SCG Exclusive: Alto Lakes to Vote on Taking Over The Outlaw Club
Alto Lakes Golf & Country Club and The Outlaw Club in Ruidoso have signed a deal to allow The Outlaw Club to reopen this season as a private course for Alto Lakes members — provided Alto Lakes’ membership approves.
Alto Lakes’ members will be asked to vote by mail on the lease-purchase deal in the next several weeks. The arrangement could result in Alto Lakes owning the golf course free and clear within five years in return for footing its operational bills in the interim.
The deal, reached last Friday, envisions Alto Lakes operating as a 36-hole facility, which would relieve overcrowding on its existing 18-hole course. Alto Lakes has 1,547 golf members and 500 social members. The 100 members of The Outlaw Club would gain membership in Alto Lakes in the deal.
If ratified, the arrangement would make Alto Lakes a powerhouse of Ruidoso-area golf. The Outlaw Club’s property is contiguous with Alto Lakes on two sides. The Outlaw Club’s 3,860-square-foot clubhouse is about a two-mile drive from Alto Lakes’ clubhouse.
The deal will be presented to Alto Lakes members in a mail vote set to conclude within 30 days. “Most members I’ve talked to seem to view the idea favorably,” Jim Coville, general manager of Alto Lakes, said Monday.
That wasn’t the case several years ago, before The Outlaw Club was built. The idea of a takeover was proposed at that time but was rejected by a scant 12 votes over member concerns, including viability of The Outlaw Club’s irrigation well. The concept polarized the Alto Lakes membership.
“Now they know they’ll be getting a terrific golf course and the well has been proven to deliver, and we’ve built utilities and paved roads to the lots at The Outlaw, and they can see it and touch it,” said Jim Lorah, general manager of The Outlaw Club. “I’m optimistic they’ll approve it.”
Development of The Outlaw Club was a victim of poor timing. It opened in 2008 to good reviews, but the recession slammed lot sales and management was forced to suspend golf operations last summer when its chief creditor, Hillcrest Bank of Kansas City, declined to fund further operating losses. Under the proposed takeover, the $900,000 annual cost to operate and maintain The Outlaw Club course would be borne by Alto Lakes.
Once The Outlaw Club’s loan from Hillcrest is paid off through lot sales, possibly within as few as three to four years, the developer would sign over title to the golf course, range, clubhouse and related buildings to Alto Lakes, Lorah said.
The Outlaw Club has 235 platted home lots, 166 of them served by paved roads and utilities. Since sales began several years ago, 41 lots have been sold, Lorah said.
The Outlaw Club is widely regarded as one of the best new courses built in New Mexico. It was set to co-host the 2009 New Mexico Open with the Inn of the Mountain Gods until until its financial woes forced a halt to operations last summer. To allow him to continue selling lots, non-member visitors to The Outlaw Club will likely be allowed to play it, provided their home club pro calls ahead, Lorah said.
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