Mad River Golf Club celebrates 25 years

What started as a conversation about tennis and croquet between two long-time friends resulted in the development of a golf club.

Wil Matthews, one of the founders of the Mad River Golf Club said the project started on a bit of a whim but 25 years later the club is going strong and is considered one of the best courses in the world.

The club, located north of Creemore, celebrated the milestone August 6 with more than 300 members and guests in attendance.

Matthews founded the club with Ray Richards and the late Peter Barnard.

Barnard was a very skilled tennis player, said Matthews, and had attempted to create a grass tennis court at his farm near Creemore and he wanted it to double as a croquet course.

“He had trouble keeping the grass in good shape and so, being Peter, a very logical engineer type guy, he wondered who knows how to take care of grass and thought it must be someone who does golf courses,” said Matthews. “So he went and located Ray Richards.”

Richards, a professional greenkeeper, agreed to build and maintain the tennis and croquet course and became friends with Barnard. Matthews was brought into the mix as Barnard enticed him to the sport of croquet. Matthews himself then had a golf pitch and putt that was part croquet pitch built at his farm. Richards and Matthews shared an interest in golf, and with Barnard, who was not a golfer, they started talking about the lack of good golf courses in the area.

“One thing led to another and we decided well, why don’t we build one? It was as simple as that,” said Matthews.

So they formed a company and hired golf course architect Bob Cupp who for 15 years, was chief designer for Jack Nicklaus Design. Matthews said while most owners enlist an architect with a specific property in mind, they wanted Cupp to be involved from the very beginning and help select the perfect site. They also had no intention of developing housing, the course would be designed solely for the purpose of golf.

“We got Ray Richards to become our general manager of the company and we built the course with Ray managing that whole process,” said Matthews.

He said the tricky part was getting members. Because the majority of the weekenders used their properties as winter retreats they marketed the golf club through the ski clubs.

“We got the first 100-120 members very quickly,” said Matthews. “Then the recession of the early 90s hit and we had a very stagnant period where we didn’t sell very much at all. It actually took about 15 years to sell it out completely.”

Membership was originally capped at 300 members but has since been increased slightly. The golf club is owned by its members. Those with equity memberships can sell through the club for whatever price they wish, subject to certain provisions and restrictions, and can be transferred through the owner’s estate. There are currently a limited number of memberships available.

Matthews said the club has been very successful financially. He said the one year of financial difficulty was when the members had to rebuild the clubhouse in 2005 after it was destroyed by fire, at which time they decided to expand.

From the beginning, said Matthews, the goal was to build a premier golf facility with a family friendly atmosphere.

“Peter was really good at that, he didn’t want to have a bunch of rules. He said, we have to set up principles that people buy into and then you don’t need rules,” said Matthews. “It’s worked perfectly in line with our vision of what we hoped it could turn out to be.”