One of the primary venues for junior golf in Snohomish County is up for sale and, barring a late reprieve, could become the site for a future housing development.
The pending sale involves Lobo Ridge Golf Course, a compact nine-hole facility on the outskirts of Snohomish, which has been the home for First Tee of Snohomish County. First Tee is a national organization that offers instruction in golf and life skills to young people at chapters across the country.
Lobo Ridge is currently owned jointly by George and Lynn Thoreson, a husband and wife, and Todd Tibke, who is also president of the local First Tee chapter’s board of directors. Tibke hopes to see a group put together that can buy the Thoreson’s principal share of the golf course and preserve it – First Tee has the right of first refusal on a sale – but realizes that may be difficult because the deadline is Monday.
The sales price, which includes the clubhouse, is $895,000, “and already there is bidding between builders out here for this property,” Tibke said.
First Tee is trying to pool money from grants, investors and other sources, and according to Jeff Cornish, executive director of First Tee’s Snohomish County chapter, the odds of that being successful in the waning days “are about 50-50.”
“It’s an expensive campaign,” Cornish said, “but to say there’s a golf course that is centrally located in the county and that is just for kids, that’s pretty cool. If we can keep the golf course and prevent it from becoming houses, that’s the first step. And we’re going to give it a good effort.”
If a First Tee group is unable to buy the golf course, the chapter will likely relocate to another public course in the county, Cornish said. First Tee, which had 326 kids in its program this past summer and has room for additional growth, would then negotiate to buy rounds and time on the practice facilities for junior golfers.
At Lobo Ridge, “we’ve had (top) priority access, so we’ve been able to plan classes for the most convenient times for the kids,” Cornish said. “And we didn’t have to worry about buying tee times. There is some freedom when there is a course kind of committed to just that program.
“We’ve just been exploring our possibilities,” he said. Right now, he added, “we’re just on the phone, dialing for dollars.”
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