The Oakmont Golf Course is in Trouble
Dear Observer:
The Oakmont Golf Course is in trouble and needs money to stay alive. Nationwide, golf courses are closing. The golf industry calls the closures of 350+ courses (2016-2017) a “market correction”. There are too many courses and a dwindling number of players. OGC’s situation reflects this trend. Despite marketing programs, cost-cutting, and changes in management, poor financial results have existed at OGC since 2002.
Let’s not “kick the can down the road.” Let’s face the facts now. If the OGC is open about its finances and realistic about its dim prospects, together we can be proactive to maintain the open space, still have golf (but maybe not 36 holes), allocate land to greater uses by all residents, and address in advance concerns over weeds, abandoned facilities, possible development, and lawsuits. This approach could save cost, discord, and grief.
We need to to address this now, and all Oakmont residents need a voice. We must look ahead at golf industry trends and let go of the insistence on retaining the status quo of 36 holes of golf. There are no easy answers to this dilemma, but the best answers will likely come from being proactive.
Hi Julie,
Great news from you!
“OGC needs money to stay alive” you explicitly assert without qualification of any kind.
Those of us not in-the-know and privy to “insider knowledge” like your husband Bruce Bonn (and apparently yourself) think, based on fact, that OGC has released no info re their financial status and statements.
But you clearly indicate that you “insiders” have such factual knowledge and can assert without qualification that “OGC needs money to stay alive”.
For sure, goody for us all!
But, of course, please share with all of us your specific OGC accounting ‘knowledge’ that would support your blatant assertion re “OGC need money to stay alive”.
Thanks for all of your hard work and diligent research and ‘insiderness’ in gaining this factual data regarding OGC finances. But, of course, now it’s imperative to share and substantiate with facts rather than blindly assert.
So what is the basis for your assertion?
Hi Gerry, I’ve no insider info but am using deductive reasoning, based on the Town Halls to-date, the quote from OGC President Barbara Robinson about the club needing “just a little bit” from every Oakmont resident, and the full court (course?) press by OGC spokespeople (Williston, Warfel) on the importance/value of the the courses. The Williston report of 2014 indicated financial issues since 2002 or 2005.
Some have suggested that the OGC actually is in very good shape and additional funding from OVA would feed their investors’ pockets. ??
So, either way, we need to know why they are asking for money (show us financials, not fantasy future projections), what is the rush to get in the 2019 OVA budget, what other options have they seriously considered, etc.
I actually hope that my deduction or assumption is totally wrong and that they are fabulously profitable, in which case they will keep their fingers out of our pockets, no?