Oakmont golf club jilted a second time by same management company

Larry Galloway didn’t even yell “Fore!”

Galloway is founder of Advance Golf Partners, the Florida-based management company that signed a 20-year lease in February to operate — and turn around — the money-losing golf club owned by Oakmont Village Association. That property includes a pair of restaurants, and the two 18-hole courses which wend their way through the heart of this 55-and-over community west of Kenwood.

On July 9, Galloway called Steve Spanier, president of the village association, to deliver the bad news: his company was pulling out of the deal.

“Yeah, I was surprised,” said Spanier this week of this latest setback to befall Oakmont’s stunning but star-crossed golf courses, whose names were recently changed to the Valley of the Moon Club and the Club at Sugarloaf.

Four days after Galloway’s bombshell, at an emergency meeting of the Oakmont Village Association’s board, a temporary solution was put in place. Petaluma-based CourseCo, which manages 38 golf clubs, was brought in to run the Oakmont property for 60 days, “basically keep the golf going. This is high season,” Spanier said.

At the end of those two months, the homeowners association will negotiate a long-term deal with either CourseCo or Billy Casper Golf, which operates some 160 courses in 26 states.

“So this will be a competitive process,” said Spanier, “which will benefit the OVA.”

Spanier would not explain why the deal with Advance Golf Partners fell through. “Our lawyers have told us upfront, we can’t talk about what happened. You can try to get that information from AGP.”

“No comment,” was Galloway’s emailed response to a reporter.

It’s not clear if Advance Golf Partners broke the lease, or if the association let them out of it.

“The answer to your question,” said a 70-something Oakmont resident after finishing his round on Monday, “is that nobody knows what the hell is going on.”

Another member of his threesome, who gave his name as Andy, shared his frustration at the lack of transparency from the Oakmont association’s board: “I’ve been here 22 years. Up until now, we were kept apprised of what was going on.”

Neither man would give his full name, citing the sensitivity of the subject within the Oakmont community.

The jilting by Advance Golf comes 11 months after Oakmont Village residents voted to increase their own dues $17 a month, with the purpose of buying the money-losing Oakmont Golf Club.

Many were persuaded to vote in favor of the sale by the assurance that their lease partner — Advance Golf — would plow $1 million into the golf club in the first year, much of it to upgrade the restaurants.

A few months later, unable to secure a loan “that would be satisfactory to them,” said Spanier, Advanced Golf pulled out of the deal.

The Oakmont Village Association went back to the drawing board to reopen the bidding.

Advance Golf bid again, and won again — though the terms were far less favorable for Oakmont. Instead of the management company ponying up $1 million for capital improvements, it was now Oakmont who would pay $1 million for those upgrades.

Even with that concession, the deal proved unworkable. The cloud of uncertainty hanging over the club didn’t keep golfers away Monday. Tee times were hard to come by.

“This morning was pretty busy,” said club employee Ryan Poole, who was checking in golfers at a temporary stand outside the pro shop, which, like the restaurants, is under construction.

Standing 20 feet away, politely answering golfers questions, was Tom Bugbee, a 1996 graduate of Casa Grande High School — yes, he was on the golf team — who is now chief operating officer of CourseCo, which had replaced Advanced golf less than a week earlier.

“We’ve always been aware of Oakmont,” Bugbee said, “and interested in partnering with its owner.”

“It’s a gorgeous, unique setting,” he said, motioning to the serrated profile of the Mayacamas Mountains, across the valley. “And the community really loves the golf course. You can’t buy that loyalty.”

Asked if he was confident CourseCo’s 60-day deal could be extended, Bugbee said, “We wouldn’t be here if we weren’t.”

Like all successful golf management companies, CourseCo does more than golf. The majority of Oakmonters, after all, don’t play the game.

“Eighty to ninety percent of your residents want something non-golf related. They want a good food and beverage experience” spiced up with social ingredients such as wine-tasting dinners and “murder mystery dinners,” once the pandemic has passed, Bugbee said.

Oakmont will have little trouble replacing Advance Golf, in large part because of the money locked in by last summer’s homeowners association dues increase.

“Despite COVID, despite what happened with AGP,” Spanier said, “we’re still an attractive date. A lot of companies want to work with us.”

With the obvious exception of one from Florida.

Contact Austin at austin.murphy@pressdemocrat.com.