Unseasonable Weather Impacts Moon Golf Club Revenues

A Moon Golf Club official said a wet spring season and stretch of sweltering summer days made for a for the community golf course. 

By May, rainy weather shuttered the 18-hole course more than a dozen times, leaving the club nearly $100,000 behind in revenue. 

It was a loss the club never managed to recoup, said Ralph Canterbury, a member of the , to whom the township leases the course.

"We really did not recover [from the spring]," Canterburry said. "We stabilized, but it was not a great summer. It was hot and dry for a long time, and then it went right back to rainy." 

In September, the agreed to two of the club's three $60,000 yearly lease payments to the township. The course's fiscal year ended Sept. 30. 

In the spring, the recreational authority asked the board to postpone its June lease payment until the fall. 

Moon purchased the former Bon Air Golf Course on McCormick Road in 2005 and leased it to the township recreational authority under a 50-year agreement.

"I think working with the township and re-doing our overall [lease] agreement will be a positive thing for the course," Canterbury said. "We always have a difficult time during the off-season."

Canterbury said the course is prepared to manage itself through its winter off-season. The course's manager is the only club employee not laid off during the winter months. 

"Yeah, it was clearly the worst season that we've had," Canterbury said. "We've made more money this year than we have in some past years, but our expenses are higher. But the golf course is doing fine."