Close to seven months into their first year as the management team at Houston’s Oakwood Golf Club, Doug and Tina Sutton are encouraged by what they see.
Doug Sutton said that as of last Thursday, the club had 60 members, which is up from the same time last year. He said a goal has been set of 80 to 100 members. Sutton said the walk-on numbers are also picking up.
“Most of our walk-ons aren’t from the Houston area,” he said, “but we’re starting to pull some players from the Salem area and from Licking and the Montauk area.”
Sutton has also assumed the role of head grounds keeper at Oakwood.
“The course is doing good,” he said. “The drought kind of hurt our fairways, but we’re staying on top of it with fertilizer and water and we’ve gotten some nice rain lately.”
The tournament schedule this year at Oakwood has been robust, and a church league and men’s league regularly draw good numbers, Sutton said. This year, Oakwood for the first time hosted a fundraiser tournament that benefited the course itself. A couple more Oakwood benefit tournaments will take place this year, likely in late August and September (the second event might include nine hole in the daytime and nine at night with glowing balls).
Sutton wants area golfers to know he and his wife will remain at Oakwood Golf Club as long as possible.
“This isn’t going to be a one and done deal,” he said. “We’ll be here next year for sure and we want people to know that we don’t want this to be the course that might or might not be anymore. Our membership rates are cheaper than anybody’s and we offer a really low half-year rate.
“So come play golf.”
For more information, call 417-967-3968 or log onto Oakwood Golf Club’s Facebook page.