The course was built in the 1970s and designed by prolific golf course architect Hal Purdy.
EAST BRUNSWICK, N.J. – The East Course at Middlesex County’s Tamarack Golf Course is playable again after extensive restoration and improvements. The 50-year-old public course reopened Monday following the two-year project which included improved drainage, a new irrigation system, rebuilt tees and bunkers, and plantings. The course sits about 40 miles southwest of Manhattan.
Attention now turns to the facility’s West Course which will close in mid-October to undergo similar upgrades. That project is expected to be completed by fall 2024.
“I am extremely proud of the dramatic transformation our golf courses have undergone and am eager to see the enhancements to come,” Middlesex County Commissioner Director Ronald Rios said in a statement. “Not only will this investment in the Tamarack golf course enhance the quality of life for our residents and attract new visitors to our beautiful county, but these renovations will also improve everyone’s playing experience.”
Tamarack is managed by Indigo Sports, part of the national company Troon Golf, which manages 17 public, semi-private and private golf courses in New Jersey. Indigo also manages Raritan Landing, the county’s other golf course, in Piscataway.
County Commissioner Charles Tomaro called Tamarack ” a world-class facility for our golf-enthusiast residents.”
“Middlesex County has always placed a high value on working with first-in-class partners to deliver high-caliber facilities to our residents,” Tomaro said in a statement. “The partnership between Middlesex County and Indigo Sports is a testament to that philosophy.”
“We could not be happier with the outcome of the renovation work on the East Course,” said Jeff Bebbino, regional manager for Indigo Sports, in a statement. “Middlesex County’s commitment to great golf and affordability to residents is on full display this fall at Tamarack. We’re thrilled to get to work on the West course next and showcase two fantastic layouts in Central New Jersey.”
Located at 97 Hardenburg Lane, Tamarack Golf Course’s two 18-hole layouts were designed by golf course architect Hal Purdy, one of the most prolific golf course designers in New Jersey, whose other creations include the Rutgers University Golf Course in Piscataway, Warrenbrook Golf Course in Warren Township and Fox Hollow Golf Club in Branchburg.
The restoration of the Tamarack courses was designed by Massachusetts golf course architect Mark Mungeam.
Email: sloyer@gannettnj.com Susan Loyer covers Middlesex County and more for MyCentralJersey.com.
On Tuesday, the City Council approved $4 million for the first phase of the golf course redesign.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Get your swings in, Memphis. Audubon Golf Course is about to be shut down for a little bit.
Memphis Parks and Neighborhoods Director Nick Walker said the city would start construction on a redesign of Audubon on Nov. 1. He said the course would be playable again in the spring of 2024 depending on how quickly new grass grows.
On Tuesday, the Memphis City Council approved $4 million for the first phase of the golf course redesign.
When the city hired Bergin earlier this year, Walker noted the heavy investment already underway at Audubon and the surrounding area. Construction continues on the $40 million Leftwich Tennis Center redesign and it is on pace to open next spring.
“We are building a world-class tennis facility near the corner of Southern and Goodlett,” Walker said earlier in 2022. “We are also spending a good amount of money putting in a new playground pavilion and some enhancements to the walking area in the park … It would be foolish not to view Audubon, including the Botanic Gardens, as one big property.”
The City Council included funds for the first half of the redesign in this year’s budget and the council’s vote Tuesday was just appropriating the funds.
Memphis has been spending money — public and private — to revamp its golf courses. Fox Meadows reopened this summer after the city reworked it as part of the Accelerate Memphis bond package.
Private philanthropic dollars paid for a redesign of Overton Park’s nine-hole course, which also reopened this summer.
The city’s public courses saw more than 136,000 rounds of golf this summer, according to the parks department.
Samuel Hardiman covers Memphis city government and politics for The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached by email at samuel.hardiman@commercialappeal.com or followed on Twitter at @samhardiman.
A local historical group is hoping to figure out exactly where people are buried beneath the former course.
EVANSVILLE, Indiana — How’s this for obscure local history? Somewhere under the land that once housed a small Evansville golf course lies a pioneer cemetery.
A local historical group is hoping to figure out exactly where people are buried around the back corner of the former Wesselman Park Par-3 course. McCallister Cemetery is on a shady knoll close to Wesselman Woods Nature Preserve.
The tombstones from the cemetery have been missing since the 1960s. However, the cemetery has survived through the years even as more and more pieces of the surrounding land were carved off for developments.
Once marked off with a split-rail fence, only a historical marker added in 1990 by the Capt. Henry Vanderburgh Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution indicates what is there now.
However, a representative of the group told the Evansville Board of Park Commissioners that it wants to undertake work that could ultimately lead to getting McCallister Cemetery onto the National Register of Historic Places.
“After the 2019 closing of the Wesselman par-3 golf course, there has been a concern for the future and safety of the cemetery,” Cheri Baumberger said to the board.
Prior to the closure, officials insisted the city’s golf fund had run a negative balance for several years. It dropped 11 percent in 2018. A consultant hired by the city found that Evansville’s supply of golf facilities outweighed demand.
Then-Board President Jerome Stewart said golf in Evansville would “not suffer” and “will still thrive” with the closure of Wesselman Par 3. He noted another public course, McDonald, is less than a mile away.
In total, Stewart noted at the time, there are 12 golf courses in the city, including four public ones. An additional seven are within 20 miles.
