The Critical List, october 5, 2012

Because the United States has more golf courses than any other nation, it also figures to have the most financially troubled courses. So this week, I’m writing an all-American edition of the Critical List.

colorado. One of the meanest battles in golf -- Cordillera Golf Club versus its members -- is drawing to a close. A settlement calls for the club and its three regulation-length courses (designed by Hale Irwin, Tom Fazio, and Jack Nicklaus) to be sold at auction by the end of the year. The loser: David Wilhelm, who borrowed $19.4 million to buy Cordillera in 2009 and then watched his Rocky Mountain dream turn into a nightmare of legal actions topped off by a bankruptcy filing. The winner: The lawyers representing the litigants, naturally.

arizona. According to the executive director of the state’s golf association, the Great Recession hasn’t yet claimed even one private club in Arizona. Will Moon Valley Country Club and its Dick Wilson-designed course be the first? The club, one of the oldest in Phoenix, is drowning in debt ($6 million worth) and water bills (nearly $1 million annually). In July, Moon Valley filed for bankruptcy protection, and now, to fend off a foreclosure, it hopes to sell itself to Borders Golf Group.

florida. Casselberry Golf Club, which opened in 1947, has been losing money for years, and now its owners are thinking about selling it to a residential developer. The owners of houses in the accompanying community have asked the city to buy the club, but that isn’t likely to happen. “We just don’t think that would work,” Casselberry’s city manager told the Orlando Sentinel. “We don’t expect it to ever make money.”

new hampshire. The oldest municipal layout in the Granite State isn’t aging gracefully. Beaver Meadow Golf Course in Concord, which has nine holes that date to 1896, is expected to lose $141,000 this year and needs a bail-out. “We think we can turn it around,” says Concord’s city manager optimistically. If he’s wrong, the city will likely try to sell the course or turn it over to private-sector operators.

kansas. Cottonwood Hills Golf Course, part of a 600-acre planned community in Hutchinson that’s been suffocated by $10 million in debts and overdue bills, has been sold at a foreclosure auction. The property features a Nick Faldo-designed layout that opened in 2006 but has been shuttered for several years. None of the community’s houses were built. It was something of a lonely auction, as the developer’s lender was the only bidder. Price: $2.5 million.