Memento Mori, february 1, 2013

     Sayonara, Ballinger Lake Golf Course. The nine-hole course opened in 1959 and has been owned by the city of Mountlake Terrace, Washington since 1970. Because it was the most affordable course in the area -- $18 for 18 holes -- it was played mostly by beginners, kids, and seniors. Unfortunately, such players rarely bring big profits, and late last year the course’s private-sector operators backed out of their lease, citing financial difficulties they blamed on rainy weather, economic hard times, and a decline in golf’s popularity. “We were honest, hard-working business owners who were in the wrong place at the wrong time,” they told their local newspaper. The city plans to convert the course’s property into what’s been described as “a waterfront paradise” with hiking trails and picnic tables. “It’s going to be a great destination for the community,” vows a city official.

     First, the good news: A wealthy benefactor has donated Battle Ground Golf Club, a track redesigned by Tim Liddy a decade or so ago, to a non-profit group affiliated with the city of Lafayette, Indiana. The bad news? With Battle Ground available to local golfers, the city has decided to close its 18-hole, 40-year-old municipal course. City officials have expressed few regrets about the decision, as the muni loses money and has long been plagued by flooding from the Wabash River. “Maintaining the course,” the Indianapolis Star wrote recently, “has been an uphill battle.” The muni is scheduled to close officially in March (it’s no longer being maintained), but its driving range will remain open a few months longer.

     Not long ago, the operators of a pitch-’n’-putt golf course in Australia’s capital city told local golfers that they had to “use it or lose it.” The warning wasn’t heeded, so Southern Cross Golf Course has closed. The course, in suburban Canberra, opened sometime around the turn of the 21st century. According to its owner, the Canberra Southern Cross Club, it lost $350,000 during the last two years of its existence. The club hasn’t announced what it plans to do with the course’s property, but its chief executive has said that “there will be a considerable size of green space left under any options that we will be looking at.” In the past, the property was eyed for a hotel and a gymnasium.

     A half-century ago, the property in Hastings, Michigan currently occupied by River Bend Golf Course was farm land. And later this year, the 27-hole complex will be farm land again. River Bend’s new owner, Larry Haywood, plans to grow hay and corn on the 180-acre parcel. “We feel that we must take advantage of the opportunity presented,” the sellers say in a notice posted on the complex’s website. As best I can determine, Haywood’s uncle designed and built River Bend’s original nine in 1964.

     On New Year’s Eve, golfers in Bremen, Georgia bid adieu to Lion Golf Club. The 7,086-yard course, designed by Arthur L. Davis, was just 11 years old. In the wake of the closing, Bremen’s city manager called the Lion a “very valuable asset to the city of Bremen,” perhaps because it used to host an annual tournament whose proceeds helped to fund the construction of the city’s soccer complex. The course had been operated by Jodi Newbern, who evidently couldn’t extend her lease on the golf course property. Newbern is the daughter of the Lion’s late owners.

     Also on New Year’s Eve, golfers in Gadsden, Alabama played the final rounds at River Trace Golf Course. “It couldn’t have been any worse than a funeral,” the president of the club that operated the course told the Gadsden Times. The course, designed by Red Lawrence, was originally the centerpiece of Goodyear Golf Club, which got its start in 1938. The club filed for bankruptcy protection in 2009, and part of its property was subsequently purchased by a local development group that intends to build a collection of stores and restaurants. The construction begins this spring.