Crooked Creek Golf Club members fight to keep golf course

From Ken Boone's backyard, he has a front row seat to the fifth hole at Crooked Creek Golf Club in Fuquay Varina. But he fears that view could soon be replaced by the sound of construction.

“We love hearing the occasional slap of the hands,” Boone said.

Homeowners who live around Crooked Creek Golf Club have filed a motion in court to protect their investments. They want a temporary injunction to stop the owners from shutting down the course next month and developing the land.

Residents said they bought homes at Crooked Creek because they wanted to live on a golf course. Now, the owners of the course say they are losing money every day and it’s time to sell out.

“We tried every trick in the book,” Tony Withers, co-owner of the golf course said. “Golf as an industry is falling off. We’ve been losing money year after year.”

The course owners plan to close the course, tear it up and build new homes. The owners say removal of the golf course was always their "end game" and point out that it’s even in the covenant that homeowners signed when they bought into the neighborhood.

Homeowners say they never realized that was part of the exit strategy.

One clause states provisions "in the event" the course is subdivided into lots for single family homes. But another clause notes the plan approved by Wake County includes a golf course.

“They sold lifetime memberships. They promised lifetime memberships to certain people who bought houses,” Boone said. “They can't go back on that word now to make more money.”

Crooked Creek Partners promise the new development will include luxury amenities and say they're working positively with the homeowners association.

On Monday, the association issued a letter to homeowners, making clear it does not support current plans.

"The golf course owners have talked of a development with a new pool, and a new trail system throughout the neighborhood, neither of which appear to be part of the current site,” the association said in the letter. We do not see any benefit to our association members to support the increased housing."

Crooked Creek is slated to close on July 5, but court hearing is scheduled for July 2.