Desolation Row, september 9, 2016

     Lompoc, California. The soaring price of water has forced Vandenberg Air Force Base to close its golf course. The lights went out at Marshallia Ranch Golf Course -- said to be “one of the best courses in the entire air force” -- just days ago, after Vandenberg’s officials decided that they can’t cover a continually increasing water bill that will soon approach $400,000 annually. “It’s very expensive to maintain the course,” the venue’s superintendent told the Space Country Times. “It does bring in quite a bit of money, but we just can’t compensate for the increase in water prices.” Vandenberg’s 18-hole course was designed by Bob Baldock and opened in 1959. The base says that the track has been losing money for close to a decade, in part because water costs have increased by more than 500 percent since 1999.

     Cape Coral, Florida. The King is dead, along with the Queen and the Prince. Those are the three nine-hole layouts at Royal Tee Golf Club, which closed in early August. Royal Tee’s courses were designed by Gordy Lewis, and they date from the mid 1980s. Dean Ballantine, the club’s owner, hasn’t said what he plans to do with the property.

     Clymer, New York. At the end of the current season, a ski resort in western New York will pull the plug on one of its two golf courses. Peek’n Peak Resort has decided to close its original course, the 18-hole Lower Course, and convert its 200 acres into uses that might have four-season appeal. “We’re working on a bunch of different ideas,” a representative of Scott Enterprises, the resort’s owner, told the Buffalo News. The Lower course, a Fred Garbin-designed track that opened in 1973, has apparently lost favor with Peek’n Peak’s customers. “There really isn’t a huge demand for the Lower golf course,” the representative acknowledged. The resort will continue to operate its more challenging, more attractive Upper Course, a John Exley-designed layout that hosted an event on the Web.com Tour this year.

     King George, Virginia. Without the passion of its founder, Cameron Hills Golf Links couldn’t continue to operate. The late Bill Jones had a vision for Cameron Hills -- he viewed it as “a golf course that accepts everyone” -- but his widow and their son didn’t share his zeal for affordable golf. They say they’ve closed the 23-year-old venue “for the foreseeable future,” but their decision seems to be permanent.

     Jonestown, Pennsylvania. Just two years short of its 50th anniversary, Monroe Valley Golf Course has gone belly up. “The golf course has not been economically viable for many years,” the course’s owners, a group operating as UMH PA Monroe Valley LLC, said in a press release. The LLC, which appears to be a home builder, cited “declining interest in the sport” and “difficulties maintaining the course” as reasons for Monroe Valley’s demise. It said that the 18-hole, Ed Ault-designed layout once attracted 45,000 rounds of golf annually but over the years lost 35,000 of those rounds. The course closed on July 31.