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Two public golf courses in Hamilton County are on the market as the game continues to benefit from a pandemic-era boom in interest.
Prairie View Golf Club in Carmel and Wood Wind Golf Club in Westfield are for sale, according to offering memorandums from Canada-based Colliers International.
Both courses are owned and managed by Carmel-based Cohoat & O’Neal Management Corp. The company is co-owned by Matt Cohoat and John “Doc” O’Neal.
Cohoat & O’Neal Management did not respond to a request for comment from IBJ. Keith Cubba, national director of Colliers Golf Course Brokerage & Advisory Services in Utah, also did not return a phone call from IBJ.
Price listings for the two courses were not available.
“I certainly don’t look at the sale as alarming or negative in any way,” said Mike David, executive director of the sanctioning body Indiana Golf Office. “I think it’s just a situation where the owners decided that things are going well right now, and now might be a good time to step away.”
Prairie View, 7000 Longest Dr., was built in 1997. The 206-acre, 7,073-yard course is the only golf course in Indiana designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr.
Prairie View hosts tournaments organized by the Indiana PGA and Indiana Golf Association. It is scheduled to host the Indiana State High School Athletic Association’s boys and girls golf championships through 2030.
The Moffitt Farms, Brooks Landing and Chapman’s Claim subdivisions are located west of Prairie View and have median home prices of $900,000.
“Prairie View is certainly one of the top three or four public courses in the state,” David said. “Overall, an extremely well-respected facility and a really good golf course.”
Wood Wind, 2302 W. 161st St., was built in 1990 and updated between 2021 and 2022. The 147-acre, 6,255-yard golf course designed by Ron and Gary Kern is the only public course in Westfield.
Wood Wind’s future was in doubt for several years beginning in 2015 as multiple residential development companies floated proposals to replace the golf course with subdivisions.
Cohoat & O’Neal Management fought to keep the course open and made updates to improve it as construction began on a new residential development on the land surrounding Wood Wind.
“Matt Cohoat is the one that came in and I think did a lot of positive things and kind of turned it around,” David said.
David said Indiana is unique because the state has not had an influx of prominent golf course management companies, including Illinois-based KemperSports and Arizona-based Troon Golf LLC.
He anticipated Prairie View will be enticing to a large golf course management company, while Wood Wind could find a local buyer. Prairie View is located on land owned by Conner Prairie and has a 100-year lease in place.
“[Prairie View] is a very, very good golf course, and it’s in a fantastic location from a demographic standpoint and it’s got a great reputation, so certainly, it has a lot of positive things working for it,” David said. “I would be very confident that Prairie View would continue to be a golf course. I honestly don’t know about Wood Wind. I would guess that it would remain a golf course, but you never know.”
Hot market
Golf has experienced a renaissance since the beginning of the pandemic.
According to the National Golf Association’s Golf Participation in the U.S. 2022 report, 37.5 million people played at least one round of golf in 2021 at a golf course or at an off-course business like Topgolf, which has a location at 9200 E. 116th St. in Fishers. The participation number represented an increase of 4 million since 2018.
Another off-course business, Back 9 Golf & Entertainment, opened last year south of downtown Indianapolis near West Morris Street and Drover Street along with White River. The $30 million facility features a three-story golf range, restaurant and bar spaces, and a 350-person music pavilion.
Additionally, 3.2 million people played on a golf course for the first time two years ago. The industry had eight consecutive years with 2 million-plus beginners, including more than 3 million in 2020 and 2021.
David said people’s increased desire to get outside starting in 2020 led them to golf courses.
He attributed another factor in golf’s current success to there being fewer courses, which balanced supply and demand in the sport. Nearly 20 golf courses closed over the past 15 to 20 years in Indiana, he said.
“We had way too many golf courses and not enough players,” David said. “Now, for the most part, courses are doing really well. You look at private clubs, and the vast majority have a waiting list, which they didn’t have six or eight years ago.
“A lot of the public courses have full tee-time sheets, which they definitely didn’t have six or eight years ago, so I think golf in general is kind of riding this high right now, without a doubt.”
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Yeah, “resurgence” of golf… how did the LIV opening go?
It’s not so much who watches golf, as who is out there playing golf on a recreational basis. I don’t think LIV has anything to do with the latter.