Timber Creek revival underway

DIXON – The historic Timber Creek golf course could soon be reopening its doors.

The more than 100-year-old course and banquet facility, formerly the Dixon Country Club, closed last year after owners Ron Keith and his son, Brett, were unable to find a buyer willing to keep the course open.

The Keiths recently signed a lease with Brenda and Rick Humphrey, owners of Humphrey Show Cattle in Dixon, for the 136-acre property, which includes the 18-hole course, a banquet center, Bogey’s Bar and Grill, an outdoor swimming pool and tennis courts. The multiyear lease gives the Humphreys the option to buy the course at 729 Timber Creek Road any time.

“I don’t even play golf, but it’s something we thought was necessary to preserve for the community,” Ron Keith said Wednesday. “We put our heart and soul and many dollars into it for the last 13 years, and I’m excited to see the revival and see it be what it needs to be.”

The hope is to open the course as early as late spring, but it depends on the weather and work to ready the green, Keith said. A maintenance crew of about a dozen people, including several club volunteers, are working inside and outside.

Bogey’s and the pro shop likely will open with the course, and maybe the tennis courts, too, but Keith said he wasn’t sure about the pool or banquet center.

“There are lots and lots of moving parts out there,” he said. “They’re working diligently to get things going as quickly as possible, but it has a long 103- or 104-year history in the community, and they don’t want to open if it’s not ready.”

The Keiths have operated the course at a financial loss for years and competed with the area’s municipal-run courses that can be subsidized by taxpayer dollars.

Ron, 75, previously owned pharmacies in the area, and Brett is a successful businessman in New York.

The former Dixon Country Club was going out of business when they bought it on Feb. 1, 2007, for $1.1 million. At the time, membership had dwindled to less than 100.

They renamed it and changed it from a private to a semi-private club, opening it to the public for the first time since its inception in 1915. The added full and partial golf memberships, as well as pool, tennis and social memberships. It was also the home course for Dixon High School’s girls and boys golf teams.