Mad at Masonboro: Will golf course reopen?

Fallen trees litter the fairways. Weeds flourish in the rough. Closed indefinitely says the sign on the pro shop door. Nobody is making a birdie or bogey anytime soon — yet the attorneys are busy.

The golf course at Masonboro Country Club at The Cape has been vacant since mid-September when Hurricane Florence slammed into Wilmington. While residents and property owners are hopeful they will have a golf course again, they have banded together in the meantime to protect the existing green space and prevent the owner from developing the property and adding housing.

“When there were first rumors and discussions well over a year ago that Mr. (Ladd) Nelson (course owner) wanted to try and develop the property, we retained a law firm of Shipman and Wright,” The Cape HOA vice president Bill Conley said. “They have been working with us and discussed legal positions with us that they believe present significant impediments if not preventing it from developing it all.”

Although the course at Masonboro was struggling before the doors were shuttered, the closure is the second blow to golf in the central and southern portions of New Hanover County in the last 15 months. Echo Farms, a popular layout off Carolina Beach Road, shut down in October 2017, leaving Beau Rivage as the only open course in that end of the county.

Changing the course 

Area businessman Ladd Nelson formed Southern Destiny LLC in September 2006 and two months later purchased the course formerly known as The Cape for $2 million from Thomas Wright Davenport.

Efforts to reach Southern Destiny LLC were unsuccessful. Legal representatives for the group declined to comment Wednesday when approached following a hearing regarding the proposed development to the New Hanover County Technical Review Commission.

The old course at The Cape closed shortly after the purchase and Bob Moore, a Chapel Hill based golf course architect, was hired to recreate a new, improved course on the existing layout.

“What this screamed for was a total renovation,” Moore told the StarNews in 2008. “Almost a start over … What we have to do is adapt our design from a standpoint of playability and strategic value.”

Nelson spent millions of dollars transforming The Cape into Masonboro Country Club, which was intended to be a private upscale country club. However the course opened in the heart of the recession with initial greens fees in the $75 range, nearly double to most of the area's non-private competition.

The renovation included an upgraded driving range and practice area and later a clubhouse with bar and grill. The new Masonboro course looked nice but was extremely difficult for golfers of any skill level. Several holes featured narrow fairways bordered by large mounds funneling shots to hidden hazards. Well struck tee shots on the 10th hole vanished into the golfing ether. Losing a sleeve (or two) of balls was par for the course.

During a pro-am there in 2011 only one pro in a 25-man field shot lower than 77 in calm conditions. When the Carolinas PGA Senior Championship was held there later in the year the course was set up much shorter than usual - 5,700 yards - each day to avoid embarrassing the field.

“I’ve heard it directly from employees at Masonboro, who were in a position to know,” Conley said. “Weekend golfers would come here and play and say this golf course is too hard.”

Development plans

Prior to Hurricane Florence, the course at Masonboro was in poor condition according to residents and a golfer could play a round with a cart and get a hot dog in the grill room for less than 30 bucks.

The homeowners discussed purchasing the golf course from Nelson but those negotiations went nowhere.

“Mr. Nelson did not personally interact with the board, hardly ever,” HOA president Dave Echerria said. “I had a lot of communication with Freddy Parlier, who was managing the course. Weeks after the hurricane when it became clear there were not really steps being taken to reopen the course, Mr. Parlier started discussions with the board to see if we would consider removing our objections to Mr. Nelson developing half the course.”

The course was in the commercial real estate listing in September 2017, with an asking price of $3.8 million for the 150-acres, including the golf course, clubhouse, cart building and adjacent land.

That listing, which prompted the property owners to retain legal counsel, no longer exists. However, the current proposal covers 52 acres, including a tract that runs parallel to River Road, and 132 multi-family units.

At the TRC hearing on Wednesday, Shipman argued that such development would not only eliminate valuable green space — as it encompasses holes 2 through 4 and No. 6 on the golf course — it would also further exacerbate a taxed stormwater drainage. Jesse Bowles, The Cape’s longtime property manager, told the TRC that water enters homeowners’ garages when an inch or two of rain falls and streets flood at high tide under a full moon. He said adding five or six million square feet of impervious surface would be equivalent to adding “gasoline to the fire.”

The TRC approved the project, what Shipman described as an administrative decision, but reiterated that the ownership must clear hurdles related to density, flooding and road access before any development project can begin.

What's next? 

In the meantime, the Cape homeowners are determined to fight any plans for development. They want to protect their home value, maintain the scenery and wildlife anticipated when they purchased their homes. The golfers are also forced to find a new place to play. The men’s golf association has decided to remain together. They’ll travel and play as a group at area courses a day or two a week, with the Wilmington Municipal Golf Course benefitting from Masonboro’s misfortune on Tuesdays. The men’s and women’s golf associations have 80-100 members combined.

The Muni and Beau Rivage, along with the par-3 at Inland Greens, are the only public golf courses in New Hanover County. The only driving range is located at Beau Rivage.