Oak Grove Golf Course, CLOSED 2012

Detailed description of Oak Grove Golf Course, CLOSED 2012

Oak Grove Golf Course is a public 18-hole golf course located in Necedah, Wisconsin. The nearly 100-acre course that has operated as Northern Bay West Golf Course and Oak Grove Golf Course

Oak Grove Golf Course first opened for play in 2002. The course was designed by Team Golf Resources.

Oak Grove Golf Course plays to a par-68 and maximum distance of 5,200 yards.

Oak Grove was closed for the 2009-2010 season. As of November 2010 the course is undergoing rennovation and reseeding. The course will be closed for winter 2010/11 but is scheduled to reopen Spring 2011.

The course has closed in 2012.

The course, financially backed by the city, had been in touble for years. Necedah has struggled for years repay a $4.9 million loan for a 2001 TIF district development that included the golf course.

TIF is “tax increment financing,” a tool that lets municipalities repay borrowing made for developments by directing new property tax revenues the developments generate at the loans that made the developments possible.

Necedah’s TIF district, which included the 18-hole golf course as well as an assisted living center and residential lots, was planned to generate property taxes based upon a valuation of $12 million.

But the lots never found buyers and the golf course never performed as planned, leaving the village on the hook for debt payments with tax dollars it did not have.