Gulf State Park golf course future

GULF SHORES, Ala. (WPMI) — 

News of the Gulf State Park closing its golf course for good isn’t sitting well with fans of the course.

At issue is the fact that those same fans simply were not showing up in the numbers like they used to.

State officials say the move is a strategic one, saying it was time. For years money was being diverted to help subsidize the golf course.

Jack Steakley visits the gulf state park “golf course” every time he travels from Nashville. He may not be a Snowbird yet but he fears closing this course will be bad for everyone’s game.

“What I’m afraid is the snowbirds like coming down. This is one of their activities now they’ll think well maybe we won’t come there as much as a snowbird because they don’t like paying the money for those nicer courses. it’s not what they like,” said Steakley.

For many the opening of the new state lodge and so many other improvements to the park should have signaled new life at the golf course but according to the statistics golfers just weren’t playing here.

Starting in 2016 fewer and fewer rounds of golf were played therefore less and less money was coming in.

“It’s in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and the trends unfortunately, the global golf trends are not favorable for leisure golf,” said Gary Ellis spokespersons for the Gulf State Park.

The big question what’s the future hold for all this green space?

“One of the emerging trends is group camping for families that travel together in groups, we are looking at that as a trend. Nature trails and so forth for bikes. perhaps some kind of event venue, ” said Ellis.

Park officials say younger, up and coming families are looking for those nature and camping opportunities gone are the days of dad disappearing for hours to play golf.

“This one should get play all year round. It surprised me that they decided to close this one,” said Delwynn Gibbs an avid golfer who visits the area every year.

Those who love the sport and have made this course a tradition will have to find a new home and there’s the possibility they could chose a different destination all together.

“Here lately we’ve rented a condo for the month of November spending a whole month down here. This month hasn’t been too good but in the past we’ve had some good winter,” said Gibbs.

The good news, several courses in the area have agreed to offer special rates for Gulf State Park’s campground and lodge guests from December 3rd through February 28.