[Chris Mavros]

Ocean Meadows in Santa Barbara is essentially where I started playing golf.  It was a cheap municipal 9 hole course very close to UCSB and was very unintimidating, so I felt comfortable stinking up the place round after round.  Apparently, an environmental group purchased the course so that it can restore the ecological wetland system that once existed before the course was built.  Eventually, the land will be a public park, so it sounds like a nice plan.  

On the other hand, I hope that places like this find a way to exist.  I think the unassuming municipal 9 holer, with a range, gets a lot of beginners hooked on the game.  I know of one in Glendora, CA that has done a pretty good job developing interest in the game to nearby kids.

[Richard Hetzel]

I played Coal Creek and Gleneagles in CO a few times. What really hurts my heart is to read that Centre Hills in Aurora closed. One of the places I learned the game.

Most of the places where I learned to play are gone now ...

That is the shame of it all,  the par-3 and municipal courses where lots of folks first learned the game are closing in droves,  and very few courses of these types are opening to take their place.  Kind of makes me wonder how future generations are going to learn the game.  I can certainly appreciate the economics of it all,  but it is sad...

This is the exact reason I plan on a long road trip in June to get in 15-20 older, public or municipal Ross courses as I fear they may no longer be open in the near future.

[John Nixon]

Sunrise Golf Course in Carmel, IN closed. A 9-hole course that had a few good holes, the rest ok, and provided an inexpensive place to get in a few holes or work on one's game. Some will contend it's just as well as their policy towards accommodating young players was less than accommodating. Course was closed because a new owner took over the land on which the course sat, and the folks operating the course could not, or would not, come up with the higher rent. So they closed it and the land will become housing. All of which means increased play for the other 9-holer in town, I suppose.

[Jason Topp]

Here is a story about an 18 hole and par 3 course located near my house that closed this fall.  It was a pretty pedestrian course on some prime real estate so I completely understand why the owners chose to sell.  Nonetheless, it provided low cost golf on some interesting land.  It will be missed by my neighbors who played there.

http://lakerpioneer.com/2013/08/19/lakeview-and-red-oak-golf-courses-sold-to-developer/

[Adam Warren]

Here is something to think about that might go better as its own thread.  Are WE the ones causing these decent little nine hole courses where we learned the game, to close?  I mean, its a good course to learn on, but now that we are beyond the learning stage if we take little ones or friends out on the course, in a selfish manner, we don't go take them back to those types of courses because we want to play on the "bigger, nicer" courses?  I think its something to think about.  If those courses don't have those learning the game, what do they really have at this point?  Nobody is building easier courses with fewer hazards where people can learn the game.  The only things we see like that now are "executive courses" as part of the private sector.

Thoughts?

[Adam Warren]

Here is something to think about that might go better as its own thread.  Are WE the ones causing these decent little nine hole courses where we learned the game, to close?  I mean, its a good course to learn on, but now that we are beyond the learning stage if we take little ones or friends out on the course, in a selfish manner, we don't go take them back to those types of courses because we want to play on the "bigger, nicer" courses?  I think its something to think about.  If those courses don't have those learning the game, what do they really have at this point?  Nobody is building easier courses with fewer hazards where people can learn the game.  The only things we see like that now are "executive courses" as part of the private sector.

Thoughts?

[Scott_Burroughs]

Foxtail GC in Meridian, ID closed last year.  The course was nothing to speak of...but always seemed fairly busy when I went and the range's hitting area was big and usually busy, as well.

Closed for a housing development.

[B.Ross]

FYI -

middle bay didn't actually close. it temporarily shuttered, is no longer private and reopened as a public daily fee known as south bay. you can buy a tee time there for weekend mornings, so i suppose it's technically "semi-private"

[B.Ross]

NEVERMIND

i saw an another thread that last month the US bankruptcy court pulled the plug on south bay. too bad, i had friends here in nyc who enjoyed taking the train out to oceanside to play it.

[Tom Yost]

We had only one closure in the greater PHX area that I'm aware of.   Ahwatukee Lakes GC, an 18 hole executive course, closed its doors in May of 2013.  The property is being marketed for development.  The course and closure was discussed in an earlier thread:
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,56077.0.html

[Gary Slatter]

The Lucayan Country Club (Dick Wilson and Craig Wood, 1964)  on Grand Bahama closed.   The Chinese owners are happy to keep the harbour and the airport, both 100 miles from the US of A!   Amazing how much fuss was made over theRussians in Cuba, and nothing about the Chinese buying up so many strategic properties, or control of the Panama Canal, navy yards in San Francisco, etc.   They don't need missiles, although they have them, they can just ship stuff in their containers on their ships to their ports anywhere in the world.

[J.D. Griffith]

Hillcrest Country Club in Altoona, WI closed in the spring of 2013.  Here is one of the articles that covered the loss:

http://www.wisgolfer.com/Wisconsin-Golfer/February-2013/Hillcrest-CC-will-be-Wisconsins-newest-missing-links/

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