Save Rio Bravo

SaveRio Bravo

The course is going dark. The neighborhood does not have to.

Rio Bravo Country Club — 328 acres, 18 holes, 200+ homes — is being wound down into foreclosure. Neighbors bought this land once. We can buy it again, if we move before a liquidator does.

Ownership says the course is winding down — foreclosure is in motion.

A statement released today by current ownership says Scarlet & Gray Golf Course, formerly Rio Bravo Country Club, will begin winding down all operations. It cites severe financial distress, an active multi-million-dollar note default, pending foreclosure, and a failed emergency rescue sale in Kern County Superior Court. Tee times, the clubhouse, and maintenance are slated for immediate wind-down.

From an August 21, 2026 ownership statement issued under the name of Jeremy Willer. It is one party’s account of a live court and debt situation — not a court order. The operational warning is what neighbors have to act on.

The land is already zoned to be something else

The 2022 listing included a parcel zoned for 22 developable lots, on top of 328 total acres. The old tennis land already became ~170 units. Foreclosure buyers price dirt, not birdies.

We have already proved this can work

In 2017 a handful of neighbors stopped a shutdown by buying the club themselves. They were not deep pockets. This time the whole neighborhood has to show up — not 13 people, 200.

A Graves course at the door of the Sierra.

Rio Bravo Country Club opened in 1975 as an 18-hole, par-72 championship layout by Robert Muir Graves, about 7,000 yards from the back tees. It sits at 15200 Casa Club Drive — eleven miles northeast of downtown, on the western entrance to the southern Sierra Nevada.

Acres

328

Holes / par

18 / 72

Homes around it

200+

Lots already zoned

Losing the course costs more than buying it.

In 2022 the neighbor-owners asked $4.9 million for 328 acres. Do the household math instead of hoping a distant buyer loves golf.

If the gates stay closed

What one house can lose

Your home’s value $650,000

At 17%: $110,500
At 25%: $162,500

If neighbors buy

What 200 households can raise

Households in a buying group 200 Average capital pledge $25,000

Pledged buying power

$5,000,000

1.02× the 2022 asking price of $4.9 million.

A neighbor bid is not a protest. It is a close.

In 2017, homeowners already bought this club to keep it a course. That structure still works. Two hundred households around 328 acres have more to lose than any out-of-town builder has to gain. We will pay off secured debt, deed-restrict the golf parcels, and run the land as a neighborhood amenity — not a 22-lot entitlement fight with 200 adjacent owners.

This club has been rescued before. It has never been stable.

1975

A championship course in the foothills

Robert Muir Graves opens an 18-hole, par-72 layout at the western door of the southern Sierra.

1992–2017

Five owners in twenty-five years

The club changes hands repeatedly. The tennis parcel was sold and became about 170 housing units. When the club is weak, the land is the prize.

May 2017

Neighbors buy it to save it

A group of about 13–14 Rio Bravo homeowners forms a mutual-benefit corporation and takes the golf course and clubhouse in escrow. The gates stay open.

2022

Listed at $4.9 million

328 acres listed because the neighbor-owners were not deep pockets. Estimated extra capital to restore: $1–2 million.

Dec 2023

Sold to the Willers

Jeremy and Kimberly Willer buy the club and announce renovations and a more public posture.

Jan 2026

Closed without warning

The club shuts until further notice. Members and staff are left in the cold.

Feb 2026

Reopened, renamed, still unstable

Reopens to the public as Scarlet & Gray Golf Club. The Rio Bravo name is stripped from the gates.

Aug 21, 2026

Wind-down and foreclosure

Ownership announces that an emergency rescue sale did not close, that a multi-million note is in default, and that operations will wind down while foreclosure proceeds.

Five moves to own the land.

Stand up the vehicle

Form a California nonprofit mutual-benefit corporation or member-owned LLC — the same structure neighbors used in 2017.

Map the debt, not the rumor

Pull title, recorded liens, and the foreclosure notices. Neighbors can be a buyer — but only with clean numbers.

Pledge the purchase, fund the homework

Small donations pay lawyers and an appraisal. Larger capital pledges show a noteholder that 200 households can close.

Make an offer the noteholder can take

A neighbor bid that pays off secured debt and keeps the land as a course is often more attractive than a subdivision fight.

Lock it as a course, forever

Put a conservation covenant on the golf parcels so the next crisis cannot turn fairways into lots.

SaveRio Bravo

Ownership says the course is winding down — foreclosure is in motion.

Your backyard is the collateral.