BASTROP, Texas -- The Lost Pines Golf Club, a nonprofit which runs the golf course in Bastrop State Park, has closed operations.
According to the club's Facebook page, employees will continue to volunteer their time to keep the golf course up and running until Jan. 16, at which point organizers will decide what to do going forward.
According to a Facebook post on Dec. 18 containing a photo of a letter from the club's treasurer, the golf club has struggled to fund golf course operations since the September 2011 wildfires in Bastrop, with average revenues decreasing by 35 percent.
The course's main water pump broke down in October 2014, delaying seeding of the course greens and causing even more of a decrease in revenue.
Lost Pines Golf Club has run the course for the past 60 years.
"A lot of the members stands behind this course so it is hard for them to see the club struggle," said Jamie Hackett, superintendent of Bastrop State Park. "It's part of a national historic landmark. It is a historic golf course. It's been open since 1937 and is just a piece of the fabric of this community."
Hackett said their next step is to look for another organization to run the course, and it may happen as soon as late January.
"We're putting requests out for proposals to see if there are other operators as we go forward for options," said Hackett.
She said in the meantime, volunteers will run the club so locals and visitors can still play on the course.
The golf course first opened in 1937 as a nine-hole course. It was expanded to an 18-hole course in 1997 and now occupies 135 acres of Bastrop State Park.
Bastrop State Park and the buildings on the course were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, a group formed under President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal in response to the Great Depression.
The golf course was closed Thursday due to weather but will reopen Friday.
