Mountain View public golf course to end affordable memberships

On a recent Sunday afternoon, golfers hit balls that sailed past a gaggle of geese and a lone duck resting on the yellowing fairway of Mountain View’s Shoreline Golf Links. The 18-hole course is part of a 750-acre wildlife refuge and recreation area, a feature that many players say is what makes the course memorable and fun.

“It’s not unheard of to lose a ball in a squirrel hole,” laughed Rameshbabu Pattabiraman, a Mountain View resident and regular golfer.

But it’s not only the setting that draws golfers to Shoreline. They also said they show up for the sense of community that has been forged through countless hours playing golf, typically on weekends starting in the early afternoon and ending when dusk falls.

None of this is by accident. This close-knit group pays for the same membership program at Shoreline. Dubbed the “Twilight membership,” it offers one of the most affordable rates and flexible playing times for golfers.

For $124 a month, Mountain View residents can reserve afternoon tee times and play until closing seven days a week. Non-residents can sign up for $135 a month, according to the city’s website.

“This is the poor man’s course,” joked John Schacter, a Twilight member and Stanford resident whose wife teaches at the university. “It’s not just professors and doctors. It’s also plumbers, salesmen and actuaries.”

After offering Twilight memberships for nearly 15 years, the city is planning to end the program on July 1. That decision has sparked opposition from a group of Shoreline golfers who say that it was made behind closed doors and without community input.

“It was very sudden and out of the blue,” Hormazd Romer, a Sunnyvale resident who was a Twilight golfer until the city recently didn’t allow him to renew his membership, said.

In addition to ending the Twilight program, the city plans to remove the more expensive Gold membership, which allows golfers to play anytime the course is open.

Mountain View also intends to limit existing Senior and Silver memberships to exclude weekends. The new cost of these memberships isn’t currently known. According to Shoreline Regional Park Manager Brady Ruebusch, the fees will be publicized June 1.

Romer first learned that the Twilight program was ending when he tried to renew his annual membership last month. The city told him that a renewal was no longer possible, but he could transition to a new Senior or Silver membership when it rolled out. The problem was that playing on weekdays is not feasible with his schedule, Romer said.

Since losing the Twilight membership, Romer has been golfing at other municipal courses, but it has not been easy to find open tee times that are as affordable as Shoreline, he said. He also misses the camaraderie of the Twilight community.

“One of the amazing things about this community was that you had people from all walks of life, all different situations and many different cultural backgrounds,” Romer said. “I feel like the city does not really understand the full extent of the impact on this community. … They only think about it as golf, and it’s actually so much more.”

Sunsetting the Twilight membership

The Twilight program got its start in 2012 at a time when there were not many golfers playing at Shoreline in the afternoon, according to Community Services Director John Marchant. The Twilight membership helped fill that gap.

The sport’s popularity has grown since then, a trend that Marchant linked to the pandemic prompting more people to exercise and socialize outdoors. The city no longer has trouble filling afternoon tee times, he said.

In recent years, other municipal golf courses have eliminated their membership programs, Marchant said. Those courses now offer discounted rounds, similar to what Mountain View provides with its existing Player’s Club program.

“The increase in golfers and the lack of membership options in the area has significantly increased the participation in memberships at Shoreline,” Marchant said. “This has affected the residents’ and the general public’s ability to play golf at Shoreline.”

Before Mountain View began winding down the Twilight membership, roughly 80-85 golfers took part in the program last year, according to city spokesperson Lenka Wright.

Marchant also noted that the vast majority of Twilight members are not Mountain View residents. While it fluctuates monthly, approximately 83% live elsewhere, Wright said.

“The change to Shoreline membership options (is) intended to help address this situation and ensure that Mountain View residents can get the tee times at the best rates,” Marchant said.