The World Golf Hall of Fame is in its final days in St. Augustine before moving to Pinehurst

The World Golf Hall of Fame and Museum will be in business for one more week in St. Augustine -- after a quarter-century that included 16 induction ceremonies, 76 new members, special exhibits honoring the game's greatest players, entertainers and U.S. Presidents -- plus the memories of as many as 280,000 visitors per year at its peak.

Therein lies the problem: attendance dipped to around 40,000 during the pandemic year of 2020 and was around 60,000 in 2021 and 2022.

That wasn't enough to financially sustain the facility and some of its assets -- and the brand -- are being shipped to the Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina as part of the United States Golf Association's new USGA Golf House Pinehurst, set to open in the late spring of 2024.

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And it's been with a mixture of curiosity, sadness and regret that visitors are prowling the halls and exhibit rooms of the Hall of Fame in the final days.

"It was so much fun to come here," said Melody Herbert of St. Augustine, who came to the Hall of Fame with her husband Hank and their granddaughters Camille and Audrey to escape the heat of a late summer afternoon. "I loved the putting course and now that they're old enough for that, it's gone. I thought they had made improvements after [the recession of 2008]."

Another set of visitors were the Reyes brothers Benny (and his wife Janie) and Arnold (and his wife Elizabeth) from Corpus Christi, Texas. Arnold Reyes' son had graduated from the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Field Operations Academy in Brunswick and they took the opportunity to drive to St. Augustine when they read about the facility closing.

"It's a bucket list item," said Benny Reyes. "We're just lucky we could get here before it closed. It's a shame, really. If you're a golf fan this is an incredible place."

They're not alone with those feelings.

"We are sad ... the vision 25 years ago was incredible," said Sarah S. Arnold, vice-chairman of the St. Johns County Commissioner who represents District 2, which includes the World Golf Village. "Unfortunately times have changed."

Henry Dean, the District 5 commissioner who formerly represented the district where the World Golf Village is located, said the county has an opportunity for the future of the property, rather than dwelling on why the concept failed.

"I think all of us at the St. Johns County Commissioner and many citizens of the county are a bit sad about the Hall of Fame leaving," he said. "It had become sort of a fixture but it was never as successful as we hoped and what they [the World Golf Foundation and PGA Tour] thought. We're turning the page. We have a blank canvas and we're going to decide what's best for the residents on what to do with the property. We look at this as an opportunity to bring good things to the area."

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Free admission the final week

With one week left, the facility is giving golf fans on the First Coast a parting gift.

Admission will be free to the Hall of Fame and Museum, plus the IMAX Theater, from Aug. 28 through Sept. 1 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (no visitors will be admitted after 5 p.m.). The theater will show a series of documentaries, with the movies and showtimes available on the IMAX website.

All of the golf artifacts and memorabilia still remain at the Museum, such as the Hall of Fame Members Locker Room, the replica of the Swilcan Bridge at St. Andrews, plus bags, balls, clubs, clothing, trophies, trinkets and treasures that tell the stories of the game's greatest players, administrators and course architects.

The Hall of Fame and Museum, and the IMAX Theater are all that are departing at this time. Still in place will be the St. Johns County Convention Center, the Renaissance Hotel, resort condos, the two golf courses that are managed by Troon Golf (the Slammer & Squire and King & Bear) and the Caddyshack Restaurant.

Also remaining will be the bronze plaques honoring the World Golf Hall of Fame members, which at this time will remain in the rotunda of the Museum building, on the second floor.

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"It's important to the community that there still be some kind of identity to golf," Arnold said.

Most museums are struggling

The Hall of Fame and Museum, the brainchild of former PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beman, who was later one of its inductees, fell victim to dwindling attendance even before the pandemic when most museums closed in 2020.

The challenges of keeping the St. Augustine facility open were not unique: according to the American Alliance of Museums, attendance at museums nationwide was still down 38 percent in 2022 from pre-pandemic levels and 17 percent of museum directors believed there was some risk of having to close.

Once a 20-year sponsorship agreement with Shell ran out in 2018 it became harder and harder for the Hall of Fame to pay for itself.

