Golf course shuts as clubs hit rough

Thomas Adams//November 3, 2006//

Listen to this article

Ontario Golf Club, founded in 1928 by residents who decided the Wayne County town needed its own course, was shuttered Tuesday because of financial problems.
“It’s going to be sold,” said Jim Hungerford, Ontario’s head golf professional.
Ontario Golf Club will be auctioned Dec. 15, officials said. Its mortgage is held by HSBC Bank USA.
Meanwhile, at Irondequoit Country Club, a proposed $7.8 million clubhouse construction is in doubt after some 20 percent of its members left rather than pay an additional fee to finance the project.
Membership is scheduled to meet Saturday to discuss the status of the project, General Manager Mark Miller said.
“The project is on hold at this point, but most likely we will be moving forward with some sort of project,” he said.
“(Members will) decide where we’re going to go with the project, whether we continue as-is at $7.8 million or go to a scaled-back project with a smaller building, or instead of a new building, a major renovation,” Miller said.
Project consultants speculated the club could lose as many as 20 percent of its members if the $7.8 million project were approved, Miller said.
“They were very close to that number,” he said. “We did lose some members due to the project being voted through. It’s a case of the tail wagging the dog, the vocal minority kind of getting its way.”
Membership was well more than 300 this year, Miller said. A 20 percent defection would mean the loss of at least 60 members. Many who left have changed their minds since the project was retracted, Miller said.
“We’ve already got about 20 of those back,” he said. “It’s a game being played right now.
“We’re asking those members that took a leave of absence to come back. They’re coming back. We’re hopefully going to move forward with a scaled-back new build or major renovation. The membership-even those folks that were against the major building project-agrees on one thing: something has to be done to improve the facilities here.”
The future of Ontario Golf Club-ranked fourth on the Rochester Business Journal’s most recent list of toughest golf courses-may become clearer with its auction next month.
“It definitely is going to hurt, as far as the amount of business they were giving to the community, plus people that worked there,” Town of Ontario Supervisor Joseph Molino said.
In addition, the club also was a taxpayer.
“The big question there is how that’s going to be taken care of,” he said. “Normally, when a business goes into foreclosure, there are ramifications as to how it’s going to impact not only the town but the school and the county.”
Club membership, which once totaled more than 300, recently had dropped close to 100, officials said. In an attempt to generate additional revenue, the club this year allowed the general public to play the course.
Bill Tracy, president of the club’s board of directors, declined to comment on the reasons for the closing. HSBC also declined to comment.
“Part of Ontario’s problem was the layoffs at Xerox and Kodak and a number of things like that,” said Robert Biviano, a club member and president of the New York State Golf Association.
“I could name prestigious clubs all over New York that are on the brink of closing,” said Biviano, who was Ontario Golf Club board president during the 1980s. “It’s kind of symptomatic of the Northeast, I think, but especially New York State. It has to do mostly with the overbuilding of golf courses and the dwindling number of people for membership. People just don’t have that cash anymore to belong.”
Town residents in 1928 formed the non-profit Ontario Entertainment Corp. to raise money to buy the original property, information on the club’s Web site says.
A corporation member designed a nine-hole course, which remained for 40 years until an additional nine holes were added in 1968.
Management of the club was turned over to a membership group in 1956.
Ontario was burdened in recent years by the sluggish economic conditions in the Rochester area, the rising cost of membership at the club and the perception that it was too far for Rochester residents to go to play, Biviano said.
And it never recovered from costs associated with the construction of a new clubhouse in 1994, he said.
A single membership for the 2006 season cost $1,900, the club’s site states. A family membership was $2,300. The club offered a “Young Executive” membership to ages 34 and under of $1,900 per family and $1,600 for individuals.
Membership packages were offered for access to the club swimming pool and dining facilities for $1,250, including eight rounds of golf. “Social memberships” with unlimited access to dining facilities plus eight rounds of golf were offered as part of packages totaling $925 and $750.
The financial stress at clubs throughout the state is taking a toll on New York’s golf association as it searches for tournament sites, Biviano said.
“It used to be an easier task, but today it isn’t because everybody is so under the gun that they just can’t donate,” he said of club facilities. “We don’t pay to use the golf courses for tournaments because we’re (running) amateur events.”
Ontario played host to the New York State Men’s Amateur Championship in 2005 and the Rochester District Golf Association John H. Ryan Jr. Memorial Championship in 2003, and was a qualifying site for the U.S. Women’s Open from 2003 to 2005.
With some area clubs struggling to make financial ends meet, Brook-Lea Country Club in Gates has found ways to invigorate its membership, officials there said.
“We started to recognize a few years ago that our membership was declining,” said Daniel Lynch, Brook-Lea’s house chairman of its board. “We attributed that to the downward decline in the economic market, and also major corporations like Kodak, Xerox and Bausch & Lomb downsizing.
Brook-Lea dropped from 325 members to 280 in three years, Lynch said.
The club initiated a dining membership program that in 2006 drew 190 new dining members, he said.
“We went for a new demographic: those folks who may not have the wherewithal to join a full-service golf club but still wanted to come over and enjoy good-quality food in a private setting,” Lynch said.
“We now have 190 new families visiting the club. What that does is open those new members up to upgrading to either social or golfing member after that.”
Brook-Lea added 43 new golf memberships this year, including “associate members” who, for a lesser membership fee, play only during the week.
“That (43 memberships) is the equivalent of about 20 full-time members,” Lynch said.
[email protected] / 585-546-8303