Always thought the Ridges. would make a great hotel with several dining options (truly fine to pub/clubhouse food) with an 18 hole championship golf course. There is a large perfectly flat spot up there where you and look in four different directions and see a par three, two par fours, and a par five right before your eyes not to mention views that stretch miles into the distance.

The hotel prices in Athens are not realistic. Athens Central is nice but overpriced. Looking at NYE...with the students gone.

Holiday Inn Express - 147 plus tax = $166

Hampton Inn - $158 w/tax

Fairfield Inn - $146 w/tax

Maybe there needs to be more competition to get the prices more in line with reality.

Everybody understands the concept of supply and demand...however... look at Priceline around Wednesday or Thursday and with those hotels mostly empty, there could be some last minute discounting. Even with the Blue Jackets having a crappy season, people will go to short north and the arena district in C'bus for NYE expecting to pay 150 or 200 that night for a room. Not in a college town with the kids gone and nothing going on. Athens Central unlike those three chain hotels is already discounting for that night. A smart move.

Disclaimer: I was a travel agent for 14 years but that stint ended Jan.1 2012, a year in corporate travel in 2016 not withstanding. That was all before the pandemic, so things may have changed and probably did.

What are your thoughts then toward the growth of popularity of AirBnB? From my experience a lot of it is driven by people who are traveling with dogs and desire yard space for them. That is another counter trend to brining another hotel down to Athens. Though from what I understand its not legal to have an AirBnB business in the Athens City limits.

yeah, because crime and disturbances never happen at a hotel.

Actually the monthly charge without a cart is $468.69 - $260 for golf, $17 for equipment fund, $60 for a a capital fund, and $100 food and beverage charge, plus tax on all of that. That's over $5600 a year.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy playing there once or twice a year and have many friends who are members. That said and as an example, a friend of mine plays at Deer Ridge golf course near Bellville in rural Richland County. It's an 18 hole public course with a membership option for $1566.67 per year with a three year membership or $1900 per year on a year to year basis. That includes your cart.

If a course is nice enough and reasonably priced, people will drive to play it. There are between 20 and 40 Athens men who drive up to an hour every Wednesday and Thursday to play a variety of 18 hole out of town courses.

And finally, the course would only need to take up 125 or so of the acres on The Ridges. The rest could remain for other outdoor pursuits.

Almost $500 a month I guess is relatively restrictive. One thing about your post that struck me is a group traveling to a variety of courses within an hour. If this is the case won't they continue to do so even with a public 18 in town once the become bored of it? Play it once a month and the other nights of the month go somewhere else?

They have to charge/pay the same hotel/motel tax that the other hotels in town pay.

Athens Central has a Hotels.com member rate of $103 for NYE...thus there is middle ground between staying in a flea-bag motel for $50 and overpaying for a mid-tier chain hotel at $150. I never said the Hampton Inn should be $50 or that people should drag their family to some run down ho-house.

I'm with Alan on this one...Athens can support an 18 hole golf course if it's done right. I was part of the group of people who regularly drove 60-90 minutes out of town when I was a student to play 18 hole golf courses. If the course is a real layout (at least 4 sets of tees and at least Par 70) that is well kept people will drive in from all over to play it. A strong local base of players would be ideal but good golf courses draw from a much larger area than I think many expect (not uncommon for me to drive 2+ hours to play with my friends when I have the time). Not to mention our golf teams could actually practice on a real golf course! Eagle Sticks in Zanesville is a good example of a quality course that isn't exactly that close to a large population center that does well and draws from a wide area (including Athens).

There have been many courses that have closed in Ohio in the last 10 years and almost none that were built recently so the supply and demand issue has balanced out. As property prices skyrocketed and the golf crowd waned it made sense in a lot of cases to develop the land the courses were on for housing. Now we expect housing prices to drop in the short term and golf popularity has ticked back up considerably in the last 3 years. Try getting a tee time at a nice course a couple days away from a Summer weekend. It's become nearly impossible on many public tracks.

Westchester in Canal Winchester in the late 90's is the last mid-high end course I can think of being built SE of Columbus. It's barely survived but in the immediate vicinity Cooks Creek Closed (I think it's done at least), the Phoenix closed, Upper Lansdowne closed, Foxfire killed off the original 18 (let's not forget the Elm, R.I.P.). Those are all South and Southeast of Columbus that used to draw the diehards out of SE Ohio. Of that group Cooks was built basically in a river that flooded all the time and the layout required huge maintenance costs, The Phoenix was literally built on a dump that caused lots of problems, Lansdowne was redeveloped for housing after years of neglect, and Foxfire's original 18 was also redeveloped for housing. Ohio probably had too many golf courses given the climate but I think now the tables have turned where a new course could thrive if done right.

Getting it right isn't easy and the piece of property plays a huge part in it. The other major factors are making the layout fun for all players, designing it so maintenance costs aren't crazy (e.g. can't have 100 bunkers) and avoiding a design that causes pace of play issues. Of course having competent people in charge is just as important. It can be done but I admit it's not easy to thread this needle. Having zero competition within 30 minutes in your weight class sure would be a nice leg up though.

I'm not going to hold my breath but man it would be cool to see it happen in Athens and give me another reason to drive back more often.

Another supporting data point for putting an 18 hole course in the Athens vicinity is that (from the referenced article) industry recommends having one for every 25,000 people and 50,000 for a 36 hole course.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/failing-golf-courses-killi... .

From what I remember 90% of Athens County population is within that Nelsonville to Athens corridor. Population is solidly over 50,000 people. Athens Country Club it appears is more of a swim and tennis club than a serious golf club and it only has 9 holes so another 18 in Athens County gives you only 27.

Location wise I think you want to be as close to US 33 as what you can. An 18 hole course in The Plains would be easier for land acquisition and more centered in the Athens-Nelsonville corridor. Ridges is an extra 10 minutes south partially because you have to wind up the hillside. Athens Country Club is only a mile from that one. If passers by can see the golf course from US 33 that is instant advertising.

90% is a bit high. Alexander Local is the second largest school district in the county and it's south of Athens. You also forgot about the 9 hole course at OU. When it first reopened after a redesign around 2000, it was the nicest course in the county - great tees, huge greens, four sets of tees, and brand new bunkers. The tees are still pretty good but the greens are not as nice as the county club. The traps are a disaster. As LongDriver said earlier, a solid maintenance program is the key.

If the community authority is approved by OU and City Council, the land to put the course on at the Ridges would be free which would reduce the cost of building a course. The biggest obstacles I foresee would be the public outcry over the negative environmental effect the course would have and the mistaken belief that golf is an elitist white man's game. If done properly and in conjunction with OU, a world class "First Tee" type of program could be developed so that kids of all socioeconomic groups in the area could participate in what is a lifetime sport.

Last thing - the tennis courts at the county club have been plowed under.