Nearly a week after golf carts at Cobblestone Creek Golf Course were repossessed by a bank, two Muskogee brothers are working to get the south Muskogee course back open.

The course at 700 E. Smith Ferry Road has been closed at least since Wednesday, when the carts were seized, said the course’s former operator, Dennis Bowman of Pryor.

David Dickmann said he and his brother, Lanny Joseph Dickmann, recently were named receivers of the course and are maintaining it until the property is sold at a foreclosure auction 10 a.m. Aug. 7. He said he and his brother are trying to buy the course or at least reopen it before then. In the meantime, grounds crews are working to keep the greens mowed and watered.

“Muskogee deserves a nice place to play golf, a public course, where you don’t have to be a member to play,” he said.

Cobblestone has “great greens and a nice layout. The front nine holes are a dunes layout, wide open. The back nine is more traditional with trees and some hills.”

Julie Adreon, a city employee who played a round with the City of Muskogee league in June, said she liked the course’s convenience and proximity.

“It’s challenging because I am a new player,” she said.

Dickmann, owner of Dickmann Glass, said he is trying to get the greens in better shape before the auction. With temperatures reaching into the 90s, he said “our main objective is to keep the greens from burning up.”

The upcoming sale could end financial problems that have plagued the course over the past year.

In July of 2007, Bank of Oklahoma filed a foreclosure action against Mark Kizzia, who had owned the course since 2000. In fall of 2007, Muskogee District Court appointed Dennis and Donna Bowman as receivers of all assets of the course. The Bowmans, who operate a course in Pryor, had operated Cobblestone Creek since they leased it from Mark Kizzia in the summer of 2006.

That lease was to have expired at the end of last October.

On Jan. 31, the bank filed a $1.4 million mortgage lien on the course. A sheriff sale was set for April 3. Kizzia Construction filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on March 28, so the sale did not take place, court records show.

In May, another sheriff’s sale was ordered for June 26. The Bowmans then asked to be relieved of receivership; their request was granted Friday.

Dennis Bowman said he and his wife had tried to keep the course operating, but it became harder to maintain.