(upbeat music)
- As far as I'm concerned,
it doesn't get much better than this.
If you wanna play golf in a lovely setting
with weather, probably 325 days a year,
then you've come to the right place because you can't beat,
you can't beat those vistas.
- [Host] You wouldn't know it from those vistas,
but golf is in a crisis.
The sport's popularity has declined in recent years
as younger generations haven't taken to the game
with the same level of enthusiasm as their predecessors.
There's also an issue of too many golf courses.
In the last decade, about 800 golf courses have closed down
across the country, with 200 of those taking place
just in the last year.
These closures have freed up large swaths of land,
leaving towns with the problem of what to do
with that land that is left behind.
One town that is struggling with this issue
is Oro Valley, Arizona.
Located outside Tucson, Oro Valley is known
as one of the best destinations for golf in the Southwest.
That's because until last year, the suburb of 44,000
had seven golf courses, which along with warm winters
in the Catalina Mountains, attract golfers
from around the country.
But lately, golf in Oro Valley hasn't been doing well.
Last June, Rancho Vistoso, a private club,
declared bankruptcy, shutting down its 18 holes.
And this year, the town has been struggling to decide
what to do with its unprofitable municipal course,
the El Conquistador.
Mike Schoeppach lives down the street
from the El Conquistador, where he plays three days a week.
Like many Oro Valley residents, he's concerned about
the prospect of redevelopment.
- Why would you abandon this?
I mean, this is a treasure.
Not continuing to make a reasonable investment
in this property is insanity.
- [Host] Ironically, it wasn't that long ago
the developers viewed building along a fairway
as a surefire way to gin up home prices.
- These courses have been here since the mid 1980s.
They were built initially for the purpose
of selling real estate.
There's no question about that.
- [Host] In the 1980s and 90s golf was booming.
Spurred on by the success of the sport's biggest ever star,
Tiger Woods, the National Golf Foundation encouraged
the industry to build a course a day for 10 years,
and that's what happened.
Over a 20 year period more than 4,000 new golf courses
were built in the US, in large part thanks to home builders
who made new golf courses the central amenity
in the communities they built around the country.
- Well a hot topic to discussed tonight in Oro Valley.
The fate of the town's golf courses.
- The justification over a town owned golf course
has divided the community for several years now.
The controversy continues with the council set
to vote on the issues in the upcoming weeks.
- [Host] The question of what to do next
with the El Conquistador has split
the town of Oro Valley into two camps,
those against redevelopment and those for it.
- If you're asking me whether seven courses are too many
for the town of Oro Valley, I would say yes,
and that's because some of the courses
have gone out of business.
That tells you that there's more supply than demand.
- [Host] Richard Furash's Hyperlocal blog
LOVE Let Oro Valley Excel has been scrupulously covering
the El Conquistador issue.
- The people that wanna keep the courses
wanna keep the courses cause they're their courses.
They don't wanna change.
It's simple.
- [Host] Leading the opposition to redevelopment is
Jennifer Lefevre, an Oro Valley resident
who lives on the El Conquistador course.
- So we're behind the street that I live on right now,
and unfortunately we have had some neighbors put their homes
on the market due to the uncertainty of what's gonna happen
with the golf course.
They moved here for their retirement.
They made the home exactly the way that they wanted it,
and they're walking away cause they can't deal
with the stress of what may happen behind their home.
- [Host] In 2014 Oro Valley purchased the El Conquistador
Golf Club for $1.2 million.
Since then it has been unable to turn a profit,
and has been subsidized by local taxes.
Recently the council outlined two options
for the town to consider moving forward.
Keep all 36 holes and try to make the course profitable,
or reduce the number of holes to 18
and transform the other 18 into a park.
- Mayor Joe Winfield who was elected last November
in part on a platform to bring changes to El Conquistador
says the town council will vote
on the fate of golf in Oro Valley.
- [Councilman] Mayor Winfield?
- Yea.
(crowd applauds)
- [Reporter] Well some people were celebrating
in Oro Valley last night.
The town council there finally made a decision
about its three golf courses.
- [Host] After months of contentious debate the town
of Oro Valley voted to buck the national trend
and preserve its 36 holes of golf,
but this was a compromise
that reflects the new realities of the sport.
As part of the deal to save the courses
club members agreed to pay higher membership fees,
and two homeowner associations agreed
to increase their fees to keep the courses open.