St. Charles Parish is once again becoming a golfing community after a brief period in which things didn’t go too well for the local drivers and putters.
This issue of the Herald-Guide has a story about how Ormond Country Club in Destrehan, which underwent bankruptcy in 2010, has reorganized with new ownership under the name of Cypress Lakes Country Club. It has been restructured with massive improvements in its physical and operational aspects. And membership of the new club has increased by 62.4 percent since the ownership change.
In the past few weeks, this newspaper has also published articles on how Willowdale Country Club in Luling underwent a similar conversion and Fashion Golf and Country Club in Hahnville has survived the years as the only nine-hole course in the parish.
Willowdale closed in November of 2011 because of financial difficulties but, after local investors realized the 77-acre course could become an eyesore without an active owner, they purchased and re-opened it under the name of Grand Ridge Golf Club. Since then, the course has been repaired and beautified into one of the most attractive courses in the Gulf South.
The new owners decided to concentrate on providing an exciting golf course and forego other diversions that country clubs offer, such as swimming and tennis. They didn’t want to it to interfere with the main purpose of their purchase.
And just last week, the Herald-Guide published an article on Stacy Francis who has leased the property occupied by Fashion Golf and Country Club and has already made significant improvements there. He has cleared the course and driving range of heavy brush and rubbish and has promised that the course will be kept cut at fairway height entirely so that golfers can see where their balls land from the tee-box.
Francis plans to concentrate on getting youth more into the golfing picture in St. Charles. The club has some 100 members at the present time at $45 a month, and with the enthusiasm that Francis has expressed, it should be much higher soon.
So St. Charles is taking the lead in restoring golf to a popular sport in our area after a recession in the past few years.
The parish is also attracting players from New Orleans and other areas of Southeast Louisiana.
After all, there is no parish more beautiful than St. Charles in which to claim a birdie on hole four.
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