This is a bad look for Faxon

[Togatown22]

This is a sad story, one way or another. Really speaks to how vulnerable some of these private clubs may be if changes aren't proactively made to reflect a changing golf population and demographic. Really sad to lose such a historic and awesome track as this one.

[raynorfan1]

This is 100% a value judgement.

The members were absolutely rubes in letting their emotions about keeping the course open and viable (and perhaps even worse, private) dictate who they sold it to.

But there is no honor in swindling people because they're dumb and emotional. I have not said anywhere that Faxon did anything illegal. He did not. Everything was aboveboard. As I said many posts above, there is a perspective that this is "just business", which many people will agree with.

Personally, I think it's dirty. But some people are dirty. Apparently you can add Brad Faxon to that list.

[chippa13]

Sounds like the members weren't hoodwinked but they were snooty. Had they created a public option then they might still have a course.

[Warrior42111]

I grew up in New England, I talked to some of my buddies who golf, so take it with a grain of salt, but they told me the group tried to push for a semi-private deal, when that was rejected, they tried to allow public play after certain hours, that was rejected, then they tried to just have a single day a week for public play and that was rejected.

[Konklifer]

 

I was only a member for the last two years. None of those options were rejected. Public play began almost immediately.

A recent article states the $200,000 used on the clubhouse was for "code violations and other problems" (https://www.providencejournal.com/sports/20200308/mcnamara-too-bad-classic-like-metacomet-has-to-die). Yeah, the other problems were it was old. The upstairs of the clubhouse, including the grill room and bar, was gutted and renovated. And if the ownership group did their due diligence, and were the businessmen they claimed to be, a reputable inspector would have discovered code violations prior to the sale. If these violations led to unforeseen expense, the new ownership is to blame for not discovering it and factoring it in before deciding to buy.

But all that assumes this wasn't a bait and switch, which it was. Acting like they were caught off guard that a club bailed out of bankruptcy lost more money nine months after new ownership and a new direction is naive at best and disingenuous at worst. They knew they would have to infuse significant capital if the club was to survive. They claimed they would do just that. And even if they did, everyone was aware there was no guarantee it would work.

There's no debate, the club was mismanaged for a long time. Now Faxon is blaming the failures of the past for those of the present. If Metacomet buried itself years ago, as he says in the article, why buy it? Why make claims of grand plans, and your history at the club, and your father's history at the club, and tell a story about how Arnold Palmer told Rickie Fowler to remove his hat while eating in the grill room at Bay Hill and that's the kind of culture you want to bring to the club? Why? Because what they really did was use Rhode Island nostalgia and Faxon's rep as a way to purchase prime real estate for a song and flip it for profit.

If you believe anything else, I got a Donald Ross course to sell you.

[Dog Lover]

Thanks for the first hand info and the current link. I played New England Amateurs there and it was great. Looks like some members have filed suit.https://www.providencejournal.com/sports/20200309/brad-faxon-other-owners-sued-by-metacomet-members

[JohnStaff]

Only obliquely referenced in the articles is that the club wasn't historically friendly to women, with the ongoing controversy around Glenn Vare, former member and 6-time US women's amateur champion. There was an article in RI Golf Monthly almost a decade ago about not letting Vare's family into the Men's Grill to see the trophy even when the grill was closed as part of a family event (just to confirm no lessons were learned from the story 30 years before retold in the book "Lure of the Links"). One of my best golf buddies was interested in joining in the early 2010s, his report from his interview with the membership committee is that they were primarily focused that his wife wasn't interested in golf. He joined Agawam. While my club in the local area wasn't particularly encouraging of women, if a female member wanted to sit at the "men's grill" in the clouds of cigar smoke in recent years they were quite welcome to and occasionally did. With current demographics, there is a very limited pool of young golfers willing to put up with the domestic heat of belonging to a club their spouse isn't welcome at. In contrast, at an earlier club my wife was literally chased down after being seen coming off the golf course with me for a tour of the women's locker room and to be told how welcome she would be to join the women's golf group. She always liked that club.

Unfortunately the recent recapitalizations of Crestwood, Ledgemont, Pawtucket, and Agawam kept alive four courses that directly competed with Metacomet. With Wannamoisett and Rhode Island CC also in the same general area, there were just too many private golf clubs for too few members.

[Konklifer]

No doubt it was a tough club as a newbie; very clique-y. I did meet some nice people there, but it took a while. I heard stories of the past from the female membership, but when I was there, women were welcome and prevalent on the course and in the grill room. And they were also serious players.

Definitely a lot of private clubs in close proximity, but Metacomet was significantly less money with a superior layout to all of them, with the exception of Wannamoisett. The ownership just didn't have serious intentions of making this work.

[CM8120]

It sounds like he went out on a limb to try to save something that just couldn't be saved. He probably made that decision with his heart, because from this article, I don't think anyone would dispute that the fact that the course meant something to him as well. The members wanted the best of both worlds. They wanted someone to come in & pay for everything so they could have it all to themselves? Wow, & people accuse millennials of being entitled ! If Faxon had only realized these old guys would gripe about adding new members and every other way to make it profitable, he probably would have said, 'Thanks, but no thanks!' I think he believed he could do it. They can keep crying rivers over losing their old stuffy ways. Common sense tells anyone reading this what the real story is, a bunch of old timers , stuck in their ways, wanting to hold on to the 'good old days.'

[farmer]

"Metacomet was significantly less money". They should have been priced to their competitors. Unless there's some old money, 230 members just isn't enough members to keep a top notch course.

[deli_llama]

gonna miss the winter golf access the most!

[tiderider]

interesting story ... but it's hard to believe many of the members from the past 50-100 years (or however long) haven't taken the same tact in their own business dealings that faxon used ... he kept it open for a bit and then had to sell, knowing he could ... that's business ...

[ShortStick]

for those checking in to see how the story is progressing ....https://www.ecori.org/smart-growth/2020/7/4/opposition-grows-against-east-providence-golf-course-development