The clubhouse and golf course at the Poughkeepsie, N.Y., property “will (be) closed and no longer be in operation,” according to an email sent to members on December 23. No official closing date was given.

The clubhouse and golf course at Dutchess Golf Club in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., “will (be) closed and no longer be in operation,” read the email, which club members received on December 23. No official closing date was given, the Poughkeepsie Journal reported.

The note was sent by membership director Debbie Lengyel, who could not be reached by the Journal for comment.

Club owner Anthony Bacchi, who also operates The Lazy Swan Village Golf and Country Club in Saugerties, N.Y., took ownership of Dutchess Golf Club from Dutchess Golf Club LLC on November 18, 2015. Bacchi also could not be reached by the Journal for comment.

Town of Poughkeepsie Supervisor Jon Baisley will be meeting with Bacchi early next week to discuss Bacchi’s plans for the course and “what he wants to do” with the Route 9 property, Baisley said.

The club has been in operation since 1897 and is among the oldest courses in the country, but has had financial problems and multiple management changes in recent years, the Journal reported.

Bill Proal, a member since 1980, believes the club’s decline and potential closure is symptomatic of a wide-scale dip in the sport’s popularity. Under Bacchi’s stewardship, Proal said, the course underwent major landscaping, and renovations were made to the clubhouse in an attempt to accommodate bigger functions, the Journal reported.

“But we only had about 100 members this past season,” said Proal. “Back 20 years ago, we used to have a waiting list of 50, 60 people. It’s my assumption that (Bacchi) lost quite a bit of money and he probably said, ‘To heck with it.’”

Member Jim Bernard, 71, has been playing golf at the club since the 1980s, and said he was “very saddened” to receive the news, the Journal reported.

“Especially thinking more about the way it was done,” Bernard said. “I think the owner should have written the letter and not the club manager. If that kind of thing is going to happen, it should have come from the owner with some explanation about why.”

Bernard believes there may have been a few factors in the club shutting its doors, including decreasing membership and increasing prices. The longtime private facility became semi-private after it was purchased in November 2015, the Journal reported.

“I think they just didn’t have enough play,” Bernard said. “They priced themselves out of the semi-private or public courses around here. Their core membership drifted away.”

Membership dues last season were about $3,700 for an individual and $5,150 for a family, the Journal reported.

“Plus there’s oversaturation in the area,” Proal said. “With golf having fallen off a bit in popularity with younger people, I always thought one of the local clubs would eventually close. But I never thought it would be us.”

Dutchess Golf has undergone multiple management changes over the past five years. The first major shift came in 2012, when members decided not to continue making mortgage payments on the course and ownership transferred to Rhinebeck Bank. After the bank enlisted a management group, Affiniti Golf Partners, in 2013, management duties transferred again in 2014, the Journal reported.