Memento Mori, november 2012

pennsylvania A family owned, nine-hole course in Ebensburg closed in late October. Don and Charlotte Wolf built Appledale Golf Course on an apple orchard in the mid 1960s, reportedly to guarantee that their physically handicapped son, Lane, would have a job after he was graduated from college. Lane worked at the course until he died in 2005. Don Wolf died in 2010, and his wife died in 2011. The Wolfs’ daughters will continue to operate a banquet center on the property. “We try not to feel bad,” one of them told the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat. “It served the purpose our parents intended.”

california The lone golf course in western Fresno County closed last month, after 46 years of operation. The Fresno Bee describes Javier’s Fresno West Golf Course as being “practically in the middle of nowhere,” although “nowhere” has an address in the town of Kerman. The location wasn’t good for business, as the newspaper reports that “ducks paddling around the water hazard frequently outnumbered golfers.” The 18-hole course, which drew its customers from the area’s farm towns, is now reportedly owned by a farmer.

tennessee Last summer, Dickson Country Club brought in a professional manager to avert what the Tennessean calls “financial disaster.” In July, the manager said, “We feel certain we'll get everything going in the right direction very soon.” The club, which opened in 1927, shut its doors in late October.

north carolina Sandy Creek Golf Club in Stanley closed on October 1. The club, which was founded (as Ferguson Farms Golf Club) in 1992, had been operated by a local bank since 2008. “In this economy, golf is a luxury,” the club’s general manager told the Asheboro Courier-Tribune. “Randolph Bank did everything they could to keep us going.” The bank continues to search for a buyer.

indiana There will be a bittersweet New Year’s Eve party at Jasper Country Club, which will close on December 31. The club, which was incorporated in 1904, has a nine-hole golf course that opened in the early to mid 1930s. The club’s members have been offered incentives to join Sultan’s Run Golf Club, which features an 18-hole, Tim Liddy-designed course that dates from the 1990s.

indiana The 45-year-old Yule Golf Course in Alexandria has been sold at auction, reportedly for just under $1 million. The new owner, a farmer, is expected to plant crops on the 18-hole layout. “Alexandria just can’t support a golf course,” the son of the course’s former owner told the Anderson Herald Bulletin. The track wraps around a small community, and a resident said he expects his home’s value to “drop quite a bit.” The town’s mayor called the course’s closing “a huge loss,” adding, “I feel so bad for the people who live around there and the businesses who’re down there.”