Smith: Oakmont is in a pickle over another recreational sport

As wounds heal from the pickleball battle at Oakmont, the 55-and-older residential oasis struggles now with another ball-chasing leisure activity that some residents love as dearly as life itself and that all the others don’t or can’t play or have never quite understood.

It’s golf.

The community’s two 18-hole golf courses aren’t owned by Oakmont but by members of the separate and independent Oakmont Golf Club. Its leaders say the golf and clubhouse operation, open not just to Oakmonters but to the general public, is in the rough and needs more money.

The golf club is asking for dollars from the 4,700 members of the Oakmont Village Association. One proposal: each of those Oakmonters would pay an extra $5 a month in OVA dues, with the money going to the Oakmont Golf Club.

Some in Oakmont would merrily pay $5 a month to assure that the 225 acres of greens are vibrant and used for healthful recreation indefinitely.

Others resist for multiple reasons: They object to the concept of subsidizing a private business, or they don’t believe the Oakmont Golf Club needs the money, or they don’t care about golf or don’t think the courses benefit them, or they suspect there are other ways the club can generate additional income.

All sorts of ideas were floated at a jam-packed membership meeting of the OVA Tuesday:

Shut down the shorter, less-challenging East course and build houses over it.

Require people with homes on the courses to pay most or all of any dues increase.

Make the $5 dues increase voluntary.

Sell the Oakmont Golf Club to a private company or to the Oakmont Village Association.

Eliminate or curtail golf at Oakmont and make the freed-up land available for farming.

One proposal everyone seemed to like is to honor the return of civility to the richly blessed enclave in east Santa Rosa and make sure the golf issue doesn’t tear Oakmont apart like pickleball did.

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WITHOUT RESERVATION: I hope you might have read the Sonoma Stories piece Monday on Anthony Duckworth, the county’s last active reserve deputy sheriff, and on the value of the rare souls willing to work as peace officers for free.

I wish I’d mentioned in the story that 25 years ago, a young reservist and Sonoma County native made the ultimate sacrifice as a volunteer officer.

Piner graduate (1987) Jimmy MacDonald was working his last shift as reserve officer with the Compton police the night of Feb. 22, 1993, when he and partner Kevin Burrell stopped a pickup. The driver, a gang member, pulled a gun and killed both officers.

Jimmy MacDonald was 23 and had accepted a full-time job with the San Jose Police Department. A park in Compton and a stretch of the Long Beach Freeway bear his name and that of Officer Burrell.

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VIKINGS APPROACH: Local members of the Sons of Norway are baking like crazy to prepare for the hundreds of members from five states who’ll converge on the Graton casino Sunday for a convention.

Anne-Marie Winterhalder shares that each coffee break, the Norwegian Americans will eat 50 dozen sandkaker, krumkaker, pepperkaker, finske pinner and spritz cookies.

We’re invited to go to the casino between noon and 5:30 p.m. Tuesday to take in the convention’s folk art exhibit. And look about for a pepperkaker.

You can reach Staff Writer Chris Smith at 707-521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.