As Wait Continues for Franklin Canyon Golf Course Closure, Alhambra High Prepares for What Could be Final Season at Longtime Home

Steve Sloper, who has coached the Bulldogs boys team for over three decades, says plans to turn popular golf course it into an RV resort are misguided

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By Tom Lochner

MARTINEZ — Coach Steve Sloper and his Alhambra High School boys golf team are preparing for what could be their final season on their longtime home course at Franklin Canyon in Hercules. Or at least part of the season.

That's because the golf course will be open until March, according to the latest forecast by Tom Hix, managing member of owner Madison MRH-Franklin 1, LLC, which plans to turn it into a luxury RV resort. The public golf course was originally announced to close on May 30, 2024. That was followed by an announcement that it would stay open through that summer. Today, the course remains open.

The high school boys golf season runs from Feb. 10 to as late as mid-May, depending on how far teams advance in the playoffs, Sloper said. Alhambra High's Plan B, if the course were to close before the end of the season, would be to move to Diablo Creek Golf Course in Concord.

The Franklin Canyon RV Resort Project envisions 158 RV spaces; 22 walk-in campsites with tent bungalows; a driving range; a practice putting green; a 10,500-square-foot clubhouse with dining and lounge facilities and a fitness and wellness center; an outdoor swimming pool with a poolside shower and changing room and grill/snack shop; a playground, dog park, pickleball courts and horseshoe pit; and covered storage for 24 recreational vehicles. About 70 acres that include the current back nine, which was supposed to survive as a nine-hole golf course under Hix's original, 2019 version of the plan, is slated to be donated to the Martinez-based John Muir Land Trust as open space.