The nearly 100-year-old Minnetonka Country Club is closing its doors at the end of the year.

In an e-mail to the country club's members this week, owner Bill Witrak announced the decision, citing increased costs to keep up the clubhouse facilities and golf course upgrades as well as decreasing revenue the past two years. He said he's been pursuing businesses who might be able to keep the golf course open for a few years before an "inevitable" housing development.

It's part of the growing demise of golf courses in the Twin Cities, turned over to sprawling housing developments. Last year, the 18-hole Lakeview Golf Course in Mound closed, sold to a housing developer after the golf course owner also sold the nearby nine-hole Red Oak Golf Course in Minnetrista to the housing developer. And last year, Plymouth's 18-hole Elm Creek Golf Course closed, much of the 110 acres turned into affluent homes. Even in Edina, the nine-hole Fred Richards Golf Course was shut down this month, but its 42 acres will be remade into a public park and recreation land.

Now, in Shorewood, the golf course near Lake Minnetonka and Excelsior that survived two clubhouse fires can't weather the financial storm any longer. The country club, which opened in 1916, took pride in being one of the oldest continuously active golf courses in Minnesota.

KELLY SMITH