By Jason Kaplan
The sale of Cornwall’s Storm King Golf Club, to the Hudson Valley Golf Foundation, was completed on Dec. 10. While avid golfers may be looking ahead to spring, they won’t be able to use the course anytime soon. The course and clubhouse are set to go through renovations and improvements with mid-2022 as the target reopening date.
“We were seeking a property to deliver our mission,” said Trey Owen, president of Hudson Valley Golf Foundation (HVGF). “The foundation had a conversation with the previous ownership. Those conversations started out with how a partnership might work and evolved into a conversation around an acquisition of the property.”
The purpose of the HVGF is to provide a golf facility to serve as a second home for the Army West Point golf team, as well as a host facility for veteran and youth initiatives and other charitable endeavors. Such initiatives and programs include the Wounded Warrior Program, PGA Rage, First Tee, and the Boys and Girls Club of Newburgh.
The Foundation’s benefactors include former Army West Point golfers, West Point graduates, and other philanthropic patriots supportive of the HVGF’s mission.
“Several former West Point golfers and grads were looking for a place to be able to give the team a second home and really wanted to have a place that we could implement veteran initiatives and programs and youth initiatives and programs” Owen said. ”Something that the foundation could really control in terms of being able to deliver each of those programs in a way that we couldn’t necessarily do on government property.”
Running such programs at an alternate site would allow for more flexibility added Owen. As the foundation moves forward with its plans, the Storm King Tavern will remain available for private parties and events. The tavern will unlikely to be open should the clubhouse go through renovations this year. The foundation has yet to determine their food and beverage operation after the renovations are completed, so it’s unknown if the tavern will be open to the public in the future.
Renovations to the golf course and clubhouse are still being discussed, but Owens suggested the clubhouse could be renamed the Foundation House and serve as a multipurpose facility with locker rooms to serve the needs of the athletes and classrooms to support the foundation’s programs.
Despite the changes, the golf course will remain open to the public based on excess capacity above and beyond the primary purpose of the foundation.
