By Alexander Soule
The Hour
NEW MILFORD, Conn. — As a golfer stepped onto the Candlewood Valley Country Club green where his approach shot had rolled up in line with the hole, Jerry Romaniello called out “Nice shot!”
A week earlier, Romaniello would have been just another weekday player giving a shout-out to a fellow golfer — but after spending $2.5 million of his and other people’s money to purchase the New Milford course, he now has a vested interest in everyone walking away with a fun and rewarding round at Candlewood Valley.
A longtime New Milford resident and retired firefighter, Romaniello decided to put in an offer for Candlewood Valley Country Club after hearing the public course had been listed for sale by the Rehnberg family that had owned it since 1977. He is still getting used to the idea of being in the business himself.
“I still don’t play golf very well,” Romaniello said on Wednesday while walking the grounds at Candlewood. “I never really envisioned buying a golf course.”
Candlewood Valley Country Club is located across Danbury Road from New Milford High School, where Romaniello went to school and pitched for the baseball team before going onto the University of Connecticut at Storrs. He learned to golf after getting hired by the Greenwich Fire Department and co-workers recruited him as an extra player for a charity outing in Bristol. He then hit a few bucket of balls on the driving range and decided to stick with it.
He remains with the Northville Volunteer Fire Department in New Milford where he had a stint as chief. The Northville department has sponsored benefit outings at Candlewood Valley Country Club, including one scheduled for late September.
Financial planning for retirement in public safety
Romaniello retired last year as a lieutenant with the Greenwich Fire Department, after more than a quarter century on the job. He was on duty for the response to blazes at a trio of waterside mansions at the peak of the 2012 storm Sandy.
“Winds 70, 80 miles an hour — nothing you could do,” Romaniello recollected. “It was like a torch.”
In his first week on the job at Candlewood Valley Country Club, Romaniello is again dealing with a destructive storm, after the recent rain deluge flooded the Still River tributary for the Housatonic River. The course parallels a portion of multiple fairways, which now need repairs. The club’s general manager Bob Kick is one of his former bosses at the Greenwich Fire Department, where Kick was assistant chief.
Romaniello said Candlewood Valley Country Club is in good shape financially: its patronage is north of 30,000 rounds played annually, there’s a supportive staff of just over 30 employees, and he has the backing of a syndicate of investors he put together to purchase the venue. Romaniello said more than a quarter of those investors have played Candlewood Valley Country Club, and were enthusiastic about plans to reopen the kitchen, extend the club’s driving range and expand a banquet facility.
The golf course has been on the market for 18 months before it was bought by Roamniello and his group of investors.
Roughly 120 individuals or investment groups inked confidentiality agreements to review the course with an eye on a possible purchase, according to Allen DePuy, a Colliers vice president who has brokered multiple golf course transactions in Connecticut and nationally.
“There was tremendous interest in Candlewood Valley,” DePuy said Thursday morning. “This was on the longer side of a typical marketing period, ... but statistically some properties may sell faster, and others take longer to sell.”
Mayor Pete Bass said the town welcomes any such investment, and was thankful for the Rehnberg family’s stewardship of Candlewood Valley over the years.
“The golf course has played an integral part in really being a destination for New Milford for golfers — not only in town but throughout the area,” Bass said. “The new owners are showing their belief and commitment to the town, and the economic driver that the golf course is.”
Perhaps most critical to Candlewood Valley Country Club’s financial underpinnings, Romaniello plans to lengthen the club’s season beyond the shoulder months of April and November — depending on the weather.
Despite the popularity of golf in Connecticut and the overall economy, weather plays just as big a role for the bottom line. Many Northeast courses were able to open early this year after a mild winter, tacking on extra days of revenue from golfers itching to hit the links.
Romaniello said the ownership group has mulled whether to introduce memberships in addition to leagues it already runs, with no decision having been reached in the early going.
Golf nationally remains on the rebound, with 26.6 million people having played at least one round in 2023 according to the National Golf Foundation estimates, the highest total since 2010.
Connecticut has not seen golf hold onto its core devotees to the degree as many other states, according to Stuart Lindsay, principal of
Edgehill Golf Advisors in Wisconsin who compiles national data on the industry alongside Pellucid Corp., including for courses in Connecticut.
Lindsay said surveys suggested 10.5 percent of Connecticut residents played golf in 2007, at an average of 25 times a year. That number has shrunk since to 7.1 percent of residents who play, and with slightly less frequency averaged across age groups.
“If you compare that against the national backdrop, participation’s gone from 7.1 percent ... to about 8 percent,” Lindsay said. “A lot of the new golfers we’ve attracted are younger who play less frequently, and the golfers that we’re losing are baby boomers that age out who are playing 35 rounds on average a year.”
Still, Lindsay said the COVID-19 pandemic provided a boost to the game that has had staying power since. Romaniello said that has been evident at Candlewood Valley, as well.
“COVID definitely did help golf — it was an activity that people could still do outside,” Romaniello said.
Many courses have been capitalizing with the renewed interest in the game, investing in facilities, fairways and greens to improve play. That includes Bull’s Bridge Golf Club on the Kent-New Milford line. Another 18.3 million people teed off at driving ranges like Golf Ranch located 15 minutes south of Candlewood Valley Country Club in Brookfield, or golf simulators at venues like TopGolf and Golf Lounge 18 which has locations in Danbury, Fairfield, Orange, Canton and South Windsor.
Romaniello said he hopes to add golf simulators at Candlewood Valley Country Club.
At least two other Connecticut courses are currently on the market, including Blue Fox Run Golf Course in Avon which has set starting bids at $1.7 million for a September auction; and the nine-hole Copper Hill Golf Club in East Granby.
Romaniello said he is more than happy to have preserved his local course for the long term, with assistance from plenty of others in the community.
“I already got mine,” Romaniello said. “I’m good.”
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