Couple buy Menomonie golf course (Aug 26)

August 26, 2015 – Pinewood Golf Course will tee off the fall with new owners and a new name.

The nine-hole course at N4545 440th St. has been bought by Menomonie residents Jasen Bullock and Faith Cook, who are engaged to be married.

They will take possession of the business Sept. 3 and will change its name to Pinewood Golf Club & Restaurant. The duo plan to expand dining options at the clubhouse.

Bullock, 38, currently works as a superintendent at Chippewa Valley Golf Club, and Cook works in the clubhouse there. Cook, a member of the Menomonie City Council who represents Ward 5, is also a UW-Stout student majoring in hotel and restaurant management and golf enterprise management. She graduates in December.

She has degrees in recreational management from Northwest College in Orange City, Iowa, and turf management from Rutgers University in New Jersey.

At Pinewood, Cook will work as clubhouse manager, and Bullock will operate the golf course and maintain it.

“I’ve been working in the golf course business for 20 years,” Bullock said. “This is a good opportunity.”

Bullock said he wants to make sure the golf course greens are well-maintained and in a year or two add tee boxes and increase some of the holes’ lengths.

“We do plan to keep it affordable,” Bullock said of the course. “We want to encourage people to get involved with golf. I am an avid golfer, and I want people to know we are here.”

The course is a good one for mid-level golfers, Bullock said. Golfers also can enjoy a round of golf over a lunch hour.

The food portion of the business also will undergo changes. Cook plans to immediately add gourmet sandwiches, soups and salads to the restaurant menu. The plan is to also start serving the food for banquets at the facility rather than having food catered in. The clubhouse is available for parties or special events, seating 100 people upstairs and 150 downstairs.

Cook and Bullock bought Pinewood from Tom Karis, who owned the golf course with his father, Bud Karis, who died in June.

The Karis family built the golf course just over 21 years ago on a reclaimed gravel pit and provided nearly all of the labor for that effort themselves. The course opened on Labor Day in 1994.

In an interview in 2013 with the Leader-Telegram, Bud Karis said he wanted the course he started to be sold to someone local, who he hoped would continue to operate it as a golf course.

As Menomonie resident Nancy Dimberio prepared to play a round of golf Friday, she said she’s happy Cook and Bullock will continue operating the course.

“The golf course is in very good condition,” she said, noting she golfs at Pinewood a couple of times a week. “I was worried it would be developed into apartment buildings.”

Becky Harmon, of Menomonie, echoed that sentiment.

“I just like the course,” she said, noting she plays two or three times a week. “For me it is long enough. It is comfortable.”

Reduced golfing rates will be available at Pinewood on Sept. 3 to celebrate the new owners. For more information search for the business on Facebook or call 715-235-2900.