SEQUIM — The steep initiation fee has been lifted and members’ dues discounted, and outsiders — provided they follow the dress code — can play 18 holes on weekends for $25.
Yes, prices are falling at the SunLand Golf & Country Club, but its guardians say that may not be enough to keep the place alive and green.
The recession has hit SunLand, the golf-course development of 850 homes just north of Sequim, hard.
Country-club memberships have plummeted nearly 50 percent, to 195, said golf course manager Tyler Sweet. This year alone, the SunLand golf club has lost 48 members.
He’s begun a campaign to pull in more members by wiping out the $3,000 initiation charge and by dropping membership dues as much as 25 percent, to $3,832 per year for a single player and $5,430 for an unlimited family pass.
But, Sweet said, only about three new memberships have been added in the past month.
Recreational business hurt
“In an economic downturn, recreational businesses get hurt,” said Jim Ratliff, president of the SunLand Golf & Country Club board. Boating, golf and such games are “the first thing people give up.”
Around the nation, golf courses are going bankrupt, added Sweet.
Horror stories about courses overtaken by tall weeds and brush fires are now available on SunLand’s Web site, www.SunLand Golf.com, via the SunLand Preservation Project link.
And at SunLand, “it is very possible for the golf course to fail,” Ratliff noted in a recent presentation to some 200 SunLand homeowners.
Yet there’s a way to prevent this, he said in the presentation, which is also accessible on SunLand’s Web site.
Ratliff envisions a kind of insurance policy against closure of the golf course, in the form of a $300-per-year golf course maintenance fee paid by SunLand’s homeowners.
This isn’t about whether one golfs or not, Ratliff said. It is about saving property values.
If the golf course were to shut down, he believes home values and quality of life will fall, for players and nonplayers.
Broker Tom Cantwell of Windermere Real Estate in SunLand estimated a 10 to 15 percent drop in the development’s selling prices — meaning $25,000 to $50,000 — would come after closure of the course.
SunLand has other amenities, Cantwell added: tennis courts, a swimming pool and a cabana are among them.
Other Realtors, however, have predicted deeper decreases in value if the golf course goes dormant.
“If we run out of money and walk away from [the golf course], and if it just goes brown, the people will be left with the negatives of that,” Ratliff added.
“If the club shuts down, it’s not going to be easy for them to sell their homes,” Sweet said. “We’re warning people to protect their home values.”
Two plans
“Plan A,” then, is to have the homeowners share the cost of keeping the golf course, with its cafe, bar and pro shop, open.
Plan B is to sell it, according to Ratliff’s presentation. That would result in a loss of control over the property around which the SunLand homeowners live, and would be “just plain sad,” he said.
Charging the $300 yearly fee would help the homeowners and the Golf & Country Club board develop a long-term management and marketing strategy, said Ratliff.
Sweet, for his part, suspects the current golf-course crisis may be hurting home sales already.
“We know of sales that have fallen through because of what’s going on,” he said.
At SunLand, 46 homes are on the market, according to Cantwell, though he said five are under contract and in the process of selling. Prices range from $149,000 for a condominium to single family homes topping $500,000.
Wednesday afternoon on a SunLand fairway, it wasn’t hard to find a homeowner with an opinion about the proposed fee.
Glad to pay
Jack Real said he’ll gladly pay the $300 charge — and may have to pay it twice since he owns two homes in SunLand.
“The potential loss [in property value] is staggering,” if the golf course shuts down, Real added.
Though he enjoys golfing in his front yard, that’s not the sole reason Real wants the course to survive.
He said he can always go out and play on the nearby Cedars at Dungeness or Skyridge courses.
But if SunLand loses its greens, Real sees himself and the rest of SunLand’s homeowners losing chunks of equity.
Ratliff anticipates an uphill climb before this message gets out to everyone who lives here. But he has formed a committee and a “communication plan.”
“We’re going to organize a bunch of volunteers,” to reach out to the hundreds of households surrounding the golf course.
Ratliff and his team, however, will take their time spreading the word about the country club’s financial condition. “People having factual information is more important than speed,” he said.
“I’m not saying it’s not urgent. But I would be surprised if [the vote] happened before the end of the year. It might not be until spring.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.