- The city of Gainesville opened a 30-day bidding period to buy or lease Ironwood Golf Course with proposals required to keep it public.
- Local coalition The Track and North Carolina's HangTime Golf have submitted distinct bids aiming to invest millions and enhance the course.
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 recurring 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.
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The Track seems to be a bunch of pie in the sky dreamers lacking the experience required by the city. The Hang Time group appears to have the experience and are former UF affiliated, so familiar with the property. Hope it doesn’t turn into a failed experiment like Mom’s Kitchen the way the city of Gainesville does things.
Hear hear Sharon!
Sounds written like someone from the Hangtime group.
The Rucarean’s are local Gainesvillians, played junior golf here, grew up here, have local businesses here and are trying to revive golf with their two simulators, both based in Gainesville. I think you’ll find it difficult to find people more invested in the state of Gainesville golf than the group from The Track. Tyler also played golf for the university of Florida as is illustrated in this article and Ben Chase is the former Director of NIL for Florida Victorious – these guys have big dreams that have come true and the UF-affiliation you forgot to mention.
Can’t wait to play The Track regularly.
I think that this is fantastic. This golf course is part of Gainesville’s history. I’d hate to see it close.
Totally agree with previous poster Sharon. The Track vision sounds very gimmicky and unserious similar to PGA-alternative LIV Golf and TopGolf. Both are struggling to survive and most true golf practitioners have no interest in them. Goalposts in the driving range? Ridiculous. Get serious about finding a serious group that is serious about building a high quality golf course, not an amusement park, in Gainesville! That’s Hang Time.
The dig on golf courses in Gainesville seems to be that the community hasn’t supported them. The more accurate assessment, in my opinion, is that the community hasn’t supported golf courses that haven’t provided a quality experience at a reasonable price. Turkey Creek continues to improve. Bravo. The Ocala Golf Club is a municipal course that rivals Bostic and Hawkstone in quality. It is worth the drive to me because Ocala understands that even the duffers among us expect fairways, greens and bunkers that are maintained in playable condition. Ironwood is an abomination. The fairways are in less than fair shape, the greens are pocked with craters and patches of crab grass, the bunkers resemble German pill boxes and the driving range pads look like the bottom of the Washington DC reflecting pool. Gainesville taxpayers would benefit from an operator who is serious about operating a golf course. If you build it, the golfers will come.