“It has been concluded that probably the closure of at least one golf course will make it better for the rest of the courses in the surrounding areas and within our community,” Stewart said.
A consultant said future uses of the land could include a modern golf academy, donating the land to Wesselman Nature Preserve or creating a passive park — one with an emphasis on leisure and natural habitats and not as much playgrounds and pools.
A petition urging that Wesselman Par 3 stay open had 75 signatures. An organizer of the petition drive, Randy Calvert, was a regular player there.
Although the Evansville area has many courses, Calvert said Wesselman was unique in the group because it is tailored to the needs of younger golfers, and it was also an environment where more experienced players can practice putting.
Recently, Baumberger told park commissioners there may be up to 35 graves there. Commissioners gave the group permission to pursue work locating the graves.
Baumberger said the work will be unobtrusive and that the locations will be recorded by their GPS coordinates.
“Our renewed interest in the McCallister family cemetery is to further our society’s goals of patriotism, education and historic preservation,” she said.
Several different methods will be used but it is still uncertain when the work will take place, Baumberger said
Among them will be a Daviess County (Kentucky) search-and-rescue dog trained in locating cadavers. She said the dog has successfully helped locate other historic grave sites, including Civil War veterans in Parker Cemetery on Evansville’s West Side.
A University of Southern Indiana anthropology assistant professor also has offered to help using ground-penetrating radar equipment, she said.
“We’re very excited to get approval from the Parks Board and proceed with this project,” Baumberger said.
She said the local chapter has been working on the project since October 2020.
“We just want to preserve that acre of land the McCallisters set aside in perpetuity as a final resting ground for their family and it won’t be erased, forgotten or disrespected for years to come,” she said.
The McCallister family was among the Evansville area’s earliest pioneer settlers.
Eneas McCallister, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, moved to the area from Pennsylvania and began operating a ferry across the Ohio River in 1805, according to information prepared by the DAR for the historical marker’s dedication.
Mark Wilson covers education and environment at the Courier & Press. Contact him at mark.wilson@courierpress.com. John T. Martin contributed to the reporting.
The future of golf is younger, more inclusive and dedicated to ensuring that golf courses benefit the ecosystems.
Golf has a long and often deserved reputation as a stuffy sport obsessed with notions of the past and tradition. But unlike the Olmstead Parks Conservancy’s years-long passion project to dismantle Cherokee Golf Course, a long list of municipal golf courses around the United States are forward-looking, meeting challenges with creativity and evolving to meet the needs of their patrons. The future of golf points to a sport that doesn’t take so long, one that forgoes its worst puritanical tendencies, and one that wants to help, rather than harm the environment.
In an age where we’ve suspended our collective capacity for sustained concentration, talk around the golf world is that the sport needs to meet the time constraints of the modern human. A short, 9-hole course, like Cherokee Park, meets those needs. It’s also without the trappings and formality that dissuades folks from picking up the game. In the right hands and with creative changes, a course like Cherokee is precisely what golfers want and need.
Similarly, short courses require less maintenance and cost less, expanding access for individuals who may find the sport prohibitively expensive. The Olmstead group uses words like equity and inclusion, but aren’t they advocating for shutting down access to a 100-year-old public service and one of Louisville’s most affordable golf options?
In their “New Vision,” the Olmstead group suggests that “semi-private courses, including Valhalla, Nevel Meade and Persimmon Ridge,” offer golfers a “comparable price point.” First, Valhalla and Persimmon Ridge are private clubs. So, there’s that. But Nevel Meade offers public golf that costs more than twice as much as Cherokee.
Additionally, asking residents to drive 30 minutes — into another county, mind you — seems unreasonable when a course already exists right around the corner. The Olmstead group’s statistics regarding golf are similarly skewed toward making their case.
According to the National Golf Foundation, the number of municipal golf courses has grown by 5% since 2006. And while the Olmstead group wants to convince folks otherwise through now irrelevant statistics, since 2020, golf has seen its most dramatic growth since the Tiger Woods golf boom of the late 90s and early aughts. The National Golf Foundation also found that 2020 saw the most significant jump in new golfers ever: more than six million. This growth can be found everywhere, including daily at Cherokee Park Golf Course.
The Olmstead Park Conservancy may get their wish, but there’s no doubt that they’ve used outdated and misleading data to perpetuate antiquated notions of golf. The future of golf is younger, more inclusive and dedicated to ensuring that golf courses benefit the ecosystems in which they exist. But I suppose a reactionary approach is easier, and skewed numbers mitigate dissent among those who won’t do the research. Actual problem-solving to save a century-old public institution may be outside our capacity for imagination.
James Mielke is a freelance writer and lives in Schnitzelburg, a neighborhood inside the city of Louisville, Kentucky, with his wife and three terrible cats. He originally submitted this letter to the editor to the Louisville Courier-Journal, part of the USA Today Network.
In just more than two years since its inception, the National Links Trust has developed a wealth of information that might help municipal golf operators around the country restore courses that are often considered a community’s gateway to the game.
Now the National Links Trust wants to share that information, starting with a symposium Nov. 8-10 in Washington D.C. More than 100 attendees are expected to discuss five pillars: sustainability, community impact, growing the game, architecture and alternative programming. Interested parties can learn more at nationallinkstrust.com.
Since its founding early in 2019, the non-profit National Links Trust surprised itself in some ways by earning the contract to renovate the National Park Service’s three golf courses in D.C.: East Potomac, Rock Creek and Langston.
