Timber Ridge Golf Course will be different in 2022 — ‘shorter but have more character,’ be ‘more fun’ and offer players a ‘good challenge’
By MARK MILLER
In two years, Timber Ridge Golf Course will mark a significant milestone, having been founded in 1924 as the Parlor City Country Club. There have been any number of changes made to the course over the past 98 years, but perhaps none quite as significant as what the spring of 2022 will bring.
“I truly believe this marks a new era for the course,” PGA professional and now sole proprietor Bruce Imel said.
The changes start with a new footprint and a new course routing, innovations of what Imel calls “gamification,” the course’s first mobile app and an expanded area for his growing golf academy.
Imel and John Roembke purchased the course in 2009, but the time has come for Romebke, retired founder of Roembke Manufacturing, to step further into retirement. Hence Imel has become sole owner, but selling off a portion of the course for housing was part of making that possible.
“But this also gave us an opportunity to not just allow some people to live adjacent to a golf course, which is very popular, but also to realign the course to better suit the changing golf scene,” Imel said.
Several housing lots were created on the course’s western edge, eliminating what were holes 4, 5, and 6. Additionally, what was hole 9 will become residential housing. Imel utilized the wooded area on the south edge of the property to create several new holes and others were re-configured in order to retain an 18-hole layout which, Imel said, “will be shorter but will have more character.”
“The emphasis is to make golf more fun and faster to play, while offering a good challenge. It’s like bringing more ‘TopGolf’ to green grass golf,” he continued, referring to the popular, large golf-themed facilities that present the sport in a more family-entertainment environment.
For example, four holes will offer individual games — the holes will have cameras that gives the course the ability to offer prizes for accomplishing a certain golfing feat, such as an “eagle” or a hole-in-one. The mobile app will provide GPS distance information for where the golfer is on each hole along with online scoring options and other details still in development.
Finally, the new design has created more practice areas for the Imel Group Golf Academy, which is focused on offering classes for both juniors and adults to learn the game.
“This effort continues to grow in popularity,” Imel said, “and is, quite frankly, key to the future of golf.”
As part of his membership in the PGA — the Professional Golfer’s Association— Imel participates in continuing education courses to include teaching the game. He utilizes what he refers to as the “widely popular Operation 36 curriculum.” He has a goal of enrolling 200 students. The academy is also helping the national Operation 36 fulfill its mission of creating one million new golfers.
The game of golf is beginning to recover from a rough period in its history, Imel explained. After a strong growth period in the 1990s and early 2000s, the industry went though a huge contraction from 2007 to 2019, when the numbers of golfers heavily declined due to aging and the 2008 financial crisis.
The National Golf Owners Association estimated that during this period, up to 92 percent of all courses lost money each year.
“Timber Ridge was in that group,” he admitted.
“While there were mistakes made in the past, it is almost certain that Timber Ridge could not possibly survive if I kept the same business model,” he said, “that’s why these changes just had to be made.”
His goal is to continually improve the course, year by year.
“The pandemic was actually good for golf,” he said. “It’s outdoors and it’s as socially distancing as much as you want.” The number of rounds played at Timber Ridge has continued to improve since the pandemic.
Imel added that another dilemma — the profitable use of the large clubhouse — has been solved by leasing the food and beverage service to Don and Tera Nuttle.
Their “Flex Meal Prep” business “offers outstanding services,” Imel said, “in both areas of catering onsite and offsite along with their daily meal prep and personal fitness services.”
While the course is open now, presently utilizing the “old back 9” holes as weather permits, the new holes will be ready by mid-May and Imel is planning a grand reopening event for June 11.
miller@news-banner.com
