Local Paper Tidbits 05/15/2025

[Ryan Book]

Runaway trucks! Native curses(?)! This one's got it all! Happy PGA CHAMPIONSHIP WEEK!


Northstar (Sunbury, Ohio): This one’s a curiosity. Northstar, in my neck of the woods, needed to close its back nine after a driver took a semi truck across it. Based on the small clues offered, he took quite a circuitous route from the clubhouse to get there. EDITOR’S NOTE: All holes are open again…but still an amusing story so leaving it here. https://abc6onyourside.com/news/local/deputies-arrest-driver-after-semi-truck-drives-onto-delaware-county-golf-course-gurpreet-dhaliwal-northstar-golf-club


Mint Valley (Longview, WA): This course, up the river from Portland, has finally completed its years-long push to get a new irrigation system that they suggest will cut usage by nearly 66%. https://tdn.com/sports/high-school/golf/article_1fa387d2-ac34-4f85-8b34-f17df3951073.html


Campus Commons (Sacramento, CA): Been a while since I’d heard news on this one so here it is…Campus Commons par three is open after five years and a slew of erosion control projects from the Army Corps of Engineers. https://www.kcra.com/article/campus-commons-golf-course-reopens-sacramento/64714537


The Woodlands (The Woodlands, TX): Arcis Golf has acquired the six-course club…I hope you appreciate this AI-generated copywriting as much as I do: “Historic Country Club Now Part of Arcis Golf’s Growing and Irreplaceable Portfolio.” $30 million in upgrades are planned for the properties, including unspecified course improvements. https://www.morningstar.com/news/business-wire/20250512110870/arcis-golf-acquires-the-woodlands-country-club-in-houston-texas


El Macero (El Macero, CA): The club is undergoing a renovation from Dale & Ramsey that will shift greens to TifTuf Bermuda and collars with bentgrass. Oh, and the bunkers will shift to “pure white” bunkers (sigh). https://thegolfwire.com/el-macero-golf-course-renovation/


Arm End (Opossum Bay, Australia): The OCM project is in a bit of court trouble due to the crushing of Aboriginal relics while “contractors” drove and placed pipes in areas that had not been properly flagged as off-limits. Don’t mean to imply the “contractors” described in the story are at all affiliated with OCM…not made clear in story. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-15/mary-anns-island-golf-developers-damaged-aboriginal-middens/105295878


Sandpines (Florence, OR): New owners are hip to modern trends and therefore worked “sand” into the name of the former Florence Golf Links. Whether asking Rees Jones to consult on changes to the course is “hip to modern trends” is less concrete. https://kcfmradio.com/2025/05/08/legislature-to-consider-trt-changes-sandpines-to-reopen-healthy-aging-seminar-lane-county-budget/


Thompson Park (Watertown, NY): The town is cutting the budgets to make up for a property tax hike, meaning no new equipment and the course manager’s salary dropping by (does math) nearly 68%. Bodes poorly. https://www.wwnytv.com/2025/05/13/changes-way-watertown-parks-rec-council-cuts-city-budget-costs/


Sebring (Sebring, FL): The city is looking at possibility of turning over management of its loss-making, century-old course. https://www.midfloridanewspapers.com/highlands_news-sun/news/sebring-golf-course-workshop-set/article_b0e23c57-d1a6-4b56-8ec8-88b7980fda01.html


Lake Wales (Lake Wales, FL): In case you were not yet aware of the development proposal that could halve the current Ross course. https://www.theledger.com/story/news/local/2025/05/13/plan-to-redevelop-another-polk-county-golf-course-as-residents-fuming/83406378007/


Four Mile Ranch (Canon City, CO): A big ownership group (~100 individuals) is looking to create a destination of Four Mile Ranch. No word on course renovations but one has to wonder how that fits into the picture. https://www.canoncitydailyrecord.com/2025/05/08/group-aims-to-make-four-mile-ranch-golf-course-a-renowned-destination/


Mason Rudolph (Clarksville, TN): The mayor has allotted a $1.3 million budget to reopen the municipal, albeit details have not been made public what that entails. https://www.newschannel5.com/news/clarksville-mayor-includes-re-opening-mason-rudolph-golf-course-in-his-proposed-budget


Hillandale (Durham, NC): City council will vote on a renovation plan that will largely focus on creating a place for children with compromised immune conditions to use a driving range, etc. Might not apply much to you and I but if the city is willing to invest, that bodes well for this municipal Ross. https://www.cbs17.com/news/local-news/durham-county-news/oldest-durham-golf-courses-1-million-renovation-would-focus-on-children-programs/


Brookshire (Carmel, IN): Parks and Rec is simply looking for some feedback from the community to help shape its “business plan” moving forward. If you know anyone eager to shape that conversation, send them here. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/V5RTPX3

[Kyle Harris]

Lake Wales is Raynor, not Ross. Vestiges of Raynor exist, including a not too-bad-for-the-site Eden Hole.

Sebring Muni is Bert Way with an update by Dick Wilson. One of my favorite Confidential Guide reviews. Would be a pity to see something happen to it. It closed for a bit following Covid.

[Brad Tufts]

Great news for 4 Mile Ranch!  I consider the course one of my favorite discoveries over the years, and I went back 4 or 5 times.  It's great that it has weathered the storm since opening right as the financial crisis of 2007 was cresting. 


It's a neat place, and if you can get over the aggressive visuals, it's incredibly wide and fun.


The course has no bunkers, but many mounds of shale rock that blasts apart if you have to hit a shot out of it.


If one was to look for innovation, or new perspectives in the world of GCA, 4MR is certainly a fun example.


