Solon golf club aims to stay the course

The website for Hawthorne Valley Golf Club in Solon proclaims the Donald Ross-designed course to be “one of the area’s best-kept secrets.” Hawthorne Valley is asking $2,500, a price that includes unlimited golf at the 90-year-old club, plus a private locker and use of the club’s showers and workout facility.

A source who didn’t want to be identified because he works for a prominent Northeast Ohio golf course said what Hawthorne Valley is offering is a “phenomenal deal” one he believed would make it difficult to turn a profit.

Well, that’s because Fred Rzepka, a longtime Hawthorne Valley member who bought the club in 2000, isn’t trying to make money on the course.

Golf isn’t how he made his money, which is a good thing, since he said it’s difficult to do so because of the proliferation of courses in Northeast Ohio, especially near Hawthorne Valley’s headquarters at 27840 Aurora Road.

Zeman, the club’s GM, said Hawthorne Valley’s membership reached 175 in 2013.

Hawthorne Valley was closed for 11 days in June because of flooding, Zeman said.

Hawthorne Valley had a “great fall,” Zeman said, but the damage done in June and July has resulted in a 20% year-over-year drop in rounds played in 2015.

Rzepka, who ended a successful 24-year run as a commissioner of the Cleveland Metroparks at the close of 2010, said Hawthorne Valley is an attractive piece of land for potential buyers.

Peggy Weil Dorfman, Solon’s economic development manager, said Hawthorne Valley hasn’t contacted the city about a potential close.