The mission: provide accessible, affordable and engaging municipal golf courses to positively impact local communities across the U.S. That mission started in D.C., and the NLT hopes to expand its reach at the symposium and beyond.
The three D.C. courses have plenty of pedigree and have served their community as an introduction to golf and as civic hubs for decades. But as with many municipal golf courses, conditioning and funding ebbed and flowed, leaving the layouts in various states of disrepair after decades of deferred maintenance. The NLT was founded by golf-architecture experts Mike McMartin and Will Smith to address the problems. With pro-bono plans by course architects Tom Doak, Gil Hanse and Beau Welling, work has begun.
Historical photo of Rock Creek Golf Course in Washington, D.C. (Courtesy of National Links Trust)
“Things are going very well,” NLT CEO Sinclair Eaddy Jr. told Golfweek. “We continue to be very busy at all three golf courses. We’ve made some improvements to things like the golf shops and cart paths, with an eye toward moving toward the longer-term improvements.”
In tackling the three D.C.-area courses, the NLT has learned much about navigating many of the issues that municipal golf faces. It’s not as simple as growing grass. There are political pitfalls, funding issues, usage and accessibility problems that any community is likely to face. Golf has seen an incredible uptick since the COVID-19 pandemic began and as players look for relatively safe experiences outdoors, but saving a golf course – or three – involves much more than rounds played. The level of planning is intense, and NLT wants to share what it has learned.
“We think there’s a successful playbook for renovating and rehabilitating municipal golf courses,” Eaddy said. “We’re doing it here in Washington D.C., and NLT is really focused on the three facilities in the nation’s capital as a model for how to do this around the country.”
Eaddy said NLT has received requests for information from project operators around the country on how to establish leadership teams, recruit talented renovators, fundraise and more.
“Our goal, and this is part of why we created the symposium, is to be a thought leader about thoughtful rehabilitation and renovation of municipal golf courses,” Eaddy said. “That’s how we are able to contribute to other projects around the country right now. While we focus on Washington D.C., we have resources and partners in the industry who helped NLT in its bid to renovate the D.C. golf courses. …
“We think there are some potholes out there for people who are thinking about rehabilitating or renovating municipal golf courses. We’ve gone through that process, and we think we can be helpful to other individuals and organizations that are even considering these types of projects and let them know what the pitfalls are. The hardest process is not just the bricks and mortar or the grass and sand of golf courses. Part of it is project planning and coming up with a roadmap that makes sense for the golf course, the patrons and also the local officials. For most people and most groups, that is the hurdle.”
The NLT has recruited a considerable group to participate at the symposium. Guests include PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh, USGA senior management director of public services Rand Jerris, PGA of America honorary president Suzy Whaley and more than a dozen other guests with expertise in everything from land finance to marketing.
On the golf architecture side, Doak, Welling and Jay Blasi – also a course architect and a Golfweek contributing writer – will present on the importance of good design.
Expertise in such a wide range of topics has worked for NLT, Eaddy said, and all these featured guests are willing to share what they have learned to promote community-based, affordable public-access golf.
“We want to be thought partners, Eaddy said, “and we want to help in any way we can.”
To listen to Peter Hill explain the history of golf course construction is like getting Warren Buffett for a lecture on investing.
(Editor’s note: After the upcoming U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, there are no municipal golf courses on the majors schedule for the foreseeable future. In a three-part series, Golfweek sheds a spotlight on municipal golf, why it’s a crucial piece of the golf industry and how it’s evolving. To see the first part, click here.)
To spend an hour listening to Peter Hill explain the history of North American golf course construction, primarily public-access golf, is like getting Warren Buffett to drop by your college business class for a lecture on investing.
There little emotion in Hill’s voice as he thoroughly dissects how and why municipal golf courses have been built, where they’ve been built, why many were set up for failure, and what obstacles they need to overcome in order to become successful.
Hill loves golf, for certain, but for more than three decades he managed these facilities — some good, some bad, some in urban areas, some in the suburbs — in a cunningly calculated fashion. While others get warm and fuzzy discussing the sentimental value of their local muni, Hill came at these sites with a checklist to mark — tee sheet percentages, payroll totals, pace-of-play averages, utility expenses, etc.
Get the numbers to work, and the course will be a success. Allow too many columns to slip into the red and suddenly there’s a permanent closed sign on the clubhouse door.
Hill co-founded Billy Casper Golf in 1989 with Robert Morris and 51-time PGA Tour champ legend Billy Casper. By the time the firm became Indigo Golf in 2020, the group managed over 160 properties in 26 states, and was one of the largest privately-owned golf course management companies in the United States. Hill’s group didn’t own municipal golf courses — if they did, they’d no longer be classified as municipal. Instead, they helped those that had trouble helping themselves. Often, municipalities allowed courses to fall into disrepair, didn’t manage the books well, or had trouble finding the proper price point. Or sometimes they realized they simply didn’t know how to run a golf course efficiently.
Hill’s group started small, but as word spread of their success, more courses came seeking their services.
Soon after the name change, Indigo sold out to Troon, which has become one of the biggest power players in golf. Others who handle similar services for municipal courses include Hampton, ClubCorp, Arnold Palmer and Arcis, just to name a few.
But how did we get to this point, one in which municipally-owned courses need an added level of management?
