Desolation Row, june 27, 2014

     A 93-year-old golf course in Springfield, Ohio has reached the end of the line. In an attempt to balance its budget, the National Trail Parks & Recreation District has closed the 18-hole Snyder Park Golf Course. The move is expected to save the district roughly $357,000 this year. Now the district has to determine what to do with its 36-hole golf complex at Reid Memorial Park, which is also bleeding red ink.

     Crooked Creek Golf Club, the 20-year-old centerpiece of a subdivision in Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina, is most likely in its final season as a going concern. Tony Withers, one of the course’s owners, told the Raleigh News & Observer that the 18-hole venue has become a financial drain and that a sale to a residential developer would enable the ownership to walk away with a small profit. “The game is not growing,” he said. “Juniors just don’t play, the old guys are aging out.” The land isn’t yet under contract, but the newspaper says that “plenty of land-hungry home builders [are] eager to pay top dollar to convert the course into residential lots.”

     Developers in Bowmansville, New York aim to turn Harris Hill Golf Course into an apartment complex. “It should be a really nice development for that area,” Nicholas Cutaia told the Buffalo News. “It’ll really help improve the hamlet of Bowmansville.” Cutaia and his father have agreed to pay $1.95 million for the nine-hole, 26-acre course. They’re buying it from an LLC controlled by the wife of the late Ronald Surowick. The Cutaias plan to operate Harris Hill for the rest of the season, as they’ve determined that it’s “quite profitable.”

     In Mansfield, Massachusetts, a developer has submitted plans to build 22 houses on property currently occupied by the nine-hole Willowdale Golf Course. Willowdale’s owner, Eleuterio Simonelli, declined to comment on the developer’s proposal, a sure sign that the course’s days are numbered.

     The city of Elwood, Indiana wants to prevent Cattails Golf Club from reverting to farm land, but it won’t be easy. Since the course’s owners have already sold nine of the course’s 18 holes, the city needs to reach purchase agreements with two parties. But before it can begin negotiations, the city must annex the site, a process that requires an approval from more than half of the 50 property owners in the area. Needless to say, the effort to preserve Cattails will be a major undertaking for a small town, but Elwood’s mayor believes it’ll be worth the trouble. “A course is something potential businesses and homeowners look for,” he told the Anderson Herald Bulletin. “It's a part of the quality of life.”

     Next week, an 89-year-old golf course in North Little Rock, Arkansas will host its final rounds. Emerald Park Golf Course, which is located adjacent to a Veterans Administration hospital, is slated to become housing for retired military veterans.

     The clock appears to be ticking for an 18-hole, municipal golf facility in South Jordan, Utah. After receiving a discouraging report on the financial future of Mulligan’s Golf & Games, the city will likely sell the well-located, 67-acre property to a developer. The city claims that Mulligan’s has lost an average of $220,000 in each of the past five years, an amount that some local residents dispute.

     Plum Tree National Golf Club, in Harvard, Illinois, failed to open this season and has presumably bitten the dust. The property featured a Joe Lee-designed course that opened in 1968. “The greens were not that easy. They had a lot of slope to them, in some cases too much slope,” a local golfer told the Rockford Register Star. “There were not very many simple, straight-forward holes.” Several newspapers have reported on the closing, but none seems to know the venue’s ultimate fate.

     A family-owned, nine-hole golf course in Circle Pines, Minnesota will make way for 70 duplexes. Melanie Lundgren and her husband, Tom, have agreed to sell KateHaven Golf Course, a struggling executive-length track that’s been owned by Melanie’s family since it opened in 1981. “It wasn’t a difficult call, and I’m excited about this transition,” Melanie told the Anoka County Union Herald. “It’s been a tough road keeping it open the last 10 years.” Melanie and her husband will continue to operate their Shadow Ridge Driving Range in nearby Lino Lakes. “Unlike the golf course,” writes the Herald Record, “business has been great at the driving range.”

     November 30, 2014: That’s when the doors close for good at Montgomery Village Golf Club, in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The Ed Ault-designed course has been on the endangered list for years, and its fate was sealed in early 2013, when it was sold to a local residential developer. Since then, its financial condition has further deteriorated. The Montgomery Gazette reports that the 147-acre layout, which opened in 1968, will be replaced by 600 houses.

     The last good-byes have been said at a nine-hole track in suburban Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Marada Golf Course, which opened in 1972, occupies part of a 200-acre parcel that was purchased by the Maronda Foundation in 2008. The foundation hasn’t announced its plans for the property, but it’s an affiliate of Maronda Homes, Inc.