Not all golf courses have experienced a boom in business during the COVID-19 era. Some face the same challenges they did before the pandemic brought thousands of new golfers to the game: water availability and costs; maintenance and staff costs, and competition in saturated markets.

Those were the issues facing the first Robert Trent Jones Jr. course ever opened in California’s Coachella Valley, and sadly, the facility is disappearing. In news first reported by the Palm Springs Desert Sun, the public Desert Dunes Golf Course in Desert Hot Springs announced on its website that the facility has been permanently closed.

In the statement, the course operators said: “Management thought this would be a good year. The course was in great shape and management even ordered a new golf cart fleet. Unfortunately, a combination of the weather, the well on 16 collapsing , the watering system needing to be rebuilt, and continuing losses caused the decision to close.

“We sincerely appreciate your previous support and the support of our amazing staff. We did our best to try to make it work, however, when we ran out of money trying to maintain the course to the standards, we have all enjoyed. Our outside funding ceased and given all the issues, we had no choice than to close the course.”

Course management also said in the statement that the property is now under the care of the Oswit Land Trust, and the hope is that it becomes a permanent nature preserve. However, Jane Garrison, the founder and executive director of Oswit Land Trust, disagreed with that assertion to the Desert Sun.

“No, we do not own the golf course, and we do not discuss any possible land negotiations and acquisitions with the media until land is acquired and safe from destruction,” Garrison said. “This is out of respect for the landowners.”

One interesting twist noted by the Desert Sun is that NHL Hall of Fame goalie Grant Fuhr, an avid golfer and frequent participant in celebrity tournaments, was director of golf at Desert Dunes for a time in the 2010s. Fuhr, who now is a broadcaster for the AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds, was disappointed about Desert Dunes’ demise.

“All I know is they locked up the gates, I don’t know when exactly, and the owner went back up to Canada,” Fuhr told the Desert Sun.

Opened in 1989, Desert Dunes hosted former Canadian Tour events and U.S. Open local qualifying, but was mostly flat and unprotected by mountains, so could be fearsome due to its heavy exposure to the desert winds.

“It was a hard golf course, but it was a fair golf course,” Fuhr said. “Weather, yeah, it gets windy, but it seems like people fly to Scotland for the same experience. I think the biggest knock on it was it was never in great shape. It was in good shape but never great, and when you have 130 other golf courses, you have to be great.”

Around most of the country, golf course closures have dropped dramatically since the start of the pandemic. The National Golf Foundation reported fewer than 90 18-hole equivalent facilities closed in 2023, compared to record high of 279.5 in 2019. Through the first six months of 2024, NGF recorded 37.5 18-hole equivalent closures.

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com