The simmering disconnect between Walden Lake residents and Visions Golf LLC, the owner of the community’s golf courses and country club, boiled over in 2013, after Visions closed The Hills course and began working on plans to redevelop. But, behind all the emotions lies one important question: In a rapidly changing golf industry, what type of amenity truly can be successful in Plant City?
In many ways, the ailing, decrepit condition of Walden Lake Golf & Country Club is the most accurate picture of the relationship between the amenity and the community it serves. Half of the 36 holes — The Hills course — sits dead, forgotten. The remaining 18 — The Lakes course — is open, but its glory days clearly are in the past.
Likewise, only a small fraction of the community’s residents — maybe 110 or 120 — are paying members. The rest have either taken their golfing elsewhere or have given up the sport.
The country club — the once proud jewel of Walden Lake — looks like it got stuck in some kind of time warp, while the rest of the world progressed.
In 2013, the rift between golf course and country club owner Visions Golf LLC and Walden Lake residents hit its deepest depths, after Visions closed The Hills course permanently. Then, as new details surfaced about plans to redevelop the property, residents responded with protests, petitions, code-violation reports and a website, savethecourse.com. By the end of the year, Walden Lake Community Association leaders were discussing the possibility of purchasing the amenity altogether.
The opposing residents believe Visions Golf Managing Partner Steve Mercer is reason for the collapse. They believe its present state is the product of years of mismanagement, poor business decisions, subpar customer service and lack of communication.
They want Mercer out.
Conversely, Mercer blames the rapidly changing golf industry, coupled with a Great Recession, for the golf course and country club’s downfall. He believes his redevelopment plans — which include taking out nine holes and selling the land for development — is the only viable option.
Still, no matter who owns the golf course or how many holes it contains, Walden Lake never will be immune from the outside business pressures and competition.
And those, unfortunately, are abundant and mighty.
FORE-WARNING
If you ask Bill Place, a longtime local golf course owner, the problems Walden Lake faces today existed even before Visions Golf purchased the amenities in 2006.
In fact, they were the same reasons why Place didn’t put his money into the Plant City course.
“I looked at buying Walden Lake in 2005,” he said. “But, I passed on it and bought Pebble Creek, instead.”
Place has more than two decades in the golf industry. He first opened Ace Golf Ranges in January 1993. Today, in addition to the Ace locations in Brandon and Riverview, Place also owns Pebble Creek Golf Club, in Tampa; Wentworth Golf Club and Crescent Oaks Country Club, both in Tarpon Springs.
“Walden Lake was really too much course for the demographics,” Place said. “(In 2005), we looked at what we would need for improvements, looked at the pool and the tennis, and we didn’t feel we could make any money at it.
“It doesn’t surprise me at all (the proposal to redevelop),” he said. “The only way we would have had interest in it would have been to do the exact same thing. … There’s no doubt in my mind, whatsoever, that that’s the only option there.”
Moreover, Place said, the decline in golf has made it much more difficult to remain profitable.
“I’ve seen a long, continual, slow decline, year after year,” he said. “As an industry, we face significant price pressure. We’ve never been able to increase our rates, and we’re also seeing fewer golfers.”
At least one member of the Walden Lake Community Association agrees with Place’s assessment.
“I don’t think this community will support a 36-hole golf course,” WLCA Director Bruce Rodwell said during the WLCA’s December discussion regarding the possibility of purchasing the country club and golf courses. “I just don’t think it will. So, something has to happen to The Hills.”
Fortunately, for Place, he bought both Wentworth and Crescent Oaks in 2011, well after the economic downturn, at a price low enough that profitability is still attainable. At Pebble Creek, Place sold the club’s driving range to fund necessary renovations.
These days, most of the companies’ profits come from food and beverage — hosting weddings and banquets, Place said.
DEATH SPIRAL
The rise of the Florida golf-course community paved the way for an interesting — and potentially problematic — relationship between a private business owner and residents surrounding the business.
In theory, those residents should provide a base market — whether it’s golfers on the course, diners at the restaurant or wedding or banquet clients. But, what happens when those residents disagree with the business’ practices?
“I sympathize with all those homeowners, I really do,” Place said. “They purchased on the golf course there, paid more money to be on a golf course. But, in reality, (the course) is not a public amenity. It is a private business, and they can’t just keep spending. They have to do what it takes.”
