Northern Bay, FireFox, and Bergamont are 3 courses in my area which have gone through ownership changes. All built in a heated economy and unable to service the debt load. I believe with new owners and/or refinancing each one of these course are in position to survive. ACTUALLY I hope so as I am about to be a member at Northern Bay. Hopefully not a ooops move. LOL
Anyway having played The Bull at a ST outing I was not impressed at the quality/price ratio value. Greens were shoddy with a huge amount to ball marks and not well maintained (read poor mowing and rolling). The course itself was fine but not memorable. For $90 a pop, rack rate, better quality can be had at a more reasonable rate. Both Lawsonia courses come to mind. Perhaps the Meadows offering at Kohler. You guys played FireRidge. Good? House On THE ROCK in Spring Green is another offering with lower green fees and better shape and design. Wild Rock ($50 Sunday after 1PM) is a far better course,IMO, than The Bull. To repeat a common Badger student section chat---OVER RATED. Perhaps with its location near Kohler and Milwaukee with Jack's name the course can survive.
The developer of Bergamont lost the course? I hadn't heard that. Wow. He did well with the development in Wales, then started Bergamont right before the real estate meltdown.
Not all that impressed with The Bull or The Bergamont, have played them both and for the $$ they are meh. The Bull has that 2-3 hole stretch which is decent, think it starts with hole 4. After that it's nothing special at all.
The course in Wales from what I have seen of it is much better than the Bergamont but it's also private.
For my $$ the best courses in the area are Wild Rock and House on the Rock. I also like Trappers Turn.
Bergamont went through some lawsuits with one of the owner's shares bought out at a steep discount. 3 years ago with the dirty laundry being aired out in the business section of the Milwaukee Sentinel seeminly on a month basis.
Firefox and NorthernBay bought out by groups. Northern Bay's case was 18 individals. One of the them is another farm I have done business with.