Island Green Country Club’s future shaking out with recent purchases

Island Green Country Club’s golf course and amenities center were acquired through foreclosure auctions by their respective lenders recently.

The path for the amenities center is clear as the purchaser wants to sell it back to the community’s homeowner associations, while the future of the closed golf course remains unsure.

The 123-acre golf course was purchased at auction last week by Robert Williamsen of Cornelius, N.C., for approximately $1.6 million.

Williamsen foreclosed on the property off S.C. 707 in Myrtle Beach based on a defaulted loan of $1.45 million made to then-course owner Ray Watts in November 2015, according to foreclosure documents filed in Horry County.

There were no competing bids in the auction at the Horry County courthouse, and deficiency judgment was waived so the sale was not open to 30 days of upset bids and was final.

The golf course has been closed since June and is now in disrepair, as there has been little upkeep for several months. Neither Williamsen nor his attorney, Collin Jewell of The Floyd Law Firm in Surfside Beach, could be reached for comment Monday.

Island Green’s amenities center was part of a group of area properties acquired by Asset-Backed Lending Partners of Westlake Village, Calif.

The properties include the center, a tennis court and outdoor pool at Island Green, a unit in the Vista Del Mar development in Grande Dunes, and 34 units at the Tullamore Lakes subdivision near Colonial Charters Golf Club in Longs.

ABLP foreclosed on the properties that were also formerly owned by Watts, a real estate developer and owner of Apex Homes who has split time between the areas of Charlotte, N.C., and the Strand.

According to Charles Jordan of the Thomas & Brittain Law Firm, which represents ABLP, the total loan amount was $3.3 million and the lender bid $3.9 million at a foreclosure auction in early January. The bid survived upsets bids.

The amenities center includes a pool, hot tub and several other amenities and is still being operated by Tradd Management of Myrtle Beach, which was appointed by the court to manage it when it was placed in receivership.

In December, Paramont Capital of Phoenix, Ariz., acquired through foreclosure nearly 70 acres at Island Green that formerly comprised the Dogwood nine holes, which closed in 2005, as well as Wedgefield Country Club in Georgetown and some property at the Sun Colony multifamily housing development near Colonial Charters.

“The good thing is Ray Watts has nothing to do with Island Green Country Club at all,” said Bob Worrel, president of the Island Green General Council, a cooperative of 24 homeowner associations that include more than 1,200 properties around the course. “He did some rough stuff to us but we’re climbing out of the hole.”

Worrel and past general council president Bob Murphy met on March 2 with a pair of Asset-Backed Lending Partners executives who flew to the Strand to assess their properties.

“They want to sell the property back to the community,” Worrel said. “They’ve told us about what they have invested in it. Now it’s a matter of sitting down with them through teleconferences and such, and working out the details. Hopefully the amenities center will finally be owned by the community. So far things look pretty good.”

Worrel said eight of the 24 HOAs have full memberships to the amenities center so more HOAs will probably need to get on board for the purchase.

Worrel said the homeowners have yet to hear from Williamsen.

Aberdeen to reopen

The wrath of Hurricane Matthew had an extended impact at Aberdeen Country Club, and the course is finally scheduled to reopen on March 29 with essentially a new clubhouse and pristine playing conditions.

While most Grand Strand courses were able to reopen in the days that followed the Oct. 8 storm, and all but Aberdeen were open within a month, flooding from the Waccamaw River near the course off S.C. 9 in Longs reached the clubhouse and forced a long closure.

“It’s a brand new golf course,” said Aberdeen head pro Tom Van Hoogen. “This is one way to get a new facelift for the golf course. We’re just chomping at the bit to get golfers out there.”

The clubhouse was gutted and almost entirely rebuilt with a clean look and bright colors. It has a new roof, new heating and air conditioning unit, new kitchen equipment, a new counter in the center of the pro shop and new fixtures, and the snack bar now has a bar counter with a handful of stools, pair of televisions, and both bar-top seating and shorter tables.

“They came in and redid everything,” Van Hoogan said. “It’s a similar layout to the clubhouse but it will be a lot more contemporary. It’s a great learning experience for me to learn what needs to be done to open a new clubhouse.”

If the clubhouse is ready earlier than March 29 the course may open for play.

“The course is in phenomenal shape. It’s the only course in Myrtle Beach that doesn’t have any ball marks or divots on it,” Van Hoogan said. “They had it cleaned up pretty good once the river receded, so they’ve had a few months to really get it in good shape. We’re just excited to get it open.”

Van Hoogan, who is the head pro at both Aberdeen and nearby Colonial Charters Golf Club, was previously an assistant at Wild Wing Plantation and Litchfield Country Club and replaced Steve Shaffer, who was moved to the head pro position at Indian Wells Golf Club shortly after the storm.

Sunbelt Tour is back

Don Barnes of Longs has kicked off the 22nd season of the Sunbelt Senior Professional Golf Tour, which will feature 14 tournaments in eight states this year.

