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Sextons want golf course opened by this weekend
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · May 12, 2016
Motorists drove slowly past the former Fox Run Golf and Country Club Monday to watch mowers spit out large clumps of grass in hopes that West Branch’s only golf course could reopen by this weekend.
Business owners and husband and wife Jerry and Tammy Sexton on Sunday night purchased the golf course from mother-son team Pamella Miller and Rick Miller, who owned it under the company Bogey Creek, Inc., Jerry Sexton said Monday morning.
“I’ve actually got a golf course, I think,” Sexton said. “We signed the papers last night. We’re trying to get things together and get it opened.”
The Millers closed the course on March 21, though West Branch High School later worked out a deal to allow the golf teams to return to practice there.
Rumors that the Sextons bought the property circulated for the past two weeks, but Sexton said that the two sides were simply closing in on a deal.
“We finally came to some terms that worked for both of us,” he said.
Community leaders called the news encouraging.
“I think that’s great news,” West Branch City Administrator Matt Muckler said.
He noted that the city made a goal of “preserving the golf course” and it made the City Council’s Top Ten list of goals the past two years.
Muckler talked about the city’s push to improve and expand city parks to give “families a reason to buy a home in West Branch, or to open a business.”
“To see an amenity leave the community is not something the city council wanted to see,” he said. “To have somebody step in and purchase it is a great thing.”
Muckler noted that residents adjacent to the golf course see their property values tied to it.
“There was a concern that property values would not be what they are today if the course had gone away,” he said.
Even though the golf course is outside the Main Street district, Main Street West Branch Program Director Kevin Rogers looks forward to supporting and working with the Sextons.
“I am extremely excited to learn that the Sextons were able to come to mutually agreeable terms to save the Fox Run golf course,” Rogers said in a statement.
He agreed with Muckler’s assessment that the golf course benefits the community and businesses.
“Once (Fox Run was) a vibrant part of the community, I am certain those days will return,” Rogers said.
West Branch Community Schools Activities Director Jeff Wrede, who negotiated getting the golf teams back on Fox Run for practices, said the news is “fantastic for our golf teams.”
“It’s just a plus for us and the West Branch community,” he said. “A lot of people will turn out to be happy campers.”
Storms interrupted mowing Monday afternoon, and Sexton said he will need the weather to cooperate to get the golf course reopened by the end of the week.
“The main thing right now is to get it playable, to get it mowed down and to get people out here,” Sexton said. “It’s been neglected for long enough.”
Sexton said he and Tammy plan to change the name of the course, but they were not yet ready to release that to the public. It’s been called Greenview, Fox Run and West Branch Golf Course since opening in the 1960s.
“We’re looking at something new,” Sexton said. “It will be different. We’ve got a new beginning here, so we want it new everywhere.”
The Sextons expressed an interest in purchasing the golf course after they heard rumors it might not reopen, and Jerry hosted a March 1 meeting at Little Lights in the Hoover House which drew about 70 people interested in the fate of the course.
And while some golfers likely purchased memberships at surrounding golf courses, Sexton hopes many will come back.
“That was a risk,” he said of the time it took to purchase the course. “Hopefully we still can get those who did end up going to other places, to get them to come out and play. Maybe some will do a dual membership.”
Sexton said anyone who wants to help get the course ready need only show up.
“There is a lot of support from people who want to help” get the course ready, he said. “A lot of people are waiting for this to happen. Somebody will probably be up around the clubhouse if someone wants to come out and do something.”
Picking up sticks under trees, yanking weeds out of the creeks — there’s a lot do do, he said.
“If you feel like you want to come out and help, somebody will direct them someplace to go,” he said. “We’d be more than happy to utilize that volunteer help.”
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