“It’s hard to operate a business when it’s in bankruptcy, and you don’t know if it will be open,” he said. “The equipment is in bad shape. We couldn’t even get parts for things. The suppliers wouldn’t do business with me.”

Kizzia could not be reached.

Bowman said heavy rains and flooding through spring and earlier summer made it even harder to maintain the greens.

On July 2, the Muskogee County District Court named LJ & D Properties as receivers. Dickmann said the LJ stands for his brother, Lanny Joseph Dickmann and the D stands for David.

“My family has a history of always being golfers, all the way back to my grandmother,” David Dickmann said. “It kinds of run in the blood. Dad never had the opportunity to buy a golf course.”

He said he and his brother played golf together since they were boys.

“My grandmother used to take us out to — it’s Eagle Crest now, used to be Meadowbrook Golf Course,” he said. “She’d get us out there at 7 a.m. and play nine holes with us. Max Holloway, who opened Cobblestone Creek originally, is a good friend.”

Hilldale High School golf coach Oren Sikes Jr., said the course’s proximity, down Smith Ferry Road from the high school, made it an ideal place for his team to practice.

“It was a good learning course for the students,” he said. “It was not so tough the average golfer couldn’t play it. We used to love to play it when it was in great shape, but it stopped being in great shape.”

Although a person does not have to be a member to play, Sikes said he had a lifetime membership at the course.

“I hope I still do,” he said. “I think there are knowledgeable people interested in the course. I look for it to be in good shape again.”