Valley Grande Golf Course is being put up for auction.

The golf course, located at 1009 Warrior Drive in Valley Grande, is being auctioned by Micoley.com, LLC on Aug. 29 as part of an online event.

According to the company’s website, the auction consists of the 103 acre 18-hole course, a one story pro shop building and the course’s warehouse for cart storage.

The golf course is currently owned by Steve Smitherman, who took over ownership in 2010. Smitherman said he was approached about auctioning off the golf course last year and agreed to give it a go. At that time, it was put up for auction and did not receive a bid, Smitherman said.

Now the course will be put up for auction for a second time.

“If I can make a profit, I’ll sell the course,” Smitherman said. “I reckon that’s the way it is with anything I own. If I can sell something and make a profit off of it, that’s what it’s all about.”

However, Smitherman isn’t ready to let the course go completely.

He said if it does sell, he hopes to work with the new owner so that he can stay on in a course management or superintendent role.

“If I auction the course off, I want to have something to do with it,” he said. “Maybe work out something with the new owners if somebody was to buy it. I would be willing to stay on and help keep the course going and be in the shape that it needed to be in.”

The list price for the course on the Micoley website is $750,000, which is what Smitherman said was the appraised value of the course when he bought it in 2010.

He purchased the course for $450,000 in 2010, and said he has “sunk a bunch of money into the place” since then.

“It wasn’t being fertilized and it wasn’t being [treated] properly before I got it and we’ve done all that,” he said. “It took us that long to go get the greens and the fairways back into the shape they need to be in. You just can’t do it all in one season. It takes two or three seasons to get the thing back in order where it needs to be. That’s what we’ve basically been doing. That’s where most of the money has been going — into the fairways and the greens and stuff like that.”

The course annually hosts numerous tournaments each year, including the Mayor’s Charity Golf Classic and will also be the venue for next week’s Masters Games of Alabama.

“I’ve put a lot of work into it and it’s good for the community to have a golf course,” Smitherman said. “I’d hate to see the golf course just kind of go back and be rundown again like it was.”

The opening bid allowed on the Micoley website is $600,000. According to the website, the property may be sold before the auction event takes place Aug. 29.

A separate Micoley auction set for Aug. 29 will include 36 lots that surround the course and six acres of land, according to the company’s website. All 36 lots are owned by Marion Bank & Trust Co., according to the bidders packet included on the Micoley website. The list price for the 36 lots is $615,000 and the opening bid will be $395,000.