BY DAN HILDEBRAN
The owner of the Keystone Heights golf course said the nine-hole layout is for sale, and he is trying to convince the City of Keystone Heights to take on the property to save the course.
Brad Harvey told the Friends of Keystone Heights during the group’s June 20 meeting that because the nine-hole layout is currently zoned for single-family housing, the land may be more valuable as homesites rather than its current use.
A nonprofit golf and country club operated the course until 2015, when the nonprofit ran into financial trouble.
The organization’s money problems peaked in December 2014, when the Florida Department of Revenue seized the club’s bank accounts to pay unpaid sales taxes and unemployment compensation premiums.
In addition to back taxes, the club also had a mortgage with a local bank and a lease for golf carts.
The club sold its newer nine holes to Billy Jackson in 2015 and the original nine designed by famed designer Donald Ross to Scott Kicklighter and Bobbie Hayes.
The new owners subsequently renamed the course Lakeside Links of Keystone Heights.
Two years later, the pair began leasing the property to a series of operators, including Tom Price.
Harvey and his sister, Donna Crider, bought the property in 2018.
During the June 20 Friends meeting, Harvey said the course breaks even financially.
“It’s not been profitable, but it doesn’t cost money,” he told the group. “So, it’s not like it’s coming out of anybody’s pocket. It pays for itself.”
Harvey added that he did not want the course, which was finished in 1924, one year before the city was incorporated, to go down the path of the Keystone Inn, which was demolished to the dismay of many residents.
The course owner said he pitched a sale of the course to city officials and that City Manager Charlie Van Zant was evaluating the possibility.
He also said residential home builders are eyeing the property.
“I do have a number of developers now putting together proposals,” he said.
When reached by phone about the potential deal, Van Zant said he was in the early stages of his evaluation and was not prepared to make a recommendation to the city council.
