Brad Faxon is one of several investors in an agreement to purchase the Metacomet Golf Club in East Providence, R.I. The group is working with Gil Hanse’s design team with hopes of bringing the Donald Ross design back to its glory and returning it to status as one of the state’s best courses.
The last thing PGA Tour golf professional Brad Faxon wanted to see was the demise of one of Rhode Island’s classic golf courses, so he’s decided to help, the Providence Journal reported. Faxon is one of several investors in an agreement to purchase the Metacomet Golf Club in East Providence. Faced with substantial debt and sinking membership numbers, the club was put up for sale last fall and is under agreement to be sold this week, the Journal reported.
Faxon spent the afternoon of March 26 walking the course with members of Gil Hanse’s course-design team and a local arborist, according to the Journal’s report. The new ownership group is hoping to address years of deferred course maintenance issues and add improvements that would bring the 117-year old Donald Ross design up to date, Faxon said.
“A lot of opportunities pop up, and I couldn’t pass on this one,” said Faxon. “I’ve been playing here since the 1970s with my Dad (Brad Sr.). I played in the club championships and the father-son events here and won the club championship once. This can be a great golf course once again.”
Faxon remarked how the course “is the closest green space to Providence,” and was once a meeting place for the city’s leading industrialists, the Journal reported. Those days are long gone, but Metacomet’s bones remain intact and the course always held one of the best collections of greens in the area.
Faxon said he recently saw a ranking of Rhode Island’s top golf courses and shook his head in dismay when Metacomet was no longer listed among the top 10, the Journal reported.
“You have some competition in our state with Newport and Wannamoisett and now Shelter Harbor,” he said. “But we’re going to do everything we can to get back into the top five.”
The new investment group, Metacomet Property Company, purchased the club from the remaining membership, the Journal reported. The club had fallen into financial distress, and renovation is underway throughout the 21,000-sq.-ft. clubhouse.
The club will remain private with limited daily-fee play allowed at some points of the season, the Journal reported. The new ownership group also retains the right to explore plans to add real estate to the venture at some time.
Steve Napoli, a former head professional at Wannamoisett CC in Rumford, R.I. and the Director of Golf at Liberty National in New Jersey, is an officer of the investment group and overseeing the project, the Journal reported.
“The goal here is to restore the club to its former glory. That’s the goal,” Napoli said. “I think the current membership, and our new members, will be very pleased.”
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