NIMITZ GOLF COURSE CLOSING

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By Patrick Lujan

After decades of serving both military and local golfers, the Admiral Chester Nimitz Golf Course will be closing down.

In a press release issued by the Commander of the Joint Region Marianas dated December 5, the U.S. Navy will be closing the Admiral Nimitz Golf Course for recreational use on February 28. The last day to play will be February 10.

“This is huge,” veteran golfer Karl Pangelinan. “This is a very sad day on a lot of different fronts. I’m at about 30 years into this game and I have a ton of roots at that golf course.”

Simply known as ‘Nimitz’ to the local golfers, it was a favorite for all levels of golfers because of its wide fairways and friendly rates.

It hosted countless tournaments, including the old Marianas Invitational Tournament, Guam’s last four-round golf tournament.

Seven-time MIT champion Lon Lindsey has been playing the course since the early 1970’s when he was a junior golfer and he mirrors Pangelinan’s sentiments.

“It’s kind of sad,” Lindsey said. “It’s a golf course where I learned how to play golf. It got to a point where they catered to the junior golf program. It’s not the greatest golf course but it was easy to get on and off and it was open to the public so I think the public is going to suffer more.”

According to the press release from the Navy, “the course has been incurring a significant revenue loss over the past three years and is not considered the best use of tax dollars, particularly in today’s challenging fiscal environment.”

Lindsey happens to be one of the employees of the golf course. The release went on to state that ‘every effort will be made to ensure the current golf course employees are offered employment in other positions within MWR.’

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