EXCLUSIVE: Valley CC – Dawn of a New Era
The energy is shifting at Valley Country Club in Warwick.
Following years of golfers wondering about the future of the course, a new leadership group took over this winter and has been working to restore Valley to prominence.
“I’m going into my 14th season here, and this is the best I’ve probably ever felt about a season before. So we’re really excited to hit the ground running and show our members and their guests, what we’ve been working on over the winter, and give them a first class experience,” said General Manager Steve DeMeo.
Along with DeMeo, the group includes golf course expert Doug Long, Head Pro Norm Alberigo, Lauren Chiarillo, who takes over as Sales and Operations Manager and Mike DeCesare, who joins the Board of Governors.
DeCesare grew up playing at Valley and has deep family ties to the club dating back to the 50s, and he has memories of playing the course through the 80s, 90s and 2000s.
“It was just so special. I grew up playing public golf for the most part and Exeter was a treat, but coming to Valley was like, wow. It would be meticulously manicured, the guy would take the clubs out of the car for you and clean your shoes when you were done. It was just this wonderful experience,” recalls DeCesare.
To understand where Valley is trying to get back to, one must understand where they have been.
The Valley Roller Coaster
Under the history tab on Valley’s website, the final line following a paragraph about 2019 reads, “The future of Valley Country Club has never been brighter.”
At the time, Valley had just upgraded their fleet of carts and were one of the first clubs in the state to have carts with GPS tracking, USB charging and all the other fancy technology that is now common place in Rhode Island, particularly among private clubs.
A year later, in May of 2020, rumors of Valley being sold started circulating amongst the golf community. The initial rumors were put to bed by the club, as GNRI reported, and Valley sent a letter to its members saying so.
But as the saying goes, ‘where there is smoke, there is fire.”
In October of 2021, GolfNewsRI confirmed that Valley was under contract to be sold, but would remain a golf course for at least the forseeable future – except it would turn from private to semi-private.
On the course, conditions at Valley were deteriorating, with fairways, and tee boxes getting tougher to play.
With all that, reportedly more than 100 members left the club, searching for greener pastures.
“If the state of golf courses were like Charlie Brown, we were like Pig Pen – really nobody wanted to play with us,” said DeMeo.
Things would take a turn for the better in March of 2022 when the contract to purchase Valley had fallen through, and the club was going to be saved from development.
Despite the great news of Valley remaining a golf course, there was still significant work to be done, and that extends to today.
“I remember being in high school and seeing that line on the report card, ‘he doesn’t live up to his potential.’ That’s what Valley was. Valley was a C-student for a bunch of years, where it had been an honorable student when I was growing up. It just wasn’t quite living up to its potential. I like challenges and what I saw here was definitely a challenge, but the end result, if we are able to do it, was going to be so worth it,” said DeCesare.
At the end of the day, the group knows that it is going to be the golf course that brings them back.
Golf Course Work Underway
To help get the golf course back in order, Valley brought in Doug Long, formerly of South Shore Village Golf Course in South Kingstown.
Long brings nearly 50 years of experience to Valley after working at courses such as Liberty National and Chambers Bay, among others.
“The future is very bright. I came here and yes, it is a challenge, but I see great things happening out there. It’s 100 years old, which is really close to me because I grew up on a golf course that was founded back in 1893. I love old architecture, but I also like to be challenged professionally. And we do have the opportunity to do a wonderful turnaround here and make this a great golf course again,” said Long, whose official title is Director of Golf and Grounds.
If you played Valley today, the biggest thing that you might notice is the number of trees taken down or manicured.
Valley hired a local arborist to cut down strategic trees that prevented good play, while making some aesthetic changes to other trees on the course.
But the work is not stopping there.
“We have some tee leveling that we’re going to be doing, some drainage improvements. We’re going to be leveling out the fairways, which over time became uneven due to the freeze that they’ve had,” said Long.
He added, “There are some grassing improvements, some rough areas that have suffered with the drought and lack of irrigation and we’re going to be over-seeding the roughs with fine fescue and just making a solid agronomic program to have healthy grass.”
New member Jonathan Cooper has taken notice of the work that is being put in.
“The short term plans that were presented like removing trees to increase grass health, flattening tee boxes, all the way down to rolling the fairways to fix frost damage just shows how invested they are in fixing the little things so there is a foundation to build on for the bigger goals for the years to come,” Cooper told GolfNewsRI.
Cooper is among the top amateur players in the state and took his talents to Valley this offseason.
“The course is an amazing layout and provides a challenge that I can use to hone my skills for the 2025 tournament schedule, Just going to one meeting with the members it’s clear that they care about their members and want to provide a product that provides a great, fun environment while also looking to grow and invest for the future,” Cooper added.
All the work being put in to the golf course will be on full display later this summer when Cooper and other top players in the state tee it up at Valley for the Rhode Island Open.
Alberigo’s New Chapter
Back in January, Valley announced that they were bringing on Norm Alberigo as their Head Golf Pro and Assistant General Manager.
Valley previously did not have a Head Pro over the last few years.
Alberigo has been a PGA Golf Professional for 40 years, but is excited for this new chapter.
“It’s a pretty exciting time for somebody that’s 61 years old, and might be looking at the end of their career. I’m feeling like I’m starting a whole new chapter. It’s a cool feeling,” Alberigo told GolfNewsRI.
Alberigo’s brother, Brian, has been at Valley for the last 17 years as Tournament Director.
“My brother’s been here for 17 years. So I have have great resources and guidance in the golf department. We’re adding new tools as an administrative team with a new software system to improve our efficiency. I’m really confident that I’m gonna be able to slide in, support my brother, and bring some of my experience, some of the things that worked with me at other clubs in the area to make the golf program even better and the members more excited,” said Alberigo.
As noted, Alberigo is also serving as an Assistant General Manager for the club.
He joked that he has been “drinking out of a fire hose” in trying to get all of his certifications to work with food and beverage, as well as, learn the rest of the operations in the club.
“I met Lauren (Chiarillo) just this past weekend and as impressive as everybody’s been, she may be the most impressive person in the room. So for me to collaborate with this group is a great opportunity,” added Alberigo.
Valley’s 2025 Membership Rates: (taken from club website)
- Single $4550
- Family $5070
- Young Executive $3380 (26-35)
- Junior Executive $2600 (19-25)
- Junior $1300 (18 and under)
- Social Membership $1500
Food and Beverage Minimums: Single and Social $125 per month (Apr-Nov), Family $150 per month (Apr-Nov), Young Executive $100 per month (Apr-Nov), Junior Executive $75 per month (Apr-Nov)