Bob Husband is about to acquire a golf course under a new company name. The former CEO of Heritage Golf Group, is running Bellagio Road, which has agreed to acquire Rancho Murieta Country Club in Sacramento, Calif. The club dates from the early 1970s and has had financial difficulties in recent years.
The sale was approved by 95 percent of Rancho Murieta’s 1,040 members, and the club’s president believes it’ll provide “the cash infusion and capital improvements we so badly need.”
Husband made a name for himself by building up Cobblestone Golf Group, which was at one time the third biggest owner-operator in the U.S. with 50 properties under its belt before it sold in 1998. He then established Heritage, which grew to more than 20 courses. Tower Three Partners, a private equity firm, acquired the assets in 2014, and replaced Husband as CEO with David Senza in July 2015.
Husband hasn’t announced a game plan for Bellagio Road, but it appears he views it as a boutique firm.
“I don’t want to run 20 or 25 courses. I want to run one or two,” he told RanchoMurieta.com. “I’m not saying I won’t buy two or three, but my goal is to buy one at a time and run it and see how it goes and maybe buy another. I just don’t know yet.”
Rancho Murieta features two 18-hole golf courses, one originally designed by Bert Stamps (it was later redesigned by Arnold Palmer) and one by Ted Robinson. If Husband can complete the purchase, he intends to build a pool and a fitness center, a move that he believes will add nearly 500 new members to the club.