TAMPA, Fla. — The owner of Pebble Creek Golf Course in New Tampa confirms he’s in the final stages of contract negotiation and plans to sell the course to developer Pulte Homes.

The course, which has been a staple in the community for 54 years, will shut down permanently on July 31. Mulligan’s Irish Pub, which is attached to the clubhouse, will shut down as well.

What You Need To Know

  • Pebble Creek golf course in New Tampa set to close Saturday

  • Course owner says developer Pulte Homes to buy course and use land for new homes

  • Previous Story: Pebble Creek Golf Course to close

Bill Place, the owner of Ace Golf which owns Pebble Creek Golf Course, says they are seeing fewer golfers and more competition and the course was no longer profitable. He says he owned the course for 16 years and pumped a lot of money into Pebble Creek in hopes of turning things around.

“We’re done as far as this ever being a golf course again,” he said. “Hopefully we can find a good use for it, a good residential use.” 

In order for the course to become the site for new homes, they will need to mitigate contamination from years of heavy fertilizer use. The course will also need to be rezoned to residential.

Places says he’s working closely with Pebble Creek’s two HOA’s and listening to resident’s concerns.

 

A number of homeowners who live on the course are pushing back against the plan. Leslie Green, who has lived on the 10th hole for nearly 30 years, says she’s doing whatever she can to make sure a housing development doesn’t overtake the course.

“We can fight the rezoning. That’s the only thing we really can do,” she said. “This development will not happen if we fight that rezoning which we feel we have every right to do, because this is what we bought and this is what we planned.”

Green said she’s concerned about the amount of traffic hundreds of new homes could bring to the area.

“We’re worried about traffic because the county has expended Bruce B Downs so much that there’s no room to expand anymore. So in the morning we have trouble getting out of our development,” she said.

Homeowner’s concerns also include displacing wildlife and putting a strain on the area’s resources.

Greene said once the rezoning application has been submitted, she and a group of homeowners plan to approach the county commission to fight the rezoning effort.

The final day for golf at Pebble Creek Golf Course is Saturday, July 31.​