Courtesy of Inverness Country Club
The Inverness Country Club in Hoover, Alabama
The Heritage Golf Group, a fairly new Virginia-based company that owns and operates golf and country clubs in the eastern, central and Rocky Mountain regions of the United States, announced Thursday it has acquired both the Inverness and Riverchase golf and country clubs in Hoover.
“We are extremely excited to be in the Birmingham market as it continues to be a growing metropolitan area with vibrant suburbs and a downtown renaissance underway,” said Mark Burnett, president and CEO of the Heritage Golf Group, in a press release. “Inverness Country Club and Riverchase Country Club are both full-service private clubs in large residential communities that will complement our growing network of clubs. We look forward to working with the members and staff to enhance the member and guest experiences.”
The Inverness Country Club’s par 71, 18-hole golf course was designed by George Cobb and features a practice facility, MiniVerde greens and a set of junior tees. Inverness recently hosted the annual Patriot Shootout of Alabama by the Folds of Honor Foundation.
The 23,000-square-foot clubhouse was recently renovated with a full-service restaurant and an outdoor patio with multiple private event spaces including a ballroom capable of seating up to 300 guests. Additional amenities include a 4,000-square-foot fitness center, a group exercise studio, a private Pilates studio and a child care center.
The tennis facility has been recently renovated and expanded, featuring 13 Har-Tru courts and three U.S. Open blue hard courts. The club also has three pools, including a family pool, a lap pool and a kid’s pool with cabanas.
The Riverchase Country Club will immediately begin a multimillion-dollar golf course and clubhouse phased renovation. The par 72, 18-hole golf course will undergo an extensive capital improvement program, including a golf course greens renovation project, irrigation system upgrade and new course and practice range amenities. A second phase of renovations will include indoor and outdoor food and beverage clubhouse enhancements.
The Riverchase Country Club just last year embarked on a roughly $800,000 golf course upgrade that included redoing tee boxes, building new tee boxes, repairing some bunkers, eliminating some bunkers and building a few new bunkers, Club President Phillip Miles said.
Photo by Erin Nelson
Spain Park High School’s Daniel Fuller putts the ball on hole 9 during the Class 7A boys golf tournament at the Riverchase Country Club in Hoover, Alabama, on Monday, April 25, 2022.
The upgrade project also included the removal of a couple hundred trees affecting tee boxes and greens and replacement of a 1,400-foot storm drain pipe that had deteriorated on the eighth hole, causing the ground around the pipe to sink.
Just last month, the Hoover City voted to proceed with an estimated $3 million repair of a city street and private dam underneath the street that was owned by the Riverchase Country Club and damaged significantly by torrential downpours and flooding in October 2021. The council also annexed the 192-acre Riverchase Country Club to help pay for the repairs over the next 30 years.
The Riverchase Residential Association is paying $150,000 toward the repairs, and the city will pay the remainder, which was expected to amount to about $2,850,000.
Because the country club was annexed into the city, the city will be able to recoup its investment in the dam and road repair over time through property taxes, sales taxes, business license fees and other taxes that the city otherwise would not receive, City Administrator Allan Rice said.
Since 1976, the Riverchase course has hosted several high-profile events, including the SEC Women’s Golf Championship, the Alabama State Four-Ball Championship and the Alabama State Amateur Championship.
The clubhouse covers 35,000 square feet with both fine and casual dining spaces and a ballroom capable of seating up to 250 guests. The Riverchase club also has a fitness center with updated equipment, 15 lighted tennis courts (12 soft clay courts and three hard surface courts), a 6,000-square-foot tennis shop and four new pickleball courts. The club also has a newly renovated swimming pool with expansive decking, a snack bar, and water slide.
The Heritage Golf Group, which was created in 2020, now has 30 private country clubs, daily-fee courses and resort courses. The group’s home office is in northern Virginia, just outside of Washington, D.C., and its clubs are in Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Michigan and Wisconsin.
The company continues to grow by acquiring a mix of private country clubs in residential communities, member-owned clubs with growth potential seeking strategic alternatives, and premium daily-fee and resort golf properties in major resort destinations and metropolitan markets.
For more information about the Heritage Golf Group, visit heritagegolfgroup.com.
