Brentwood Golf Club Closes Nine-Hole Course

A nine-hole golf course in Brentwood has joined the roster of defunct links in the region.

The Brentwood Golf Club closed its Diablo Golf Course at 100 Summerset Drive, the San Jose Mercury News reported. The club’s 18-hole golf course will stay open.

Rex Choe, owner of the property next to Summerset I, a popular retirement community, said high maintenance costs and a decline in golfers were the main reasons he decided to close the 25-year-old course.

“For three years I’ve been studying whether we should stay open or not, but even though I lose money, I tried to stay,” Choe told the newspaper, noting he spent more than $350,000 a year on maintenance.

Diablo’s closure comes a year after another nearby club, Shadow Lakes, reopened as a nine-hole golf course several years after high operating expenses and low revenues forced it to close its 18-hole facility.

Other nearby courses that have closed in recent years in the city between Walnut Creek and Stockton include Deer Ridge, Roddy Ranch, Delta View and Bethel Island.

Brentwood City Manager Tim Ogden said the Diablo course has long been zoned to include homes.

“In this particular part of the golf course where the Diablo course is proposed to close, single-family residential homes are allowed to be built, but that doesn’t mean that is intended or feasible,” he told residents during a public meeting.

Ogden added that apartments are not allowed and anything different from current zoning would need the approval of voters.

“There are so many nuances to all the various and contradictory state laws that may apply, and the feasibility of anything different than a golf course will need to be closely reviewed if any applications are submitted, which again, we have no understanding is even being considered,” he said.

When asked what he would do with the now-closed course, Choe said it was too early to decide, but he had no immediate plans.

“I have to stop bleeding first and see how that goes,” he said.

— Dana Bartholomew