Updated: Tuesday, 10 Jan 2012, 1:52 PM CST
Published : Tuesday, 10 Jan 2012, 1:52 PM CST
SAN ANTONIO (AP) â€" For John Pierce, the news that Pecan Valley Golf Club was closing was like "a kick to the gut."
"This was the place that was always not just where the good golfers played, but where all kinds of golfers played," said Pierce, 50, one of the top amateurs in the state, as he warmed up on the driving range.
Some of the city's best golfers, its most enthusiastic aficionados and people who just love the game were out Sunday playing a last round at the storied golf course designed in the early 1960s.
The site of a famous swing by Arnold Palmer in the 1968 PGA Championship and of the 2001 U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship was described by its admirers as a golfer's course, designed by architect J. Press Maxwell to be aesthetically pleasing and fun to play â€" not to be merely some addition to a real estate development.
Those fans, many of them misty-eyed, showed up in droves to golf in the appropriately gloomy weather. By the end of the day, 146 golfers had made their way onto the links.
Tracy Holmes, 50, who showed up with his two sons wearing black as a sign of mourning for the course, said he couldn't believe it when his wife told him the place was closing.
"I sat there just gaping at her," he said. "I thought, 'You can't close the Pecan.' It's got the PGA. It's a classically designed course. I just hope somebody picks it up. It's just too great a course."
Thomas Holmes, 16, said he played Pecan Valley with the golf team at Central Catholic High School, where he's a sophomore.
"I never play this course well," he said. "But I like to play it."
Pecan Valley's future remains uncertain. Management company Foresight Golf hasn't said what it intends to do with Pecan Valley.
But those on the course Sunday got a laugh at the company's claim that one reason for closing the course is that it's too difficult to play: That's the point, many of them said.
Joe Courvier, 52, said he first played the course in high school and that for the past seven years he's worked at Pecan Valley. It can be tough, he said, but that's how you learn.
"If you want to get your game in shape, this is where you come," Courvier said.
Pecan Valley is challenging, said Noel Precie, 62, who's been volunteering and working there for almost 25 years. A four-hour golf game isn't about getting the best score, he said.
"After four hours, you've got a friend," he said. "That's I guess the magical thing about golf. You're not competing against each other; you're competing against the course. And this course has been beating me up for years."
Jim Carey, 63, drove in from Universal City to play. He said he hasn't gotten to Pecan Valley lately because it's out of his way. The course has a lot to offer, he said, including a natural setting. He said that when he worked there in 2003 and 2004, he once saw a cougar on the course.
"If this is going to be one of the last rounds here, I want to play," he said. "I love this course."
It's the history of the course and its beauty â€" the sprawling property with large oak trees is home to red-tailed hawks and other wildlife â€" that those getting in their final holes said brought them to the course. Plus, there aren't many golf courses, open to the public, that have hosted a PGA and a USGA tournament.
"I've met thousands of good people" at Pecan Valley, Precie said. "To them, I'd like to say thanks, because I had a good time. And when I was working, I hope I made your round more enjoyable. Because this was my backyard."
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Information from: San Antonio Express-News, http://www.mysanantonio.com
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