NORTH BEND - After 43 years of providing a place for memorable divots and draining 20-foot putts, the South Coast's first 18-hole public golf course is up for sale.

Kentuck Golf Course, established in 1964, was on the public auction block in hope of luring a buyer for the family-owned and operated course.

Wally Culp, 49, who has overseen the day-to-day operations at Kentuck for the last 20 years, said his mother, Joanne Culp, who has control over the property, wants to get out of the golfing business.

“I think we all feel the same,” Wally Culp said, adding he was somewhat torn about the move. “We've been here long enough.”

Kentuck is owned by the Gertrude E. Wickett Trust, named after Wally Culp's grandmother. Culp's grandfather, Wally Wickett, purchased the nine-hole course in 1964, and added another nine holes in 1965.

The decision to sell was made earlier this spring, Culp said, at which time the family contacted Valeria Lockwood, of Global Auctioneers, to set up an auction for June 23.

During an interview this week, Lockwood said she began the auction process in April. However, because three companies have contacted her to work out a more conventional sale, the auction has been postponed.

According to the Global Auctioneers' Web site, the sale includes the 18-hole golf course situated on more than 120 acres of land with five acres of water. An additional 29 acres of “mountain and bay view” land nearby also is for sale to “develop multi-million dollar residences.”

Lockwood said three offers have come within the last month. One offer, from a California golf association, is considered dead due to the low price offered. Two other potential deals, with a company in Portland and another in Chicago, still are on the table.

Lockwood declined to reveal the names of the companies. Several South Coast residents also expressed interest in the property, but none offered enough money. Several other interested parties from Georgia, California, South Africa and Russia also have come forward.

She estimated a deal could be hammered out within the next few months, and if not, the property would go back up for auction in November. If an auction is held, it would take place in Portland or Seattle, she said.

Neither Lockwood nor Culp would disclose a sale price. Lockwood said the auction would be a reserved-bid process in which only the seller and the auctioneer know the minimum price.

“My clients are flexible,” Lockwood said. “I think it's a good price.”

According to the Coos County Assessor's Office, the real market value of land parcels on Golf Course Lane owned by the Gertrude E. Wickett Trust, is listed between $3.1 million and $3.8 million. (Oregon law defines real market value as “the amount in cash that could reasonably be expected to be paid by an informed buyer to an informed seller, each acting without compulsion.”)

Lockwood said auctions typically create higher prices for property, whereas a more traditional real estate deal brings out buyers who bargain for lower than the listed price.

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For decades, Kentuck was the only 18-hole public golf course on the South Coast. There are myriad other courses here, but for a long time, most were either private 18-hole courses or public nine-hole courses. Now, there are eight, 18-hole golf courses, a mixture of public and private from Brookings to Florence.

For Culp, the decision to call it quits is not easy. He has 43 years of memories from the property.

“I grew up here,” he said. “I played on the hillside. I grew up on the course, working with my dad.”

Culp said business has been going strong since the mid-1980s and has seemed to grow every year. Kentuck's most challenging time came in the winter of 2006, when the Kentuck Inlet dike broke during high tides and flooded most of the course. Nine holes remained closed until July 1. Golf season typically begins in late April.

“That's been the biggest hurdle,” Wally Culp said. “Last year, the dike broke and it was just too wet. It lasted a long time. That had an impact.”

But, he said it did not factor in the decision for the family to consider selling.

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Rumors abound that Bandon Dunes owner Mike Keiser, who made his fortune as the co-founder of Recycled Paper Greetings Inc. of Chicago, has an interest in Kentuck.

“I have heard that rumor also, but I don't think so. I wish he was,” Wally Culp said.

Local Bandon Dunes officials denied any interest in the property.

“I'm not aware of that,” said Hank Hickox, Bandon Dunes general manager.

Another rumor floating around is that Jordan Cove Energy Project, the company wanting to establish a liquefied natural gas terminal on Coos Bay's North Spit, may buy the property for wetland mitigation. Oregon law requires that if developers' projects require dredging or impact wetlands, that restoration plans of other wetlands be implemented to compensate for the loss.

However, Bob Braddock, Jordan Cove's project manger, quelled the rumor.

“No, I haven't even thought about that,” he said. “No, we are not looking at it.”

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Whether Kentuck will remain a golf course is unknown.

“I can't see it as being anything but,” Culp said, noting he did not know if potential transaction details included any special stipulations.

Foyle Fields, 66, of North Bend, has been playing at Kentuck since 1965. He would like to see it remain as an affordable golf course. He says the majority of the Bay Area's local golfers honed their game there and he still tries to play there three times a week. He's a retired North Bend High School vocational teacher who also was the girls' golf coach from 1976 to the 1987. He said the Culp family always provided a cheap place for the team to practice.

“I feel very good about what the Culp family has done for the school and the town,” Fields said. “The golf course is not one of the top quality courses in the world, but it serves a very important function.”

Compared to other South Coast Courses, Fields described Kentuck as “the workingman's course.”

“A logger can stop in on his way home in his cutoffs, or whatever, and does not have to go home and get a shirt with a collar,” Fields said. “You play in whatever dress you want to play in.”

“There's no snootiness there.”