The owner of the Brentwood Entertainment Complex Golf Course in Beaumont, Texas is acquiring Iron Oaks, which has been closed for several months, so its 18-hole course can serve as supplemental facility to Brentwood, which has seen increased activity after other area courses closed or were damaged by Tropical Storm Harvey.
While many golf courses in Southeast Texas have either downsized or closed in recent years, the Brentwood Entertainment Complex Golf Course in Beaumont, Texas is expanding its offerings, according to owner and Beaumont attorney Brent Coon, the Beaumont Enterprise reported.
Aiming to keep up with a recent spike in business, the Enterprise reported, Brentwood has a deal in place to lease, reopen and operate the Iron Oaks Golf Club, which has been closed for several months, according to Coon.
An agreement between Coon and Phelan Investments, which owns the roughly 150-acre Iron Oaks course, began soon after Iron Oaks closed, Coon told the Enterprise. He expects the deal will be finalized in the coming weeks. A representative from Phelan Investments could not be reached for comment.
Coon told the Enterprise that he hopes to reopen Iron Oaks later this summer after renovations are made. The 18-hole course will serve as a supplemental facility for Brentwood.
Because a number of area courses have closed in recent years or were damaged by Tropical Storm Harvey last August, Coon said there has been an influx of golfers at Brentwood, and space is limited, the Enterprise reported.
“There’s a whole lot more courses closing than opening. The supply and demand is more balanced now,” Coon said. “Sometimes we have more traffic than the course can comfortably bear, so having access to this other facility will give us a little more flexibility.”
Having another course will help Brentwood during busy tournament seasons as well, Coon added.
Coon has owned Brentwood, formerly known as Willow Creek, since 1996, the Enterprise reported. Like Iron Oaks, Coon said Willow Creek needed a lot of renovations and upgrades.
Calling it an “inexpensively built golf course,” Iron Oaks will need repairs to its irrigation system, Coon told the Enterprise. Greens on the course are hidden by 15-foot tall grass, and will likely need to be replaced, he said.
“It barely looks like a golf course. It’s been reclaimed by Mother Nature,” Coon said. “But we know what we need to do to take over and find what’s underneath.”
When Iron Oaks closed, “all their players moved to Brentwood,” where they “found a new home,” Brentwood Golf Professional Russell Kozlowski told the Enterprise. “Now they’re kind of getting their old home back, too.”
Coon told the Enterprise he hopes to draw a different demographic of golfers to Iron Oaks.
“Golf in Southeast Texas is kind of a blue-collar market, so you have to cater to that type of golfer effectively,” he said. “People who don’t want to play a tough course like Brentwood can still come to Iron Oaks and play a round for a little less.”
Renovations to Iron Oaks will start soon and changes at Brentwood have been ongoing, Coon told the Enterprise. More than $1 million was spent in the last year to upgrade Brentwood’s facilities, he said, which include a driving range, tennis courts, a swimming pool and a large gazebo.
Coon told the Enterprise that he wants to enhance Brentwood’s driving range into something resembling a two-tier TopGolf facility, although he said he has no intentions of bringing that name brand to Beaumont.
With high-end offerings at Brentwood and a rejuvenated course at Iron Oaks, Coon said he hopes the two courses can share resources and customers, the Enterprise reported,
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