GC of California To Go Semi-Private

The Golf Club of California, a struggling Southern California golf club whose members were trying to keep it alive after its ownership group shut it down late in 2008 (we wrote about it here), is now closed, bank-owned and about to be reopened as a semi-private course.

The membership's attempt to keep the club operating ended when local utilities shut down water and electrical service to the club. Golf Club of California was subsequently taken over by Hanmi Bank of Los Angeles, which asked a court to assign a receiver to oversee the property.

That designee, Larry Taylor of LMT Management (which operates a number of other golf courses in Southern Caifornia), met April 21 with with former and current members of Golf Club of California to inform them of plans for the facility. According to this story in the Village News of Fallbrook, it will become a semi-private club with membership dues of $500 month. Members will have sole access to the clubhouse facilities, and preferred starting times on the weekend.

"The Golf Club is not in a position where it can be private," Taylor told the newspaper. "We want to keep the feeling of a private club and embrace former members so that they want to come back."

-- G.R.