"Eight years ago, they wanted to tear this building down."
That's Chris Thieneman talking to WDRB on the day his restaurant finally opened inside the old Glenmary Country Club clubhouse. If you've driven past that building on Glenmary Farm Drive any time since 2024, you already know something changed. The clubhouse was renovated, while the golf course around it followed a separate timeline.
Two Renovations, One Address
Glenmary Country Club closed in 2015. For the better part of eight years, the clubhouse sat empty and the grounds around it grew over before the redevelopment moved forward. In 2021, Louisville developer Chris Thieneman bought 45 acres of the property from Par Golf LLC for $625,000. That acreage covered the clubhouse and the land near Bardstown Road and Interstate 265, not the whole golf course, which WDRB describes as running more than 100 acres through the neighborhood.
That distinction matters for anyone trying to figure out what's actually different today. Thieneman poured roughly $2 million into renovating the clubhouse itself, according to WDRB's reporting, and proceeded with the project after zoning hearings. The golf course, meanwhile, continued operating without that clubhouse renovation investment. That separation helps explain why the clubhouse's reopening does not tell the whole story of the property.
What's Actually Running at Mulligan's Right Now
The clubhouse reopened in March 2024 as Mulligan's, co-owned by Thieneman and Ernesto Rivera, the longtime Louisville restaurateur behind I Love Tacos. The menu blends American and Mexican staples, and the bar leans on a partnership with Sazerac, meaning Buffalo Trace, Elmer T. Lee, Pappy Van Winkle, and Weller all show up on the shelf. There's a Sunday brunch. There's a relocated bar with a garage door that opens on warm days. And there's a genuinely large outdoor footprint: sand volleyball, cornhole, and a patio big enough that a local restaurant forum described it as one of the best outdoor setups in south Louisville.
The current online menu also lists a dedicated "Mini Golf Menu (10 & Under)," which tells you something the press coverage doesn't spell out directly. The scaled-down par-3 idea floated back in 2024 seems to have landed, at least in some form, as a kid-friendly option rather than a full course. If you've got young kids and you're trying to figure out whether an evening at Mulligan's works for the whole family, that's the detail worth knowing before you go.
Zoning classifies Mulligan's as a private club, but Thieneman and Rivera opened it to the public from day one, offering free membership while they finalized pricing. The venue has since leaned hard into event bookings, with its own site marketing weddings alongside the bar and grill, complete with a playground on the west side of the building for kids during receptions. If you're weighing Mulligan's for a birthday party, a rehearsal dinner, or just a Tuesday dinner out, the venue's own site has current details on booking and menu categories.
The Parts Still Waiting on Construction
Not everything announced in 2024 has shown up yet. When Food & Dining Magazine profiled the project that summer, the list of what existed versus what was coming was clear: cornhole and sand volleyball were live, pickleball courts and a speakeasy were described as opening soon, and a wedding venue, amphitheater, driving range, and full par-3 golf course were framed as long-range plans, not near-term ones.
Some of that gap has closed. The wedding venue is real and actively booking. But the speakeasy specifically, the one with the hidden entrance mentioned in early coverage, was still listed on the venue's own materials as "Full Speakeasy Bar downstairs for Rent COMING SOON" as of the venue's most recent public updates. If you've been holding off on checking out Mulligan's because you heard about a speakeasy and want to see it, it's worth calling ahead rather than assuming it's finished. The amphitheater and driving range don't appear to have public timelines yet either.
None of this is a knock on the pace. The clubhouse sat empty for eight years, and its redevelopment has unfolded in stages. It's just useful to know which parts of the original announcement are dining-and-drinks reality today and which parts are still on the drawing board.
The Golf Course Has Its Own Timeline
Glenmary Country Club, the actual golf course, is still listed as open to the public, built in 1990 with a par-72 layout designed by John Addington. Recent player reviews discuss course conditions, cart availability, and staffing. One reviewer wrote about drought-stressed fairways and cart paths in rough shape. Another described a round where the course was short on carts and short on staff, leading to delays getting off the tee. Management has responded to several of these reviews directly, acknowledging the weather and staffing challenges and pointing to incremental fixes, like a new cart fleet arriving that week.
The restaurant’s reopening and the golf course’s day-to-day operations are separate parts of the property, so updates about one may not reflect the other.
What This Means If You Live Nearby
If you're deciding whether to grab dinner at Mulligan's on a Friday night, the answer is straightforward: the dining room, the patio, the volleyball and cornhole setup, and the bar program are all real and running, and the Glenmary neighborhood finally has a genuine gathering spot where an empty clubhouse used to sit. If you're hoping to book a wedding or event, that side of the business is active too, and it's worth reaching out directly for current pricing since official memberships weren't fully in place as of the last public update.
If you're planning to play golf, the course and clubhouse have separate timelines. Check the course's current information before you go.
The bigger picture is a neighborhood watching a long-dead property come back in pieces, at different speeds, with different people driving each piece forward. That's a more interesting story than "the country club reopened," and it's the one actually playing out on Glenmary Farm Drive right now.
If you've got questions about what's changing in Glenmary, whether it's Mulligan's, the golf course, or anything else shaping the neighborhood, Kelsey L Reneau is always happy to talk through what's actually happening on the ground here. Let's Connect.
