SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Dann Grevlos said the Spring Creek Golf Course in rural Harrisburg will remain a public course.
“That’s been our goal from the beginning,” Grevlos said of maintaining a public course.
Grevlos, of Sioux Falls, is the general manager for the Fore Score RE LLC which bought the 126-acre 18-hole golf course and for Fore Score LLC which is in the process of buying the business. Fore Score RE bought the course for $2.5 million from the South Dakota Wildlife Foundation which is affiliated with the state Game Fish and Parks Department.
Grevlos said he and other family members led the initiative to gather the investment needed to buy the golf course. Grevlos’ family had ties to the Shop ‘N Cart locations in Sioux Falls. He also has ties to gaming businesses.
“I’m happy it’s going to remain a golf course. Hopefully it remains a public course,” golfer Dennis Hanneman said this week. “I think it’s one of the best,” Hanneman said of how the course compares to others in the area.
Hanneman and fellow golfer Jack Bennett, both of Sioux Falls, have golfed at Spring Creek for 15 to 20 years.
The location convenient and it’s different environment than a private club, Hanneman said.
“This course has always a small town feel,” Bennett said. Golfers know each other and tend to govern themselves as they play, he said.
“As of now the course has 26,000 rounds (a year),” Grevlos said. City-owned courses in Sioux Falls as well as private courses will average 10,000 to 12,000 rounds more a year than Spring Creek, he said.
“We’ve got incredible capacity to grow,” Grevlos said.
The course already has many factors in its favor to boost the number of rounds played.
The Spring Creek Golf Course is already well maintained and operated and the new owners want as many employees to stay as possible, Grevlos said. Fore Score LLC is working on the final pieces of the business transfer which includes the equipment and liquor license, he said. That could happen later this summer or in early fall.
Charlie Erfman, of Sioux Falls, plays Spring Creek one to two times a week. He also golfs at Prairie Green and the Minnehaha Country Club.
“I’d say this (Spring Creek) is up to par with them,” Erfman said. “I like it here a lot. It’s one of the more fun courses.”
Erfman said some of the course’s holes are challenging while he appreciates the “up and down” height changes on the course.
Grevlos said one of the first projects will be to replace the broken bridge on hole 12. That will change the hole from a par 3 back to a par 4.
Another more immediate project is to clean away brush piles at holes No. 1 and No. 13. Grevlos said one of the attractive features of the course is some of the older trees which no longer produce leaves. “They have no leaves and they are all gray but they give some atmosphere to the course,” Grevlos said.
Other plans, some not as immediate, will be to add a family tee to the hill on hole No. 7, bringing back the drink cart, adding modern portable bathroom which has a urinal in one stall and not in the other, to the course, and adding golf simulators to the barn building. Another larger project is to add an event center.
The event center and golf simulators will provide off-golf season revenue.
Grevlos said the golf carts will also be replaced. That replacement depends on when the new owner can take over the business operation.
The golf course will be Spring Creek for 2025 but Grevlos said he’s not sure how long the name will last.
“Not sure about the name,” Grevlos said. “If we take over in the summer, it will be Spring Creek this year. Sometimes, it’s good to change the brand.”
Although representatives of the GFP and wildlife foundation had said the goal was to sell the golf course to an owner who would maintain the golf course, Grevlos said it wasn’t required in the purchase agreement. But that wouldn’t have mattered, he said, because when he gathered investors it was always with the plan to operate a golf course.
So much so that he had a requirement for each investor. “Everyone had to love golf,” Grevlos said. “No investor is not an avid golfer.”
About 95% of the investors are from the Sioux Falls area, he said. A couple of them are college friends from the Chicago area, Grevlos said.
