April 4, 2020

American Golf Corporation
Attn: Hana Khouri, CEO

909 N. Pacific Coast Hwy, Ste. 650
El Segundo, CA 90245

Dear Hana Khouri, CEO,

Many of our members, received your email sent April 4th with the subject “IMPORTANT Club Information”. In light of the COVID-19 public health emergency, your message did not sit well with us.

While we can empathize with the difficult decisions you and your team have had to make over the past weeks, you must understand that your members are dealing with similar decisions. Many of your members are small business owners dealing with furloughing employees, cutting costs, stretching cash and other tough situations. Other members are employees who have been laid off and have lost their income.

And then there are the members that are dealing with much worse situations than you; with sick loved ones or are sick themselves. There are businesses that have been completely closed, with no sources of income that they and their families depend on. Where is your empathy for them?

You state you have implemented “plans”. Please share those with us. We are in the dark with what is happening at “our club”. Since March 20th, the golf course facility is closed, and no services have been offered. There is no plan to re-open in the foreseeable future. Why are 80% dues continuing to be assessed? What services are we getting for those fees? Surely having laid almost all of the labor off this is unreasonable.

Your focus on getting the dues paid, during these unprecedented times, is mis-guided. I would encourage you to look at what others in the golf industry, the banks, airlines, hotels, and other businesses are doing. They are offering refunds, deferral of payments, and working with customers. They have made a choice to care for their customers and put them first. From the message in your email, it seems that you and American Golf have made a different choice. Your all or nothing policy is going to cost you most of if not all of your membership leaving no revenue.

We hope you'll reconsider your position of continuing to collect almost full dues throughout this crisis, while the course is closed and your workers are laid off. Many of our families have been members of Canyon Oaks Country Club since its opening in the early 90’s. Your email left us feeling like you do not value your members. We will be terminating our membership if this position remains unchanged. Please consider your members; without them, you have nothing.

We all want the same thing; Canyon Oaks to survive and thrive, but this course of action is almost assuring that will not be the case. We are open to reasonable dialogue of how to best keep the club we love sustainable.

With respect,

Canyon Oaks Members Signing This Petition Below