Wildcreek Golf Course is under new ownership. The Washoe County Board of Commissioners has deeded the land to local nonprofit The First Tee Northern Nevada, and it will remain open to the public. 

"There's been over 100 holes in Northern Nevada that have closed in recent years, and there's a huge need for public golf," said Chris Dewar, Executive Director of The First Tee of Northern Nevada.

There are new plans for the course; the layout has changed already because of construction of the new Hug High School on part of the former property.

"The Executive course, which has been here for a long time, will get a facelift," Dewar said. "And just improving greens and fairways. There will be a new championship nine-hole course, a state-of-the-art driving range, a short-hole practice area, and a huge putting green."

It will also be the new headquarters for The First Tee, a nonprofit that teaches local kids skills on the greens, and in life.

"We're going to offer college classes here, there will be an opportunity for to us to hook in with Hug, the high school that's being built across the way," Dewar said. "We'll be able to do something more on vocational studies where we teach the kids, have a class where they learn landscaping, how to take care of a golf course, things like that, so when they get out of high school, they'll have a certificate where they'll be employed right away."

Students in program will have the chance to work at the course, too, and it will host all kinds of community programs as well.

"We're going to take over the building - and it's going to need a lot of work - to have a First Tee learning center upstairs," Dewar said. "They'll have a retail shop, restaurant, bar, and a patio where you come up to have lunch. There's going to be all kinds of cool things here."

The fundraising campaign is underway. There are only a handful of First Tee organizations nationwide that have a golf course to call their own.

For more information, click here: https://www.firstteenorthernnevada.org/