CLERMONT, Fla. —Thousands of homeowners in Central Florida live on golf courses; it is an investment they hope holds their property values high.

• Legends Golf and Country Club has been closed for about a year
• Residents near the club have seen their property values drop
• They say golf course looks dead or barren

However, as more courses struggle financially, homeowners' investments are backfiring.

The Legends Golf and Country Club closed nearly a year ago and current residents fear for the future of their property values and homes.

Many parts of the Legends Golf and Country Club golf course look dead or barren. Residents are not happy about it either.

"Now where other homes are going up in value in a steady rate, we have seen ours flat line or decrease," Bob Yarnall said. So the value and equity of these homes that should be there are not, solely due to the owners of this course."

Yarnall said the view from the back of his home to the seventh hole was once breath taking, but now the look of it may take your breath away for the wrong reasons.

"Right now it is either barren or weed infested," he explained. "It went from a pristine, to a gorgeous golf course, to a desert in some areas."

Legends went for sale nearly one year ago. It was bought by Legends resident Miguel Vidal who owns Aerocopter, a helicopter business based out of Mexico.

"This course is not for sale. We are still studying ways on how to open, but we don't have the solution yet to open. We have the option to open and lose money, but that's not how you do business," he explained to Spectrum News 13.

According to Vidal, the estimates he has been given to fix the course to get it back in to playing shape range from $500,000 to $2 million.

In a letter to residents of the community, Vidal stated "WITHOUT THE SUPPORT OF THE COMMUNITY IT IS PRACTICALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO KEEP THE GOLF COURSE OPEN. This is why the decision to maintain the Golf Course open is more on the hands of the community than ours."

Yarnall was not pleased to read that.

"We almost felt to say that was putting us against the wall because we pay our HOA fees but we never signed on to fully subsidizing the golf course," he said.

Spectrum News 13 tried to get a comment from the HOA for its response to the letter Vidal sent out, but it has chosen not to comment.

Vidal said he does not have a target date as to when the golf course will reopen, because he is still doing research on how to make his investment profitable.