Whidbey Island’s Holmes Harbor Golf Course is expected to reopen later this year

Published 12:01 am Thursday, July 7, 2011

To the Whidbey Island golfing community, last year’s closure of Holmes Harbor Golf Course meant no more public golf on the southern end of the island.

It was very disappointing, of course, which is why word that Holmes Harbor is expected to reopen later this year under new ownership is such e

xciting news.

Onyxx Capital 1 LLC took ownership of the golf course last week, and managing member Kevin Hanchett of Edmonds said he hopes to have the 18-hole executive-length course open in the next 2-4 months.

The immediate goal, Hanchett said, is “to rehabilitate the golf course,” and he is putting together a team with golf-business expertise to determine “a schedule for what needs to be done to get the course back into playing condition, a timeline for that schedule and a budget for that schedule.

“The optimistic thought process would be two months,” he said. “The more realistic prospect is three to four months. … Ideally the course would be operating to catch the tail end of the (golf) season.”

Holmes Harbor has been idle for the past 16 months, following its closure by the Holmes Harbor Community Partners LLC, which had owned the course for the previous seven years. Financial problems prompted the closure and had kept the future of the golf course in doubt.

At the same time, the Holmes Harbor Sewer District has an easement on the property for use as a disposal area for recycled water. That agreement meant the property had to remain a golf course or some other open area, and precluded a sale for the purpose of developing the land.

The sewer district also tried to buy the golf course last summer, but a sale never materialized.

Enter Hanchett, a golf enthusiast who owns property on the island and has a membership at nearby Useless Bay Golf and Country Club, a private club. Hanchett, a Seattle attorney, plays golf often, although by his own admission not particularly well.

“Or as my wife says, I play marginal golf frequently,” he said with a chuckle.

Hanchett expects to hire an operator for the golf course and another for the adjoining restaurant. The idea, he said, is to find operators “who know what they’re doing, and can then come in and do it right.”

Holmes Harbor struggled financially under the previous ownership, and Hanchett believes that was due partly to an incorrect fee structure.

“The price of the golf course has to be equivalent to the product that you’re offering,” he said. “This is obviously an executive course (of shorter length). It’s not a par-72 (course) and it’s inappropriate to charge a par-72 price for a round on a short course.

“I think it’s more important to have a high volume of rounds at a fair price than fewer rounds at a (higher) price that is not sustainable,” he said.

The good news, Hanchett went on, is that Holmes Harbor has, in the sporting vernacular, a huge upside.

“It’s a beautiful piece of property,” he said. “There’s a fantastic piece of waterfront with a new dock. So there’s lots of potential for making this a very unique facility. … There’s all sorts of potential for the site that hasn’t been realized.”

Likewise, he added, “there are a number of homes around the Holmes Harbor course that bought there in part to have close proximity to a golf course.”

The news of a likely Holmes Harbor reopening has sent ripples of excitement through the island’s golfing community.

Stan Walker, who is president of the Holmes Harbor sewer district and also a golfer, said “the reaction has been very positive. Universally, everyone here is delighted with the idea.

“The golfers want to play golf and the residents want to see it come back to life,” he said. “So all the people who’ve talked to me are extremely delighted with the news that it’s going to reopen.”