photo by: Submitted photo

Greens are beginning to die and turn brown on a nine hole portion of the Jayhawk Club after the country club decided to reduce it number of golf holes from 27 to 18 earlier this year.

I know many of you are already aware of the main risk of living along a golf course: Errant shots. (Followed by me standing in your living room asking for advice on how to play the ball off the Berber.) But there is a lesser-known risk too — the golf course disappears.

Residents along a portion of the Jayhawk Club — the private golf facility in west Lawrence — are learning that risk currently. One day homeowners were living along a private golf course, and the next they are living behind a defunct one that is now becoming browner by the day.

The Jayhawk Club decided this spring to close what used to be known as the Sunflower Nine, a collection of nine holes that is largely southwest of the clubhouse of the Jayhawk Club. For those more familiar with the area, it includes holes near Nicklaus Drive, Inverness Drive and Carmel Drive, among others. (At least that is what the restraining order that I’m required to carry in my golf bag tells me.)

It is an area full of expensive homes, many filled with owners who have enjoyed living along a golf course for decades. Now they no longer are living along a functioning golf course, and the question has become what will happen to the acres of fairways and greens in the future.

I put a call into the general manager of the Jayhawk Club, which is owned by a group led by local businessman Thomas Fritzel, but I haven’t heard back. The club, though, has been sending out communication to members and others about the situation with the nine holes.

photo by: Submitted photo

Greens are beginning to die and turn brown on a nine hole portion of the Jayhawk Club after the country club decided to reduce it number of golf holes from 27 to 18 earlier this year.

In the most recent communication I saw, the club said the irrigation system for the nine holes was “archaic” and was “no longer able to function efficiently.” The communication said the club would “rely on Mother Nature” to water the course, which makes keeping it a playable course basically impossible.

Indeed, the club said it would “continue spraying and mowing in an effort to maintain the green space but not playing these holes.” The effort to keep the area green has been mixed. As I drove around the area, the fairways appeared to be green much like a regularly maintained, non irrigated lawn. But the actual putting greens have completely died, with patches of brown grass and even larger patches of bare dirt, in many cases.

Of course, neighbors have noticed. Many are unhappy about the turn of events. A group has been distributing door hanger flyers in the area. The flyer has a headline of “Call to Action,” and “Protect Our Property Values.” The unsigned flyer calls the greens and tee boxes “weed-filled eye sores instead of the beautiful structures they were in the past.”

The flyer spends a lot of words on wondering what is in store for the future. “Will they maintain the course behind your house? Will they replace the golf course with streets and houses? How much will quality of life and property values go down?”

The issue of whether parts of the golf course will be turned into residential homes might be one to keep an eye on. It is notable that the golf course land itself — i.e. the fairways, the greens, the tee boxes — is not zoned as open space. Instead, it is zoned for single-family residential development.

That means the property has one major development hurdle already cleared. It would not have to go through the Planning Commission and City Commission to win what certainly would be a contentious zoning change. The zoning allows for housing currently.

However, that doesn’t mean it would be easy to fill the property with homes. Much of it is landlocked, in that there is no road to the center portions of the course. It also is tough to see how a road could be built on many portions of the course, while still meeting regulations such as setback requirements. Some portions of the course also might be in floodplain areas, which would come with building restrictions regardless of the zoning.

I talked with several neighbors who live along the closed portion of the course. They are upset, and worried about property values falling once they are no longer able to market their homes as being on a golf course. But they also are shy. None of them wanted to speak on the record because they are worried if they publicly complain about the situation, they could lose their membership in the country club.

It sounds like they are trying to band together privately, perhaps to emerge as a group publicly. However, it is not clear what legal strategy any such group might be able to use to force the golf course to operate this portion of the course again. The club is a private business that generally will have broad latitude to decide a business activity is no longer feasible. Some individuals said promises were made that the course would remain in operation when the current ownership group bought the golf course from the longtime Alvamar Country Club group. But it is unclear the specifics of any promises and how binding they would be.

photo by: Journal-World photo

Greens are beginning to die and turn brown on a nine hole portion of the Jayhawk Club after the country club decided to reduce it number of golf holes from 27 to 18 earlier this year. This green is near the intersection of Inverness and Prestwick in west Lawrence.

The elimination of golf holes is not unprecedented. The Jayhawk Club previously reduced Alvamar’s 36 holes of golf to 27 holes of golf. It also rearranged many holes as the ownership group added new amenities and apartments to the area near the clubhouse.

This latest change does have one twist to it. In some ways, it marks the end of an era. People who know the golf course much better than I said these nine holes that recently closed really were the last vestiges of the original Alvamar golf complex. All the other holes have been significantly altered from their original state.

The Alvamar Course — created by the late Lawrence businessman Bob Billings who was the driving force for much west Lawrence development — was a nationally noted course for many years.