Jason, as a regular player at Eaglemont including the league, I did fall in love with it.
Sure it's tough, but when was the last time you played it? It has been made more playable than it used to be. Sure it can eat balls but that depends a lot on the tees you're playing. I'm a 19 handicap and have shot 39 on the back 9 from the whites. Yes that was one of my best rounds, but to do it on a tough course with fast greens was really fun.
The other thing that I'm sure you remember is that the course is flat out gorgeous with great views and is very serene when you get in the woods. Sometimes you have to let the deer wander by. Anyway, I'm a fan obviously and hope the course sells and reopens soon.

Eaglemont is for sale for $6.5 million. I am listing the course. Please call me at 206 459 4200 with any questions. Thanks

How much is Eaglemont selling for?

I really love butterfield. When I visit EP., the course is on top of my list to play.

I hope someone or group buy it and keep it going!

We cannot let this place go!

Good article Jason. I think that courses that were on a poor financial footing are likely to fail. The El Paso course has the added problem of being owned by an airport authority and all of the airports are hurting financially now. Sounds like they had grand development plans that didn't pan out. The airport authority board must have thought they were developers. The public in Texas should push for an investigation on the decision making process for the use of public funds for such a scheme. Hopefully, as some financially shaky courses fail, other courses will benefit and we will continue to have many quality golf options.

I hate to see a golf course close but if it cant pay for itself then someone else is subsidizing it, usually a taxpayer, and that's not right. Sorry.

The decision to close Butterfield Trail GC in El Paso has been a blow to the community. This Fazio course is pretty much packed week to week, with the course Pro Tim Krebs and crew being some of the best in the country. Many of us including the trade association I work for have lost a valuable fund raising event with this closure. While we may find another course to help us raise money its the loss of over $20,000,000.00 to the city that has many of us fuming. The course had its water shut off, meaning that there's a very small window to save that course. Abruptly shutting it down has economic ramifications beyond the coffers of the airport.
Poor decision with little planning for what may be a historic boondoggle.

Ray

It saddens me to read that Butterfield will be shutting down. It was a very beautiful and playable (monetarily as well as physically) golf course. Tood bad the locals in El Paso did not support enough. We live some 2000 miles away so full support would have been difficult by us but it is a course that brings my wife and I fun and fond memories of our rounds played at Butterfield. Let's hope we golfers get a chance to turn this tyoe of failure from becoming common place.
I have heard the complaints about developers making too many course and the owners charging high tee fees but that was not the case with Butterfield.

I have a feeling we're gonna see many more clubs taking this route in the months to come. Outside of the loss of what some consider a valuable asset for the country I've got a feeling some politicians are already having visions of greater tax revenue to squander. And of course there's their friends, the land developers, chomping at the bit for the forced shutdown to end so the bulldozers can get to work on another residential subdivision or road clogging business park!

Golf course architects should wake up and stop designing golf courses "for the pros." The vast, vast majority of golfers want to play and have fun and some success. Ball-sucking hazards only turn people off.