OK, let me just share my frustration. I bought a nice house in Florida on a beautiful golf course and the week we moved in, the golf closed. That was one year ago and the course is still not open. From my pool deck I now see weeds instead of golfers. We live in a nice gated community with a HOA that isn’t sure what to do. Some are in the hope and pray mode! Many would just like the grass cut and hedges trimmed around the club house. A few of us on a special committee are trying to be more proactive and develop plans to better control our future.

This can only be a discussion about MONEY and COMMUNITY – Not Golf! 

We are being told by the real estate agent that a mysterious (to us) buyer has an offer accepted by the bank and is in the “due diligence” process. We are suspicious because a last “deal” fell through, and this buyer has thus far made no attempt to contact the HOA or anyone in the community. If I was going to spend millions, I surely would want to talk to my potential customers before inking the contract. That’s just me and the way I think.

The golfing business just isn’t the same any more, it seems to have not recovered from the 2007 recession along with the fact there are just less golfers today than 10 years ago. However, the law of supply & demand must still work. There are well run golf courses throughout Florida, some owned by HOA’s and some by private owners. It appears the secret to success is professional management, not a bunch a golfers who think they should own a course (the previous owners).

Our HOA could potentially buy the course and then hire a top notch professional to run it. We have over 800 households in our community and the cost to buy and operate would be a fraction of the costs we’ve already suffered in home values.

The problem is that it is tough to build consensus (on almost anything, including golf). Of course the non-golfers vs the golfers is a losing battle. Only a small percentage of any community, even ours, actually play golf. The non-golfers will immediately point out that they aren’t going to subsidize the guys in pink shirts, drinking beer and cruising along paths. It appears that most of these comments come from those without lots that directly face the course. They don’t seem to express any vision for the future other than “we need to do something”, or “we hope someone buys it”.

But, as I said earlier ……. This can only be a discussion about MONEY and COMMUNITY! Our losses in property values could already buy at least a few courses. Hopefully our special committee can present a plan that solves the problem, but we can’t just rely on only the golfers.  

We have a really nice golf course for sale!