Burleson-based company swoops in to save this Fort Worth golf club from closing
When Southern Oaks Golf Club closed abruptly in November, some wondered if it would ever reopen. But Shipman Companies of Burleson and Niles Realty Group of Arlington swooped in and decided to buy it from AngMar Companies.
The club officially opens on Feb. 1.
“The previous owner reached out to us … and wanted to know if we would be interested,” said David Shipman, partner at Shipman Companies. “In a matter of two weeks, we knew we wanted it.”
After buying the property, the new owners brought in Elite Golf Management to run the golf course, and through them they brought back half of the employees who had worked at Southern Oaks before the closing.
Additionally, Rebecca Madan and Arif Fazal (the former operator of Gardens Restaurant at the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens) were brought in as the operaters of Oaks Event Center. Madan rescheduled the weddings that had been canceled when the golf course closed, and the center has scheduled more events and even hosted a few of them recently before it has officially opened.
Shipman Companies ordinarily deals in residential, commercial and industrial rental property, so this is new territory for them. But Shipman said the company wanted to do it to give back to the community.
“We saw it as an opportunity to help out hundreds of homeowners here,” he said. “We saw it as an opportunity to help out a local neighborhood.”
In 2017, Avid Golfer named Southern Oaks Golf Club as one of the top luxury courses in the area. The club has hosted championships, major junior tournaments and high school teams.
