Bid window opens for Ironwood Golf Course, with locals making a play

The city of Gainesville opened its 30-day bidding period last week for bids to buy or lease Ironwood Golf Course, with at least two known proposals already circulating in the public.

The process started in June after two former University of Florida alumni, partners at HangTime Golf in North Carolina, approached the city with an offer to buy the golf course. They submitted an official unsolicited proposal, and the City Commission decided to move forward with its policy and let anyone submit ideas.

The guidelines released by the city on July 22 allow for a wide range of purchase options—outright sale, lease to own, long-term lease, public-private partnership—with one main unnegotiable: the property must remain a public golf course.

The only qualification to submit a bid is that someone with the team has a minimum of five years’ experience operating a golf course or driving range. The deadline to submit is 3 p.m. on Aug. 22, and the guidelines estimate city staff will evaluate the submissions starting Sept. 7, with any oral presentation a couple weeks later.

The city is under no obligation to proceed with one of the projects, but a sale would remove a reoccurring deficit from Gainesville’s budget. City Commissioners seemed open to a sale during discussions.

HangTime Golf gave a project overview to the commission, including a $1.1 million purchase price and $2.4 million in investments in the first year. They also proposed a renaming to Gainesville National.

At hearing the news that Ironwood Golf Course could be for sale, a coalition of Gainesville locals began considering their own bid. They launched a website for their vision, called The Track.

The website tells how The Track ties four meanings together—Gainesville’s railroad history, UF’s track and field successes, horse country to the south in Marion County and a term used by golfers for the actual course.

The coalition includes Tyler and Trace Rucarean, owners of private, indoor golf simulators called Future Country Club. They began hearing from members at the club and long-time acquaintances about the possibility of putting a bid together.

Ben Chase, former director of NIL Strategy at UF, and Nick Gallo, owner of Gallo Car Wash, are also part of the effort. The Rucareans said there’s a lot of work happening with investors as the proposal takes shape.

“It was surprising to us, for sure, to see that the city was open,” Trace Rucarean said. “We wouldn’t have thought to put in an unsolicited bid, obviously, on it.”

The Rucareans went back to Ironwood and played through the course. They say it has “good bones,” from the terrain to the clubhouse layout and opportunity to build it up.

Tyler Rucarean played for Buchholz High School before joining the UF men’s golf team in the 2000s. He later worked at Chimera Golf Club in Las Vegas, helping bring it back to life. He said the group’s attention to detail and local ties would make the course a special place for the community.

Trace said it’s about making people feel good spending a day on the course, whether a full 18 holes, pitch and play or short games.

“You just gotta be smart about where those first dollars are invested, so you can earn the trust and invest further in the project and build as you go,” he said.

Two ideas the group is considering include full-sized football uprights on the driving range to let golfers hit toward at 150 yards, along with a golf ring of honor for locals who’ve done much for the sport, including high school and university athletes, coaches, community organizers and more.

Trace Rucarean said it’s another chance for Gainesville to have an awesome outdoor golf experience after so many closures.

“We want to really bind the community here in Gainesville and the surrounding counties, both past and present, and say, ‘hey, this is a project for everyone from years ago to way past us. We want to build this as the nucleus to kind of restart golf in the community,” he said.

Tyler Rucarean said the group would be happy to see anyone invest and make Ironwood a great course. He said their group would likely have the most attention to detail and love for the community.

The golf course saw 40,000 rounds of play in the 2024 fiscal year, followed by 35,000 the year after. The city’s guidelines noted factors influencing that reduction, including course operations, facility conditions, market factors and capital constraints.

“Notwithstanding year-to-year fluctuations, the historical volume of play demonstrates that Ironwood remains a heavily utilized recreational asset with an established customer base and meaningful market presence,” the city said.

Half of the course’s revenue comes from greens fees, $579,807 in 2025. The course ran a $322,683 deficit that year. One of the biggest changes from the year prior was a drop in concession revenue from $267,000 to $28,000.

Gainesville golfer and longtime Gators sports commentator Pat Dooley used to break 80 at Ironwood before getting his knees replaced, as he usually hits in the mid 80s now. He said the city has worked hard to make the course better.

“But the support could be much better in terms of what the city is doing or not doing,” Dooley said. “It is certainly playable but not ideal, and there are greens that have major issues.”

Still, Dooley said he likes to play Ironwood for the love of the layout. He hopes new owners will inject capital into the course to make it good.

“It doesn’t have to be great,” Dooley noted. “It just has to be good. I think it’s important for the east side of this city and for the students who actually play more there than they do at the UF course.”

West End Golf Course closed in 2019, and Meadowbrook Golf Course followed a few years later. Gainesville Country Club then shut down.

Alachua County golf now consists of two public courses (Ironwood Golf Course and a revitalized Turkey Creek Golf Course) along with Mark Bostick Golf Course at UF and Hawkstone Country Club at Haile Plantation.