The 50-year-old club in Santa Paula, Calif. is now owned by Cathy Haley, who inherited it from her father after he passed away several years ago. She lives in Atlanta and has found it challenging to direct the management of the property from a distance. An ongoing drought has plagued the course by drying up a nearby river that is depended on as its regular water source.
For the past 50 years, local golf enthusiasts have putted and pitched on the grounds of the Mountain View Golf Course in Santa Paula, Calif., the Ventura County Star of Camarillo, Calif. reported. But now the 68-acre course is up for sale, sparking consternation among regulars who play at the facility and questions about its future.
The course’s current owner, Cathy Haley, is asking $3.4 million for the property, which includes a clubhouse with a bar and restaurant, the Star reported. Haley inherited the property from her father, Tony Pawlak, who passed away several years ago. She lives in Atlanta, Ga. and has found it challenging to take care of the golf course from a distance, real estate agent Scott Dunbar told the Star.
“It’s finally gotten to the point where she’d really like to see it in someone else’s hands and see that it’s improved,” Dunbar said. “It’s really been a nice asset for the community of Santa Paula over the years.”
The golf course has seen better days, Dunbar and the facility’s management team acknowledged. Thanks to the drought conditions that have plagued Ventura County, the nearby Santa Clara River dried up in mid-summer for the fourth year in a row, leaving the course without its regular water source, General Manager Dan Hodapp told the Star.
When the river flows, Mountain View has an irrigation system that pumps water from the river into a 1.7 million-gallon lake on the course’s property, Hodapp explained, and water is then distributed automatically throughout the course.
But without available water from the river, Hodapp and his team have to collect municipal water in a small tank, a process that takes three hours and yields only enough to water three out of the course’s 20 greens at a time, the Star reported. That means maintenance workers, including Hodapp, take turns sleeping overnight in an old camper van on the property so they can keep filling the tank and watering the course by hand.
As a result, only the greens have been watered, and not the fairways, tee boxes or other landscaping, which have all turned brown, the Star reportred.
“It’s desperate,” said Chris Harvey, Mountain View’s golf pro and marketing manager. “Golf is down tremendously, no doubt about it. The players—as much as they love coming here—I think they’re disappointed and they don’t understand a lot of what goes on behind the scenes, why the water’s gone. There are so many other choices to play golf in the county now. They’re just making choices to go where the grass is greener.”
Mountain View has been working with the Santa Paula Water Recycling Facility to see if it’s possible to use recycled water from the plant, Dunbar told the Star. Rain would be the best solution, he said.
Whoever buys the property doesn’t have to keep it as a golf course, the Star reported. The land is zoned for agriculture, farm animals or horses, and with additional clearance or permits, it could also be used for events such as festivals, public recreation and new construction, according to the listing.
“It could be a destination for events, it could be sports-related, equestrian-related, any number of things,” said Dunbar. “It’ll just be a matter of someone having a vision.”
Ralph Corona, who worked as Mountain View’s golf course superintendent for more than 20 years and still comes in voluntarily to cut and water the greens, told the Star he hopes the club will be bought by local people with money to fix up the place. In addition to the water problem, the site needs new equipment and other upgrades, he said.
“It’s going to take a lot of money to build it back up,” Corona said. “I hate to see it go, just sold for nothing. The community needs this.”
Floyd Patterson, of Santa Paula, who’s been golfing at Mountain View for two decades, told the Star he was disappointed to hear the course is up for sale. Patterson said he loves the course’s affordable rates, tranquility, and having it so close to where he lives. He’s not bothered by the brown grass, he said.
“That’s what I usually blame my bad shots on,” he quipped.
Golfer Juan Vazquez, of Ventura, also said he hopes the course will remain open.
“It’s a nice course, a beautiful course. It’s just that it’s dry,” he said. “I hope somebody buys it who will keep it.”
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