With decades of this knowledge under his cap, Hill is the perfect person to explain why we’re still losing a few municipal courses each year, why some are financially self-sustaining while others aren’t and where the industry is headed as a whole.
Peter Hill worked with Billy Casper Golf (later Indigo Golf Partners) for 31 years until the company was acquired by Troon Golf. (Contributed photo)
Before the ’90s: ‘Franchise locations’
The older the course, the more likely it’s in a city center, Hill explained. In the 1960s, when television shined a light on golf with Arnold Palmer and others, municipal courses boomed. Those cities that didn’t have a course — or multiple courses — added them as sound recreation alternatives.
And the time was right in terms of land purchases and access to utilities.
“You really need to look at this as a time series,” Hill explained. “Historically, a lot of municipal golf that was built before the 1990s, those courses have been there a long time. I’ll say there were probably a couple thousand that probably predated the 1990s in municipal golf.
“And so as a result of that, they were built when land was cheap and when it didn’t cost a whole lot to build them. So a lot of these municipal course facilities have what we would call ‘franchise locations.’ They’re closer to population, they’re more in the fill, they’re core golf courses and so the bedrock of municipal golf, going back to 50 to 60 years is that they’re really well located.”
These courses, like Austin’s Lions Municipal, were built in prime areas, but often the land prices have gone up dramatically, making such a large greenspace far too valuable. If the land hasn’t increased in value, it’s likely the area has hit hard times, and that presents another series of problems.
As Tiger Woods hit the scene and golf came back in style, suburbs were in the middle of wooing inner-city dwellers, often competing for potential residents with a few handy trump cards — good schools and better recreation.
“That’s when the municipalities look sort of looked around and said, ‘hey, why don’t we build one?’ ” Hill said. “And because golf was popular and they had the land, that resulted in a lot of municipalities building golf courses.”
Cities, towns and counties did this in conjunction with private developers, many of whom saw golf as an opportunity; many of these courses wind through residential neighborhoods.
“A lot of the stuff that was built in the 1990s and in the first decade of this millennium had to be built farther out. They were more remote and not as well located as the initial municipal inventory that was built 50 years prior,” Hill said. “A lot of stuff that was built in the 1990s and in the first five or eight years of the 2000s, there were a lot of courses built that shouldn’t have been built.”
As Hill tells it, many of those municipalities that built courses in this era did so for all the wrong reasons — not because demand wasn’t being met, but rather to add to the city’s jewel box. When play started to dip again, these courses were ill-prepared to weather a storm.
“When participation started to decline from the early 2000s up until recently, you had an oversupply for the first time in the history of the game,” he said. “And a lot of that oversupply was driven by municipalities deciding that they should get in the business.
“Which, by the way, irritated a lot of people in the private sector. These people were like, ‘go build bowling alleys or bars and restaurants.’ Instead, they just picked golf as a segment because they had the land and it was politically expedient. Many of them looked across the street and saw their brethren who built a golf course — so they said, ‘why don’t we go build one too?'”
Papago Park Golf Club was a municipally-run course, but now is operated by Troon Golf and has become the home for the Arizona State University golf teams. (Courtesy of Troon Golf.)
The move to managing courses
Hill added that many municipalities didn’t use sound vetting processes when building newer courses, often ignoring factors like the move to online tee times and discounted rate demands, circumstances that also caused a dip in the hotel market.
Hill’s company originally started by helping to complete the design process, but quickly realized there was a larger need in managing the courses. This vision is one of the reasons he was consistently listed among Golf Inc. magazine’s 10 Most Powerful People in Golf list.
“We’d be hired on to see these projects through and we’d say to the municipality, ‘We want you to know you’re probably not going to realize the financial returns or financial performance that you anticipate for years.’ And they’d go, ‘No, that’s not right, because we have this study over here done by Joe Blow who says we’re gonna have X amount of revenue and X amount of expenses and we’re gonna make that much money,'” Hill said. “And we’d say. ‘well, that may have been the case eight years ago when you started this thing, but it’s not the case today.’
“We already saw the headwind of increased supply and decreased demand, but no one would ever really wanted to hear the bad news and they went ahead and did it.”
Issues: Expenses or revenues?
According to the National Golf Foundation, only an estimated 67 percent of all public-agency golf facilities made enough revenue in 2019 to cover all on-site expenses. So why do it?
Those in socio-economically thriving communities can afford to take the hit. And often, large cities see this as a means to keep residents from fleeing to suburbs. But when the pandemic hit and budgets were smashed, the microscope returned, even in areas where the number of golf rounds skyrocketed.
All this leads us to the bigger question — what helps make a golf course economically sustainable?
Like with any business, it’s either a revenue issue or an expense issue.
If it’s a revenue issue, Hill said:
• Either the course isn’t charging enough
• The course isn’t managing its tee time inventory properly
• It’s in a bad location
• It’s an indication of how well the facility is maintained
“Golfers really care about playing conditions. You can have a really well-located golf course that is in a high-demand area that’s in terrible shape — the greens and the tees and the fairways are just not up to snuff — and nobody’s going to come,” Hill said.
Meanwhile, on the expense side, the following factors come into play:
• Simple daily overspending: “You can spend an unlimited amount of money on a golf course. What’s the right amount to spend? That’s the question.”
