Desolation Row, september 5, 2014

     Deltona Corporation has closed El Diablo Golf & Country Club, blaming its demise on “challenging market conditions” and “a devastating clubhouse fire” that occurred earlier this year. El Diablo, in Citrus Springs, Florida, featured a well-regarded, Jim Fazio-designed golf course that opened in 1998. The Citrus County Chronicle reports that the club’s members are “devastated” over the loss of their 18-hole course, in part because they believe that Deltona received an insurance payment that might have covered repairs at the clubhouse. While it’s true that residential developers often work in mysterious ways, Deltona may have simply seized an opportunity to cut its losses, as all but 65 of the club’s members have departed.

     Last month, the owners of a popular wedding venue in Bakersfield, California purchased and closed Sycamore Canyon Golf Course. John and Jeff Haddad plan to add waterfalls, pretty flowers, and almond trees to the 18-hole, 25-year-old track, to create nice backgrounds for memorable wedding pictures. “It’s going to be a beautiful place,” John Haddad told KERO-TV. The Haddads’ other wedding venue, JEH Ranch on the Kern River, apparently has more bookings than it can handle.

     The lights have gone out at Fort Myers Beach Golf Club, and they’ll be turned on again only if a membership drive is successful. “It all boils down to support,” Chip Durpo, the owner of the club in Fort Myers Beach, Florida, told WINK-TV. “The ball is in the community’s hands.” The ball doesn’t appear to have much bounce left in it, as the 38-year-old club reportedly has only about 35 members.

     Next week, after 50 years as a going concern, a nine-hole golf course in Durand, Michigan will close its doors for the last time. “We waited as long as we could, hoping the economy would come back, but I just don’t see it,” Ed French, the owner of Chippewa Hills Country Club, told the Owosso Argus-Press. “People are going to buy food and gas before they play golf.” French has reportedly agreed to sell his 97-acre property to a farmer.

     A golf complex in Kokomo, Indiana has parted with its original nine holes, which had become a financial drain. Chippendale Golf Course will henceforth operate as an 18-hole layout, a number that current owner Jim Humphrey believes is enough to satisfy demand. Chippendale’s Vintage 9 now belongs to Chris Fry, who’s growing fruits and vegetables on the 43-acre parcel. “If we were getting enough play to warrant having it open, we would’ve kept it open,” Humphrey said in a comment published by the Fairfield Citizen. “It just wasn’t there.” Humphrey’s late father, Bill, designed and built the Vintage 9 in 1970 and the 18 holes that followed in the late 1980s.

     A nine-hole golf course in Clear Lake, Iowa has been living on borrowed time, and the time has run out. Jane Pedelty wanted to close Arrowhead Golf Course last year but reportedly changed her mind when her customers protested. This year, the Minnesota resident won’t be swayed. The course closes at the end of the golf season.

     A little more than three months from now, on New Year’s Eve, the final rounds will likely be played at Marcus Pointe Golf Club in Pensacola, Florida. The 18-hole, Earl Stone-designed track opened in 1990, as the centerpiece of a golf community developed by Neal Nash. In recent years, Nash and the community’s home owners invested in the course, regrassing its greens and making other capital improvements, but it was all for naught. Improved conditions didn’t attract more play. Nash has listed the 120-acre layout for sale.

     Later this year, when the winter winds begin to blow out of Manitoba, the final rounds will be played at a nine-hole municipal golf course in Edina, Minnesota. Fred Richards Executive Golf Course, which opened in the mid 1990s, will close whenever the season ends, despite pleas to spare its fate from local golfers. Edina isn’t doing away with golf completely, however. The city also owns Braemar Golf Course, a facility with 27 regulation-length holes and a nine-hole executive-length track. It’s worth mentioning that Braemar’s nine-hole course will be shrunk to a par-3 layout.

     The city of Massillon, Ohio has decided not to sell its golf complex, but it’s going to close nine of its holes. On the chopping block is the North nine (or maybe the South nine) at the Legends of Massillion. The holes will, for the time being at least, be maintained as open space. By operating the Legends as an 18-hole facility, the city expects to save between $50,000 and $100,000 annually, according to a report in the Canton Repository. Earlier this year a development group wanted to buy the entire 275-acre Legends property, which is said to be carrying $5.4 million in debt, but the group pulled its offer before the city could sign on the dotted line. If a similar opportunity comes its way again, Massillon may jump at the chance to rid itself of a financial burden.