After two years of looking without success to sell to another golf course operator, owners of Sandy Brae GC in Clendenin, W. Va. are now talking to a potential buyer who wants to acquire the 252 acres “strictly for agriculture use.”
The days of playing 18 holes at Sandy Brae Golf Course in Clendenin, W. Va., may soon be no more, the MetroNews of Charleston, W. Va., reported, as the club’s owners are talking to a potential buyer who has his eye on grazing the fairways rather than putting on the greens.
“He’s wanting it strictly for agriculture use,” co-owner Frank James told the MetroNews. “He’s wanting it for a farm, basically.”
The course property includes 252 acres, MetroNews reported; the golf course itself is 132 acres, and the rest is in wooded property behind it. The property lies along the border of Kanawha and Roane counties, and was formerly owned by the Kanawha County Parks and Recreation Commission.
After the commission sold the facility to four private owners, MetroNews reported, the course as an investment hasn’t proven to be a big money maker, James said.
“We’re doing okay with it, but it just hasn’t lived up to our expectations, and we thought this might be the time to move on with it,” he said.
Noting, however, that the market for public golf courses is soft, James added that the offer from the unnamed cattleman may be as good as his ownership group can expect for the time being.
“We know what it’s worth, and we’re kind of set on a price,” he told MetroNews. “But in this day and age, I’m sorry to say that’s probably the case. I know that out in the Midwest they’re putting a lot of golf courses back into cornfields, because it’s more profitable.”
The deal isn’t done yet and the course hasn’t been sold, James emphasized. But the owners have been shopping the property as a golf course for the past two years with no takers. It would be sad to now have Sandy Brae continue to be a golf course, James acknowledged, adding that he knows that a lot of the regulars who play Sandy Brae would be disappointed, too.
“We draw people from Charleston and outlying areas. There’s just not a lot of golf courses up here in general,” he said. “Charleston is short on public golf courses and on the outskirts of Charleston there’s very little at all. I hate it for that fact, but at the same time as a businessman, you can’t sit around and go broke either.”
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