Three of the events will be on the Grand Strand, and at least two will include playing opportunities for amateurs in the area.

There will be two pros and two amateurs on teams at the Golfweek Amateur Tour Invitational Pro-Am on June 17-18 at TPC Myrtle Beach. The pros will generally be members of the Sunbelt and SwingThought tours.

The 15th South Carolina Senior Open will be at the Grande Dunes Resort Course from July 10-12, and the third annual Sea Haven Match Play Championship will be played Sept. 11-13 at the Surf Golf and Beach Club. It had been the season finale in November but the added hours of daylight in September will help the tournament ensure matches will be finished before sunset.

Barnes, 72, is committed to holding events in the Myrtle Beach area, despite sponsorships being difficult to come by.

“I don’t care if I make any money on them. I want to have a good event, that’s the key,” Barnes said. “Right now we don’t have a sponsor for the South Carolina Senior Open but we’ll put as much money in it as we can. We have a good golf course.”

Net proceeds from the match play tournament will benefit the Sea Haven youth shelter home and emergency crisis center, and a pro-am on the eve of tournament will help raise funds and serve as a seeding round for the pros. Interested pros or amateurs can contact Barnes at 843-457-4030 or seniortour45@yahoo.com.

Barnes’ first tournament of the season in Melbourne, Fla., from Feb. 27 through March 1 had about 20 players and the purse was $10,500. He had more than 30 players in the event last year, when it had a sponsor. “If you can announce ahead of time something about the purse, even players who don’t have a chance to win, if you say $5,000 first place they’re going to play,” Barnes said.

The tour’s next event is the Greater Atlanta Senior Open next Monday through Wednesday at Royal Lakes Country Club in Flowery Branch, Ga., and Barnes said entries are lighter for that event as well despite a sponsor bolstering the purse.

Many who play Barnes’ tour for players ages 47 and older have aspirations to play on the Champions Tour, and often enter Champions Tour single event qualifiers.

The Champions Tour has prequalifiers on Thursdays or Fridays that allow just five players to advance to Monday/Tuesday qualifiers – there have already been more than 100 players registered for a prequalifier in Florida – which advance four or five players into the fields.

“What they’re doing is ruining people’s motivation,” Barnes said. “I don’t know if [fewer players] is a sign of things to come but we’ll see after these three events in Alabama.”

The tour has three events in Cullman, Ala., from May 17-24 that all have sponsors. Two have $5,000 added to the purses and have guaranteed first-place payouts of $6,000, and the middle event is a one-day, two-player team event has more than $2,500 added.

The Sunbelt Tour generally pays 40 percent of the field and any sponsor money goes into the purse.

Barnes expects his largest purse and tournament to be the Seneca Cup in August in Niagara Falls, N.Y. It is sponsored by Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel, which is adding approximately $15,000 to a purse that Barnes expects to be about $40,000, with a first-place payout of at least $8,000. Barnes had a few tournaments last year that awarded $10,000 to the winner.

The tour has paid out more than $5 million in purses since its founding in 1996.

Heritage gives exemptions

Tournament officials for the 49th RBC Heritage presented by Boeing have awarded four sponsors’ exemptions to Mark Anderson, Bryson DeChambeau, Cheng Jin and Camilo Villegas.

The PGA Tour event is April 13-16 at Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island. Anderson grew up in nearby Beaufort and has one Web.com win at the 2013 BMW Charity Pro-Am in Greenville. DeChambeau, who plays with distinct attire and single-length irons, made his pro debut last year at Harbour Town and tied for fourth.

Jin earned his exemption by winning last summer’s Players Amateur at Berkeley Hall Golf Club. The Beijing native and Southern California freshman also won the Asia-Pacific Amateur to earn a start at the 2016 Masters. Villegas will be making his 11th Heritage start and has carded three top-10s at Harbour Town.

Previous commitments to the $6.5 million event include past champions Stewart Cink, Jim Furyk, Branden Grace, Matt Kuchar, Graeme McDowell, Brandt Snedeker and Boo Weekley, as well as Englishmen Luke Donald and Tyrell Hatton, Jason Dufner, Ernie Els and Webb Simpson.

Junior clinics set

Carolina National Golf Club in Brunswick County will be hosting a Spring Junior Golf Clinic Series on Saturdays for players ages 11-17 featuring golf instruction from PGA Professionals.

The 45-minute clinics are $15 or $20 and will range from short game, full swing, course management, rules and etiquette. The 11-13 age group will play six holes with a pro following the clinics and the 14-17 age group will play nine holes with a pro.

All clinics start at 3 p.m. and players must register by 5 p.m. the previous day. Each class is limited to the first 16 registrants. Six weeks of clinics begin Saturday with short game instruction for players ages 11-13.

Call Carolina National at 910-755-5200 for more information.

This story was originally published March 13, 2017 at 9:08 PM with the headline "Island Green Country Club’s future shaking out with recent purchases."