After experiencing a higher than expected sale of memberships, the city of McAllen’s golf course has stopped accepting new memberships.
The Champion Lakes Golf Course has issued a moratorium on new memberships as a result of seeing an increase in memberships over the last two years, according to Carlos Espinosa, the city’s director of golf.
The golf course typically hovers around 350 memberships, but it currently has a total of 460 members, Espinosa told the city commissioners during their regular meeting Monday.
“As much as that sounds like it’s great for Champion Lakes, if we don’t manage it correctly, it could lead to adverse results in service,” Espinosa said. “To avoid that possible situation, we’re recommending that we establish a moratorium on the sale of new memberships at Champion Lakes.”
City Manager Roel “Roy” Rodriguez said one reason they expected the demand for memberships to grow was the recent closure of the golf course at Cimarron Country Club in Mission.
“Cimarron is closing and the city of Pharr is going to do some major improvement to (theirs) so we expect a huge amount of people wanting to come in with memberships,” Rodriguez told the commissioners.
In July, the owners of the country club announced the golf course would close by the end of August.
Danny Kamel, of the club’s owners, told The Monitor the closure of the golf course was due to a lawsuit filed by the Cimarron Homeowners Association, which he said negatively affected the flow of business.
The HOA filed a lawsuit against the owners of the club in June 2021, accusing them of trying to complete illegal rezoning plans without a permit.
The owners denied doing any work on the property that requires a permit or approval from the Mission city council or other regulatory bodies.
The case is still ongoing.
With the moratorium of new memberships at the McAllen golf course, City Commissioner Victor “Seby” Haddad suggested setting a cap on memberships and then accepting members on a waiting list if the number falls below that cap.
Rodriguez said that is essentially what they intend to do going forward but the new wave of memberships occurred so quickly and unexpectedly that they have to cap it at the current number.
However, he clarified that non-members will continue to have access to the golf course.
“It doesn’t mean they can’t play golf, they can still call in and get tee times,” Rodriguez said. “We just think that we’re at that number and that we should not go over where we’re at today.”