But World Golf Foundation officials are quick to point out that the Hall of Fame is only changing places.

In the spring of 2024, the United States Golf Association will open the new version of the Hall of Fame at its six-acre Golf House Pinehurst Campus. That means it will have come full circle -- the inaugural Golf Hall of Fame, with the charter class selected by the Golf Writers Association of America, opened at Pinehurst in 1974.

"It's back where it started," said Herbert during his visit last week. "It makes perfect sense to relocate it there."

From now on, the World Golf Hall of Fame will be a joint operation between the USGA and the World Golf Foundation, which has moved to offices at the PGA Tour's Global Home in Ponte Vedra Beach.

The Foundation will manage the process of nominating and electing new members, and plan and stage the induction ceremonies. The next ceremony will be the week of the U.S. Open in Pinehurst next June, with Padraig Harrington, Tom Weiskopf and the 13 founding members of the LPGA highlighting the Class of 2024.

"Once in the USGA will manage [the Hall of Fame] day-to-day," said Greg McLaughlin, the executive director of the World Golf Foundation. "The foundation will work in concert with them for events and offer curating support."

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What to do with the property?

The issue now is what to do with a 64,000-square-foot Hall of Fame and Museum building, a 17,865-square-foot IMAX Theater and 36 acres of land.

There also will be the issue in early 2025 after PGA Tour Entertainment vacates its 32,000-square foot building for a new structure in Ponte Vedra near the Tour headquarters.

St. Johns County is in the midst of soliciting public opinion on the uses of the property and buildings, through a survey on the county website and two public meetings.

The meetings will be Sept. 27 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. and Sept. 28 from 9-11 a.m. at the St. Johns County Administration Building Auditorium, 500 San Sebastian View in St. Augustine.

Arnold said the county has received more than 2,300 responses on the survey or through emails. She said many of the ideas center around the recreational use of the property, which has served that purpose in the past through Easter Egg hunts, holiday tree decorating contests, car shows and school field trips.

"I think people very much want to see some form of recreation," she said. "A community asset that serves all the demographics and the county as a whole. It's important to have a strategic plan going forward."

Arnold all but ruled out additional residential development, pointing out the number of single-family homes and condo communities on the site or that have been built around it over the past quarter-century.

"We have plenty [residential] there and don't want to add to the traffic concerns," she said.

Dean said other ideas have included using part of the Hall of Fame building as another branch of the county library and renting kayaks and canoes for the lake.

"It could be sort of a town center, a multi-use park, a place for kids and families to play," he said. "But want our residents to have some creative thinking. We're listening."

Where will the assets go?

There's also the issue of what to do with the Museum assets other than the lockers and their contents.

Pinehurst is accepting items such as Gene Sarazen's 1922 PGA Championship and 1935 Masters Championship trophies; Jack Nicklaus' MacGregor bag from his 1965 Masters victory; Johnny Miller’s clubs, ball and gold medal from the 1973 U.S. Open at Oakmont (where he shot a record 63 in the final round); Seve Ballesteros' wedge he used when he won the first of his five majors at the 1979 Open Championship; and the shirt worn by Annika Sorenstam when she became the first woman to play in a PGA Tour event at the 2003 Colonia.

But there are about 7,500 other items that were on loan or donated to the Hall of Fame. McLaughlin said the offer was made to living Hall of Fame members and the families of those deceased to return some items but other members have opted to send the items elsewhere:

• Two-time U.S. Open champion Curtis Strange has asked for his donations to be sent to his alma mater, Wake Forest.

• Items belonging to Chick Evans will be sent to the Western Golf Association.

• Augusta National is accepting memorabilia associated with founder Clifford Roberts.

• More than 3,000 books went to the USGA of the Southern Methodist Sports Management program.

"We haven't had a problem finding a home for most of the assets," McLaughlin said. "Eventually we hope to find a home for everything."

The daunting process begins in six days -- after the final visitor leaves the structure.

That's when one era in First Coast golf history closes in St. Augustine, to be followed by the Hall of Fame's mulligan in Pinehurst.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: World Golf Hall of Fame and Museum in its last days in St. Augustine