BGHT: VALLONES PURCHASE TWIN VILLAGE GOLF COURSE

New life and a breath of fresh air will be going into the purchase and operation of the Roscoe Twin Village Golf Course (TVGC) by entrepreneur and prominent Roscoe residents Phil Vallone and his wife Donna who see's "that the course has a tremendous upside potential."

Vallone, the founder, vice president of Vallo Transportation in Queens, the founder, president and CEO of Rolling V. Bus Corporation in Sullivan County and he has acquired the assets of Supertans, a lower Westchester based student transportation company. He is also associated with the Roscoe Beer Company owned by wife Donna and family members.

In announcing the purchase of the golf course Vallone said that his, "strong business mission is to operate prompt, professional personalized companies and to provide meaningful employment, give back to the community and to create economic opportunity for the township."

Donna Vallone recently sold her cabin business after operating them for 20 plus years but she still owns and operates the Creekside's Town Inn (formerly known as the Creekside's B&B and indicated she plans to be more hands on at the brewery.

Well known in the Roscoe and Sullivan County area since their permanent move to this area in 1990 Donna noted that she was a summer resident of Roscoe from the day she was born and stayed at her grandparents property on Dutch Hill Road.

After meeting Phil and traveling back and forth to Roscoe every weekend and becoming married in 1985 they settled into the county and raised their two sons here. Both Phil Jr. and Nicholas attended and graduated from Livingston Manor Central School.

Phil Jr. after college enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and served five years and is now working with Rolling V. Nicholas started working at the bus company immediately after college and now runs Super Trans in Yonkers.

Nick has a great love for the game of golf and actually grew up on the Twin Village Golf Course with his grandfather Ken Knudsen. He played many other golf courses in Sullivan County and he and Shannon "Birdie" Bowers-Feeney (who now works for the Roscoe Beer Company as their marketing manager) were on the same Catskill Junior tour back in the 90's.

The 9-hole TVGC was developed originally by the Roscoe-Rockland Commercial Club in 1925 at the instigation of a club member from Scotland. Land was purchased from a Joseph Taylor and described as "a strip of flat land and gently sloping hillside situated at Rockland opposite the Rockland House."

TVGC was financed by selling stock at $25 per share and construction began in the summer of 1925. Some of the older members remember their grandfathers telling stories about digging large rocks out of the field during the construction.

This golf course has been a historical part of the community as the present clubhouse was originally School District # 9 on the 1875 map of the town of Westfield Flats.

The club has been managed by the Twin Village Board of Governors and certificate members were actually the owners of the golf course. The school was in operation until the late 1930's

The club house manager and Monday Night Men's league chairman for the past number of years was Chuck Husson III who put a lot of his time and effort into the TVGC operations.

The economy, finances and making sure the budgets stayed in the black became major management topics among owners of the course in 2012 and prompted the Board of Governors to explore a $188,500 conservation easement offer which was later accepted from the Open Space Institute and the club opted to receive payments per year for five years which helped the club purchase needed maintenance equipment, add additional golf carts and be financially sound for a number of years.

Lacking marketing ability or manpower to get the golf course back to where it was in the 80's and 90's the Board of Governors and certificate members at their annual October meeting voted to accept the offer made by the Vallone's to purchase the Twin Village Golf Course which is directly across the street from their Roscoe Beer Company operations.

The sale was approved almost unanimously by the use of written ballet by TVGC certificate members.

Twin Village Golf Club President Chuck Husson IV in commenting about the sale of the golf course said, "as much as I would like to continue the running of Twin Village as it, it has become a constant struggle. We have outdated equipment , a declining membership,lack of funds to pay someone to run the clubhouse along with the lack of funds and manpower to promote and advertise. The Board of Governors saw the sale to the Vallone family as an excellent way to bring in someone new that has already done so much for Roscoe."

"They (the Vallone's) have many new and exciting ideas while planning to preserve the legacy on which Twin Village was originally founded and I have absolute confidence that we are making the correct choice at the correct time to sell to the Vallone's, "Husson added.

The president of the Board of Governors noted, "we had overwhelming support from our membership to move forward with this and this shows that the excellent reputation the Vallone's have created around Roscoe is so very welcomed and I look forward to the new and exciting future of TVGC."

Located just one mile from the hamlet of Roscoe this nine-hole par 32 executive style course is located in a valley between two mountains. The fairways are open, the small sized greens are protected by traps so don't be fooled as this little course will challenge you. A pond on No. 1 and the ninth fairway and a stream in the back of holes three, five and eight will become the home for any errant shots. What it lacks in length requires golfers to be on top of their game. Accurate shots are a must.

The shortest hole is uphill and plays 133 yards from tee to green. The longest hole number nine plays 335 yards from tee to green.

The TVGC became famous in the year 2000 when three top Sullivan County golfers made a few "easy-small-course remarks" about the nine-hole 2,045 yard long Roscoe course and it was immediately challenged from several prominent TVGC members who "said put your money where you mouth is" and when is was all over those outside golfers learned a lesson that will never be forgotten.

The end result was that the Sullivan County hot-shots got their butts kicked by the TVGC golfers who knew all the secrets of their Twin Village course.

The future of the TVGC looks very bright as we discussed plans that the Vallone's are charting out following the sale closing agreement which will be finalized in January.

The name of the golf course will remain Twin Village Golf Club and the additional name of Twin Village Winter Park to be added to include winter sports activities on the golf course grounds.

There will be an upgrade of the golf carts with 20 carts to be available for golfers.

Plans will be discussed on adding a Par 3 Executive Course within the boundaries of the existing course allowing golfers to play the regular course or the Par 3 course.

Strong support will be offered to the existing Monday Men's and Tuesday Ladies leagues with plans for a possible mixed league in the future.

Plans are being studied for adding indoor golf simulators for winter golf and winter golf leagues.

The Vallone's plan to hire a full-time greens keeper but has not named who that will be at this time.

Repairs and upgrades will be made to the cart paths and construction plans include improvements to the lower half of hole No. 8.

Plans are also being made for the growing of hops on non-playing portions of the golf course that will be used at The Roscoe Beer Company.

Food and beer will also be offered at the clubhouse which is due to be possibly enlarged and modifications and improvements will also take place in the clubhouse.

Shannon "Birdie" Bowers-Feeney who is the marketing representative for the Roscoe Beer Company will also do the marketing for the golf course and plans are being made for the return of the popular Memorial Golf Tournament and the addition of other golf tournaments including a number of "fun" tournaments.

Possible lights on the greens could be added in the future Phil Vallone noted.

Membership fees along with greens and cart fees are expected to be about the same as last year and the Vallone's intend to reach out to the new ownership of the Liberty Sullivan County Golf & Country Club to see if the unique same playing agreement can be continued. This agreement was that each course will honor the memberships of the others for no additional cost with golf fees being charged except for the paying of cart fees.

Philip and Donna Vallone will soon become the new owners and operators of the Roscoe Twin Village Golf Club.

Closing on the sale of the golf course will take place in January. Sharing the photo with the Vallone's is Shannon "Birdie" Bowers-Feeney who is the Marketing Manager of the Roscoe Beer Company and will take on the marketing duties of the golf course.

The present Roscoe Twin Village Golf Club clubhouse may very well be enlarged and will definitely be modernized under the new ownership of the Vallone family from Roscoe.

Two prominent Roscoe golfers have been active for many years in the leadership and operations of the Twin Village Golf Course under the former Board of Governors. Chuck Husson III, left, managed the club house activity and also served as treasurer and chairman of the 18-team Monday Night Men's league. His son,Chuck Husson IV, right, recently has served as president of the Board of Governors.