ELYRIA — About 75 people came to Spring Valley Country Club on Sunday to tour a brand-new course.

But thankfully there was no trudging through the snow — the tour was of the virtual variety.

Robert Corna, an architect who hopes to completely revamp the struggling course and club, provided a hole-by-hole tour of the 18-hole course that he aims to complete in seven years.

“My purpose is to let you see the future of Spring Valley,” Corna told the crowd. “The Spring Valley golf course is going to be a championship golf course. Period.”

As recently as late February, the Spring Valley course was in jeopardy. The club was millions of dollars in debt, the course was going to seed, and at least two developers had plans to turn it into a housing development.

And then golf at Spring Valley was saved.

“It was on a cliff, and ready to go,” Corna said. “But we pulled it back and saved the course.”

Corna said that it almost made him sick when it looked like the course would be lost. “It would be criminal to let this go to waste,” he said.

So, with time a critical factor, Black River Development and Corna assembled a team, drew up some new plans and bought the club.

The crowd applauded when Corna said that the course — which was two or three weeks away from being lost — would be open on April 1. From there, Corna said, the course will gradually — at a pace of two or three new holes each year — become a “nationally known course” that Corna hopes will host PGA, seniors and amateur tournaments. The course, Corna assured, will consistently have 18 playable holes during the renovation.

Split by a winding river, studded with big, old trees and spread over an undulating valley, Spring Valley was “made to be a golf course,” Corna said.

And he is no stranger to the links. Aside from being an avid player, the Cleveland-based architect has had his hand in designing and constructing more than a dozen courses — including the Red Tail Golf Club and the Avon Oaks golf course.

“Golf is my passion,” he said.

And he’s hoping that he can help instill this passion in former members and new recruits. Corna said he was looking for 150 founding members for the new club, to be called the Spring Valley Golf and Athletic Club, to help get it out of debt.

“We just need 150 people to make the commitment for one year,” he told the crowd. And many were persuaded. After the presentation they swarmed the signup table — the demand quickly outpaced the membership forms and more copies were required.

Corna said the future of the club rests on those 18 conceptual holes — in fact, it is his single, driving mission.

“I know the lawnmowers work. I know the tractors work,” he said. “I haven’t even turned on an oven, though.”

Food, he said, will remain at the club but not in as prominent a role.

“Our primary goal is to get this golf course to be one of the best, not just in Ohio, but in the country,” Corna said.

But, although the theme of the presentation was golf, golf and more golf, Corna did mention a few of his other projects.

A “fully modern” fitness club, tennis courts and a bike path directly to Lake Erie are all in the works. There is no specific time frame, Corna said, but he hopes to get them up “quickly, very quickly. In a year, maybe.”

Reactions to the new plans were mixed, but generally optimistic. Tom Szabo, who coaches golf at Lorain County Community College, said the plans “look wonderful,” but he had a lot of questions.

“It’s obviously a huge investment,” he said. “As a golf course, there was a lot of room for improvement.”

Corna, though, knows about the room for improvement.

“I’ve been involved with this course for 15 years,” he said, “I’ve hiked it, marched it, played it. We’re going to change this course: widen it, add some curves.

People from all over the country are going to come and play at Spring Valley.”

Contact Michael Baker at 329-7128 or mbaker@chroniclet.com.

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