Woodcreek Country Club and WildeWood Country Club, which have been operated jointly by members as The Members Club at Woodcreek & Wildewood, are being listed separately. Woodcreek, with a Tom Fazio golf course, is being listed at $2.55 million, and WildeWood at $1.3 million. The club President said interest has already been received from about 25 potential buyers.
Two landmark clubs in Columbia, S.C., are for sale, The State of Columbia reported.
The clubs, built in 1976, are listed on the commercial real-estate website LoopNet for $3.85 million, The State reported. The listing says the two clubs have been operated as one by members, as The Members Club at Woodcreek & WildeWood, but can be sold separately.
The clubs are located about 25 minutes from downtown Columbia in northeast Richland County, S.C. The Members Club at Woodcreek & WildeWood was formed in 2009 by the members of what was then the Country Club at WildeWood and Woodcreek.
Woodcreek Country Club is listed at $2.55 million, The State reported.
“Woodcreek Country Club boasts an excellent Tom Fazio-designed golf course, a well-appointed clubhouse and a full range of amenities for members to enjoy,” the listing says.
The amenities listed include a 12,000-sq. ft. clubhouse, a bar and grill, tennis courts and a swimming pool.
The listing notes that the 18-hole course is the home to the University of South Carolina men’s and women’s golf programs, The State reported.
WildeWood Country Club is listed at $1.3 million.
“The course itself is fair, yet challenging, for golfers of all handicaps, and immaculate fairways and Tif-Eagle bermuda grass greens help make WildeWood one of the most playable courses you will find,” the listing says.
The 18-hole course, designed by Russell Breeden, features a 10,000- sq. ft. Colonial-style clubhouse, pro shop, bar and grill, indoor and outdoor tennis courts, and a swimming pool.
Club President Richard Swartout told The State that while the clubs are presently owned by the members, “We needed to invest some capital into the courses to improve them. We felt we couldn’t raise [the money] with our membership, so we decided to sell the course.”
There is interest from about 25 potential buyers, Swartout said. “We are hoping to come out in a better place for our members,” he said.
The clubs would be the third and fourth in the Columbia-area to close or change hands in the past few years, The State reported. Earlier in 2018, The Golf Club of South Carolina at Crickentree closed when the national investment firm that holds the loan on the course announced to neighbors in an e-mail in July that the course had gone bankrupt and foreclosure proceedings had begun.
In a public meeting with residents, an attorney for that firm, E-Capital, told neighbors the intent was to subdivide the golf course into small lots and build 450 homes.
The former Rawls Creek golf course, also known as the Coldstream course, near Irmo, S.C. closed a few years ago, The State reported, when the owners, Mungo Homes Co., decided to donate the 116-acre course to the Irmo Chapin Recreation Commission. Eventually, The State reported, the commission plans to link the 4.5 miles of cart paths on the Rawls Creek property to the Three Rivers Greenway, a series of river walks in Columbia and Lexington County, S.C.
Jessica Chavis, an instructor with the University of South Carolina’s College of Hospitality, Retail and Sports and a specialist in golf club management, noted in July that the Midlands region of the state has too many golf courses, with 18 in Richland and Lexington counties alone, The State reported.
Many of those courses were built by developers and then were poorly managed when all of the homes surrounding them were sold, Chavis said.
“It doesn’t have anything to do with the number of people who play golf; that is actually up,” Chavis said. “What we have is an over-saturation of the market with clubs in general.”