Amid growing demand for public golf courses, Baltimore County officials are considering whether to purchase the financially ailing Country Club of Maryland in Towson, an 18-hole private facility that includes a pro shop, restaurant and clubhouse.

The county Revenue Authority's chairman and executive director said yesterday that they have begun "exploratory talks" with the country club management to buy the course, which was built in the 1920s. If acquired, the club would become the sixth public course operated by the authority.

Neighbors of the club off Stevenson Road are applauding the county's efforts, which would prevent the 160-acre property from being turned into a long-rumored housing development. But club members want to keep the course private.

"I'm pretty upset about it," said Brad Seeley, a club member for six years who can see the club entrance from his front door. "We had heard the rumors since the fall and they grew stronger and stronger. I am firmly against the county buying the country club."

Seeley said that a public course would increase traffic, cause parking problems and decrease property values. "We'd no longer live next to a private country club, but a public golf course," he said. "It would affect people's perception of the area."

The club's Board of Governors is expected to meet at 6 p.m. tonight to discuss whether a group of members could purchase the club themselves. Since 1990, the club has been owned by 22 individual stockholders.

"The members had approached the owners about eight or 10 years ago to buy it, but the owners weren't interested in selling at that point," Seeley said. "Maybe they are more open to that idea now."

Revenue authority officials say that club members must be offered a chance to buy the facility before it is put on the market.

Formal negotiations with the authority have not begun and a possible price has not been disclosed by either the club or authority officials. A letter, signed by Richard O. Berndt and Mark P. Keener, was recently mailed to the 300-plus members confirming an interest in selling.

Neither returned telephone calls yesterday. But the March 1 letter cited the many "unusual and difficult problems" the club has dealt with over the past nine years -- including borrowing $730,000 to make improvements -- as membership has declined and financial problems have arisen.

In 1990, the club launched a plan to attract new members by renovating the restaurant and upgrading golf course sprinklers. But the letter said the club never reached its goal of 400 members. Membership never topped 340.

County zoning laws allow for about 500 houses, but residents say they want it to remain a golf course.

"We like the golf course as a neighbor," said George Good Jr., whose home sits directly across from the ninth tee. "There isn't a better neighbor to have. Towson is critically lacking in open space."

County officials say that the area also lacks a sufficient number of public golf courses. In 1996, the National Golf Foundation in Florida ranked the Baltimore metropolitan area as the eighth worst of 309 areas in terms of "public golf course accessibility," said George Hale, executive director of the authority.

Hale said that the authority began talking with the club in recent weeks, that the talks have been "informal and sporadic," and that they are likely to resume after the busiest part of the golf season ends next fall.

"We're not actively negotiating with the club. We've had exploratory talks and that's it, and we have an understanding that we might resume talks at a later date," he said.

The authority would consider buying the course if it costs less than building a new one, said Hale and Hanan Y. "Bean" Sibel, chairman of the five-member authority.

With the two new golf courses recently opened by the authority, its board is concerned about expanding too fast, Hale said. The Woodlands Golf Course, a premium $8 million course opened in Woodlawn in July while the Greystone Golf Course, an $9 million course opened in May 1997 in Parkton.

The authority, a self-supporting agency that sells bonds to finance its projects, took over management of the county's golf courses in 1995.

Pub Date: 3/10/99