SEQUIM — Leaders of Sunland Golf & Country Club said the 18-hole course and its cafe and pro shop continue to hit hard times.
Bruce Mullikin, board president of the club, wrote in the club’s August newsletter that before the end of the fiscal year, the club will “need to borrow significant funds to meet our payroll and other recurring expenses.”
In an interview at the course, Mullikin said the club is debt-free and not near bankruptcy but that “finances of the club are on shaky ground” and “just uncertain.”
Board members with the SunLand Homeowners Association (SLOA) nonprofit, plan to discuss possible options, including the possibility of contracting services with the club, in a special meeting at 5 p.m. Wednesday in the club’s ballroom, 109 Hilltop Drive, Sequim.
Mullikin said he’s working on a projection for the club’s year-end finances for the meeting.
He wrote in the club’s July newsletter that golfers investigated numerous options to help the club, such as increasing annual dues, increasing/decreasing existing services and selling the club.
He followed that in August’s newsletter, writing that options remained mostly unchanged with an option to negotiate a “lease option” contract with a buyer, assessing membership fees, “begging for donations from past and current members,” and “options 4 and 5 are too ugly for me to consider at [this] time.”
Fred Smith, SLOA board president and a club member, said the prompt for a homeowners’ special meeting arose once he heard an offer was on the table to sell the course.
“Like a lot of golf courses, they’re financially strapped because of membership,” Smith said. “New membership is growing, but old membership is dying.”
Mullikin said when he joined in 1994, they had nearly 400 members. Since then, however, they’ve lost members despite dropping a $10,000 initiation fee, he said.
“We need players more than initiation fees,” Mullikin said.
Current membership fees range from $1,200 to $6,000 a year.
Public golf play Saturdays and Sundays hasn’t been as big of a draw either, Mullikin said.
Smith said he sees a few options for Sunland’s 920-plus homes and its many homeowners. One of them is to enter into a contract with the club for landscaping and maintenance at about $118 more per member a year; currently, homeowners pay $232 annually for dues for landscaping, access to Sunland’s pool and other amenities.
“We are not proposing subsidizing the golf course,” Smith said. “It’s a contract with them for services rendered. It could be a limited agreement no longer than five years.”
Mullikin said if that were approved it would bring in about $108,000 more a year for the club through services.
Smith said the purpose of Wednesday’s meeting is to seek input from homeowners for possible options with no call for a vote unless people ask for it.
Homeowners, however, might not favor a landscaping/maintenance contract similar to March 2010 when they voted down a proposal for a new $300 annual fee (up from $195) to help the course with maintenance for five years.
Residents contested the increase for various reasons — mostly for legality reasons, following lawyers’ advice citing a conflict of interest between the two boards. Afterward, some Sunland residents said the vote led to a continuing rift between neighbors.
Lloyd Taylor, a Sunland homeowner but not a golf club member, said any agreement between the two associations remains a conflict of interest.
He said any board members who are golf club members “would benefit more than I and any other member of the homeowners would,” Taylor said.
“Being a member of the golf club, anyone on the homeowners board should be abstaining from it because they have a conflict of interest,” he said.
Taylor said state law prevents a 501(c)(3) such as SLOA from providing funds to the club because its taxes would change and the homeowners’ board wouldn’t be covered by its insurance any more.
David Babow, a Sunland homeowner and non-golfer, agrees with Taylor that state code prevents the associations from partnering in this capacity.
Babow, a member of The SunLand Facts group opposed to the previous fee increase, said paperwork showed an overwhelming majority of homeowners were against an increase.
“Almost every person [like] widows living on Social Security don’t want to pay extra,” Babow said.
“For me, it’s not the money,” he said. “It’s the principle. It rubs me the wrong way they want me to pay more.”
He said that golf clubs around the world, including Scotland, are struggling or even closing.
“Not that many people are interested in the sport, even in its native country,” Babow said.
“Why should 900-plus people pay for [the golfers]? It’s not fair and it doesn’t make sense. They wouldn’t put one penny down for me to help fix my boat.”
Mullikin said the current effort to seek support is not the same as the 2010 proposal.
“Instead of dumping something on the people, we’re communicating it,” Mullikin said. “If the golf course is sold or goes under, it’s going to affect everyone adversely.”
Mullikin said home values could drop if the course fails but with help from homeowners he sees it as “win-win for everyone.”
“Any money would go towards the current need, maintaining the beauty of the community,” he said.
Babow disagrees that property values could decline with no golf course, and that the greens could be open green spaces because homeowners are not allowed to walk on the course.
“That’d be a cost I’d be willing to pay to walk on,” Babow said.
Smith said homeowners often ask to walk on the course but for liability reasons they are not allowed.
With a possible contract between the associations, he said the green spaces would be better taken care of.
“We could have a great walking space in the area that’s beneficial to everyone,” Smith said.
Taylor said he doesn’t have anything against the golfers, but maintains there is a conflict of interest.
“I do not want to bring this to a lawsuit,” he said. “The golf course will lose all its options. I’d rather not see that.”
For more information about Sunland Golf & Country Club, visit www.sunlandgolf.com.
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at mnash@sequimgazette.com.
