According to operator The Glens Group, the Little River, S.C., property will close by the end of November or early December. If rezoning is approved by Horry County, the property will be sold to homebuilder D.R. Horton.
Heather Glen Golf Links in Little River, S.C., will be closing by the end of November or early December, according to its operator, Myrtle Beach (S.C.) Online reported.
The course is slated to be sold to homebuilder D.R. Horton if rezoning is approved by Horry County. The Glens Group, which operates the course through a lease agreement with the property owner, is closing the layout despite the rejection by Horry County Council of the homebuilder’s first rezoning proposal on October 3, Online reported.
“We can’t afford to operate the golf course so we’re shutting it down,” said General Manager George Gore. “We start losing money in December, January and February, and have for the last 15 years.”
Homebuilder D.R. Horton is expected to submit another plan to the county, but its approval wouldn’t come until sometime in 2018. A plan submitted to the county by Thomas & Hutton engineers for D.R. Horton laid out a housing development with about 1,100 units—799 single-family homes and 284 duplex units, Online reported.
The plan was voted down 7-5 at the second reading when several residents of the area expressed concerns, largely regarding stormwater drainage and increased traffic. The course itself does not have homes on it but there is housing nearby, Online reported.
The course is currently zoned residential with minimum lot sizes of 10,000 sq. ft., and the requested rezoning allows for mixed residential development in suburban areas and 5,000-sq. ft. lots, Online reported.
Heather Glen is a 27-hole facility covering more than 420 acres, including more than 42 acres of wetlands, according to the initial rezoning request. The initial 6,783-yard 18 holes designed by Willard Byrd opened in 1987 and a nine-hole addition designed by Clyde Johnston opened in 1990, Online reported.
“It’s bittersweet for me,” Gore said. “It’s been my only professional career job. I went straight from turf school to working at Heather Glen. I was the first employee and I’ll be the last employee.
“We appreciate our customers and package providers who have supported us for the past 31 years and we’d like for them all to come out and play us in November,” Gore said.
The course is owned by the Vivian E. Vereen family trust. But with more than a decade remaining on The Glens Group’s lease, the management company plans to be involved in the next phase for the property. The Glens Group also manages Glen Dornoch Golf Links in Little River, Possum Trot Golf Course in Myrtle Beach and and Shaftesbury Glen Golf & Fish Club in Conway. It operates Glen Dornoch and Possum Trot through lease agreements, and Glens Group partners own Shaftesbury Glen, Online reported.
Several area golf courses have closed in the past 16 months, largely citing financial struggles, including Island Green Golf Club, Wedgefield Plantation Country Club, and Black Bear Golf Club, Online reported.
Heather Glen will be the most high-profile course among the recent closures. Its walk-in green fees ranging from $50 to $135 depending on the season are in the middle to high end in the market, and in its heyday in the 1990s the course played 50,000 to 60,000 rounds per year, Online reported.
“We can’t afford it. There hasn’t been an owner distribution at Heather Glen for about 15 years,” Gore said. “People complain about your rates, and package providers say you can’t raise your rates, and this is what happens.”
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