👋 Hey NCC golfers,

It’s been a wild year in the NCC golf scene so far, and it’s only June.

A highlight of the year is without a doubt the White Clay Creek CC story.

And I’m sure you’ve been wondering why did White Clay Creek CC close back in December, and who the the new owners are now that is has reopened.

We spoke with former GM Ryan Kidwell and gathered accounts from multiple past members to put together the most complete picture available of what happened, who's behind the reopening, and what NCC golfers should know about the course moving forward.

This is an interesting story, that is honestly still somewhat of a mystery.

Let’s dive into it.

For the majority of NCC golfers, we never saw this coming.

However, for some members who were paying attention, they claim the signs were there.

Past members claim White Clay stopped accepting wedding, party, and golf outing reservations for 2026 sometime in the fall, and those on payment plans were pressured to pay their balances in full, and told their memberships could not be renewed otherwise.

Past members also claim when they asked about 2026 membership pricing packages, the answer was always the same: "We're updating them. They'll be ready in a few weeks.", and said that answer repeated from August 2025 all the way to the closure.

Others described frustration with how feedback was received leading up to the closure, and disappointment with The Rail’s (White Clay's premier dining destination) performance in its final year.

Now if all these claims are true, it is worth noting that Ryan Kidwell and internal management are not completely to blame.

They operated within the structure Kemper Sports provided and within the decisions ownership made above them. Meaning some, if not most, of what went wrong at White Clay was not their call to make.

Kidwell, who served as GM and Executive Director at White Clay for years after working his way up from head pro, was measured when asked about the closure directly.

He described the timing as a strategic decision made by ownership during the off-season. He also acknowledged that the communication could have been handled better.

Reading between the lines, it’s obvious the decisions made around how to handle the closure came from above him.

The hushed reopening took many by surprise.

After months of silence, the only public announcement was a website update on April 30th that read "Reopening May 8th." No press release. No community outreach. No explanation of who was taking over or what the plan was.

For a course that had left its members in the dark on the way out, not much had changed on the way back in.

The response from the former member base and the NCC public golfer was split.

Some golfers are genuinely excited about the fresh start:

Others are, “cautious”, to say the least after the way the closure was handled.

However, the real tell of how the public is responding to the course reopening lies purely on the tee sheets.

The past 2 weekends White Clay Creek CC has been one of the most booked courses in the county. That’s a fact.

It’s safe to say the abrupt closing and reopening certainly hasn’t stopped the public from playing one of NCC’s finest layouts.

Public records tell an interesting story.

On May 22, 2026, the White Clay Creek property transferred from DP Real Estate LLC (the entity controlled by longtime owner William Rickman Jr.) to a newly formed LLC called White Clay Creek Real Estate LLC, incorporated just weeks earlier on April 24. The sale price recorded on the deed: $10.

That's not a typo. Ten dollars. And DP Real Estate LLC is listed as the mortgagee on the accompanying mortgage instrument recorded the same day.

This all suggest the following occured: Rickman effectively sold the property to the new group and is holding the note himself. He didn't walk away clean. He still has a financial stake in how this plays out, and that relationship between the original owner and the new operators is the mystery still at large.

The P.O. Box listed as the owner address on the county property record is publicly associated with Randy Collier of Collier Holdings, a residential housing and property management operation based in the Wilmington area.

Now you might want to sit down for this one… 😅

The new owners have no golf background and will not be moving forward with Ryan Kidwell or Kemper Sports. The new group confirmed they will be managing the operation themselves.

Ryan Kidwell confirmed this directly and shared the new ownership group and him agreed it was best to part ways.

Ryan Kidwell is an Indiana native who moved to Delaware in 2004 specifically to take the head pro job at White Clay Creek. He spent two decades there, building teams, developing golf professionals, and growing the club.

By the account of many who worked alongside him, he was a crucial piece of White Clay Creek’s ascension to being a top public course in the state.

I could tell during my lengthy interview with him that he was/is incredibly passionate about White Clay Creek CC and the work he did there.

He wishes nothing but the best for the course moving forward, and has no ill feelings towards the course.

Time with family (his son just got married - congratulations if you’re reading Ryan!). He plans to work on his golf game, do some home remodeling, and enjoy life. You may even see him out at a course near you.

In ending, he spoke warmly about both Bill Rickman Jr. and Bill Fasy, thanking them for decades of support, and again wishing them the best moving forward.

