Golf course changes owners

by bill o'brien
bobrien@record-eagle.com

May 02, 2009 12:20 am

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CEDAR -- A local group led by The Homestead resort's chief is the new owner of King's Challenge golf course in Leelanau County.

Homestead president Robert Kuras said Friday that the 18-hole Arnold Palmer-designed course adjacent to Sugar Loaf Resort is under new ownership and will reopen this year with numerous upgrades to course and facilities.

"We are hoping to complete the work within the next month to six weeks," said Jamie Jewell, a spokeswoman for The Homestead.

An opening date has not been determined, Jewell said. New owners also expect to change the course's name, she said.

The sale price was not disclosed. According to Leelanau County property tax records, the property's state equalized valuation is around $1.26 million, placing its "true cash" value for tax purposes at just over $2.5 million.

The course was owned by a trust of the late Detroit industrialist Orval Opperthauser that benefits Lawrence Technological University in Southfield. Opperthauser was a partner of former Sugar Loaf owner John Sills.

A release from Kuras said Arnold Palmer Design Co. and Wadsworth Golf Construction Co. will design course renovations to include improved drainage on some holes, refining the irrigation system and upgrading bunkers. New walkways, comfort stations, stairs and signs will be added. Upgrades to the clubhouse are planned, along with a new cart barn and maintenance building.

Kuras will head the operation. Logan Price will serve as head golf professional and director of golf, while Brad Stowe will take over as course superintendant. Both are former employees of The Homestead's par 3 Mountain Flowers golf course.

King's Challenge opened in 1998, one of two courses at Sugar Loaf Resort that included an original 18-hole course that dates to the late 1960s. The two golf courses eventually were separated from the resort and sold in 2005 to a pair of Florida-based developers, Leelanau County native Ed Fleis and partner Brian Sculthorp.

Two years later, a partnership that included Sills foreclosed on the King's Challenge property and regained control of the course. Fleis continues to own the original Sugar Loaf layout, now known as the Old Course at Sugar Loaf.

The ski resort portion of Sugar Loaf has been closed since 2000. It was purchased in 2005 by Kate Wickstrom, who's trying to sell the property.