STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS The Roanoke Times

A golf cart rolls through Botetourt Country Club on Tuesday. The club's governing board gave it to banks in April to satisfy debts.

Photos by STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS The Roanoke Times

Richard Schwanhausser plays the 17th hole at Botetourt Country Club on Tuesday. The club has about 250 members.

Alan Brenner (from left), Tim Jennings, Johnny King, Mike Morris and Bobby Allen are five of the seven investors who bought the club. The new owners plan to improve some features, such as the swimming pool. "We want to maintain it as a beautiful resource for the area," Brenner said.

A group of seven investors -- including some well-known Roanoke Valley names -- bought the financially troubled Botetourt Country Club on Tuesday, paying about $1.7 million to take it off the hands of the two banks that had taken possession in April.

The new owners say club members will see few changes in how the club is operated, except the tennis courts will be closed and the 48-year-old operation will go by a new name -- the Botetourt Golf and Swim Club.

The buyers group includes Lord Botetourt High School football coach Tater Benson, the school's former Principal Alan Brenner, and brothers Johnny and Billy King, both of whom are well-known to area golfers. Billy King was the former longtime golf pro at the Blue Hills Golf Course in Roanoke, while Johnny King worked as his assistant.

"We're really excited to have this opportunity, and we want to make it a good experience for people in the area," Brenner said. "I just feel like the Botetourt Golf and Swim Club is very fortunate to have two of the pre-eminent golf pros in the locality, Johnny and Billy King, take over management."

The buyers group also includes Tim Jennings, Botetourt builder Mike Morris and Bobby Allen, who is Brenner's brother-in-law.

"We're just looking for an opportunity to make the Botetourt Country Club better," Johnny King said. "They've already got a pretty good following."

King said the group signed the paperwork Tuesday to take over the 218-acre country club from the Bank of Fincastle and the Bank of Botetourt.

In April, unable to pull the club out of debt, the governing board of the club decided to give it to its banks to satisfy a debt of more than $1.5 million. (The debt could have been as high as $1.7 million. Bank officials declined to comment.)

The country club, which has been run as a nonprofit organization, has experienced tough times in recent years as the weak economy prompted members of country clubs across the nation to drop their memberships as they pared their household budgets.

According to documents filed with the Internal Revenue Service, the organization spent more than it took in from October 2004 through September 2008. During that four-year period, revenues from membership fees declined from $351,552 to $289,814. Figures for 2009 are not yet available.

About 250 members belong to the Botetourt Country Club. Annual fees for standard individual memberships are $1,300.

King said the new owners agreed to drop "country club" from the organization's name as part of a marketing strategy to lure more people to the par-71 course. "Most people think of a country club as private. If they come from out of town and see country club, they won't give it a try because they think they can't play."

Brenner said he and the other new owners hope to improve some features, such as the swimming pool, while maintaining the golf course and persuading more people to play it. The course itself could undergo some tinkering, he added.

"We want to maintain it as a beautiful resource for the area." Brenner said. "The main attraction is the course and the views. When you're hitting golf balls and looking around at the mountains, you know you've got something special."