• Labor: Muni courses often fall under a parks and recreation umbrella with municipalities. Often, the workforce is fit to accomplish the work necessary, rather than building a workforce to accomplish the work. In other words, 30 employees from the parks and rec department split up chores because they’re already on staff, rather than hiring the necessary number of bodies — say, 10 — to get all the tasks completed.
• Utilities: How much does water cost? Are there land expenses? What arrangements are worked out with local utility companies?
Hill said when a municipality came with its books open, he could determine if the course could remain viable almost instantly. Practices like tiered pricing allowed Hill and his company — like many others now in the space — to optimize golf course profitability.
“I could tell within a half an hour of looking through the financial information how much it would cost to run that golf course and if it would be profitable long-term,” Hill said. “Remember, golf courses are like sporting events cruise ships, airlines, stadiums. All seats should not be sold at the same price. There’s tiered pricing depending upon demand, time of day and how far out you make a reservation.”
Clubhouses, restaurants and other pieces
One fallacy Hill wants to shed light on is the notion that bigger clubhouses, better restaurants and merchandise shops are a sure-fire path to economic success.
In fact, Hill said, while these auxiliary pieces might help on the revenue side, they are often major drains on the expense side. And remember, if the goal is financial sustainability, it’s all about the balancing act of revenue and expenses.
“If you took a really high-quality public golf course in a good location and you have a choice between running that golf course out of a double-wide trailer, which is dressed up in order to look like a nice thing, or building an 8,000-square foot clubhouse, you’ll make more money running it out of the trailer. Always,” Hill said. “You’ll gross more money if you have a clubhouse that has food and beverage and whatnot with a big golf shop. Your gross will be higher, but your margin will be less.
“Look, the margin on an incremental round of golf is 85 or 90 percent. The margin on a food and beverage business is 15 percent, right? There’s nothing wrong with it, it’s just a completely different business. If you want to do things in the most efficient way, the double-wide wins every time.”
A scenic view from the second hole tee at the Vivint Houston Open at Memorial Park Golf Course on October 13, 2020, in Houston, Texas. (Photo: Keyur Khamar/PGA Tour via Getty Images)
Case study: Houston’s Memorial Park
A municipal golf course is akin to a college — people seem to develop some of their strongest friendships there and even if they graduate to ritzier surroundings, they still hold a soft spot for it.
When the makeover was complete, the Houston Open, which had been at Memorial until 1964 when it fled for the suburbs, returned for the 2020 season.
The muni was due for a refresh in the 1990s and the city found $7 million to provide an adequate if underwhelming facelift to the property. But Crane starting asking about the potential of hosting a PGA Tour event and momentum started to build.
Is this a model that can be used in other places? Daniel Gilbert’s efforts to put the Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit were substantial, but could a muni have been saved in the process? Could other cities follow a similar loophole of allowing a wealthy civic-minded business leader to refurbish courses, all with the thought of getting major events to these venues?
Tom Doak (Brian Walters Photography)
Possibly. But even Doak — who is also part of the National Links Trust project in Washington, D.C., which is on track to refurbish three inner-city golf courses — isn’t certain there’s one true recipe for success on these projects.
“This could be the way things go,” said Doak about private-public partnerships. “It’s a little easier without all the red tape of dealing with city bureaucracy and all that. And that helped this project in Houston, too. Dealing with the red tape we had to here was just up front in the project. As a matter of fact, they didn’t want us to start until the day after Election Day, so we got a little bit of a late start.
“But combining a public-private partnership, especially when the Tour is also involved, it adds a whole bunch of corporate sponsors who are willing to jump in. It makes a project like this go easier.”
Then what’s the hold-up? Why not simply engage more big-money donors, many of whom love golf?
“The potential donors are always afraid that the city won’t take care of this after they do it. That’s the real thing,” Doak said. “The foundation in Houston, they made sure the contract for the tournament is for five years, so at least for five years, they’re very involved in maintaining the golf course. The Tour sends their staff in and makes sure everything is going right. That’s the trick in most places.
“A lot of these old golf courses don’t need much architecture. They were built well. They need better maintenance and they don’t get it. That’s the easiest thing for cities to do, but they often don’t do it.”
COMING THURSDAY: With the golf mecca of Bandon Dunes leading the way, Oregon is hoping to build a municipal-public-private relationship that helps grow the game for everyone. It’s not the only place this is happening. Another example is in San Francisco where the hope is that players evolve from Lincoln Park to Harding Park to Olympic Club — all very different but all in proximity.
In a three-part series, Golfweek sheds a spotlight on municipal golf and why it’s a crucial piece of the golf industry.
(Editor’s note: After the upcoming U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, there are no municipal golf courses on the majors schedule for the foreseeable future. In a three-part series, Golfweek sheds a spotlight on municipal golf, why it’s a crucial piece of the golf industry and how it’s evolving.)
AUSTIN, Texas — Hop along the hills on Enfield Road — which bounces from the vibrant downtown scene here to a quaint neighborhood on the west side near Lake Austin — and an endless stream of single-family homes and condos is breached by a long row of tall Texas oaks.
For those heading to a popular strip of shops and restaurants along the lake, it’s an insignificant stretch. But for those who preceded the Austin boom, this is sacred space, a revered golf course in a now-gentrified neighborhood. A green respite amid the chaos.
