A California golf course is in escrow. What does that mean for the course?
REDDING, California — Tucker Oaks Golf Course has been in business since 1965.
At the south end of Churn Creek Bottom between Redding and Anderson, it’s one of the most popular nine-hole public courses in the North State.
So, when news hit the community that the property Tucker Oaks sits on and three other adjoining parcels were for sale, a few emails landed in my inbox wondering about the future of the golf course on Churn Creek Road.
“Is Tucker Oaks Golf Course in escrow? If so will they keep it as a golf course?”
That was from former Anderson Mayor Keith Webster.
The property is in escrow. The sale isn’t scheduled to close for a few months, according to Ryan Haedrich of Haedrich & Co. Inc, which represents the seller.
All told, four parcels totaling 107 acres were listed for $1.195 million.
Haedrich told me that the golf course and Mulligan’s restaurant have leases with the current land owner, KOH Atlas Corp of Riverton, Utah.
“They are bound to the lease. Most likely any buyer would want to keep them to continue to operate to maintain the property,” Haedrich said of the potential new owners.
Jim Duval of Anderson, second from left, watches as a fellow golfer tees off at Hole 7 on Thursday, Sept. 8, 2022, at Tucker Oaks Golf Course on Churn Creek Road. The course is in escrow but the sale isn’t scheduled to close for a few months. The buyer hasn’t been identified. (Photo by Mike Chapman/Record Searchlight)
Mike Ervin, the course superintendent, said the current lease will expire in about a year and a half. Al and Carleen Banuelos have owned the golf course since 1970, he added.
Ervin, too, has been getting a lot of questions about the course’s future. He doesn’t know who the would-be buyer is or what the plans are going forward.
“Yeah, we are having all the people coming up to us, saying we have heard this.
“We have a good clientele and it’s kept us going all these years. We are hoping it (golf course) hangs in there,” Ervin said.
Brad Blevins, who owns Mulligan’s restaurant at the golf course, said his “phone has been blowing up” from people who are interested to find out what’s going on.
“People call us all the time and we have no answers, nobody’s told us anything, so we’re just up in the air as everybody else is,” Blevins said.
Blevins bought the restaurant last year and says his current lease expires in October 2026.
Among the parcels being sold is a 20-acre plot assessed from the Wooded Acres subdivision with an approved tentative map that expires next March, Haedrich said.
Tucker Oaks Golf Course sits on two parcels that take up 61 acres.
The fourth parcel is zoned industrial and is 26 acres.
Haedrich also does not know what the buyer’s plans are for the properties.
Stay tuned.
David Benda covers business, development and anything else that comes up for the USA TODAY Network in Redding. Reach him on Twitter @DavidBenda_RS or by phone at 1-530-338-8323. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today.
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