Picture a tropical golf course, its well-maintained fairways and greens lined with old growth mesquite, oaks and palms; privately–operated and open to the public with very affordable fees, top-notch security and a new club house, all set on historically significant property along the Rio Grande. Then place it on the south side of the border wall in no- man’s land, and you have the Fort Brown Memorial Golf Course.

In 1987, Bob Lucio signed a long-term property lease with the City of Brownsville (and later with Texas Southmost College) and became the owner and golf pro of the golf club whose 18-hole course had been abandoned for several years. Built in 1956, the Fort Brown course had provided a home for the Pan American Golf Association comprised of Hispanic golfers who could not gain admittance to existing clubs of that era. Lucio himself learned to play golf as a seven-year-old on the Fort Brown course, while his older brother caddied.

In 2005, Lucio with his wife and son as business partners, invested in a new clubhouse. “I wanted to jump off that cliff one more time. My wife was supportive and said ‘go for it,’” he explained. He financed new irrigation infrastructure and new turf on the greens.

Then the border wall began going up. The Fort Brown Golf Course was sequestered on the south side of the fence. A legal gap in the fence funnels golfers right to the clubhouse and its 165 acres hugging the Rio Grande adjacent to the University of Texas at Brownville.

“If I knew then what I know now, I wouldn’t have done it, the improvements,” Lucio said. “In a small business like this, your profit margin is small, but we were making a living. It became nightmarish when the fence was built; it became increasingly hard for us. The border fence brought the perception of danger.”

Within a year of the fence going up, golf club membership had gone down by 40 percent. “I had to lay off super-good employees that we’d had for years.”

“It didn’t use to be this way,” Lucio recalled. “The best years we ever had were between 2002 and 2004. This used to be the most beautiful part of a border city. It was the best land on the river.”

Once people perceived south of the border fence as being dangerous, they turned their backs on the golf course.

For more of this story by Eileen Mattei, pick up a copy of the December edition of Valley Business Report, on news stands now, or visit the “Current & Past Issues” tab on this Web site.