City, Umpqua Golf Arrange to Reopen Former Cougar Canyon GC

(Photo by Michael Sullivan)

Through a lease agreement, the city of Myrtle Creek, Ore. will pay the power bill for the property’s irrigation pumps for three years and replace the clubhouse roof, while Umpqua Golf will operate the course and dispose of the city’s effluent water. The course originally opened in 1997 as Myrtle Creek Golf Course and will now resume using that name with its soft opening on July 1^st.

The city of Myrtle Creek, Ore. has worked out an arrangement with Umpqua Golf Management, LLC to reopen and operate the former Cougar Canyon Golf Course, which closed in October 2019, News Radio 1024 KQEN of Roseburg, Ore., reported.

Sean Negherbon, City Administrator for the City of Myrtle Creek, told KQEN that the city council has given its approval to preparing a lease agreement through which the city will pay the power bill for the property’s irrigation pumps for a three-year period, and also replace the clubhouse roof, while Umpqua Golf will operate the course and dispose of the city’s effluent water.

Other details are still to be worked out, Negherbon said, but the lease will give the company time to establish a profitable operation at the course.

Cougar Canyon, previously known as Myrtle Creek Golf Course, is a public, 18-hole facility that opened in 1997. Its golf course, designed by Graham Cooke and Wayne Carleton, measures 6,754 yards from the longest tees. Scott Simpson of Umpqua Golf Management told KQEN that the facility will now go back to using its original name.

A soft opening is planned for July 1^st, Simpson told KQEN. While more maintenance is still needed prior to the opening, the tees, greens and fairways have been mowed since the course was closed, he said. Rough that is now in excess of three feet still has to be mowed and removed, and more sand needs to be applied. Other cleaning is also going on, Simpson added, along with painting in parts of the clubhouse and kitchen.

Umpqua Golf Management, which already operates Oak Hills Golf Club in Sutherlin, Ore. and Stewart Park Golf Course in Roseburg. plans to run the Myrtle Creek facility for at least ten years, Simpson said.

Negherbon told KQEN that city officials believe the Myrtle Creek course will now be successful because of Umpqua’s other local golf operations and its awareness of the golf culture in Douglas County, Ore.