PITTSBURG — Wednesday might be the last day to play on the Delta View Golf course that members describe as a tricky, but “it’ll teach you.”
The Delta View Golf Course is slated to close on Thursday and its fate will remain up in the air while the city, which owns the 6,317-yard course, explores its options.
The news came suddenly for most and rumor circulated of a possible purchase by Albert Seeno III’s Discovery Builders, which had negotiated with the city in 2009 for 422 acres, encompassing the golf course and Stoneman Park, for a residential development.
“That has nothing to do with the golf course. They’ve never been exploring or entitled to the golf course,” City Manager Joe Sbranti said. “…Every golf course in the area at this time has seen a drop in the popularity of the sport and it’s been a challenge for golf courses to survive. Delta View is no exception.”
Sunol Valley Golf Club in Pleasanton and Shadow Lakes in Brentwood both closed in late 2015. A combination of changing economics, declining popularity and increasing water costs have been pointed to as reasons for the wave of closures. In 2016, Roddy Ranch Golf Course in Antioch closed and its general manager blamed water costs, but later pleaded guilty to grand theft of personal property and insurance fraud.
“Managing a golf course is difficult and expenses that were coming due were significant,” Sbranti said. “I understand their situation and we’re parting on good terms.”
The reasons for the closure are still unclear. Eric Smith, general manager for the club, would only reply “no comment” to any questions from reporters.
Peter Pappas, of Pappas and Pappas law firm, confirmed that his law firm won a settlement from Delta View Golf Course LLC recently after a golfer, Dean Hancock slipped and fell down stairs that climb the hilly course.
Pappas also has another personal injury lawsuit working its way through the courts. Oakley resident Dino Carpino also allegedly slipped and fell down stairs at the course.
When the golf club closes, it will be one month before membership dues would normally be renewed.
“Nobody is sad to see this management out of here and there’s a litany of members out here who say the same,” said member Roger Draper.
Some members speculated that the potential for a drought scared off the managers while others pointed to successive years of bad management. The concessions portion of the lease — the bar, restaurant and banquet hall — have all seen consistent turnover in management over the years.
Still, the members who golf at Delta View are diehards, touting its unique design among Bay Area golf courses.
“This is the last of the undulating, tricky courses out here. It’s a tough course and makes you work and you have the hills to play up and down,” Draper said. “The fairways are relatively narrow and when people try to muscle this course, it teaches you.”
For possibly as long as the course has been around, urban legends have said that it was designed by Alister MacKenzie, famed British golf course architect. MacKenzie designed the Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, where the annual Masters Tournament is held.
As it turns out, the rumor is untrue. Ground was broken on the Pittsburg Golf and Country Club in 1947 — 13 years after MacKenzie’s death. In an Antioch Ledger article from 1997, reporter Sam Richards interviewed several of the original 15 founding members of the club. According to Edward Wilson, the country club’s unofficial historian, the MacKenzie rumor is just an “urban legend.”
The course was designed by John Fleming, a San Francisco-based architect also known to many at the time as Jack Fleming. According to a 1932 article from the San Francisco Call-Bulletin, Fleming worked with MacKenzie, who considered him “one of the most expert greenskeepers in the country.”
Fleming became the first superintendent of San Francisco’s Sharp Park and eventually became an architect in his own right, creating many courses throughout California, drawing inspiration from his work with MacKenzie.
Fleming’s son, John Fleming, who was born in 1941 and could not have been the architect of Pittsburg’s course, continued on his father’s legacy, building courses throughout California and Nevada.
The city isn’t quite sure what will become of the golf course, but is working quickly to figure that out.
“If we don’t act quickly, then golf courses don’t look like golf courses after awhile,” Sbranti said. “I’ve personally been golfing on that course for the better part of four decades. We’re trying to keep it alive, if that’s possible.”