The golf business has been a tumultuous one for many during the past two decades. There was the Tiger Woods-infused boom followed by a downturn fueled by a burst in the real estate market that brought with it a crushing recession that was defined by steady contraction of the golf course supply that has lasted nearly two decades. The pandemic era brought with it renewed popularity followed by a slight leveling off.
What's next? No one knows.
Nowhere has the golf business been affected more by these ups and downs than northeastern Ohio, where at least a half-dozen courses in the Canton area have closed in recent years.
When new owners purchased the 36-hole Bob-O-Link club in North Canton 22 years ago, they thought they had a business plan built for success. Instead, the golf course that was renamed The Sanctuary by its new owners, will close at the end of this golf season amid a host of economic problems.
Bob-O-Link was built in 1965 and for years was a popular layout with local golfers. McKinley Development Co., a residential and commercial real estate development company in Canton, bought Bob-O-Link at the height of the golf boom in 2001 with a blueprint company executives believed was built for success.
The plan called for restoring 18 holes while closing the other 18 and repurposing it for commercial real estate development. Two years later, Bob-O-Link reopened as The Sanctuary and continued to operate for two decades as a popular daily fee destination.
It appeared on paper to be the perfect plan: Keep a popular golf course on one hand while generating revenue by developing the rest of the property. But things aren't always what they seem.
The ownership group, which is a joint venture of DeHoff Development and Lemmon Development companies, recently announced The Sanctuary would close after failing to generate a profit since it reopened 20 years ago.
In a news release announcing the closing, Bill Lemmon of Lemmon Development, said losing money year over year coupled with escalating costs of maintaining the property led to the decision to close The Sanctuary.
An aging equipment inventory and no stomach for making any more large capital expenditures coupled with the constant struggle to recruit and retain employees finally prompted owners to pull the plug on the operation. The course will close at the end of the season in October.
"The economics of running a golf course has changed dramatically over these last several years," Lemmon said in a prepared statement. "Although we tried our best to make it work, it was no longer sustainable."
More than 2,000 golf courses have closed in the past two decades. The Sanctuary becomes the latest in a list of courses in the area to close in recent years, or could close in the near future.
According to Golfweek, that list includes 50-year-old Seven Hills, which went up for sale in March; Skyland Pines, which closed in 2021 and is now the site of an Amazon facility; 36-hole Tam O'Shanter, which closed five years ago to make way for residential housing and greenspace; Edgewood, which shrank from 18 to nine holes 20 years ago before finally closing altogether in 2013; Rolling Green and Lake View, which closed in 2016 and 2017, respectively.
According to the news release announcing The Sanctuary's closing, owners have not announced plans for the property.