The club will welcome non-member play for $35 during the week and $40 on Fridays through Sundays as part of an effort to dig itself out of debt. One report put the club’s debt at $215,000 while another set it at $250,000. Going forward, the club will consider selling the property, filing for bankruptcy, or raising money to pay down the debt.
Board members of the Waynesboro (Va.) Country Club took a step toward fixing the organization’s financial problems on November 18, by voting to make it semi-private, the Waynesboro, Va., News Virginian reported.
As a result, non-club members will be able to play for $35 at anytime Monday through Thursday, and then for $40 Friday through Sunday after 11 a.m., the News Virginian reported.
“That was an important thing to vote on,” member Denny Bird said. “That will help increase the revenue coming in.”
The vote, which becomes effective immediately, was one of several things discussed during Wednesday’s meeting. The main problem for the club has been determining a way to dig out of debt. In a neighborhood meeting November 2, where club members asked local people for donations, club president Tom Love gave a presentation citing $215,000 owed to 90 different companies. Club manager Derek Sandritter on Thursday said those numbers were off, putting the total at $250,000 owed to around 60 companies, the News Virginian reported.
Bird explained that since the original meeting, the club had been able to dismiss some of the claims, bringing the number down to 60 vendors. He stood by the original $215,000 number, however. At the November 2 meeting, $250,000 was the number the club was trying to reach, in terms of fundraising, to pay off a portion of the overall debt, the News Virginian reported.
That overall picture includes bond debt, as over the last few years club members bought up some of the other existing debt from the banks through the use of bonds. The idea was the club could then pay back the members at a lower interest rate than they were being charged by the banks. That debt, as of November, stands at $400,000 worth of bonds still owed, the News Virginian reported.
Now, the group will decide what to do regarding the club’s future. A committee was formed to look at the different options and make some recommendations before Christmas. Currently there are three possibilities for consideration: selling the club, declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy or raising enough money to pay off or pay down the debt. The idea is that going semi-private will help with the third option, bringing in golfers from the community, without the requirement of a membership, the News Virginian reported.
By going semi-private, it would take just over 6,000 rounds of golf from non-members to cover the debt, Bird said.
“The club made some good progress last night,” Sandritter said, when asked how he felt the meeting went.
An exact date on when the committee will return with a report has not been set, the News Virginian reported.
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