Jack Neargarder has owned the Stuart, Fla., property since 2014 with business partner Jack Eckenrode, and has decided to sell due to Eckenrode’s death earlier this month. In the past few years, the partners have updated the golf course, purchased new maintenance equipment, installed a new pump station, and put a new roof on the clubhouse.
North River Golf Club, an 18-hole executive golf course on 71 acres in Stuart, Fla., will be sold to the highest bidder at auction on July 20, the Stuart-based TCPalm reported.
The seller, Palm City resident Jack Neargarder, said he is putting the property up for absolute auction because his business partner in the club, Jack Eckenrode, died earlier this month at age 73, TCPalm reported.
County records show that Neargarder and Eckenrode bought the par-66 golf course, which first opened in 1970 as Pine Lakes Golf Club, for $900,000 in August 2014. They renamed it North River after buying it from Dick Filkins, who paid more than $2.3 million for the golf course and driving range in 1986, TCPalm reported.
Eckenrode, a golf professional who had built a reputation as a jack-of-all-trades in the golf industry as owner and operator of several golf courses in his native Pennsylvania, had until recently been responsible for North River Club’s day-to-day operations, TCPalm reported.
“My partner got sick, and I had to step in and take care of day-to-day operations,” Neargarder said. “I was in construction and know business, but not the golf business.”
Before Neargarder and Eckenrode bought the course, which measures 4,345 yards of golf from the longest tees, it had fallen into disrepair. They “put a lot of money into fertilizer, weed killer and killing fungus on the greens,” he said. “The course and greens are in real good shape.”
The partners also bought new maintenance equipment, installed a new pump station for irrigation and put a new roof on the clubhouse, which has a snack bar, TCPalm reported.
Eckenrode, who competed in European and Senior Tour events from 1997 to 2000, said at the time they bought the course that it was designed more for seniors and families who don’t want to make golf an all-day event, TCPalm reported.
“This course is built for speed,” Eckenrode said. “That’s where the game is going. People can get around it in three hours and be on their way home.”
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