Desolation Row, january 31, 2014

     After nearly 30 years of ownership, Ron Rider has turned out the lights for the last time at Pine Shadows Golf Course. The 18-hole course, he believes, slowly faded to black via a combination of hard times and over-zealous golf construction in and around Lake Charles, Louisiana. “It’s not a casino course and it’s not a municipal course,” he told a local television station. “Those are able to get extra funding and stay in float.” No word on what Rider plans to do with the property.

     After an extended financial illness, a nearly 120-year-old golf club in Edinburgh, Scotland has died peacefully. Torphin Hill Golf Club, which opened in 1895, was a modest, affordable club that had been “limping along in difficult and horrible times,” a member told the Scotsman. In 2006, Torphin Hill had nearly 500 members, but the number has been falling steadily ever since, despite price reductions that were supposed to lure new customers. “It’s been tough going for the last six years,” another member noted, adding: “It has become increasingly difficult to get people aged between 25 and 40 to join the club.”

     The final rounds have been played at a nine-hole golf course in Beloit, Ohio. Hyde-A-Way Golf Club was established in 1953 and has been owned by the Minamyer family since 1977.

     In a last-ditch effort to remain in business, Huntsville, Alabama’s premier country club has slashed its monthly membership fees and -- gulp -- opened its golf course to the public on weekdays. “Our backs are to the wall,” a board member told the Huntsville Times. Huntsville Country Club filed for bankruptcy protection in the fall of 2013. The LLC that owns its mortgage has agreed to waive payments for six months but will foreclose if the club can’t generate enough income to pay its bills.

     A 90-year-old golf property in Fayetteville, Tennessee is “heading to foreclosure,” according to a local television station. Fayetteville Golf & Country Club reportedly has 115 members, less than half the number it had a decade ago, and as a result it can’t pay its debts, particularly the loans it secured to pay for renovations to its clubhouse. “We spent more than we should have, and we lost half our members,” a club official told WHNT. The club, which has a nine-hole course, is scheduled to be sold at a public auction next month.

     To fend off a bank seeking more than $2.2 million in unpaid loans, the owners of Edgmont Country Club have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. “It was just a defensive move we felt we had to do to protect the property,” said Peter Mariani, whose family has owned and operated Edgmont since it opened in 1963. Mariani believes the club, in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, will emerge from bankruptcy stronger than it is today. “We’re extremely optimistic about the future,” he told the Delaware County Daily Times. Edgmont reportedly has about 550 members and claims to be operating as it normally would.

     Seven months after Eastern Hills Country Club filed for bankruptcy protection, creditors are trying to force the property’s sale. The club, in suburban Dallas, Texas, is believed to be worth at least $5 million, more than enough to cover its $838,000 in debt. For 11 consecutive years beginning in 2001, Eastern Hills hosted the Texas Women’s Open.

     A lender has filed a foreclosure lawsuit on Hawthorns Golf Club, in suburban Indianapolis, Indiana, and the club has, in response, filed for bankruptcy protection. Hawthorns, which features an Arthur Hills-designed golf course, is the centerpiece of a community developed by HDG Mansur. According to the Indianapolis Business Journal, the club’s ownership group has less than $50,000 in assets and more than $50 million in debt. One of its largest creditors (to the tune of $14.5 million) is Harold D. Garrison, the club’s general partner and the CEO of HDG Mansur.

     Though its losses are rather modest, Castleknock Golf Club, in Dublin, Ireland, has been taken over by receivers. The club, which opened in 2005, lost more than €137,000 (almost $185,000) in 2012, reports the Irish Examiner, on top of a loss of almost €356,000 (almost $480,000) in 2011. The receivers, working on behalf of the shopping-center developers who own Castleknock, are looking for a buyer. In 2009, Golf Digest ranked Castleknock’s golf course, a Jonathan Gaunt design, as one of Ireland’s top 100.

     The upcoming golf season will be the final one at Tamworth Municipal Golf Course, in suburban Birmingham, England. “We have thrown as much money at it as we can,” a disappointed borough official told the Tamworth Herald. The 18-hole course opened in 1975. The borough hopes to sell part of the property to a residential developer and to convert the remainder into a park.

     The village of Homer Glen, Illinois has agreed to buy Woodbine Golf Course, a 26-year-old facility whose owners want to retire. The price: $3.3 million. The Chicago Tribune says that the 18-hole track will operate through the end of 2014. Sometime after that, the village plans to transform Woodbine’s clubhouse into a seniors’ center and then build a park and a new village hall on the 106-acre property.