The South Whidbey Parks & Recreation District may swing into the golf course business. Commissioners are considering buying the popular Island Greens Golf Course in Clinton.

The links, popular with duffers and scratch golfers alike, was put on the market earlier this year. The golf course on French Road is highly regarded beyond the island. It was rated one of the area’s best Par 3s by The Seattle Times.

The parks district began informal meetings recently with golf course owners Dave and Lynn Anderson.

“We are gathering information at this point on the feasibility of adding a golf course to the district,” said Art Burke, director of the parks district.

The Andersons would like to preserve the popular links as a 9-hole golf course and have turned down offers from potential buyers who wanted to purchase the property to build homes on the land.

Island Greens is casual golfing, with a serious side: Nine par-3 holes with enough water holes, tall grass, and tunneling trees to make it challenging for golfers at all levels.

Parks district commissioners Curt Gordon, Jim Porter, Paul Arand, Allison Tapert and Linda Kast have been discussing the purchase during closed-door executive sessions.

“The commissioners felt we should let the public know what we are considering,” Burke said. “We want to assure the public we are looking at it very carefully.”

The asking price for the course is $700,000; the house and course together are valued at $1.1 million. Developers had eyed the property, with plans to divide the 31 acres into 5-acre parcels for development.

Island Greens, formerly a rolling pasture with natural wetlands, is like a walk in the park to some. To develop a park-like atmosphere, current owner Anderson limbed tall mature trees, planted new ones, landscaped around the greens and enhanced the wetlands. To date, Anderson has also planted 352 rhododendrons.