Yeah the KCCC rumor makes the least sense. My first post was mainly fishing to see if anyone had heard anything more concrete than the random rumors that I had heard.
Also, this an artistic rendering of the original Ross layout that they have in the clubhouse. If it does sell, hopefully the new owner brings back some of these elements. (Sorry for the glare)
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Wow that’s cool. I had no idea they changed the routing of the back so much. I’ve always wondered why such an old course had some goofy walks between holes. Seeing this now makes much more sense. Also so many bunkers taken out. Does anyone know when that happened?
The more I look at it the worse the modern routing is… so narrow, no shapes to the fairways, no bunkers in interesting spots, greens smaller and less interesting…
So what did we decide those old rich dudes are doing? Buying hillcrest and paying some big name architect to restore it? Then donating their generous gift to the golfing world by keeping it public? I like that plan. Good use of their money.
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Y’all should play 11 from behind 10 green like it should be on Saturday. That routing is so sick.
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In the past they have done a fun greenskeepers revenge with some crazy shit
The most notorious being number one tee, being on top of the clubhouse
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Now we are talking!
Man seeing this makes me want to go back down and play it again, I really enjoyed it the only time I’ve played it, and felt like it had a ton of potential.
All of the rumors I have heard were “ABC is buying Hillcrest, renovating it, AND taking it back private.”
Guessing it would start as semi private but since so many clubs that have waitlists right now it wouldn’t surprise me to see Hillcrest go back private.
This trend is moving in the other direction IMO. Sure am seeing a lot of advertisements on Facebook and Insta trying to lure new members at some area clubs. Granted the price of admission is still ridiculous, but I think they’re seeing those waitlists get shorter.
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This.
If I see another add for Lionsgate/National joint memberships it will be too soon
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Seems like in Lawrence we have some bifurcation going on, it seems like LCC is trending full on golf and hemorrhaging social and a bunch of people have left jayhawk to come over for golf but our fleeing socials are going over there. (Their pool and gym are definitely nice, too bad their golf course is an unwalkable mess)
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Yeah, I think there is a split right between the more old school established clubs and the newer, suburban clubs when it comes to membership numbers. I know that Milburn has a 70 person waitlist and Mission has one that is quite long as well.
Don’t know if Hillcrest would be able to market itself towards the Milburn type people given that its on the “wrong side” of the City, but all the random rumors I heard always ended with the new owner taking it private. If I had to guess, if the new owner wanted to take it private it wouldn’t occur right a way. It would take several years to get membership numbers up to the level needed to financially support the club + do all of the work necessary (club house remodel, fix the pool) to draw in members.
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Wichita is going through the same. Many of the blue collar clubs are definitely seeing an increase because of rates, families and social atmosphere.
I think it’d be a tough sell to go very far upscale with Hillcrest. If you want to command private $ money these days, you need the facilities to match, which means a huge investment from the new owner.
If I was the owner of Hillcrest, which I’d love to be, I’d go the totally opposite direction and lean on what it does well. “Great” public golf at a reasonable price. It should basically be Swope with broader shoulders. I have a long term plan for the place that I think would make it the number one must-play course when visiting KC. Working with the local gov’t to make it a public park on Mondays at minimum, (and acquire additional surrounding property), partnering with conservation efforts in those public spaces to restore habitats and add native vegetation to the golf course. I dunno, I have a lot of thoughts about it that I think would work.
But I need to come up with another ~$5M.
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Based on my 10 seconds of looking, whoever buys it is going to spend a pretty penny regardless of what they do to the course/clubhouse. Looks like the current owner paid $4,000,000 in 2020. Taking it private is probably unlikely since property acquisition plus all the improvements to get everything to the private level would be well over $10,000,000. Unless of course some rich person/people want to do it as legacy/see how rich I am move, but that is unrealistic in my opinion.
Hopefully the course has a good, dedicated owner for the first time in a couple of decades.
where did you find this information?
Interesting, as my rough math at a “reasonable” operating budget, required rounds, green fees, and payback timeline makes sense with an assumed purchase price of $5M. That number wasn’t based on anything other than napkin math and what my gut told me it was worth. Sounds like I’m not far off.
Jackson County Real Estate Sales Search and the Jackson County Recorder’s Office. The Douglas M. Price Family Irrevocable Trust bought the golf course property, plus two small slivers of land in between the old driving range/3 and Hillcrest Road, for $4,000,000 on 1/31/20. Also, looks like whatever debt was used to purchase the property was paid off in 2021 because a release of trustees deed was recorded on 10/25/21. Could have packaged the course together with some other properties to clear the debt, but it does not appear that there are any financing documents recorded against the course as of right now.
Below for (what I hope are) working links.
https://jccweb.jacksongov.org/SalesSearch/(S(wmin43unugsors453zu1pv55))/Results.aspx
Browser Test - Jackson County Public Access Search
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mucho gracias, I’ll read those later tonight. I had heard about the additional land surrounding the course. That’s probably what he really wanted.
right now it’s just an idea, and it’s definitely not without risk, but I do think I’m the right person for it.
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As long as you bring back the original grass fairway bunkers and the in green sand trap on 6, I will support you.
you had me at “original.”
https://vault.si.com/vault/2014/06/02/back-on-course
I think this has been posted before, but some interesting history in this article to help understand how Hillcrest got to where it is. Even some familiar names.
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