On the backside of those trees is Lions Municipal Golf Course, built in 1924 and still considered one of the best places to play golf in a now-thriving metropolitan area. It’s not uncommon to see celebrities here. Matthew McConaughey is often spotted with his son. Sergio Garcia has been known to sharpen his game here. Rich Beem is a part-time Austin resident and will pop in from time to time. Former University of Texas football coach Mack Brown was known to frequent the course, often accompanied by some of his players.
And on this spring morning, as is often the case, Ben Crenshaw is roaming the grounds at Lions, which locals simply refer to as “Muny.” With an impressive list of world-renowned courses on his architectural resume, not to mention the ability as a 19-time PGA Tour title winner and two-time Masters champ to finagle his way onto almost any track, Crenshaw still forgoes bigger name sites to play his boyhood 18 whenever possible.
Ben Crenshaw discusses a plan to save Austin’s Lions Municipal Golf Course. (Austin American-Statesman photo)
A thoughtful soul, Crenshaw seems to summon an extra dose of sincerity as he talks about Muny, and it’s easy to see why. He’s stopped on this morning near the practice green by a friend with whom he played Little League baseball. The superintendent pops by to ask a question or two. And lifelong pal Scotty Sayers, his agent since 1985 and a founding partner in his Coore and Crenshaw design firm, is by his side.
“I was introduced to this place at a really early age, like 8 or 9 years old. It was so convenient that we just came here, and we learned that everybody came here, from all walks of life. The community always embraced this place and it’s got a long legacy, a really long legacy. It’s been a fixture, really,” Crenshaw said. “And it’s beautiful. It’s open and it’s inviting and it’s a place to meet people you know, just like any other municipal golf course in the country.
“You can see the joy that it gives to people. It lasts, as we know. If you start young, you’re really fortunate because you carry it — golf and a place like this — with you for the rest of your life.”
Crenshaw and Sayers developed their love for the game at Muny, and they’re desperately trying to give future generations an opportunity to do the same. Real estate in many parts of the country is a booming business and Austin is no exception. In fact, the metro area has dipped in recent “best places to live” polls as housing increasingly becomes more expensive.
This, of course, has made the 141 acres on which Muny sits extremely valuable. The City of Austin is conducting virtual stakeholder meetings the week of June 21, asking for public input on zoning for the area, and Crenshaw and Sayers are putting together a trust to hopefully purchase the area for a reasonable price and preserve it for years to come.
The land is part of the 500 acres of University of Texas-owned land known as the Brackenridge Tract, and is considered the first fully desegregated municipal course south of the Mason-Dixon line. The city has leased 140 acres for Muny since 1936 and currently pays UT about $500,000 a year. If the parties don’t come to an understanding, the university could be free to lease the property to another entity, develop it or sell it.
Similar scenarios, although perhaps not always as entangled, are playing out throughout the country at municipal golf courses.
Crenshaw and others are fighting to preserve the 141-acre golf course. (Photo by Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman/USA Today Network)
There’s a reason this is an important distinction. Public-access, non-municipal golf facilities were created as for-profit endeavors. Many of the residential courses built during the early ‘90s golf building boom fall into this category. These were not built to grow the game, per se, but rather to capitalize on the game’s popularity. It’s sound business — as golf’s numbers grew, especially during the beginning of Tiger Woods’ ascension, courses were built to take advantage of the uptick in rounds played.
A municipal course, on the other hand, is one that occupies publicly owned or municipal land. Why is this important? As the business of golf waxes and wanes, municipal courses are expected to fulfill multiple purposes:
• To maintain greenspaces in urban areas
• To provide recreational opportunities for residents
• And perhaps most important, to introduce new players to the game
They are also hoped to be at least financially self-sustaining, but this is often not the primary motivation for building or preserving these courses.
Sure, it’s fun for weekend warriors to dream about an afternoon at Pebble Beach, Pinehurst or Bandon Dunes, but new players don’t typically evolve into lifelong consumers at the top of the funnel. The game needs to be — and here’s a phrase we’ll repeat often in this series — accessible to the masses.
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“At its core, golf is not about manicured greens or high-end amenities. It’s about how golfers experience the game. Players experience the game in a multitude of ways, whether it’s at municipal golf courses or high-end clubs,” said Sinclair Eaddy Jr., a former president and executive director of the First Tee of Greater Baltimore. He now serves as the executive director for the National Links Trust, a group that is dedicated to protecting and promoting accessible, affordable and engaging municipal golf courses. “But what’s important is the experience the golfer has when they’re on the course. That’s an intangible thing and it’s something you just can’t put a value on.
“Good golf, compelling golf, should be affordable for all golfers.”
According to the National Golf Foundation, there are about 2,500 municipal golf courses throughout the country, and while the pandemic has served as a kickstart for the entire golf industry — with the sport naturally promoting social distancing and healthy recreation — some of these courses continue to slip away, even with increased demand.
According to the latest monthly report by Golf Datatech, produced in cooperation with NGF, golf rounds are up 81% nationwide in April and 44% for the year, yet nearly 200 18-hole equivalent closures took place in 2020, or about 1.3% of the total supply.
Those sites that are shuddered often exacerbate the issue of keeping golf accessible to the masses. (Yes, there’s that phrase again.) Without vibrant municipal courses, golf is more susceptible to spiraling downward during tough times. Courses close in “franchise locations” — those in inner-ring suburbs or within a large city’s limits, near a large population base — meaning fewer playing opportunities for large swaths of the public. It’s simply harder to get hooked on golf when you don’t have a place to play nearby.
