Two financially troubled Massachusetts golf courses are in the news this week: Lakeville Country Club, which made national headlines in 2009 when vandals carved a swastika into the 18th green, will go to auction Wednesday, while Plainville’s Wentworth Hills Golf Club may open for the season as early as Friday.
“The exact date that [Wentworth Hills] will open is still kind of up in the air,” Greg Hayes, asset manager with Potomac Realty Capital, said Tuesday. “We’re hoping for Friday.”
Don’t book your tee time just yet. While Hayes told us the semi-private course was ready for play, don’t bother calling for a tee time; a computerized voice announced that the phone number was no longer in service, and Hayes said the owners were still hashing out greens fees and restructuring membership rates. In the meantime, Potomac Reality obtained approval from bankruptcy court on Friday to continue its management of the course.
With Potomac and the other Wentworth Hills LLC owners continuing to work their way through bankruptcy proceedings, Hayes said the club will open for the 2011 season but he would not predict the future.
The track, which opened in 2002, has had a history of financial struggles and revolving-door management. The bank foreclosed on the original owners in 2005 and sold the operation at a 2006 auction for $3.7 million to Forewinds Hospitality of Delaware. Forewinds gave way to Billy Casper Golf, which operated the course for 13 months until its abrupt closure last October.
“Billy Casper Golf and the owner of the property mutually agreed to go in different directions,” Casper Golf VP Brian O’Hare told us at that time. “We parted amicably.”
Maybe not so much. The company operated under heavy debt and halted payments to Casper Golf, which then ended the relationship, according to a person with intimate knowledge of the situation. “[Casper Golf] said, ‘If you don’t pay us, we won’t provide our services,’” the source, who preferred to remain anonymous, reported.
On the block. Meanwhile, some 30 miles to the southeast, Lakeville CC was slated to hit the auction block on Wednesday. JJ Manning Auctioneers, which has staged three of several foreclosure auctions involving Massachusetts golf courses, will slam the gavel down on the 180-acre, 18-hole facility.
Morgan Stanley Financial Services Inc. reportedly holds a $5 million mortgage on Lakeville. The firm will likely post a multimillion-dollar bid at the start of the auction, Justin Manning told the Boston Herald. The site includes the course, clubhouse, and pro shop, which town assessors believe has an overall value of some $4.6 million.
Lakeville, about 40 miles south of Boston, remained open pending the outcome of the auction. Owner Gary Mosca was unavailable and assistant manager Lou Mincone declined to comment.
(Emily Kay is a regular contributor to New England Golf Monthly. Check her out on the Waggle Room, Boston Golf Examiner, National Golf Examiner, and GottaGoGolf websites. You may also follow Kay on Twitter @golfexaminer.)
Related posts:
- Wentworth Hills Golf Course goes to foreclosure auction
- Lakeville Country Club is on the block
- Sterling National CC offers free play at nearby golf courses; waives initiation fee
- New England golf courses make Golfweek
- Spring fever grips hub! New England golf courses open!
