Metacomet Golf Club had a long and storied history. It has, however, no future. Not as a golf course, anyway.
Rebuilt in 1926 by Donald Ross, the course in East Providence, Rhode Island, closed last September. Just what to do with it is a question that so far has no answer.
Amid years of declining membership, mounting debt and tax issues, the private club went through two sales in little more than a year in 2019-2020, including a short-lived purchase in 2019 by an investment group led by PGA Tour player and Rhode Island native Brad Faxon. That group sold the club in 2020 to Marshall Properties, a Pawtucket real estate developer that wants to transform the 138-acre property into a mixed-use site that includes green space, retail and residential space.
That plan has not been met with enthusiasm by some, and now, the city is exploring ways to buy the property and retain it as open urban greenspace.
Last month, two state lawmakers proposed a plan that would tap public money to help the city buy and preserve the property.
The course originally was built by architect Leonard Byles in 1919. Ross rebuilt it five years later, and the 6,500-yard layout, a modest length by today's standards, has stood the test of time due primarily to its tight quarters that placed a premium on shot-making over distance.
The likes of Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen have walked Metacomet's fairways.
The club had been struggling financially for years, and when the investment group led by Faxon, Rhode Island's favorite (golf-playing) son bought the property in April 2019, many thought the club's worries were over. According to published reports, the group bought the property for a song, but also incurred its debt and unpaid taxes. Plans by the new owners included opening a few tee times to daily fee play.
After a colder-than-usual spring in 2019 delayed the start of the season. Sparse play led the new ownership group to open even more tee times to public golfers, a sure sign that those struggles were only beginning. By year's end, the new owners were answering questions by jilted members about plans to redevelop the property.
By early 2020, they announced plans to sell the property. Dozens of potential suitors were courted, and few had plans to keep Metacomet as a golf course. By the end of February, just 10 months after buying Metacomet, the owners had struck an agreement to sell the property to Marshall Properties, according to published records. After the sale was completed last summer, the course finally closed for good on Sept. 30.
Statements by Marshall told Met members all they needed to know: "The Metacomet property is a special place to many in East Providence, and it is equally as special to us. For decades, the property has been fenced off to the public as a private golf course, and we are proud of our plan to take down those fences, and open up Metacomet as an amenity to the people of East Providence.
"Marshall plans to redevelop the site into an exciting first-class mixed-use property that will bolster both commerce and community in the upper bay. In the coming months, a vision for the property will be unveiled—a vision that will further strengthen East Providence and Rhode Island's economy through investment, job creation and the development of a vibrant center of activity in one of the state's top communities."
Late last summer, a state legislator proposed the city buy the property to preserve it as greenspace. By late January, that proposal included soliciting state and possibly even federal funds to help the city by the acreage.
Time will tell what will become of the property, but this much is sure, Metacomet's future as a golf course is over.