The Palm Desert Country Club in Palm Desert, Calif., is closing due to the inability of its owners to pay the course maintenance and upkeep costs. The owners, Randy Case, Larry Kosmont and Sung Sang Cho, filed for bankruptcy protection in June, after the City of Palm Desert declined to provide financial support to assist the troubled course.
The course, an original Billy Bell design, underwent a major renovation in 2006 by Cary Bickler to excellent reviews. The ownership group, however, after receiving a rezoning by the city to allow them to build an additional 90 residences around the course, apparently failed to generate enough capital through home sales to provide operating revenue for the course.
Relations with the city were reportedly not helped by a local television station’s discovery that one of the owners had quietly put the course up for sale at the same time the owners were asking the city for financial assistance.
One course management representative told a reporter from News Channel 3 in Palm Springs that the “final nail in the coffin” was a looming $150,000 tab for re-seeding of the golf course, which is typically a necessity following a Palm Springs area summer.