August 13, 2019
BY AAGD STAFF
According to a confirmation gained by this publication from a working representative at Marlton Golf Course, the Upper Marlboro, Md., golf course is now closed indefinitely. The news came by way of a phone call with a worker stating that the closure was due to course maintenance. The Par 71- course, located as 9413 Midland Turn, was purchased by HWV Enterprises, LLC on April 10, 2015 by its four owners, Vann Jones, Willie Blakeney, Henry Turner and Jimmy Garvin Jr.
The membership-based Club hed their grand opening on September 14-20, 2015 and increased the number of African American-owned golf clourses to 6 around the country.
“This is very sad news today,” said Debert Cook, publisher of the African American Golfer’s Digest. “There are less than a half-dozen fully Black-owned golf courses in America, so losing Marlton would really be devistating. This type of situation is why it is imperative that golfers of all persuasions make an extra effort to play these minority-owned courses and support African American golf business owners and entrepreneurs who operate throughout the $84 billion dollar industry.” The Marlton course is also a part of the African American Golf Trail Challenge, a public incentive program developed by the publication and created to increase rounds played at Black-owned courses across the USA.
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About 205 U.S. golf courses closed last year, reducing the total to about 14,800, according to the National Golf Foundation (NGF). The closures gathered momentum after the economic recession of 2008, according to the Urban Land Institute, a think tank. The closures are a result of “a continued correction in supply and demand … after an unsustainable 20-year period of growth in which the U.S. golf market added more than 4,000 new facilities and increased overall supply by 44 percent,” the NGF said.
Owners of Marlton Golf Course could not be reached for comment.