Steve Knott, PGA director of golf and CMAA general manager for Grasslands Golf & Country Club, in Lakeland, calls Walden Lake’s situation the “death spiral.”
“It is, indeed, never a happy circumstance when a real estate-developed golf facility is hard hit,” he said. “The bottom line is that the golf is an amenity to sell real estate — nothing more, nothing less. When real estate doesn’t sell, there isn’t the revenue stream from new membership sales to maintain the golf course, and the club facilities decline. As facilities decline, clubs can’t attract new members or raise prices, and the value of the real estate falls; we call this a ‘death spiral.’
“Without a large capital infusion, these places often find the value of the course is no longer an attraction, and the land the course is on is more valuable as a housing development,” Knott said. “It is no secret that we have an over-supply of golf courses, so this contraction could be viewed positively from a macro standpoint.”
OVER-SUPPLY, UNDER-DEMAND
Situated between Tampa and Orlando, Walden Lake Golf & Country Club faces significant competition for the limited — and diminishing — number of area golfers. Mercer estimates more than 100 courses within 50 miles of his business.
Moreover, as the recession took hold of the economy, Mercer said many of the area’s more prominent courses began competing on price, as well.
“They started offering five-star golf at a three-star price,” he said. “Sure, they’d charge $125 (per round) in season, but in the summer, they would charge $75. Places like Saddlebrook, Innisbrook, Disney — suddenly, their pricing was similar to ours.”
Place agreed and said the Tampa market faces another challenge — the Tampa Sports Authority, a non-profit organization that owns and operates three courses — Babe Zaharias, Rocky Point and Rogers Park. With 18-hole regular rates set at less than $25, the authority’s courses offer golf experiences for significantly less than private enterprise.
THE ROCK AND THE HARD PLACE
Mercer grew up playing the Lakeland course that now serves as the YMCA of West Central Florida’s Par 3.
“My mom would take me and my friends out there, and for $5, we could golf all day and entertain ourselves,” he said.
Mercer’s Walden Lake post should have been a dream job for a lifelong golfer, and in the first year of ownership, it was. The club membership grew to about 450, he said, but when the economy tanked, so did the business. In 2008, Mercer and his partners invested again, spending $1.5 million in renovations. They had seen golf pull through dips in the economy in the past, but with the golf industry in its own, post-Tiger Woods decline, that recovery never happened, he said.
Those challenges, coupled with a strained relationship with Walden Lake residents, created a perfect storm. In May 2011, Mercer and his Visions Golf partners filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. At the time of filing, Visions Golf LLC owed $2,013,620.76 to Zions First National Bank; $1,439,058.78 to Reliance Bank and the United States Small Business Administration; and $99,750 to SunTrust Bank.
The partners emerged from bankruptcy in February 2012. Later that year, they unveiled plans for renovation.
THE MAN’S PLAN
Mercer believes the plans he and his partners have created ultimately would result in a golf course and clubhouse that better suits Walden Lake. The plan calls for a redesigned 18-hole golf course that would utilize holes from both existing courses, as well as a par-3 nine-hole course. The existing 27,000-square-foot clubhouse would be razed, and a smaller, more modest one would be erected in its place. The pool and tennis facilities would be upgraded, and Mercer also hopes to add an assisted-living facility. Mercer estimates the renovations would affect about 25% of the homes currently backing to the course.
To pay for those renovations, Visions Golf hopes to sell the remaining land for residential development. Those homes would form a new community within Walden Lake, and home ownership there would require club membership, Mercer said.
If all goes as planned, the renovations to the country club amenities and construction of the new residential community would start at the same time.
However, perhaps the key component is Mercer’s plans for himself. Once complete, the renovated golf course and clubhouse would be run by a third-party management company, taking Mercer’s place in the day-to-day operations.
“Right now, I’m here three or four times a week,” he said. “I’d like that to be three to four times a year. This all has been difficult. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.”
Once Visions Golf submits its rezone request, Mercer said the group will host a series of workshops at which residents can give input.
“We hope that creates that community feel everyone wants here,” Mercer said. “We want to get this right.
“I want something that works,” he said. “I want people to be able to come up here and be proud of it. I want people to invite their friends. This should be the shining jewel of Plant City.”
Contact Michael Eng at meng@plantcityobserver.com.