For some golfers, owning a private golf course next to your luxurious wine country home would be a dream come true. Now, for a price, it can be.
Vineyard Knolls, a 9-hole course on Dealy Lane in Napa’s Carneros region, has been listed for sale for $17.5 million.
The executive-style course was built in the late 1960s as a public facility called Little Knolls. Today, the 25-acre property includes more than just nine holes of golf. It also features a newer 7,500 square-foot home, pool, tennis court and 6,412 square-foot clubhouse and bar.
Hollywood movie producer David Wolper bought the property in 1990 and made the golf course his private domain. He sold it in 1999 to Jeff Mallett for $9.1 million, according to John Tuteur, assessor-recorder-county clerk.
Mallett is the former president and chief operating officer of Yahoo. He’s currently a principal owner of the San Francisco Giants.
“It’s a beautiful place,” Mallett said of Vineyard Knolls. “When we first purchased it, our daughters were 4 and 2, ” he said. “There are so many things to do — golf and wine for the adults and acres and acres of space for the kids to run around and be outdoors.”
Owning the golf course was “fantastic … although after all this time I’m still an 18 handicap,” he said with a laugh.
Now that his two children are older and his business interests require more travel, it’s time to sell, he said. “It’s not getting the usage as in the past.”
The estate may be for sale, but Mallett isn’t leaving Napa Valley completely. His wife, Claire (Corotto) Mallett, is from Napa, he said. The family owns a 33-acre vineyard parcel also on Dealy Lane called Corotto Vineyards.
Mallett said a potential buyer might come from Silicon Valley, New York, London or Asia.
Even though he’s selling the estate and course, the businessman said he won’t give up on golfing in Napa. “Hopefully I can knock on the door” and golf at Vineyard Knolls again, he said.
“This is a unique property,” said Jocelyne Monello of Heritage Sotheby’s International Realty, one of the listing agents for the estate.
“It’s one of a kind. You are in the middle of vineyards. You are not far away and yet you feel that you are.”
According to the property listing, the Northern California Golf Association (NCGA) golf course features 3,446 yards of golf from the longest tees for a par of 60 if played twice for 18 holes.
The main residence was built in 1989 and includes four bedroom suites, four and a half bathrooms, a country-style kitchen, large living rooms, executive office, art studio and movie room.
The clubhouse includes a banquet room, dance floor, full commercial quality kitchen, English-style pub bar decorated in red tartan, floor-to-ceiling fireplace, office and locker room.
There is also a two-bedroom caretaker’s house on the property.
A pool area includes a professional tennis court, croquet lawn, outdoor wet bar, terrace, horseshoe pits and children’s play area. There are two lakes stocked with fish, a waterfall, fishing dock, golf cart barn and maintenance shop.
Who would make a good buyer for such a property?
“We have had already some showings, and in both cases they were buyers from China and Hong Kong,” Monello said.
She’s not sure how long Vineyard Knolls will be on the market.
“We have one party that is interested,” Monello said. But for $17.5 million, “You don’t sell it in one week.”