least they coulda easily gotten by charging a little less and maybe even made a small profit by year end?!

 

[SCGolfer]

It appears my home course will not make it to next spring. I have posted the whole story here before. In short it has always been 50% shareholder owned last year the other 50% was sold to a group that wanted to redo the course and use it as a practice facility for the University of South Carolina. Well when they tried to buy out the shareholders, FOUR of them decided not to take the deal and it has been in litigation but basically the other group has walked away and no money is going into the course. It is currently being run...clubhouse and all...by the shareholder group. They ran off the pro and it appears will have no chance of making it to next year. The course has an awesome layout and would have been great with some money put into it. But at this point I am more worried about my already falling property value more than the freakin golf course anyway.


Jason

 

[Bama Duffer]

We haven't seen green fees falling around here, although I have noticed that several courses in the area are offering special membership deals.

I tend to agree with you on the rates, Louie. I have several friends who tell me that they would play more often if it wasn't so expensive. It gets back to volume v. cost - can you make more if more people play, or by charging higher fees?

River Run was a course that tried the volume route, charging around $300.00 for an 18 moth membership a couple of years ago. Although it was never hard to get on the course, play tended to back up. Apparently the volume route didn't work for them.

 

[chemboy2]

I haven't heard of any course closures in the SF Bay Area/Silicon Valley but I am noticing a lot more places are running specials. The courses up in Half Moon Bay are a great example, they have been running some great specials lately (weekday and weekend). My company has a forced holiday closure coming up so hopefully I'll be able to get up there at least once.

On a related note, I went out for a twilight round last Friday on a local muni. Twilight rounds are historically just brutal wrt to pace of play there (especially on Fridays) but we (had a foursome) flew around the course and had no problems finishing our round. Nobody in the group played worth a darn but we never waited and never had anyone waiting. I do believe that this is a direct reflection of the current economic situation.

 

[eclark53520]

No course closures around me that i am aware of...

Should look around to see if anyone is having any specials on memberships though....that would be nice to get in on one of those for cheap....

 

[SiberianDVM]

I posted in another thread that North Augusta Country Club is in foreclosure and will go on the auction block next month. Supposedly the auction starting price is equivalent to $10,000 an acre, so I would hate to see a real estate developer turn this hilly, interesting course into more houses.

 

[limpalong]

From this month's Golf Magazine, "2008 was a tough year in golf. Fewer than 85 new courses, public and private, opened in the U.S. last year compared to 113 in 2007 and an all-time high of almost 400 in 2000. It was the lowest number of new course openings in more than two decades. More courses closed - almost 100 - than opened in 2008."

I would expect 2009 to be worse. There are just no positive indicators out there to breed much optimism. Our course raised annual dues by $25/year due to daily fees being off a bit. We run right around 300 annual memberships. Those annuals are, probably, 85% age 45 to 80+. As a few leave each year due to health or death, they are replaced by "younger" folks. There are quite a few older members who have been dropping hints they will not... cannot afford to... renew next year. And, the course manager says he just has not been getting any calls with interest in joining.

Just glad my livlihood does not depend on the golf industry today!!!!

 

[mddubya]

We had one close in the past couple of years in my area, but none as of late. The one that closed was never much of a course anyway. Out in the middle of nowhere with a planned subdivision that never quite panned out. But then again, there aren't that many courses around here to feed the need anyway, so they are all still doing a good business.

 

[Louie_T07]

I tend to agree with you on the rates, Louie. I have several friends who tell me that they would play more often if it wasn't so expensive. It gets back to volume v. cost - can you make more if more people play, or by charging higher fees?

I couldn't give you exact figures if that's what you're asking Bama Duffer. But if I were to make an educated guess on the matter I'd say of course!! I think golf courses would be making more money by having more players out on the course.

At my course for example there are the 3 rushes during the course of the day; 7:30 - 8:30, the noon rush, and then around 3 - 3:30 for the twilight crowd. It was the time in between these rushes that killed us this year because literally the course would be empty. It was great from a maintenance stand-point, but do you not think we'd have made more money if we charged a little less for greens fees and had a steady flow of players all day long??

 

[ezra76]

Things seemed as busy as ever around here. Although, the decent courses are offering better deals or simply keeping rates the same. I haven't seen any lesser courses closing yet but think they are not doing as good a business. I went to one expensive course, on a Sat. and it was pretty open. IMO the good courses around here that are in the $30-$50 range are doing just fine, have a tough time getting weekday teetimes.

To the contrary, courses are actually being built around here. The little dogtrack I learned to play on is nearing completion. Will be over 7K yards, can't wait.

 

[slickpitt]

I think the courses around here are doing well enough. There have been a few driving ranges close... but that's pretty normal. Over the years I've seen many ranges come and go.

 

[eclark53520]

I think the courses around here are doing well enough. There have been a few driving ranges close... but that's pretty normal. Over the years I've seen many ranges come and go.

Yeah, driving ranges come and go pretty regularly.

I have witnessed one particular range go through 4 different owners last year alone...the ones that had it last really did a nice job fixing it up and hopefully they stick around. They did a really good job with it, the prices went up but i think its worth it.

Although i am never over by it anymore and probably wont be since i work in madison now but its pretty much the only range in that area for quite a ways.

 

[slickpitt]

Yeah, driving ranges come and go pretty regularly.

I have witnessed one particular range go through 4 different owners last year alone...the ones that had it last really did a nice job fixing it up and hopefully they stick around. They did a really good job with it, the prices went up but i think its worth it.

Although i am never over by it anymore and probably wont be since i work in madison now but its pretty much the only range in that area for quite a ways.

yeah the problem with ranges around here is that they seem to just put them in a pasture off the beaten path somewhere. The only way any survive around here is if they are in an area that's very busy, and if they offer more than just being a range. Be it mini-golf, batting cages, game rooms, decent food, etc.