By Amber Jurgensen | Associate Editor
It’s been a long road for the Walden Lake Golf and Country Club.
After exchanging through multiple hands, suffering lowered membership and, most recently, undergoing bankruptcy, the club still is hanging on.
There’s no denying the club offers a variety of amenities. It boasts a semi-private, 36-hole golf course, driving range and practice facility. Two clay tennis courts and four hard courts, along with the 24-hour fitness center and junior Olympic-sized pool, are more than enough to support an athlete or families who want to cool off in the summer.
The 27,000-square-foot clubhouse is perfect for many events, including wedding receptions, company parties and fundraisers. There is in-house catering and a full bar.
But General Manager Steve Mercer agrees the club could do more events and have higher membership numbers. And he has plans that could help the club become more popular, but the community also plays a role in its future success.
HISTORY
The Walden Lake Golf and Country Club took decades to grow into the massive course it is today.
Developers built the first 18 holes in the late 1970s. Then, in the 1980s, the second nine holes were built, followed by the last nine holes in the early 1990s.
Ownership of the club has passed through at least four management companies. In 2006, Visions Golf LLC purchased the course from Fairways Group. Visions was born out of a partnership of seven investors — Larry Williams, Doug and Tavia Cowell, Earl Brantley, Dale Missledine and Tim Bussell, brought together by Mercer.
Mercer, who had worked in the golf industry for 20 years, was the manager at the old Plant City Golf Course, which was about to close.
“Walden Lake was up for sale, and being direct competition, we saw that as a chance to buy a business that would not have any competition after the closure,” he says.
In 2006, the economy was doing well, and Plant City was enjoying a housing boom. Walden Lake, a community of 2,241 homes, was a large beneficiary of that growth.
“That would bring in a lot of new people,” Mercer says. “We saw the growth possibility in the amount of people. We thought that the golf business would increase. But the recession hit and changed our projections.”
Membership dropped, which resulted in a hit to the club’s bottom line. In May 2011, Visions Golf LLC filed a voluntary petition for relief under Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This allowed the club to keep operating while restructuring its financial affairs. 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.
In February 2012, Visions Golf LLC emerged from bankruptcy.
“We’re moving forward,” Mercer says. “It allowed us to eliminate our debt. It doesn’t resolve all problems, but it just helps us to operate better.”
THE NEXT STEP
Mercer has plans to keep the golf course operational for the next few years.
“We’re relying on the economy,” Mercer says. “We’re going to wait it out and get to the point where people want to come out and play golf, get married and have wedding receptions and businesses who want to have Christmas parties.”
In August 2012, former general manager John Keaton and Mercer brainstormed for ideas to boost membership. They asked the Walden Lake Community Association to add a small fee to homeowners’ fees, which would give homeowners full access to the club. However, the WLCA denied the request.
The club currently has 300 members.
“We’d love to double it,” Mercer says. “We have a lot of space for membership and a lot of facilities that go unused (such as) the fitness facility.”
Mercer’s next step is to offer a variety of basic memberships under new plans that involve incentives. If he can get more members, he’d like to see the club receive some much-needed upgrades, such as repaving the three miles of paths throughout the 300-acre property.
With the closing of the Red Rose Inn and Suites last year, the club also is seeing some increase in event bookings. As always, golf fundraisers are popular, and during the four months in the high season in the spring, the courses often are booked.
Mercer also has some preliminary plans to put a town center shopping plaza on part of the property and change the golf course by eliminating half the holes.
“The question is, is 36 holes of golf too much for the community?” Mercer asks. “We’ve got to find the best use for the property.”
Mercer’s town-center concept would provide a place for the Walden Lake community to enjoy. Children could ride their bikes up to the 40,000-square-foot commercial space to grab a slice of pizza. Couples could ride their golf cart to grab a cup of coffee or listen to live music on the patio of a cafe on Friday night.
“Some communities have that town center, where they can gather and have events,” Mercer says. “That’s something that is missing — that sense of community. You have to go outside of Walden Lake to do anything.”
Mercer says if the plan were to happen, it wouldn’t be until development in the area picks up. There is still space in Walden Lake for more housing units. Mercer’s plan also has the possibility of adding more units on his property.
“This could give them something that will make their property more attractive,” Mercer says.
In 2007, Mercer presented the idea to the WLCA.
“It all looks good on paper,” Mercer says. “We just need to get to the point where it is needed. In the end, it’s going to make everybody happy. There will still be a golf presence — a better one. And something that the community can use.”