Wiltwyck Golf Club up for sale
TOWN OF ULSTER, N.Y. » The Wiltwyck Golf Club is up for sale in wake of shrinking membership rolls, according to a real estate firm website and a club official.
The 18-hole, 72-par course and its clubhouse, opened in 1954, are listed at $3.5 million with Murphy Realty Group in Kingston.
Stephen Digilio, the club’s Board of Directors president, said Friday that recently the Wiltwyck Golf Club mortgage was purchased from Catskill Hudson Bank by Dr. Anthony Bacchi.
Bacchi is a co-owner of the Golden Hill Health Care Center. He is also owner of the Lazy Swan Golf and Country Club Village in Saugerties.
“As of this date, Wiltwyck is current with all mortgage obligations with him,” Digilio said.
It is hoped that whoever purchases the Wiltwyck Golf Club and its 150 acres will continue the familiar use, Digilio said.
“We have listed the property for sale and we would like a purchaser that will keep it as an 18hole, Robert Trent Jones Sr.-designed golf club,” Digilio said.
The sale was, in part, prompted by declining membership which has been experienced by private golf venues throughout the nation, Digilio said.
In its heyday, membership at the 404 Steward
Lane club numbered “300 with a waiting list,” Digilio said.
Today, he added, memberships range from 125 to 150. It costs $3,995 for singles for a year; $4995 for families.
Digilio said that private golf clubs are not getting members who are too busy raising families to “make a commitment” to private golf club.
“We don’t see them back until they are in their 50s,” Digilio said. “There is a void.”
In May, Wiltwyck Golf Club started tackling its declining golf participation and membership numbers by outsourcing its food operation and offering a wider range of membership options.
The food and beverage operation, once a profit center, had become more of a break-even operation in recent years, Digilio said
“It was becoming hard to run a profitable operation,” Digilio said at the time. “Since that time, we’ve decided it’s time to sell out that side of the business and focus on the golf club.”
“The traditional golfing population is getting older,” Digilio also said at the time. “The upcoming generation, the Millenials, are very focused on family activities.”
The real estate listing tells of club details. The clubhouse measures 24,000 square feet.
“Designed by renowned golf course architect Robert Trent Jones Sr. this par 72 layout measures 6,877 yards from the championship tees and has proven to be a challenge even to the most proficient of golfers. Rich in history Wiltwyck dates back to 1933 and moved to it’s present location” in 1954, the listing said.
There is a 12,000-squarefoot second clubhouse second level that “offers expansive dining and entertaining areas with stunning vistas of the course and Catskill Mountains, as well as a large commercial kitchen, public rest rooms and elevator,” the listing said.
“Enjoy a day of family fun playing tennis and relaxing by the 42 by 84 in ground pool, children’s pool, snack bar and pool house with bathrooms and showers,” the listing added.