Cordova Country Club shuts after years of business struggles.
Golf course built in ’90s closes for lack of players, is for sale
Cordova Country Club has closed, idling an 88acre swath of fairways, tees and greens meandering through a 1990s-era residential neighborhood.
The clubhouse is under contract to be sold to the operator of a special events and party business, the owner’s representative said, while plans call for the golf links to be sold separately.
The golf course, built in the mid-1990s as Cordova Club, fell victim to waning interest in playing golf and intense competition for players’ dollars, factors that have pinched courses here and elsewhere.
State-owned T.O. Fuller State Park golf course closed in southwest Memphis. Rock star Justin Timberlake sold Mirimichi near Shelby Forest after spending lavishly to develop it, and officials at Colonial Country Club in Cordova have been considering changes to make it more financially viable.
John Ward, one of Cordova Country Club’s owners, said it was closed earlier this month after unsuccessful efforts to grow membership to levels that would sustain the course and a multiuse clubhouse facility. The club had about 100 members at the end and had been as high as 200, but never reached a mid-2000s’ goal of 350 members.
Ward, owner of Southern Pump and Filter, was part of a group that built the clubhouse about a decade ago at 7400 Cordova Club Drive, north of Macon Road and west of Germantown Parkway. The course is owned by Germantown-based Baptist Missions Inc., but had been leased and maintained for years by clubhouse owners, Cordova Financial Group Partnership.
“It’s definitely closed, and it is for sale,” Ward said. “It didn’t have enough play, like so many other golf courses around town. It’s a tough, tough, tough business.”
The closing leaves a question mark for a community of several hundred homes on streets including Fairway Forest, Links View and Winter Green.
“Some of our homes back up to it, so our residents are concerned,” said Jim Simpson, president of the Cordova Club Owners Association. In a statement posted on the association website, Simpson said the neighborhood would make sure the owner properly maintains the property and follows pertinent land restrictions.
Scott Pearce of Servco Building Services LLC, who represents Ward and Baptist Missions, said he’s scheduled to meet Thursday with the homeowners’ association to discuss the situation.
“I’m responsible for maintaining the course, dealing with the neighborhood and finding suitable uses for development,” Pearce said.
Pearce said the clubhouse is under contract to The Ritz at Cordova Club. The Ritz took over the club’s calendar of private party bookings for a facility that includes two pools and a deck, Ward said.
An out-of-date posting by United Country Real Estate online listed the course for sale for $1.7 million. That was for both the course and clubhouse, Ward said.