Published: July 19, 2008 08:04 pm      

Oak Trail to close

Closing leaves county without public course

The dedicated senior golfers who play summer and winter at the Oak Trail Golf Course will tee off for the last time on Sept. 16. The 70-year-old course is closing to the public on Sept. 17, according to owner Tom Hogue.

Hogue, 58, has been trying to sell the links for months, but has finally decided to simply shut down and let the weeds grow.

“I’m tired of doing it,” Hogue said Friday. “I’ve got other things to do. All the kids are out of college and gainfully employed.”

Hogue bought the course with some other investors in 1999, and ended up the sole owner and operator.

“Basically, I’ve been babysitting the place,” he said. “It was some place to have an office and piddle around, but it’s not what I want to do.”

Hogue is asking $1.3 million for the property on Business 45, and he has set no conditions on the property’s use.

“I’ve had a lot of interest, but nobody’s ready to pull the trigger yet,” he said. “Even when it’s closed it will still be for sale, either as a golf course, industrial site, mobile home park or landfill. I don’t care.”

Hogue lives in Ennis and doesn’t intend to stay there much longer, he said.

Oak Trail is Navarro County’s only public golf course, and has been in existence since 1938.

Ann and Sonny Jamison owned the course from 1971 to 1993.

The Jamisons bought it because their young son had an interest in golf, Ann Jamison recalled.

“We had it for 21 years,” she said. “It was a wonderful experience. You meet so many nice people and golfers have a code of ethics.”

Most of their customers were working-class men who loved the game, not the prestige of playing golf at the country club, Jamison said.

“They were real good people, good guys,” she said. “I sure do hate that it’s closing. The town needs one for the people who can’t afford the country club.”

Hogue said that many of his customers are sad to see it go.

“A lot of people are disheartened, but they understand the economics of it,” Hogue said. “Since I own it, and I’m not going to run it, they’re just going to have to understand it’s time for change, and one of those changes is going to be an open pasture.”

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Janet Jacobs may be reached via e-mail at jacobs@corsicanadailysun.com