Teeing up last shots at west Marin links
San Geronimo ending its long run, suffering same fate as other Bay Area public golf courses
Tom Faimali walked off the No. 18 green on a crisp, sunny day at San Geronimo Golf Course. Faimali lives in nearby San Rafael and savors his regular rounds with friends at the picturesque layout in west Marin.
He especially savored this recent round, because San Geronimo will close Monday after a run of more than 52 years.
“We’re unhappy about it,” Faimali said. “Play is certainly down, but for a population this size, three public golf courses in Marin County doesn’t seem like a lot to me.”
Maybe not, but San Geronimo’s impending closure will leave Indian Valley (Novato) and Peacock Gap (San Rafael) as the only 18-hole public courses in the county. And the news, while sparked by unique circumstances at San Geronimo, reflects wider struggles for the Bay Area golf industry.
San Geronimo becomes at least the eighth course to shut down in the area in the past two-plus years. Several courses in the East Bay closed at the end of 2015, including Sunol Valley (Sunol), Springtown (Livermore), Pine Meadow (Martinez) and Grayson Woods (Pleasant Hill).
Roddy Ranch (Antioch) and Adobe Creek (Petaluma) followed in 2016 and early ’17, while Shadow Lakes (Brentwood) shut its doors pending a planned consolidation with neighboring Deer Ridge.
This falls in line with a national trend, after golf soared in popularity in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when Tiger Woods’ transcendent rise stirred fresh interest
“I hope it’s not a sign more courses are going to have trouble, but golf is definitely in a downward turn. A lot of courses are struggling right now.” Chris Bright, San Geronimo assistant general manager
in the game. More than 800 courses have closed across the United States in the past decade, as an overbuilt market corrects itself.
Other statistics from the National Golf Foundation send a mixed message. The number of people who played golf at least once in 2016 fell 1.2 percent from a year earlier, to 23.8 million (the total reached 30 million in 2005). But the number of “beginning golfers” grew 14 percent, to 2.5 million, and the number of “committed golfers” increased for the first time in five years, to 20.1 million.
The Northern California Golf Association also reported a 2.5 percent growth in membership over the past two years, after a 15-year decline.
These encouraging numbers don’t help the mood at San Geronimo, where golfers are trying to squeeze in a few final, nostalgic rounds before 2018 arrives.
“There’s definitely sadness, a little anger, and a lot of disappointment and frustration,” assistant general manager Chris Bright said. “I hope it’s not a sign more courses are going to have trouble, but golf is definitely in a downward turn. A lot of courses are struggling right now.”
Business has declined steadily at San Geronimo over the past three years, according to Bright. The number of rounds played, which peaked at nearly 50,000 one year, is expected to total about 37,000 this year.
Even so, the course — owned by East Bay businessman Robert Lee, who declined comment — generated positive cash flow every year until 2016-17. That counted as an achievement given San Geronimo’s remote location and the high cost of water for irrigation.
But heavy rains last winter created poor playing conditions during the first three months of the year. Many golfers departed for other courses, and Lee and his partners put the course up for sale in February. (Several golfers contended Lee’s ownership group didn’t do enough to promote San Geronimo, causing the drop in rounds played.)
“For four or five months, the grass was so long you couldn’t find a ball in the fairway,” Bright said. “I think that was kind of the final nail in the coffin. That’s when the owners finally decided it was time to go.”
It didn’t take long for the sale of the course to become embroiled in controversy. Lee couldn’t find a golf-course operator interested in buying the 155-acre property, Bright said, and ultimately Marin County officials stepped forward to make an offer in conjunction with the Trust for Public Land, a national nonprofit organization based in San Francisco.
Lee agreed to sell San Geronimo to the Trust for Public Land for $8.85 million, with the county poised to take over once it raises funds to purchase the property. That process — during which the public will be asked for input on how to use the land long-term — could take up to two years.
What happens during those two years remains uncertain.
Max Korten, director of Marin County parks, offered some short-term solace for Bay Area golfers. Escrow on the San Geronimo sale is expected to close Thursday, and county and Trust for Public Land officials then plan to post a “request for proposal” in an effort to find a golfcourse operator to run the course during the public planning process.
There’s no guarantee an operator will emerge, but Korten hopes to have one in place by early April. The county will maintain the property in the interim, to keep the course in reasonable condition before it potentially reopens in the spring.
Still, the long-term forecast almost certainly doesn’t include golf.
Brendan Moriarty, senior project manager for the Trust for Public Land, said the group commissioned studies that found San Geronimo could not financially sustain golf in the years ahead. The trust also seeks to protect endangered Coho salmon and threatened steelhead trout in San Geronimo Creek, which weaves through the property.
Moriarty and Korten envision a sprawling park, featuring a wide array of biking and hiking trails. Korten said county residents also have suggested everything from a fire station and sewer treatment plant to organic gardening and Frisbee golf.
“We really want to vet all that out,” Korten said. “Thinking about all that, and the economics of golf, it seems unlikely it would stay a golf course.”
That’s why the past few weeks flowed with uncommon sights and sounds at San Geronimo. Signs in the clubhouse advertised a “Golf Shop Liquidation Sale,” with 40 percent off golf balls and 50 percent off other merchandise.
Players lingered a little longer on the elevated tee at No. 10, relishing the panoramic view of the hills and trees in the distance. Curtis Hayden, who grew up in Marin and now lives in San Francisco, recently stood there contemplating the imminent end of more than a half-century of golf on the site.
“I understand why people appreciate open space, but there really aren’t many reasonably priced public courses near where people live,” Hayden said. “It’s unfortunate.”
Or, as Bright said succinctly, “It’s a crying shame. It’s beautiful out here.”