Cypress Creek golf course sold
Published 9:13 am Friday, January 5, 2024
Smithfield’s Cypress Creek Golfers Club is under new ownership.
Land transfer records from December show the sale of the 217-acre golf course to Virginia Beach-based Ishwarji LLC for $2 million.
Carey Hodsden, one of the partners in Ishwarji, told The Smithfield Times he’d been eyeing a chance to purchase the course for two decades.
Hodsden, who toured professionally and has spent 30 years as an active Class A PGA of America member, can trace his Smithfield roots back to the English settlers who colonized the area in the 1600s. His family was one of several to found St. Luke’s Church, the oldest still-standing brick church in Virginia.
Hodsden, 55, has opened six golf courses and resorts throughout his career, including Bayville in Virginia Beach and Bay Creek in Cape Charles, the latter of which was designed by famed professional golfers Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer.
Hodsden stayed with Bay Creek for four years as its head golf pro, a position that involves day-to-day management of the golf shop and course operations, before leaving the sport for a career in real estate.
After roughly a decade as a licensed RE/MAX broker, during which he met and married his wife, Della, Carey returned to the world of golf. Now he’s general manager and director of golf for Cypress Creek.
One of his goals for Cypress Creek is to better integrate the course with the surrounding town and the Cypress Creek housing development that’s now building out its sixth and final phase. He envisions a new golf shop and a restaurant that would be open to the public.
“We want to bring Smithfield – all the people, the town of Smithfield, the businesses of Smithfield – we want to bring them to the Cypress Creek neighborhood,” Hodsden said.
The course itself, he said, is to be kept “in championship condition year-round.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated on Jan. 6 at 11:48 a.m. to clarify Carey Hodsden’s affiliation with the PGA and Cypress Creek.