MADERA COUNTY, Calif. (FOX26) — Valley Golf Center, a longtime driving range in Madera County, is set to close later this month after its co-owners said leasing disagreements pushed them to end operations sooner than planned.
“Thank you. It’s been our honor, honestly, to put this facility together and have what we have here,” Cindy Vining, co-owner, said.
Valley Golf Center, a longtime driving range in Madera County, is set to close later this month after its co-owners said leasing disagreements pushed them to end operations sooner than planned (FOX26).
The co-owners have run the range for almost 10 years and had hoped to renew their lease one last time before retiring and selling the business to local investors.
Instead, they said the landowner, Valley Children’s Hospital, hired a company to value the business and the outcome did not support their plans.
“It’s kind of hard when you put this much heart and soul and effort into something and find out that it’s basically, they told us it’s not worth anything to them,” Vining said. “So to me it’s a slap in the face to the community that the community is not worth anything.”
Vining, a former pro golfer, worked as an instructor at the facility in the early 2000s when it was known as River Park Golf Center.
She spent years introducing new players to the sport.
The co-owners have run the range for almost 10 years and had hoped to renew their lease one last time before retiring and selling the business to local investors (PHOTO: PHOTOJOURNALIST RONNIE GERBER).
“You can play great and score horrible and you can hit it horrible and score great. So there’s no rhyme or reason to this game so it gets kind of addicting,” Vining said. “Once you try it, it just can become a passion pretty quickly.”
Customers said the closure will leave a hole in the local golf scene.
Jared Ely, who has been coming to Valley Golf, previously River Park, since childhood, is disappointed.
“Terrible, stunned, to be honest with you,” Ely said. “This place going away, it’s got the local feel. It’s just kind of sad.”
Valley Children’s Hospital said it hopes to keep the golf range open and thanked Vining and her co-owner for their dedication (STATEMENT: VALLEY CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL).
Valley Children’s Hospital told FOX26 in a statement that it was informed of the co-owners’ plans to retire and is currently in discussions with a potential new operator. The hospital said it hopes to keep the golf range open and thanked Vining and her co-owner for their dedication.
The co-owners said they had active local investors interested in buying the business and taking over the lease, but that did not happen.
They said that, as far as they know, the next owners will keep it as a golf course.
With the closure approaching, the owners said they were told not to leave anything behind and will be liquidating equipment, aiming to sell everything by the end of the month.
The last day for the business is July 29. The owners are encouraging people to stop by before then, especially anyone with an unused gift card.