Hurry, hurry, step right up, country musician Willie Nelson’s golf course is for sale.
$3-million is all it costs to own this little piece of history. That’s a mere R45-million, depending on how low the exchange rate has gone by the time you read this. Might be R50-million, might be R40-million. Still a bargain, though.
Willie is 88 now and a little past swinging a club. Age, together with his familiar money woes, seem to be the principal reasons for the sale. In case you’re wondering, ‘Willie’s Cut ‘n’ Putt’ is a genuine nine-hole, par-36 golf course in the town of Spicewood, Texas, about 45km north-west of Austin.
The story goes that Willie got angry when he couldn’t crack the nod for the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, mainly because he was a hacker who didn’t take kindly to the dress codes and decorum of most golf courses. So he decided to buy a course of his own.
The Briarcliff Yacht and Golf Club opened in 1968, but a decade later it was losing too much money to continue. Willie bought it for $250,000 in 1979, saying at the time, ‘I’ve always wanted a golf course where I could set the pars.’ To that end he published a card of the course with some odd numbers on it. One pressman said, ‘Willie, there’s a par 11 here.’ ‘There sure is,’ replied Willie, ‘and last week I darn near birdied that sucker.’
Whoever takes on the course may or may not wish to retain the local rules. One of those states, ‘No more than 12 in your foursome.’ Clothing is ‘optional’ and flip flops, shorts and T-shirts fit in perfectly with the $12 greenfee. You can bring your dog with you and drinking is encouraged, although the ‘cut’ in ‘Willie’s Cut ‘n’ Putt’ doesn’t refer to players being half-cut.
In fact it refers to the old Briarcliff clubhouse and restaurant, which Willie had turned into a recording studio. ‘Cuts’ that have come out of the 48-track facility include the classic 1983 album ‘Pancho and Lefty’, a double-header with the great Merle Haggard.
There is always the chance, by the way, that if you don’t move quickly to put down a deposit, Willie might buy his course back again. He did that in 1992, after the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had seized his assets the previous year. The IRS claimed he owed $32-million in back taxes.
They auctioned his assets, which included the golf course and recording studio, and Willie promptly recorded a double album called (what else?) ‘The IRS Tapes’ and subtitled, ‘Who’ll Buy My Memories?’
The proceeds from the auction and the album cleared his debt. Willie subsequently borrowed $470,000 from a wealthy friend, Johnny Herrington, to buy back the golf course and recording studio.
Now, it seems, he’s had enough. Perhaps the game has given him up. So hurry, hurry, step right up …
– This column first appeared in the January 2022 issue of Compleat Golfer magazine. Subscribe here!
