What will happen to a Golf Course when it shuts down?

[acegolfer]

For context, my local public course is badly managed and I suspect it will eventually close in the next 5 yrs. It was originally a 36-hole facility but converted the west course into an upscale housing development (locals hated and likely a flop). The course is not a closed fenced area, instead, each hole is surrounded by apartment complexes. where I can park and walk into the fairways. In fact, after 6 pm, I have seen many ppl walk along the cart path or even play for free when staffs are gone. 

 

What usually happens, when the course closes? Did you have any similar experience?

[jholz]

Largely depends on where it is, I would imagine. Anything in a populated area is going to become houses, shopping centers, etc. That happened to a couple of courses in towns where I've lived.

 

If it's out in the boonies, sometimes nature takes over. I heard stories of an old course south of the town I lived in in Alabama. You could still sort of see it on Google maps - but the "jungle" quickly consumed it. I never took the time to go out and look at it, but I'm sure at certain stages, it had to be pretty interesting. 

[mokedaddy]

We have a course here that turned the front nine into a wedding venue and the back nine, you can still see the layout but they just quit taking care it it.  It really depends on several factors.

[Warrior42111]

Depends how it's zoned. Seems like it can have housing from what you wrote so that's most likely in today's climate.

 

They just closed a course here in the last two weeks. The board didn't grant the zoning change the owner wanted to sell for housing so she just straight up closed it and is trying to sell as is. Hopefully a golf company comes in, really a great Arnold Palmer design. 

[MK7Golf21]

we had one turned into a park

[TLUBulldogGolf]

A 27 hole course I played growing up is now all housing. Another course had 3 18s and 1 was closed and is now a protected park for wildlife I believe. 

[bvmagic]

Happens a lot in FL these days.  Owners let courses run down, attempt to get it re-zoned for housing.  

[Abh159]

22 minutes ago, jholz said:

Largely depends on where it is, I would imagine. Anything in a populated area is going to become houses, shopping centers, etc. That happened to a couple of courses in towns where I've lived.

 

If it's out in the boonies, sometimes nature takes over. I heard stories of an old course south of the town I lived in in Alabama. You could still sort of see it on Google maps - but the "jungle" quickly consumed it. I never took the time to go out and look at it, but I'm sure at certain stages, it had to be pretty interesting. 

 

Jholtz pretty much hit the nail on the head with this one. Every time I've seen a course close there were 1 of 2 outcomes.

 

If it was located in or near an area people could live then it became a housing development or apartment complexes. If it was in the middle of nowhere it was just left up to nature to decide it's course (pun intended 😉).

 

Aside from that I'd say there is a 0.001% chance someone buys it and tries to "revive" it as a golf course.

[aenemated]

32 minutes ago, jholz said:

If it's out in the boonies, sometimes nature takes over. I heard stories of an old course south of the town I lived in in Alabama. You could still sort of see it on Google maps - but the "jungle" quickly consumed it. I never took the time to go out and look at it, but I'm sure at certain stages, it had to be pretty interesting. 

 

The little goat track in rural NC where all this started for me looks like this now:

 

 

 

The wider open part there in the upper middle wasn't part of it but pretty clear where the rest of it was. I wanna say it shut down for good in 2014 or so? I remember mom calling to tell me and setting it up like a family member died. 

 

Back in the day, a $100/yr "junior membership" meant us kids could walk it all we wanted. So starting when I was about 10, mom would drop me and a buddy off there on her way to work during summer break and we'd just play all damn day. Lotta great memories made there. I can look at that satellite photo and remember how I played every single hole. 

 

 

[pearcebarr]

The University of Alabama turned their university course into an arboretum a few decades ago, and you could can still see a few of the golf holes. The path is still out there too.

 

There is also a defunct country club in Tuscaloosa, as well, that is just a big greenspace. Technically its private property, but people use it as a public park all the time.

[jholz]

This is the course I was talking about in Alabama. The former Pin Oaks:

 

[third-times-a-charm]

Has happened to several course here;

 

1) Turned into housing

2) Half saved and half turned into housing

3) HOA/Association of the homes around the course takes over w/ help of a mgmt company

4) City takes over and turns private into a muni

 

The case of yours just seems like bad management all around - letting people on the course/etc.

[AdamMH]

A local city course here closed a few years ago. I believe the city kept possession of the land, and then a couple of years after closure it was converted into a disc-golf park. It was a 9-hole par 3 course so just the right size for a full disc golf course.

[Pepperturbo]

All depends on where it's located, zoning and what local city counsel wants.  Someone might own the property, but city council and zoning stipulate it's optional potential. 

 

Kapalua had a third course called The Villages, absolutely fun and beautiful but very challenging, target course.  Didn't get enough play so they shut-it-down and let it go to seed.  Take about development, but who knows.

 

An acquaintance owns a SoCA golf course that is no longer profitable to keep open, but can't sell it do to city limitations.  It's being kept in operation but in red ink, making it a heavy financial drain.  Don't know how long he can maintain the monthly negative cash-flow.

 

Another acquaintance owned a very challenging, fun course that I really enjoyed.  Due to course difficulty and location, it couldn't make it as a private club, so he made it semi-private, play was still off.  For a short-time it was public, still wasn't P&L practical, so he finally shut it down, and did what was necessary to turn it into a limited development where he made back a good percentage of the negative cash-flow.

 

 

[Murphy76]

 

I know of two courses in my area that closed, and were just tilled up and turned back into farm-ground.  

 

 Soybeans make more money than golf.

