The master-planned community in Northern Michigan and its acclaimed Tom Weiskopf Signature course is the second golf property acquired in less than a year by a partnership led by Lew Thompson, an Arkansas-based trucking executive. As a result of the purchase, Troon Golf will no longer manage Forest Dunes.
An investment group led by Lew Thompson, a Huntsville, Ark.-based trucking executive, has acquired its second golf course property in less than a year with its purchase of Forest Dunes Golf Club in Roscommon, Mich.
Located at the edge of the Huron National Forest in the northern center of the state, Forest Dunes is a 1,300-acre, master-planned golf community with a Tom Weiskopf Signature course that was ranked 99th in Golf Digest’s 2011 listing of America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses, and 20th in that publication’s current listing of America’s Great Public Golf Courses.
Forest Dunes was previously owned by a labor union pension fund. The price of the sale was not disclosed.
As a result of the purchase, Forest Dunes has closed for reorganization and the winter season, and will reopen in the spring of 2012. Troon Golf had previously managed the property, but the new ownership group has ended that contract arrangement and plans to assemble a new management team.
Thompson’s partnership made its first entry into the golf market with its purchase in December 2010 of The Bridges, a golf course community in Montrose, Colo. that features a Jack Nicklaus Group-designed course. The Bridges was purchased by Thompson’s group from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which took possession after the failure of a bank that had previously owned the property.
The Bridges was also managed by Troon Golf, but that contract was also ended after the purchase. In March 2011, Eric Feely, PGA, was brought in from The Golf Club at Redlands Mesa in Grand Junction, Colo., to be The Bridges’ new General Manager. Feely will now also be involved with helping to assemble the new management team for Forest Dunes, and members of The Bridges will now have reciprocal privileges at Forest Dunes.
The purchase of Forest Dunes includes seven homes that can be used to accommodate golfers and their guests, in addition to a grand clubhouse that features the Sangamore Restaurant, spa and fitness facilities, and a full-service pro shop. The 27-acre Lake AuSable is located on the property, providing Forest Dunes guests with recreational opportunities that include fishing, canoeing and beach activities.
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