Let's hope they leave the course as-is and try not to re-invent the wheel.

[Stewart Abramson]

Lake Wales is Raynor, not Ross. Vestiges of Raynor exist, including a not too-bad-for-the-site Eden Hole.

Kyle, I play Lake Wales once a year or so. Is there a business model that can save it?

[Kyle Harris]

Lake Wales is Raynor, not Ross. Vestiges of Raynor exist, including a not too-bad-for-the-site Eden Hole.

Kyle, I play Lake Wales once a year or so. Is there a business model that can save it?

Of course. Spend the necessary money to get it back into shape where one could charge a operating green fee. As ranking local (I can see the top of the Lakeland Ledger building from my house) I can say with reasonable authority that this is the case of two sides (local golfers and local developers) not understanding that their $35 green fee just won't cut it when there are acute infrastructure needs to bring the golf course back to even justify the $35 green fee.

[Kalen Braley]

Ryan,

Thanks for putting together these tidbits series, even if most of these are unknown to me, I find them interesting.

I thought I'd ask you, because you seem to have your finger on the pulse more so than anyone else in here (or is willing to share): Of all the projects and such you find, what % of those would be a net new course vs modifying or upgrading an existing course?

Specifically I'm curious about new projects where peak green fees are expected to be <= $100.   Its a bit of an arbitrary number, but the only new courses I've seen for example here in southern Utah are all over $100 and in most/many cases double and triple that.  And of those that qualify under this criteria how many are in fairly populated areas vs 50+ miles outside of the closest population center.

Thanks in advance, for any info you're willing to share.

[Ryan Book]

What's bad is that I questioned to myself whether it was a Ross or a Raynor...so I checked the course website. You know who checks a Florida course's website to see whether it's a Ross or not? An idiot, that's who. 

Lake Wales is Raynor, not Ross. Vestiges of Raynor exist, including a not too-bad-for-the-site Eden Hole.

Sebring Muni is Bert Way with an update by Dick Wilson. One of my favorite Confidential Guide reviews. Would be a pity to see something happen to it. It closed for a bit following Covid.

[Ryan Book]

Kalen, a fair question. I think the most helpful answer that kind of combines it all is that "if it's a new course that costs more than $100, it's more than likely that you don't need Ryan Book to tell you about it, because the big publications will have already." There are totally new projects that don't come with that greens fee -- Calusa CC, which just opened in Lakeland, comes to mind -- that also don't get big media attention. But they are a fair few. I'm sure something like 98% of the news bits I share are in regard to courses that already exist / have been announced.


That may be bad news of a sort but there's a National Links Trust podcast currently in the editing stage where Will Smith and I discuss the large (and underreported) number of small projects occurring at municipals across the country, which are not headline-grabbing overhauls such as National Links or The Park, but are done with the intention to make municipal golf more playable, more efficient and more sustainable. My baseball analogy is that drawing a leadoff walk -- small, pragmatic, boring -- generally pays out more than a two-out triple (no offense to home runs like The Park or Cobbs Creek...but most projects can only dream of that kind of support). 

Ryan,

Thanks for putting together these tidbits series, even if most of these are unknown to me, I find them interesting.

I thought I'd ask you, because you seem to have your finger on the pulse more so than anyone else in here (or is willing to share): Of all the projects and such you find, what % of those would be a net new course vs modifying or upgrading an existing course?

Specifically I'm curious about new projects where peak green fees are expected to be <= $100.   Its a bit of an arbitrary number, but the only new courses I've seen for example here in southern Utah are all over $100 and in most/many cases double and triple that.  And of those that qualify under this criteria how many are in fairly populated areas vs 50+ miles outside of the closest population center.

Thanks in advance, for any info you're willing to share.

[Stewart Abramson]

'Calusa CC, which just opened in Lakeland, "


I think it's Lakewood Ranch, not Lakeland

[Tom_Doak]

The original name of Sandpines was . . . Sandpines, a GOLF DIGEST best new winner in the 90s, before anyone in Oregon knew what a great golf course looked like.


It’s built on sand and used to have some pines - they knocked most of the trees down to shape it wall to wall. Even so, it’s a more fitting name than Florence Golf Links.  It is 100% NOT a links.

[Jeff Schley]

R


Sebring (Sebring, FL): The city is looking at possibility of turning over management of its loss-making, century-old course. https://www.midfloridanewspapers.com/highlands_news-sun/news/sebring-golf-course-workshop-set/article_b0e23c57-d1a6-4b56-8ec8-88b7980fda01.html

Sebring caught my attention earlier this year as I had never heard of the city.  It was part of a Discovery Channel Hometown Makeover show, where they rebuild some homes/businesses in a small town to get it back to life.  Sebring had a beautiful circular town center that they did quite a bit with.  The water is close and they never talked about a golf course, but perhaps they should have included that in their show as putting some money there.

[Kyle Harris]

R


Sebring (Sebring, FL): The city is looking at possibility of turning over management of its loss-making, century-old course. https://www.midfloridanewspapers.com/highlands_news-sun/news/sebring-golf-course-workshop-set/article_b0e23c57-d1a6-4b56-8ec8-88b7980fda01.html

Sebring caught my attention earlier this year as I had never heard of the city.  It was part of a Discovery Channel Hometown Makeover show, where they rebuild some homes/businesses in a small town to get it back to life.  Sebring had a beautiful circular town center that they did quite a bit with.  The water is close and they never talked about a golf course, but perhaps they should have included that in their show as putting some money there.

There were two Stiles and Van Kleek courses in Sebring, both NLE. One is in Dan Wexler's book.

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