Beale closing Coyote Run Golf Course

Beale Air Force Base announced in August it would close its Coyote Run Golf Course. The decision was made by Wing Commander Col. Heather Fox, who took over command in June.

Maj. Bobby Hale of Force Support Squadron met with Fox on Friday to discuss the way ahead for the golf course, according to Beale media operations Chief Kathryn Miller. Beale Air Force Base did not respond to the Appeal’s questions by the time of publication.

Tony Kurlan of Yuba City has golfed at Coyote Run since 2008 and said whenever a new wing commander is appointed the first question he and his fellow golfers ask is if the course will be kept open.

“There’s been rumors for a long time,” Kurlan said.

Golfers Keith Antic and Art Boulet met with Hale on Aug. 26 about the course closure and were told that it had not made a profit since 2010 and is losing over $120,000 to $140,000 a year since 2011. In addition, the closure of the bowling alley

and the child development center operating at 25 percent due to COVID-19 meant a significant loss of non-appropriated funds.

“It would be a big loss,” Antic said. “It’s my home course.”

Boulet said appropriated funds come from taxpayers but the golf course and other recreational facilities have to be self-supporting. He said the notion that taxpayers pay for the golf course is false.

Antic said he and Boulet suggested closing the course on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, making the course nine holes instead of 18, and privatizing the golf course as alternatives to a full closure.

“We really don’t know, they haven’t responded back to me,” Antic said Thursday about the base’s response.

Antic and Boulet requested a meeting with Fox to discuss their alternatives but were informed that no meeting would take place

because the decision had already been made.

“It was frustrating,” Antic said. Antic has been playing at Coyote Run since he was stationed at Beale in 1972. After brief stints at Edwards Air Force Base and overseas in England, he returned to the area and started playing consistently from 1983 to today. Antic, Boulet and a group of friends have been playing every Thursday since 1986.

Antic said the friends he’s made through the course and camaraderie they’ve built is what stands out to him. The course itself can be challenging because the original front nine has tight fairways and smaller greens and the back nine is newer. The course is about 12.5 miles from his home in Olivehurst.

“Golf is more than golf,” Boulet said. “The camaraderie that you build when you play golf, that’s the big part of it.”

In addition, Antic, Boulet and Kurlan touted the course’s affordable membership that

provides incredible value compared to other area golf courses.

Kurlan said the base should have done more to advertise the course to people not connected to the base and raise the price in order to make more money.

Antic and Boulet worked to create a Friends of Beale Program, which allows people from outside the base to apply for access. However, due to COVID-19, the base is not accepting new Friends of Beale members, according to Boulet.

As of late Friday, Beale had not set a date for when the course would be closed, according to Antic. In the meantime, he urged active and retired military to play on the course in an attempt to keep it alive.

Golfers are currently using one cart per person, keeping flag sticks in the holes, and not raking sand traps, according to Boulet.

Antic said a water pump that had been broken for months was fixed last week. Boulet said

the broken pump had made the fairways like concrete and not a draw for golfers.

“That became a sore spot.” Boulet said.

Boulet and golf chairman for Yuba City Sons in Retirement Dennis Dempsey said they appreciate the situation Fox is placed in given the pandemic and the financial situation with the course.

“Losing money is not a winning proposition anywhere,” Dempsey said.

Despite the course’s struggles and expected closure, the future of the base is not in doubt, according to the golfers.

“The mission for the base – that will hold,” Boulet said. “Beale

Air Force Base will survive in the Yuba-sutter area because of what they do. I don’t ever see Beale being on the foreclosure list ... There’s more to Beale than just the golf course.”