The NCC Golf Report would like to thank Ryan for his decades of service to the NCC golf community and wish him and his family the best in their next chapter.

White Clay Creek is open.

That is genuinely good news for public golf in New Castle County. The county lost two courses in one week at the start of 2026 (Jonathan’s Landing), and got both of them back.

But the questions are real.

New ownership with no golf experience, no management company, and no public communication is a combination that warrants watching.

The property structure. A $10 deed transfer with the original owner holding the mortgage could be stabilizing or could complicate things depending on how the new operator performs.

What we can say is this: the course is there, it is open, and NCC golfers have been waiting for it. Go play it.

From speaking with multiple course owners and operators in NCC, I can say this as well: they all have your best interest at heart. We need to understand that the golf course business is incredibly difficult, and no course gets it right all the time.

Just like St. Anne’s, we need to rally behind the new owners, support the course, and provide constructive feedback to see that we don’t lose one of NCC’s gems.

NCC Golf Report will keep watching this one and report what we find.

This Week’s Golf Trivia Question:

🏌️‍♀️ The June Women's Meet & Greet is this Today, June 3rd from 5-8pm - Link

The Tee It Up! Series #3 kicks off June 7th, Saturdays (7th - 28th) from 10-11:30am. - Link

⛳️ Condition Updates:

Superintendent James Elliot is lightly topdressing greens this week with a brush and roll (so light you won't notice it on the course and it will not affect play).

He is also committed to mowing tee areas and filling divots daily, and double cutting tees every Wednesday morning. That's the kind of detail work that adds up over a season.

🗓️ Range Schedule: Grass tees: Thurs through Mon. Mats: Tues & Wed

Coming Soon: Rock Manor just announced their Fairway Futbol Rewards program launching June 8th with a special bonus coming specifically for NCC Golf Report readers. More details next week. Stay tuned! ⚽️

🏌️ Callaway Fitting Day is this Thursday, June 5th from 11am-3pm. - Link

Porky's 2 Player Match Play Tournament registration deadline is June 15th.

🐝 A new bee box has been added behind Hole 4 green. Deerfield is a certified wildlife sanctuary and they take that seriously. Watch your step back there.

The Summer Picnic is June 12th from 4-7pm. This one is for Passholders and Active Card holders only, plus one guest. RSVP by email to Heather Felicia - [email protected]

🌙 Night Golf is back. June 12th, 8:15pm shotgun start, 9 holes walking. Tickets are $55 and available on their website. This one sells out, book it now. - Link

Tee box work on holes 3 and 7 forward tees begins this week.

❌ No live music scheduled this week, but Wednesday is $1 Wings and Trivia Night at the Tavern.

Critical turf patch work is underway on multiple holes alongside continued irrigation improvements after a rough stretch of lightning strikes on the course.

🙏 Say a prayer for the superintendent, Mike. He's earning it this season.

📈 The rebound at St. Anne's is real and it's showing up in the numbers. The course sold out completely this past weekend for the first time in a while, with tee times going out as late as 5:30pm. New reviews are trending positive.

A new 55-cart fleet is arriving early next week, bringing the total to 65 carts.

3 new employees have been added for the pool and bar, with continued hiring underway for grounds and operations.

🏊 The Pool Schedule: Open weekends for now, then moves to Tuesday through Sunday starting the second week of June.

Crews are sodding fairway spots that didn't wake up from winter kill this spring (Bermuda grass issue that's not uncommon after a tough winter).

🏌️Big Range Upgrades:

New yardage signs, a yardage easel, club cleaner bucket, and a proper divot pattern sign. Small stuff that makes a real difference! Well done to Steve and his team.

Junior Golf Clinic announced! Starting June 16th

🎟️ $75 per session, open to all ages

Running every other Monday from 5:30-6:30pm through late July (6/16, 6/23, 7/7, 7/14, 7/21, 7/28). Spots fill up fast 👉 Register

Hello, fellow New Castle County golf lovers.

St. Anne's sold out back-to-back weekends for the first time in a while. That's a turnaround worth acknowledging. We covered the hard stuff at St. Anne's in Issue 13 and the numbers are speaking for themselves. Good to see!

On another note: NCC Golf Report is closing in on 1,000 subscribers. That's a milestone worth celebrating, and I want to do it with you.

Quick poll:

Drop your vote. The NCC golf community built this thing. The celebration should feel like it.

😊 Thank you for reading, and as always, I’ll see you out there! ⛳️