Joe Kotlarczyk, longtime owner of the Findlay, Ohio property, sold the 18-hole golf course to Andy and Renae Clouse for $1.275 million. The couple purchased the 134-acre property as a “sister course” for Fostoria (Ohio) Country Club, which they have owned since 2012.
For the first time in nearly 50 years, Hillcrest Golf Club in Findlay, Ohio is under new ownership, the Findlay-based Courier reported.
Andy Clouse, who has owned the Fostoria (Ohio) Country Club since 2012, purchased Hillcrest from longtime owner Joe Kotlarczyk late last month, the Courier reported.
“We had been looking for a sister course for the Fostoria Country Club,” said Clouse, who purchased the course on March 23 with his wife, Renae. “Just the history behind Hillcrest, it excited us and everybody talking about how well it played.
“We’ll get it to better than it’s ever been with the new chemicals today and the equipment that we have at our disposal,” Clouse said. “It should be better, of course.”
The Clouses, through Hillgo LLC, purchased the 134-acre property for $1.275 million.
Clouse had been interested in purchasing Hillcrest for the past nine to 10 months and intends to keep the 18-hole golf course as it is, the Courier reported.
“Our intentions are a legit golf course,” he said. “There is a big commercial appeal to this (property), but we’re going forward, moving straight ahead with the golf course and that’s our intentions.”
Kotlarczyk had owned the course since 1968 along with his brother, Ed, who died in 2016. The course had been for sale since the early to mid-2000s. “We’ve been here for 48 years, and I’m 80 years old, and I just kind of want to retire,” Joe Kotlarczyk said in late January.
Clouse, along with General Manager Bud Bailey, Director of Golf Doug Corbin, and the grounds crew, have been busy making improvements to Hillcrest for the past several weeks. And there’s still plenty to do before the course’s grand reopening, which is set for May 20, the Courier reported.
Around 112-114 dead trees on the course have been cut down, Bailey said, and overall, nearly 300 tree stumps have been removed. “Cleanup has started now,” said Bailey, who is also the General Manager of Fostoria Country Club. “So you have to remove all of the debris, and you’ve got to refill the holes (left by) the stumps, which we haven’t got to.”
Work also has begun on improving the greens, tees and fairways. The greens have been deep-cored and filled with sand, Bailey said, and reseeded as well, the Courier reported.
“The greens were a mess. Everybody knew that,” Bailey said. “We get nice weather, we’re going to have great greens here really soon. It’ll just continue. The whole year, you won’t stop working on this golf course to get it back to where it was.”
Work on the clubhouse has begun as well. “Naturally, we’re totally renovating the inside of this place,” Bailey said. “That’s obvious. Everything’s new, every single thing. All the old junk’s gone.”
A room that was filled with golf apparel will be turned into a banquet room, according to Clouse, with graduation parties already lined up, the Courier reported.
“Before, we really didn’t think we’d be able to house our larger outings, but now with all that stuff gone and redone, we’ll be able to have as large of outings as we can fit on the golf course and be able to house everybody in air conditioning,” Clouse said.
Clouse and the rest of the crew said they have noticed a renewed excitement level about Hillcrest, the Courier reported.
“People have heard that we’re out here redoing the clubhouse and everything. There’s been a tremendous amount of excitement,” said Corbin, who worked at Hillcrest from 1977-86, either on the course or in the clubhouse. “People stopping in and seeing what’s going on, talking about what all we’re all going to be doing and how the course is going to be. It’s been a lot of fun, too.”
“We’re going to get it to a quality, quality golf course and I am just excited that the people that used to play here, they’re coming back,” Clouse said. “They’re telling old stories. They’re reminiscing the things that used to go on here back in the ’70s.”
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