The Litchfield, Maine property is being sold to a group of partners who are new to the business. “I am [going to get into it] head first,” said Randall Anderson, who will manage the day-to-day operations. “I don’t know how deep the pond is, but I’ll find out.”
Randall Anderson has traveled around the world to play golf, the Kennebec Journal of Augusta, Maine reported. And now, when Anderson plays his home course, it really will be his home course.
Anderson and several partners have come to terms with Ron Foster and Richard Foster, owners of The Meadows Golf Club in Litchfield, Maine, and the course is expected to change hands in November, the Journal reported.
“We’re pleased we found someone local to buy it who will carry on with it,” Richard Foster told the Journal from his home in Florida.
Anderson, who has spent his career running call centers, moved to Maine in 2000, the Journal reported. He bought his home in Litchfield in 2003, and that’s about the time he discovered the golf course. He has played there regularly ever since.
Recently, he learned via Facebook the 20-year-old course was for sale.
“And I thought, ‘Hmm, wouldn’t that be interesting to change careers after 26 years?’” Anderson told the Journal. “I love the place, it’s near my house and I wonder if I could make it successful.”
He will get a chance to find out.
The course closed for the season on October 31st, the Journal reported, and when it reopens in the spring, it will be under the ownership of Peak Partners LLC, made up of Anderson and five friends with whom he plays golf every year and who see potential in the course, which is located between the Maine cities of Augusta, Brunswick and Lewiston.
The new owners plan to continue to run the course as it has been run, the Journal reported. It’s a public course, although some memberships do exist, and there’s no dress code.
The new owners plan to keep the course accessible for skilled and novice players alike, the Journal reported. They are anticipating making some changes, including offering an online reservation system for golfers that will augment the current phone reservation system.
Golfers will see other changes, big and small, the Journal reported. A warm-up range will debut next year and a number of maintenance issues, like trimming up some of the trees and cutting some areas of rough, will also be done.
The course’s Facebook page will keep players updated as changes take place, the new owners said. “Over time we have ideas,” Anderson said, “but we have to play out the first part first.”
On October 29th, Anderson and Greg Ronitz-Baker, one of the partners in the limited-liability company, hosted an event for golfers to give them a change to provide input on what they would like to see take place at the club, the Journal reported.
Gerry Epperson, of West Gardiner, Maine told the Journal that he typically plays at The Meadows three times a week, from as soon as he can get on the course in the spring until the last possible date in the fall.
“It’s a tight golf course,” Epperson said. “There are a lot of tree lines. A lot of times your balls are going into the woods a little bit. There are hazard markings that could be better marked.”
Those changes, he added, would speed up play.
The property’s history began two decades ago, the Journal reported, when the Foster brothers were working in construction and wanted time off during the winter, and arrived at the idea of running a golf course
They had most of the land and the buildings they would need, Richard Foster said, so they hired a designer, bought a little more land and built it themselves.
Now in their 70s, the brothers are ready to retire. They spend six months in Florida and six months in their Litchfield homes, which overlook the course.
Anderson told the Journal that the Fosters will help with the transition, and that he also will be making one of his own. He’ll be leaving his current job and as the member of the partnership who is closest to the property, he’ll be managing the day-to-day operations.
“I am done as of January,” he said. “Then I am head first [in the golf course]. I don’t know how deep the pond is, but I’ll find out.”
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