Ownership of five different golf courses in the greater Pioneer Valley changed hands during a three-month period, including three at foreclosure auction.
Hampden Country Club, sold at a foreclosure auction in January, has changed its operating status from semiprivate to private.Where do you want to start?
An off-season with winter weather that never really happened, was one that had plenty going on with local golf courses and businesses.
Where do you want to start?
An off-season with winter weather that never really happened, was one that had plenty going on with local golf courses and businesses.
Ownership of five different golf courses in the greater Pioneer Valley changed hands during a three-month period, including three at foreclosure auction.
And on the bright side, a new course will open in the region for the first time in 10 years when Cold Spring Country Club in Belchertown officially opens the door for member play on May 1.
Off the course, a longtime fixture in Fran Johnson’s Golf & Racquet was sold after 36 years. The family-owned business on Riverdale Street in West Springfield was purchased last month by longtime area pro David DiRico.
Two clubs – Crestview CC and Hampden CC – will have decidedly different feels come opening day.
At Crestview, the big news is that the former host of the LPGA Tour’s Friendly’s Classic is now open to public play.
“We have to hit people between the eyes with it, to let them know that they can come out here and play golf,” Crestview’s new head pro Rick Fleury said.
David Fleury, who heads a partnership that purchased Crestview Country Club, stands on the porch overlooking its 18th green.Crestview had been a private club since its opening in 1958, but has now opened its doors to the daily-fee golfer as a semiprivate operation.
“We are doing all we can to make the member feel like nothing has changed with the high-quality of service they’ll get and to make the public feel like they are a member for the day,” Fleury said.
New owner David Fleury (no relation), who caddied, played golf and had his wedding reception at the club, led a partnership group that purchased Crestview CC for $1.7 million.
Hampden CC, once a jewel among private clubs in the region, was sold at auction in January and has changed from semiprivate back to private.
The 18-hole club on Wilbraham Road sold for $1.4 million in January to Connecticut businessman Jerry Antonacci.
“This is very exciting, the owners have been great about a plan to bring this place back to where it once was,” Hampden CC head pro Billy Downes said.
The club does not plan to officially open for play this season, instead focusing on a course-wide improvements and bunker renovation project led by designer Brian Silva. Drainage issues have also been addressed.
“We made a decision not to take on members for this year, to get everything set and ready to really make a push for membership in the future,” Downes said.
A new 14,000-square facility, located to the right of the current practice green and on the site of the club’s old pool, will house a new pro shop and offices as well as cart and bag storage.
Renovations have already started on both levels of the clubhouse and with improvements to and expansion of the range.
“And we’ll eventually have a short-game facility next to the new pro shop and I am 95-percent sure we’ll be putting in a pool,” Downes said.
Hickory Ridge Golf Club in Amherst was sold for a $1.05 million to a New Jersey-based group that owns and manages more than a dozen courses along the Eastern seaboard.
“We’ve made some changes and will make some more . . . we have a new logo and we’re not a country club anymore, so our name is different,” head pro Bill Rosenblum said. “But on the golf course it’s going to be business as usual . . . and that’s a good thing.”
The clubhouse at Northampton CC was sold to mortgage-holder Robert Berniche for $600,000 in March. The clubhouse owner holds rights to play the course, which is owned by owners of condominiums adjacent to the nine-hole course.
Holyoke CC, a 107-year-old, nine-holer at the base of Mount Tom, was sold for a reported $850,000 to Holyoke native and entertainment mogul Eric Suher.
The land and its future use has been widely debated, as the region looks to land a casino.
“He (Suher) is putting money into the club and it will be business as usual on the golf course,” Holyoke CC pro Via Wightman said.
The ranks of head golf professional changed some.
Ricky Fleury, who has been head or assistant pro for the last 23 years at Hickory Ridge CC, has moved to Crestview. He replaced DiRico, who opted not to return when sale of the club was pending, as the club’s fourth head pro in 55 years.
Rosenblum, a longtime area pro and former assistant under Fleury, returns to Hickory Ridge as its head pro.
Ron Dunn plans to leave Agawam Municipal GC, retiring next month after 19 years there.
“I am retiring, or semi-retiring . . . I want to and need to spend more time with my wife and family,” Dunn, 60, said.
The region lost world renown golf course architect Geoffrey Cornish, a longtime Amherst resident. Cornish passed away in February at age 97.
Cornish built or helped re-designed more than 250 golf course worldwide, including work on as many as 15 in Western Massachusetts.
Tom Toski returns to teach lessons, beginning his 52nd year as a Class A member of the PGA of America. He will teach at the Western Mass. Family Golf Center in Hadley.
An early-season opening for most clubs was welcomed after most closed the for 2011 season after the late October snowstorm. The region experienced limited snowfall and unseasonable temperature troughout the winter.
“We weren’t really closed, except for about two weeks in January,” East Mountain CC pro Ted Perez Jr. said. “I think in 1997 or 1998 we were closed for three weeks, so it was a long time since we had a winter like this. And we needed it, after the season we had with weather in 2011. You can’t make up the days you lose to weather, so this was a welcomed surprise.”
The early start had helped the spring season get off to a better start than in 2011, when rain produced one of the wettest seasons ever.
It will be a quiet season in these parts for statewide championships, with only the Senior Four-Ball Championship being the only Massachusetts Golf Association event held in Western Massachusetts. The championship runs May 22-23 at CC of Greenfield and Crumpin-Fox Club.
That CC of Greenfield has remained as a co-host for the championship is a sign of its resiliency.
Its century-old clubhouse burned to the ground during an early morning fire in mid-October.
The semiprivate club will operate for the season out of a temporary facility, but with full kitchen service, a liquor license and an outside tent.
Golf professional Kevin Piecuch said the club will sell bricks, as part of a fund-raiser to help offset cost to rebuild its clubhouse.