Candywood becomes latest to join list of closures

Rising expenses, fewer golfers have been taking their toll

By BRIAN DZENIS | bdzenis@vindy.com

At one time or another for the past 50 years, Candywood Golf Club in Vienna has played host to a governor’s wife, a handful of weddings and numerous golfers.

But it won’t be hosting anyone this golf season.

Candywood, along with Copeland Hills near Columbiana, are the latest Mahoning Valley golf courses to close up shop. The pair joins a list of golf courses in the five-county area that have either closed down or been put up for sale within the past three years.

It took Candywood owner Anthony “Jamie” Candella Jr. three years to make the final decision to close the course. The Warren Harding graduate says he’s at peace with the decision.

“For 50 years, we had a great run. I have no regrets,” Candella said. “I didn’t realize when we told people [Candywood was closing] how much it would impact them.”

His father, the late Anthony Candella Sr., purchased the property in 1962, which at the time was just a 19th-century barn that still had cows living in it and a lot of land. Five years later, Candywood opened.

His son was non-commital about an urban legend that his father opened the place because Italians were barred from playing at a nearby country club.

“My father never talked about it,” Candella said. “It may have legs.”

He inherited the course at 32 years old after his father unexpectedly died in 1989. With the exception of his time in medical school, Candella grew up at the course. He was married at the course. His three daughters had their first jobs at the course. He’s heard more golf stories in barn-turned-clubhouse to last a lifetime. He recalled current Ohio governor John Kasich’s wife, Karen, showing up with a tour bus full of people as she was touring barns across the state.

Why call it quits? Candella said it was a financial decision. Expenses were going up each year and the revenue couldn’t keep up.

“We couldn’t maintain the course to the standard we wanted and make it worth our while,” Candella said.

The cost of gas, chemicals, machinery and payroll went up each year as demographics weren’t skewing in his favor. His player base was getting older and younger golfers just were an uncommon sight.

“It’s hard to raises prices because it’s so competitive here,” said Jeff Myers, Candywood’s former pro. “You have your suppliers raising the cost of chemicals and gasoline and you can’t pass that cost to the players. It’s hard to do because you’ll price yourself out of business.”

Since the course closed in October, Candella said he’s had “a dozen” potential buyers approach him about purchasing the course, but when he shows them the course’s financials from the past few years, they back off.

The Vindicator’s broadcast partner, WFMJ Channel 21, reported last week that people associated with the course applied with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife to become a wild-animal hunting preserve.

Candella, who was interviewed in early March, did not return calls on the proposed reserve. The Division of Wildlife has until Friday to approve or reject the application.

Myers, who was the golf pro at Copeland Hills before leaving in 2012, said the course closed during the summer and resembled a ghost town by the end of the fall season.

The pair joins a list of golf courses in the five-county area that have either closed down or been put up for sale within the past three years.

Willow Woods, which previously went by Doughton Hills and the Doughton Country Club in Hubbard, was closed down after a liquidation sale at the end of the 2014 fall season. Other recent defunct courses include Lake Front in

Columbiana and Dogwood in North Jackson. In New Castle, Pa., Mohawk Trails closed after the 2014 season.

Salem Hills Golf Course and Country Club was briefly in that group. It closed in December as then-owner Butch Ross put the place up for auction.

On March 2, former club member Ray Bricker bought the property for $880,000. On March 8, PGA pro Ben Broderick announced that he would reopen the course “within 10 days.”

Broderick is running the course under a lease agreement with Bricker.

Auctioneer Rusty Kiko of the Canton-based Kiko Auctions handled the sale. Kiko said his company has facilitated the sale of five courses across the state in recent years. He said the course will have to change if it is to survive for the longterm.

“It’s going to take a sharp owner to do well here,” Kiko said. “There needs to be change. There needs to be more activities to bring in a younger crowd.”

Candella says Candywood likely won’t be the last course in the area to close. He’s rooting for his fellow owners to succeed, but knows they are facing an uphill battle.

“It’s a deeper issue,” Candella said. “I just don’t see this correcting itself, locally or nationally.”