By Cathy Spaulding
Nearly a week after golf carts at Cobblestone Creek Golf Course were repossessed by a bank, two Muskogee brothers are working to get the south Muskogee course back open.
The course at 700 E. Smith Ferry Road has been closed at least since Wednesday, when the carts were seized, said the course’s former operator, Dennis Bowman of Pryor.
David Dickmann said he and his brother, Lanny Joseph Dickmann, recently were named receivers of the course and are maintaining it until the property is sold at a foreclosure auction 10 a.m. Aug. 7. He said he and his brother are trying to buy the course or at least reopen it before then. In the meantime, grounds crews are working to keep the greens mowed and watered.
“Muskogee deserves a nice place to play golf, a public course, where you don’t have to be a member to play,” he said.
Cobblestone has “great greens and a nice layout. The front nine holes are a dunes layout, wide open. The back nine is more traditional with trees and some hills.”
Julie Adreon, a city employee who played a round with the City of Muskogee league in June, said she liked the course’s convenience and proximity.
“It’s challenging because I am a new player,” she said.
Dickmann, owner of Dickmann Glass, said he is trying to get the greens in better shape before the auction. With temperatures reaching into the 90s, he said “our main objective is to keep the greens from burning up.”
The upcoming sale could end financial problems that have plagued the course over the past year.
In July of 2007, Bank of Oklahoma filed a foreclosure action against Mark Kizzia, who had owned the course since 2000. In fall of 2007, Muskogee District Court appointed Dennis and Donna Bowman as receivers of all assets of the course. The Bowmans, who operate a course in Pryor, had operated Cobblestone Creek since they leased it from Mark Kizzia in the summer of 2006.
That lease was to have expired at the end of last October.
On Jan. 31, the bank filed a $1.4 million mortgage lien on the course. A sheriff sale was set for April 3. Kizzia Construction filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on March 28, so the sale did not take place, court records show.
In May, another sheriff’s sale was ordered for June 26. The Bowmans then asked to be relieved of receivership; their request was granted Friday.
Dennis Bowman said he and his wife had tried to keep the course operating, but it became harder to maintain.
“It’s hard to operate a business when it’s in bankruptcy, and you don’t know if it will be open,” he said. “The equipment is in bad shape. We couldn’t even get parts for things. The suppliers wouldn’t do business with me.”
Kizzia could not be reached.
Bowman said heavy rains and flooding through spring and earlier summer made it even harder to maintain the greens.
On July 2, the Muskogee County District Court named LJ & D Properties as receivers. Dickmann said the LJ stands for his brother, Lanny Joseph Dickmann and the D stands for David.
“My family has a history of always being golfers, all the way back to my grandmother,” David Dickmann said. “It kinds of run in the blood. Dad never had the opportunity to buy a golf course.”
He said he and his brother played golf together since they were boys.
“My grandmother used to take us out to — it’s Eagle Crest now, used to be Meadowbrook Golf Course,” he said. “She’d get us out there at 7 a.m. and play nine holes with us. Max Holloway, who opened Cobblestone Creek originally, is a good friend.”
Hilldale High School golf coach Oren Sikes Jr., said the course’s proximity, down Smith Ferry Road from the high school, made it an ideal place for his team to practice.
“It was a good learning course for the students,” he said. “It was not so tough the average golfer couldn’t play it. We used to love to play it when it was in great shape, but it stopped being in great shape.”
Although a person does not have to be a member to play, Sikes said he had a lifetime membership at the course.
“I hope I still do,” he said. “I think there are knowledgeable people interested in the course. I look for it to be in good shape again.”
