Lake Hills Golf Club has a new owner, two days before a scheduled foreclosure sale of the club.

In a deal completed Wednesday, Ron S. Hill LLC became the club’s new owner. Hill is a local developer and contractor.

“As a native of the Heights, the Lake Hills Golf Club has been around all my life,” he said at a Wednesday night press conference.

The 52-year-old club was previously owned by Lake Hills Golf Club Inc. Company president Rainer Dahl, of Salt Lake City, described running the club as “a great thing” but said the decision came down to estate planning. He said that because the course is a nonliquid asset, it was often tough to know what to do with it.

“This has been in my wife’s and my estate planning for several years,” he said. “Having six children and not knowing which three holes to will to any of them has made this decision much easier.”

Hill and Dahl declined to say how much the sale was for, calling the price “proprietary information.”

In 2007, First Interstate Bank loaned the club’s owners nearly $450,000, but last June began foreclosure proceedings against Lake Hills Golf Club Inc. and the note’s guarantors, Rainer and Patricia Dahl. The two loans were renewed every six months until the last six-month period ran out and the bank decided to call in the notes.

The bank granted the Dahls a two-week extension on Oct. 30, and then another one on Nov. 13. A foreclosure sale was scheduled for 1 p.m. Friday. Dahl, who has been the club’s president since 1976, said he was “flabbergasted” by the bank’s decision.

“Lake Hills Golf Club has never missed a payment to any entity in its entire 52 years,” he said.

In light of the sale of the club, the foreclosure sale was canceled, said Scott Green, First Interstate Bank’s attorney.

“I was told about two minutes ago that First Interstate Bank would be paid in full,” he said at about 4:40 p.m. Wednesday.

Hill’s company has developed and built many of the homes in the Lake Hills subdivision surrounding the course. He said he will continue construction-related projects around the course, including building maintenance and upgrades.

“It just became a fit,” he said of the decision to purchase the club.

A new rate structure was also announced to members, although details weren’t immediately available. Hill described the new structure as user-friendly. The old structure charged $1,100 for a family membership and $750 for a single.

Club pro John Wright and superintendent Kevin Bonk will be retained in the changeover.

Lake Hills sits on the northwest edge of the Heights, at 1930 Clubhouse Way. It opened in 1957 as an alternative to membership-driven courses for Billings golfers and has been described as a course where working men and women could play.

However, in recent years it has struggled financially and in an effort to combat that decline implemented membership fees, which include initiation fees and monthly dues, to replace annual passes. As of Wendesday, there were about 85 mixed memberships, meaning they could be for a family or a single person.