January 15 — Wentworth Hills Golf Course in Plainville, Mass., is on the auction block.
As reported here last year, the 18-hole course that spans parts of Plainville and Wrentham, Mass., and Cumberland, R.I., shut down abruptly in mid-October, only to reopen a week later under new management. It’s now clear why Wentworth general manager Steve Landi and executives with Potomac Realty Capital, which most recently owned and managed the club, did not respond to repeated phone inquiries to talk about the club’s future. Apparently, there was not much to discuss.
The semi-private club defaulted on its $3 million mortgage from Mansfield Co-Operative Bank, according to the Sun Chronicle. The facility received the mortgage after its first foreclosure, the publication said.
The course, 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 brief closure on October 20.
“Billy Casper Golf and the owner of the property mutually agreed to go in different directions,” Casper Golf VP Brian O’Hare told New England Golf Monthly at that time. “We parted amicably.”
Or not.
The company operated under heavy debt and halted payments to Casper Golf, which then terminated 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.
Providence-based Max Pollack & Co. will handle the auction, slated for January 28 in the Wentworth clubhouse.
(Emily Kay is a regular contributor to New England Golf Monthly. Check her out on the Waggle Room, Boston Golf Examiner, and National Golf Examiner websites. You may also follow Kay on Twitter.)
Related posts:
- Another New England golf course bites the dust as Wentworth Hills GC closes
- Wentworth Hills GC reopens under new management; long-term future is bleak
- Pleasant Valley Country Club headed to foreclosure auction
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- Pleasant Valley CC sells at auction for $5 million
