MONROE — The new owners of Monroe Golf and Country Club have only been in charge for a week, but they’re already making history at the 97-year-old venue.
For the first time since the club opened in 1919, the public will be able to play golf and enjoy the facilities when it opens for the season in the spring.
“We’re looking forward to making it more of a family establishment,” co-owner Jon Syrocki said. “That’s something that’s missing in this town, and we want to connect with the community and become part of it again.”
Jon and uncle Matt Syrocki bought the club at auction in December with a winning bid of $850,000. After previous owner Cary Campbell defaulted on a loan, the country club was sent to auction.
The Syrockis have extensive experience in the restaurant business and had been looking to purchase a venue together in the southeast Michigan area, where their family has been doing business for 40 years.
“I was running a restaurant in Pennsylvania, and I happened to sell it at the same time [Matt] had some extra time on his hands,” Jon Syrocki said. “We weren’t necessarily looking for a golf course, but we decided to come to the auction and, sure enough, we were the high bidder.”
The Syrockis have worked together in the past, but this is their first venture into the golf and country club world. They brought in Sunrise Golf Inc., a golf management and consulting firm, to handle that side of the operation.
The company has worked with dozens of golf courses across the country, including several in California. It is headquartered in Toledo.
The 18-hole course was designed by Donald Ross, whose creations include the prestigious Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina, as well as Inverness in Toledo.
“The exciting thing here is you’ve got this incredible Donald Ross golf course, and there just aren’t that many of those in the country,” Sunrise Golf Inc. CEO Mark Tansey said. “It’s a great accreditation to have. The design of the course has always been stellar.”
Between now and the beginning of the golf season, the new owners are working on plans to give the club a face-lift.
The club will continue to offer memberships and maintain separate private and public dining rooms. Mr. Syrocki said the menu hasn’t been finalized yet, but it will feature more high-end options from the club’s new chef, Joe Rizzo.
Mr. Rizzo has worked at a shore cafe in New Jersey as well as resorts in the Pocono Mountains.
The banquet hall will also be remodeled and open to the public.
“[The facilities] need some TLC, and we’re going to give that to them,” Mr. Syrocki said. “There’s 97 years of history behind the club, and unfortunately, it just didn’t have the money to keep it up. But we’re going to be putting that into it and bringing it back to the glory it had in years past.
“We’ll be up and running before the golf season, as far as putting it back on the footing it should be,” Mr. Syrocki said.
Contact Jay Skebba at: jskebba@theblade.com, 419-376-9414, or on Twitter @JaySkebbaBlade.
First Published February 10, 2016, 5:00 a.m.
