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Article
Courtesy of The Tampa Tribune Published May
15, 2014
LAND O’ LAKES — Plantation Palms Golf Club, which closed
briefly in August at least in part because of financial problems, has shut down
again.
The club, which is off Collier Parkway in Land O’ Lakes, has a message on its
website that the “course is closed until further notice.”
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The club’s owners, MJS Golf
Group, LLC, could not be reached for comment.
The golf course’s closing prompted the board of directors for
the Plantation Palms homeowners association to take steps to try
to protect the golf course, even though it is privately owned
and not the association’s responsibility.
As a result, the association sent a message to homeowners saying
access to the community would be limited for the immediate
future to homeowners, renters, guests, vendors and “others with
legitimate business needs, such as landscapers, school buses or
law enforcement officers.” |
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Plantation Palms Golf Club is closed, the course is empty and there are
no carts on the cart path.
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The association’s message also urged residents to “continue
to respect the golf course as private property.”
“None of us have the right to free golf or to use the course as an addition to
our backyards,” the message said. “We encourage all homeowners to pull together
during this time and do whatever we can to promote and protect the integrity of
the golf course property.”
MJS also closed the course for one week in August in an attempt to ease a
strained budget. When the course reopened, the staff had been reduced from 21
employees to 13.
Previous to that, the course had closed on occasion for maintenance, but not for
financial reasons, Jayson Ray, one of the three managing partners for the club,
said at the time.
The 148-acre, 18-hole golf course opened in Dec. 28, 2000, and was purchased by
MJS in 2011 for $2.18 million. The other managing partners are Mitchell Osceola
and Steve McDonald.
At the time of the August closing, Ray said the club had slightly more than 100
members.
Ray said a budget deficit played a part in the temporary closing, but other
factors were involved, too.
“There are several parts involved in why we closed,” he told The Pasco Tribune
at the time. “It all came together at once, and it hit us. Lack of play, the
weather, breakdowns, parts.”
The company has about $35,000 in delinquent property taxes for 2012, according
to the Pasco County Tax Collector’s website. |