Case study: Dayton, Ohio (losing at-risk players)
Madden Golf Course in Dayton, Ohio, was permanently closed in 2020. (Contributed photo)
For example, the city of Dayton, Ohio — metro population of about 800,000 residents — operated three municipal golf facilities at the start of 2020: Community Golf Course, Madden Golf Course and Kittyhawk Golf Center. Although the three-facility system was self-sufficient as a whole, Madden — which was built in 1929 and sits just a few miles from downtown Dayton — always lagged financially.
The historic course played host to PGA Tour pros Lee Elder, Jim Dent and Charlie Sifford through the years.
“We made enough money on the other two golf facilities in our group to cover the losses at Madden,” said Kelly Pressel, the City of Dayton’s manager of the division of golf. “But when we were going to have to start covering the costs from our city’s general fund, the decision was made to close the facility.”
As Kittyhawk, which had three 18-hole tracks, started to fall into a similar financial boat as Madden, the system collapsed. An NGF study suggested that outdated irrigation systems and insufficient clubhouse facilities were dragging Kittyhawk and Madden down — the study went on to suggest an investment of about $9 million to remain viable long-term.
But when the pandemic took hold early in 2020 — before the golf season started — and an 18 percent general fund shortfall was predicted, the city decided to close both Kittyhawk and Madden. The two sites never re-opened last summer.
The closures, while financially sound for the city, could have devastating effects on any attempt to rebuild the area’s golf base. The revenue from Community provided about half of the golf department’s total budget line and according to the NGF study, it’s in a “golfer-rich” area. While that means Community will likely be able to stand on its own in terms of its ledger, opportunities for minority and inner-city players — those the USGA and PGA of America are trying hard to woo to grow and diversify the game — will likely dwindle.
Former Dayton mayor Clay Dixon told the Dayton Daily News the loss was significant for the Madden community, one with which he was tightly associated.
“It was more than just a golf course. It’s a venue with a lot of history to African-Americans,” Dixon said. “We had to fight to be able to play there. It became part of the fabric of our community. You can’t judge that just in terms of dollars and cents.”
‘We don’t want this to be a country club’
Ben Crenshaw reads a Golfweek article about a course in Palm Beach, Florida, that’s working with the PGA of America. Crenshaw is working to save Austin’s Lions Municipal Golf Course, the course he started playing as a kid. (Tim Schmitt/Golfweek)
While the issues in Dayton are very different than those facing Crenshaw and Sayers in Texas, the results could be similar. Currently, the city of Austin’s junior golf academy is on-site at Lions and due to a lack of similar facilities, would likely need to be moved out of the city if the course were to close. Austin only has a handful of other public golf options near downtown.
But if Crenshaw and Sayers have their way, a conservancy they helped to form will purchase Muny from the university and allow play to continue as it has for decades.
“We’d like to make it more like a course in Scotland in the center of town,” said Sayers. “We’d like to make more public areas — maybe a bigger putting green where kids that aren’t part of the Austin Golf Academy can just come knock the ball around. Or families can come out and have a reasonably priced meal and hang out, even if they’re not playing golf on the course.
“It really is like a community center, that’s what you feel when you come here. You feel like everybody is comfortable here, not pretentious. All economic backgrounds, all races. We don’t want this to be a country club.”
Crenshaw isn’t the only big name to come through the doors at Lions — Ben Hogan, Tom Kite, Byron Nelson and 42-time LPGA winner Sandra Haynie have all been regulars at one time or another.
And as he talks about the history of the course, he does so while sitting next to an office named for Tom Penick, a head pro at Lions from 1927 to 1961 often credited with helping in its design. Penick’s younger brother, Harvey, turned out to be a pretty decent coach in his own right.
“This place,” Crenshaw said while motioning the booming city in the distance, “has exploded. It’s not going to stop. There’s no stopping this town. But I think people have seen the benefit of the preservation of greenspace now. I mean that comes before a lot of things and it’s rapidly disappearing every day.
“People need a place like this. And we want to make sure it doesn’t go away.”
COMING WEDNESDAY: Many municipal courses are now managed by outside companies. Why? Does it work well? And what are the financial hurdles municipal courses need to overcome to be viable?
Municipal golf courses are a vibrant part of the golf industry’s plan to bring a wider group of the American public to the game. Often, municipal courses – not simply public-access courses, but those that sit on municipally owned land – have had to …
Municipal golf courses are a vibrant part of the golf industry’s plan to bring a wider group of the American public to the game.
Often, municipal courses — not simply public-access courses, but those that sit on municipally owned land — have had to weather storms like dwindling tax bases, the game’s rising and falling popularity and a change in access to utilities and labor.
Here is a look at five different municipal golf case studies — some that ridden out the storms successfully and some that have not:
A New York developer bought the course for an estimated $15.4 million package; it includes free golf for first responders in the community.
A New York developer has bought the Patriot Hills Golf Course and the adjoining 26 acres for an estimated $15.4 million package that includes free golf for first responders in the community less than an hour north of New York City.
Under the contract signed by the Stony Point town board, the developer will spend up to $6.4 million to build a community center, $6 million to demolish or remove asbestos from eight buildings on the Letchworth property and pay $3 million to the town.
The sale comes after years of debate, and a petition drive and failed court fight by advocates, who wanted a public referendum on selling the 18-hole course. The advocates are appealing to the state Appellate Division.
