GLOVERSVILLE — Callaway Golf is closing its city golf ball factory, a decision that will eliminate 118 jobs.

In a letter sent Thursday to Gloversville Mayor Tim Hughes, the company’s deputy director, Yue Yee, said the plant will close as of July 31. Federal regulations required the notification.

Hughes called the closing tragic.

“I was surprised,” he said, expressing disappointment for the community and the people who will lose their jobs.

Lisa McCoy, marketing director of the Fulton County Economic Development Corp., said the decision is disheartening.

She said the factory, originally owned by Spalding, was among the first enterprises recruited to locate in Fulton County as part of what is now called the state’s Empire Zones program. The plant opened in 1989. Gov. Mario Cuomo attended the groundbreaking.

Callaway spokeswoman Michele Szynal said the decision to close was motivated by a need to manufacture and ship from plants closer to its worldwide markets.

A company in China called Suntech has been producing balls for Callaway since last July, she said, and more than half of the company’s ball market is outside the United States.

She said the overseas production is more cost-effective, but the company’s Chicopee, Mass., plant will not close. It employs about 300 people, she said.

Szynal said there are no plans now to market the Gloversville plant.

McCoy said it was the arrival of Spalding that allowed the EDC to successfully market the Gloversville Economic Development Zone and recruit the additional businesses that have turned the region around.

“For 20 years, they’ve been a great corporate citizen,” she said. Callaway later acquired Spalding.

McCoy said Callaway has made no overtures about marketing the 64,000-square-foot building.

State Labor Department spokeswoman Jean Genovese said that a company planning to cut more than 100 jobs must notify the state at least 60 days in advance. She said the state also received its so-called WARN notice Thursday. WARN is an acronym for the notice required under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.

The company is required to provide the state a reason for its action, and in this case, Genovese said, it cited the relocation of manufacturing to both the Chicopee and China plants.