GORDON WOODWORTH
Special to the Post-Star
Kingsbury National renamed “Richwood”
Rich Schermerhorn is all-in at his newly purchased golf course in Kingsbury.
First off, he paid $1.575-million for the 178-acre property formerly known as Kingswood and then Kingsbury National. He bought it from Deric Buck, who still owns Bay Meadows and Bogey’s in Queensbury.
He has changed the name to Richwood, paying homage to Mike Woodbury, who built the course in 1990, and Mike’s late brother Ralph “Skeets” Woodbury. “Rich” for Rich Schermerhorn, “Wood” in honor of the Woodburys.
Mo Hogan Dennis, one of Schermerhorn’s longtime employees, came up with the Richwood name, he said.
Course will be closed next year; many improvements planned
In an interview Thursday afternoon, Schermerhorn said the course will not open in 2025 as he attempts to return it to its past glory.
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“We will open in the spring of 2026,” he said. It will give him time to put in a new $2-million irrigation system and refurbish fairways, tee boxes and sand traps. “The greens are fantastic,” he said.
“The goal is to bring it back to what it once was.”
He said he wouldn’t be offering the discount rates offered in the past.
“I can’t offer the rates Deric offered,” he said. “Rates will be as reasonable as I can make them. The condition of the course will dictate what we will charge. People will pay if they feel they are getting bang for their buck.
“Maybe my return on investment won’t be as great, but that’s not my concern. I want to make it a players’ course again.”
Schermerhorn said Jim Girard was there this week putting down winter fertilizer. Buck, the previous owner, was on site to help Schermerhorn’s crew blow out the existing irrigation system. Golf course superintendents from across the region have offered their help as Schermerhorn looks for a full-time superintendent, who he is prepared to pay up to $175,000 a year.
“We’ve already gotten more than 50 applications,” he said. “We’ve had people from Los Angeles, Florida, and from someone who works at Winged Foot [a famed course downstate].”
“I’m looking for someone to take the course to a 10-plus and keep it there. I want people to come play golf there and leaving saying, ‘Wow, that was a great day.’ I want to enhance what’s there and get it back to what it was. It’s a gorgeous property.”
His son-in-law Shane Harper, who just retired after a long and fruitful professional hockey career, is general manager of the course. Schermerhorn calls the former Adirondack Phantom and Thunder star “the best PR guy we could possibly have.” He’s a good stick, too.
$1.2-million in new turf equipment ordered
Schermerhorn said he has ordered $1.2-million in new Toro turf equipment, saying, “I want to make sure we have the right tools for the job.”
Crews have already started upgrading the existing 4,000-square-foot maintenance building, and then will add an adjacent 10,000-square-foot building for all of that new equipment. Ponds are being dredged now. A few trees might come down.
The pump house will be replaced, and Schermerhorn is buying all new carts and building a new cart barn to keep them out of the elements. The clubhouse will also be torn down, with a new pro shop in the works.
Honoring the Woodburys
Schermerhorn said he’s proud to honor the Woodburys with the course’s new name.
“Both Mike and Skeets helped me get started,” he said. The Woodburys owned Woodbury Lumber, and gave him a leg up, financing spec houses in Hidden Hills. Schermerhorn ended up building 70 homes thanks to an early bank line of credit set up by the Woodburys.
“The deal was when I sold a house, I would pay them back and pay the bank back,” he remembered. “After four or five houses, they turned me loose. I will always be grateful to them.”
Incidentally, Schermerhorn said Mike Woodbury lives in one of his many apartment complexes locally. He said he hopes to reconnect with Woodbury soon.
Schermerhorn admitted he is enjoying owning the course, and is taking pride in bringing it back.
And he shot down online rumors that he plans to build apartments on the land.
“First of all the soil is clay, which is not great for multi-family,” he said. “There’s no water or sewer. And the zoning doesn’t allow it.”
He did say he might consider a few single-family homes on the property down the road, if the zoning allows, but that’s not a priority right now.
Changes coming to the par-5 14th?
Interestingly, he did say he is considering tinkering with the borderline unfair 14th hole, a long, hard-sloping par 5 where it’s nearly impossible to keep the ball in the fairway.
“We might move the tees up to make it a par 4, and we may do some landscaping and put some berms along the right side of the fairway,” he said. He also mentioned planting trees to prohibit tee shots up the 15th fairway which a lot of the big hitters did in the past.
It’s a gorgeous hole but a bit unfair. Any improvements will likely be met with applause. A long par 4 sounds perfect.
This and that
A correction: Luther Burden III, LB3 if you will, a top NFL prospect for the University of Missouri, is the grandson of “Ticky” Burden, who passed away several years ago. Thanks to my former sports editor Greg Luckenbaugh for pointing out my error.
Gordon’s columns appear every other Saturday in The Post-Star.
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