Under the ownership of longtime Elks member Mac Pierce, the Elkhart, Ind., golf course will become semi-private, while its restaurant will be fully public.
Citing declining interest in both the club and exclusive membership golfing, the Elks Lodge in Elkhart, Ind., is selling Christiana Creek Country Club after 65 years of ownership, the Elkhart (Ind.) Truth reported.
Mac Pierce, a longtime Elks member, is buying the club, said Mark Dennison, who has been course superintendent for the past 11 years. Dennison will also serve as General Manager of the club, which will carry on with the same name, the Elkhart Truth reported.
The Elks bought the course, then just nine holes, in 1949, and added another nine holes in 1962. Since then, it’s only been open to Elks members and their guests. Under Pierce’s ownership, the course will be “semi-private,” meaning members will be given first priority for tee times, but non-members will have access to tee times during off-peak playing times, Dennison said. The hope is that the new influx of public play will make the course more financially viable, the Elkhart Truth reported.
Also newly open to the public will be the club’s restaurant, featuring a menu that includes steak, prime rib, barbecue ribs, fish and seafood, along with a wide variety of sandwiches, said executive chef Chuck Schweihs. The restaurant will open as soon as it gets state approval of a three-way alcoholic beverage license, the Elkhart Truth reported.
The lodge had about 1,100 members when Dennison arrived in 2003, but that number has fallen to about 600 members now, the Elkhart Truth reported.
“Benevolent associations are not doing well at all,” Dennison said. “Young people just don’t want to be a part of them. Parents are so much more involved with their kids, they don’t have as much free time for golf and the club.”
The Elkhart lodge follows a long line of Elks clubs around Indiana that have had to sell their golf courses because of sagging membership in recent years, including Shelbyville in 2002, Fort Wayne in 2008, Vincennes and Seymour in 2010, and West Lafayette last year, the Elkhart Truth reported.
Pierce is confident more golfers will play the course if they don’t have to join the club. “Hopefully we can make the thing profitable again,” Pierce said. “It’s profitable now, but it’s not as profitable as it should be.”
Pierce, who is retired, owned Pierce Plastics, which supplied plastic extrusions to the recreational vehicle industry, until he sold it in 1989. After that, he managed celebrity impersonator acts in Las Vegas. He said he is buying the course because he didn’t want to see it close, the Elkhart Truth reported.
“My son plays there, my grandson plays there, I have friends who work there,” Pierce said. “In the area, it’s my favorite course to play. I don’t get tired of playing it. It’s in good shape, you have to make a lot of different shots and everybody else I talk to says the same thing.”
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