 

 

[RayGorman]

A local, well liked and well reviewed course was turned into a Solar Farm.

 

Others have been turned into a Foot Golf/Disc Golf/Paintball 'Adventure' Park, Housing, Shopping Center, abandoned and left to over grow, then brought back as a golf course. At least one Private course closed for a year, then opened as a public course, then after a few years went back to private.

[imkirby34]

Our city's 18-hole "muni" course closed in 2019.  After almost 3 years, I think they're finally going to break ground on the huge private, mixed-use project.  For a while, some of the course was used as parking for the stadium that's across the street.  The course may have been best known for being built on top of a landfill.  The course had opened in 1987.

 

In another city about 20 minutes away was a 36-hole complex which closed in 2015 and the property has sat untouched since (as far as I know).  It sits right next to a major highway and, not surprisingly, you can't even really tell there used to be a golf course there when you go by it now.   A city utilities commission owns/owned the land.  The commission had tried to sell the land to the county, but that fell through and I have no idea if there are any plans to do anything there.  The course had opened in 1968.  One of my friends held his wedding reception there.

[naj959]

Semi-private club in my area was bought out by some very wealthy guy from out of state. He had also purchased another course in the area that used to host a few PGA and LPGA tour pros for a silly season shootout. I guess the plan was to turn the second course into housing but it sits in a flood plane right next to the San Joaquin River. Never got the re-zoning and the course has just been left to decay. It is somewhat maintained since it's located off a bluff where the very affluent members of the community reside. I'm sure they don't want to look over their balconies and see an eyesore at the bottom. It's a shame because the ambience and course set up were unmatched.

[ChristopherMcDonald]

Some of the courses that have closed down around me go as far as to remove all irrigation systems so it cannot be re-used as a golf course as easily. Likely it will be left to return to the wild or developed into parks/public spaces. Here's a Greg Norman designed track that closed down not too long ago nearby, shut down well before all this LIV stuff so not related

 

https://www.championnewspapers.com/news/article_bb521fca-5755-11eb-912c-172eb7373c31.html

 

Sounds like they are keeping weddings going but nothing else. 

 

There's another course right across the street from my place that has waivered back and forth with selling/converting to housing. The course goes through the most WILD swings in condition because when it looks like they're going to sell, they let it go but almost always the sale gets squashed because of zoning voting and they have to then struggle to get the course back in shape. 

 

New management I would guess is the courses only hope. If you happen to own a golf course right now and you're not making money hand over fist (in California at least), you're doing something wrong. 

Edited June 30, 2022 by ChristopherMcDonald

[Mcgeeno]

The couple courses around me that closed got cleaned out and turned into housing/apartment complexes. 

 

I think that is the case 90 percent of the time. Re-zone it, divide it up, sell it and make crazy money of rent and mortages.

[GHIN n Juice]

My home course (Wingpointe) through high school and college was shutdown due to mismanagement by the city of Salt Lake.  Because it is out by the airport it was left to die by a return to nature.  These days you’d never know there used to be a golf course there that once hosted Nike tour Monday qualifiers, state ams and other significant local events.  Pisses me off just writing this 🤬

[golfandfishing]

Depends on the situation. The popular thing to say is “turn it into housing” like the bulldozers can come in the next day and frames go up in a week. But that’s far from accurate- zoning is just the beginning, the EPA is going to be involved in most cases and an HOA is likely to hold it up in court also since they want a golf course and not more homes. So it sits vacant for years - weeds take over, fish die by the thousands and homeless set up encampments. This is happening in Phoenix now at the former Club West.  Ahwatukee Lakes just reopened 9 holes after years of court battles with the same owner. A vacant golf course quickly turns into blight. 
 

A course in Tempe closed ages ago and I think took 5 years of remediation to become a farm. 

[MtlJeff]

That course in Brazil built for the Olympics was overrun by murderous chupacabras within like 12 months.

 

Around here it's mostly houses as Montreal has expanded outward. So all of the older courses that used to be close to the city became too valuable and were sold for the land.

[TiScape]

29 minutes ago, MtlJeff said:

That course in Brazil built for the Olympics was overrun by murderous chupacabras within like 12 months.

It turns out that it wasn’t chupacabras! After more analysis it was determined that it was actually just one of LIVs secret “draft parties”. 😂 

[MtlJeff]

8 minutes ago, TiScape said:

It turns out that it wasn’t chupacabras! After more analysis it was determined that it was actually just one of LIVs secret “draft parties”. 😂 

 

No no you are incorrect, Chupacabras was Sergio Garcia's original team name!

[TiScape]

3 minutes ago, MtlJeff said:

 

No no you are incorrect, Chupacabras was Sergio Garcia's original team name!

Sergio Garcia team name? Football/soccer??? 🫤 

😂 

[ksher84]

Hopefully someone will take it over.  We had one close here for 7-8 months.  I heard people were riding horses and stuff on it when it was closed.  It opened back up the following summer with a different name

[shanerbanner10]

Got one in south Tulsa that closed about 3 years ago and its not just fields. Will likely be bought by a developer soon and turned into a larger neighborhood which surrounded the course.

[braincramp52]

My home course closed about 3 years ago. It's now just pasture for cows.

[jordan2240]

Has happened to two courses near me.  One I never played because it was private.  It is now a housing complex.  The other I played quite a bit and enjoyed.  The top part became a housing complex.  The bottom part was considered flood plain and was made into a nature preserve with a walking path.  I only visited it once, but the tee boxes were still obvious and it was fun to reminisce.