Folks, here’s a story you don’t see every day. Desire Gentleman’s Club, a strip club located in Providence, Rhode Island strip club, has filed a lawsuit against Triggs Memorial Golf Course for breach of contract and negligence after the golf course allegedly double-booked tournaments, leaving Desire out in the cold.
According to the Boston Globe, the long-running gentleman’s club booked the course for their 21st (!) annual Desire Open, an 18-hole tournament featuring plenty of extra-curricular entertainment, for June 7th. As the date approached, however, the course informed Desire Open organizers that they had accidentally double-booked the tournament, offering June 20th as a make-up date. Unfortunately, Desire alleged they had already booked 36 (!!) dancers for the occasion and paid for hole-in-one insurance, putting them out thousands of dollars. When the exotic club was still denied its original date, they filed a lawsuit in Rhode Island Superior Court.
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Making matters even more awkward is the fact the Donald Ross-designed (!!!) golf course—the previous site of the Providence Open—is owned by the city and the tournament Triggs Memorial G.C. chose to honor was the Local 37 Iron Workers Union charity tournament. The city government contracts FCG Associates to run the day-to-day operations of the course, with FCG partner Karl Augenstein, who serves as the course’s general manager, named in the suit.
The lawsuit has become something of a politcal cold war in local Providence. As the Globe’s Dan McGowan writes, Desire owner Gerard DiSanto is a big political donor in the city and has even contributed money to mayor Brett Smiley’s office. Desire is represented by attorney Nicholas Hemond, a prominent local lobbyist and former school board president, while one of FCG’s partners is a lawyer by the name of Jonathan Savage, who McGowan calls “one of the most politically plugged-in attorneys in the state.” If all this sounds like the sub-plot to an episode of ‘The Sopranos’ to you, you’re not alone.
Needless to say, this tale could still take a sordid turn or two, but here’s hoping everybody works out their differences and the Desire Open lives to see another day. It’s not often we see a major city government endorse both golfers and strippers, and we’d like to see the Desire Gentleman’s Club, the Local 37 iron workers, the city of Providence and golfers across New England come together to support a worthy cause.
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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
