RANCHO MURIETA, CA (MPG) - Let’s face it, we live in a pretty special place. My wife and I moved here 30 years ago and raised our three children, who have all married and moved back to raise their children. If that doesn’t speak volumes as to the uniqueness and quality of the Rancho Murieta experience, I’m not sure what does.

But, there is a growing unease in my family, and probably in many of your families, with the continued deterioration of the Rancho Murieta Country Club.  Whether or not you are a member of the country club, your fortunes inside the gates are tied to its vitality and continued existence. 

For many, the country club is the heart and soul of their social life and a critical component of their property’s value. So, the answer to the question of what would make Rancho Murieta better is restoring the country club to its former glory.

My background here is that I am a previous club board member, having served for seven years in a 15-year span, and a golf member for nearly 30 years. As such, I am intimately familiar with the club’s problems, what caused them and the potential solutions that have been tried but failed. In fact, I spearheaded the most recent effort to put the club into bankruptcy to facilitate a sale to a third party, one with the resources and know-how to significantly improve the member experience. 

Unfortunately, all of the initially promising potential suitors eventually said “no” after conducting their due diligence. Watching this process fail again, as it has many times in the past, has led me to conclude that no third party seeking to make a profit will buy this asset because the potential return on investment is too speculative. No “white knight” is ever going to ride in and rescue us.

That is why the only viable solution is a member-owned facility. A member-owned club would be a nonprofit entity whose only goal is to provide a first-class member experience, whether it be golf, dining, fitness, concerts, hosted activities or social events. Instead of cashing out profit, cash flow would be reinvested. As the quality of the property and standards of service improve, so would demand to be a part of it. Each member’s return on their individual investment would be their vastly elevated experience.

How do we get there? A group of a dozen-plus of your neighbors has formed an exploratory committee that has been meeting regularly for the past several months to answer that very question. Although daunting, a clear path is forming.

The many talented individuals on this committee have been working tirelessly to crunch the numbers and flesh out the parameters of a member-owned club and how to make it succeed. In turn, the individual committee members are presenting specifics to their friends, neighbors and other club members to explain how a member-owned club would raise enough capital to purchase the property from the developer, immediately improve the facility and standards, and continue doing so over the next 5, 10 and even 20 years. Our initial discussions with many of you have made us optimistic about the viability of our vision.

But, we need to talk to everyone in Rancho Murieta who is interested in hearing more. Here is a list of the people on the committee who can provide more detail if you want to reach out individually: Tom Shewchuk, John O’Brien, Chase Armer, Scott Bailey, Dan Delmore, Steve Fargo, Chuck Hays, Doug Kirk, Bob Kjome, Bobby McCallister, Catherine Silvera and Mike Smith.

We are also planning to hold a handful of focus group meetings with Rancho Murieta Country Club golf members in the near future to discuss specific details, a projected timeline and to answer questions.

We need your help to make this vision a reality. 

 The alternative is to do nothing, and three years from now, when the country club’s lease expires, the fate of the facility will be in the hands of the developer. We would then have no control over its future, including whether any improvements would be made, what the dues would be, or even whether both golf courses would continue to exist. Instead, the citizens of this community can seize their own destiny and shape the future of Rancho Murieta for generations.