For Supervisor Jim Monaghan, the deal amounts to a hole-in-one after years of trying to sell off a financial loser for the town. The town bought the property in 1999, three years after the state closed Letchworth Village in 1996. Stony Point owns 10 buildings with five in use.
The developer, Patriot Hills Park LLC, intends to invest in the remediation and redevelopment of the site of the former state institution as well as upgrades to the golf course, clubhouse and catering facilities.
“This is an exciting day and big win for Stony Point,” Monaghan said during a news conference on the golf course. “As far back as 2003, the town has actively worked to market the old Letchworth facility and today’s agreement will finally ensure both the revitalization of this property and the enhancement of this beautiful golf course for benefit of our taxpayers.”
Councilman Tom Basile said the deal with Patriot Hills Park LLC will strengthen the town’s long-term fiscal health and keep town taxes down.
“This contract will, at long last, allow this site to generate income rather than be a drain on resources and do it while maintaining the character of this community,” Basile said.
The Town Board approved a memorandum of understanding in 2018 giving exclusive rights on a sale to two local residents, Raja R. Amar and Brion Hayman, and Lawrence D. Melchionda. The trio formed the Patriot Hills Park LLC for this development deal.
One of the long boarded up, decrepit buildings on the campus of Letchworth Village in Stony Point Sept. 21, 2018. Stony Point Supervisor Jim Monaghan gave an update on the status of plans to develop the site. The plans would include knocking down several of the boarded up buildings.
Value of transaction disputed
Attorney Michael Diederich, a Democrat running for town supervisor, who represents residents appealing a court ruling denying a public vote, said the public should have had a say on the sale of the valuable asset, the golf course. The petition had more than 500 signatures.
“Many people in the town, including myself, believe the Town Board of Stony Point was deeply misguided in deciding to sell the town’s golf course,” he said, adding the public should decide the use of public land.
“The proposed sale will essentially leave the Town with nothing — no cash in hand — and only the promises of a first-time developer,” he said. “In the long run, allowing private ownership may result in the golf course eventually becoming high-density housing.”
Monaghan has maintained the course is a money-loser for the town and the property has no worth due to the cost of removing asbestos from the buildings. He said the golf course also will eventually produce property taxes for the town.
The town chose to take the construction of a 7,500-square-foot community center and the multimillion renovation or disposal of eight asbestos-laden rundown buildings. The $3 million goes into town coffers.
Monaghan said the community center may not cost $6.4 million but maybe $5 million.
Either way, the developers agreed to fund the design and construction of a community center to replace the building, which is in constant need of repair. The community center will provide facilities for senior citizen functions, official town meetings and a range of other uses for youths and residents, Monaghan said.
“I, along with my partners, look forward to the success of this project and the exciting possibilities and economic growth that it will bring to Stony Point,” Amar said. “As a resident of Stony Point, I have a personal interest in investing in our future for the benefit of our community and its residents.”
Amar and his partners have been in negotiations with town officials for more than three years.
Monaghan said key elements of the contract include:
• $6.4 million due at closing encompassing both cash payment and performance bond for the design and construction of a new Stony Point Community Center.
• $6 million estimated commitment from the developer to remediate and demolish buildings on the Letchworth site.
• Renovations to and the preservation of Kirkbride Hall for Town recreation purposes.
• Golf course will remain accessible to town residents and their guests. Residents will pay a reduced rate on the average cost per round across golf courses in Rockland. Right now, town residents pay $55, and non-resident pay $120.
• Stony Point active riding volunteer fire department and ambulance corps members will play for free.
Steve Lieberman is a reporter for Westchester Journal News, part of the USA Today Network. Reach him at slieberm@lohud.com. Twitter: @lohudlegal.
Part of the Milwaukee County chain of municipal courses had some unwelcome guests over the weekend.
The Whitnall Park Golf Course, part of the Milwaukee County chain of municipal courses, had some unwelcome guests over the weekend.
The greens for holes 13 and 14 were seemingly used for some unauthorized off-roading with large tire tracks left in the green. Franklin police said the damage was done between 7 p.m. Oct. 2 and 7:15 a.m. Oct. 3.
Police, who are still investigating, don’t yet have an estimate on the cost to repair the damage.
Both holes are now closed, as temporary greens are being cut into the fairway for golfers, according to Milwaukee County Parks. The front nine greens and the remaining seven back nine were not impacted and are open.
“Our amazing golf team is hard at work to get the course repaired and ready to go for next season,” Milwaukee County Parks said in a statement on Facebook. “Unfortunately, that means that the greens will not be in good condition for the rest of fall 2020 and potentially into next spring 2021. Our goal is to get them healed for the 2021 summer season.”
Whitnall Park gets the most play of all the courses in the Milwaukee County Parks chain, a 15-course conglomerate that ranks only behind Los Angeles in terms of largest municipal course circuits in the country.
Whitnall Park Golf Course, which opened its doors in 1932, was designed by George Hansen, who also designed nearby Brown Deer Park — the latter is famous for being the host at the first PGA Tour event ever played by Tiger Woods.
Tire tracks mar Whitnall Park Golf Course, part of the Milwaukee County chain. (Photo courtesy Franklin Police Department)
Whitnall Park isn’t long by modern standards, but it’s tree-lined and has been a popular spot for Milwaukee-area golfers for decades, offering a number of elevation changes and some difficult greens.
