The course underwent a substantial renovation in 1992 under the watchful eye of Arthur Hills.
CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio — Visitors to Brookledge Golf Club in this Cleveland suburb could see an upgraded and expanded clubhouse within the next year.
Cuyahoga Falls officials recently took their first steps toward roughly $1 million in improvements to the 32-year-old clubhouse at the golf course, which was designed by Don Walker and originally opened in 1941. It underwent a substantial renovation in 1992 under the watchful eye of Arthur Hills, who also designed Inverness Club in Toledo and LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Florida.
With the city of Cuyahoga Falls greenlighting the sale of $550,000 notes to help pay for the upgrades, the next step will be to solicit bids for the project, said Kelli Crawford-Smith, the director of neighborhood excellence, communications and community outreach department.
The project cost is being spread out over two years, said Crawford-Smith, with $550,000 coming from the parks and recreation levy this year, and the balance of the cost paid for with the notes next year. The final cost has yet to be determined.
Planned improvements, which could start in late fall with a tentative finish time of 10 months, include an 1,800-square-foot expansion. Other upgrades include installing new electrical and HVAC systems, plus a new roof, doors and windows. The sidewalk cart path that goes around the facility will be replaced.
“Currently there is a small pro shop, snack bar and seating area,” Crawford-Smith said. “The renovated clubhouse will offer larger versions of these things, along with an expanded menu and bar offerings.”
Reporter April Helms can be reached at ahelms@thebeaconjournal.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.
Just a little slice of city championship qualifying. it’s rarely boring.
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Something interesting always happens during the Evansville Men’s City Golf Tournament. This year’s event was no exception.
A total of 173 golfers competed for 63 spots during Saturday’s qualifying round. It marks the most entrants for the tournament since 2008 and the first time two courses were required since 2016.
There were low scores at the two sites — Fendrich and Helfrich Hills. Plenty of suspense with an 8-man playoff (which could have been 10). Even drama for the final spot in the main event. It’s all a day in the life of city golf qualifying.
Mitchell Johnson and Matthew Godsey paced the field at 6-under 64. Johnson, an Evansville North High School grad, tallied an impressive 10 birdies including four straight to end the day.
Godsey, a junior at Brescia University in Owensboro, overcame a bogey on his first hole – the par-4 10th – to play flawless golf the rest of the day. Godsey finished with seven birdies.
“My main goal was to make the cut,” said Godsey. “As soon as I started getting it rolling, I wanted to see how low I could go. It just all came together on one day. I’ve been practicing a lot to get on the skill level I want to be at.”
Kolten Hedges tees off on the 2nd hole during the Evansville Men’s City Golf Tournament qualifying round at Fendrich Golf Course in Evansville, Ind., Saturday morning, July 2, 2022. (Photo by MaCabe Brown/Evansville Courier and Press)
One player, James Schroeder, has been intertwined with this tournament and one of the qualifier’s two sites — Helfrich Hills Golf Club, a course that opened in 1923 and was designed by architect Tom Bendelow — for years.
Schroeder won the Dan Scism Scholarship in 1995. When he was 14, his family moved across from the Michael D. Helfrich House which is located behind the 10th green.
Nothing in his mind topped this year. His round only played a small part in it. Schroeder claimed the final qualifying spot from the Helfrich group with a par in a one-hole playoff against Stephen Smith.
His caddie? His 10-year-old son Will. His oldest, Zach, had the second-lowest round at Helfrich to also qualify.
“I love this tournament and never qualified,” said James Schroeder. “This year, my boys played for the first time. (To qualify) is such a blessing, but it probably means more because of them.”
Zach Schroeder, a rising junior at nearby Mater Dei, was one of the few to find success at Helfrich. He posted a 4-over 75 with three birdies to finish one shot behind Tyler Raben for the low round. His younger brother Matthew, an incoming freshman, shot an 87 to miss the cut by only four shots.
“Zach shot a great score,” said his father. “He was a four-putt away from winning the qualifier. It’s really cool to have us all together today. To get that last spot was a cherry on top.”
And the final spots into the tournament – the first round will be played July 16 – required extra holes at Fendrich. This is where the 8-man playoff occurred, plus some controversy.
Ten players finished at 4-over 74 with five spots on the line. However, two weren’t present at the 10th tee when their names were called. Those five advancing spots were then determined in one hole.
Tom Gayhart, Steve Wassmer, Dustin Ross, Lucas Zielinski and Don Neel each made par on the first playoff hole. Four of them scrambled with Gayhart the only player to hit the green. The best shot belonged to Zielinski.
After hitting his second shot long, he hit a perfect pitch over a hill that nearly rolled into the cup. Zielinski, who said he raced back for the playoff and needed to buy a hat in the pro shop, couldn’t see the pin.
“I don’t want (that shot) over again,” said Zielinski. “That’s one of the best shots in my life probably. We thought 74 would be 100% in. We ate lunch and were not planning on coming back to play golf.”
Players often scramble to get back in time for the playoff (two obviously didn’t make it), and Zielinski said he didn’t have a belt and needed to purchase the hat.
“I wasn’t going to play without a hat,” he said.
Mason Royalty birdied the third playoff hole to earn what was originally an alternate position. However, he received a spot in the tournament when it was determined a player who shot better than 74 did not meet the primary residence eligibility requirement.
The tournament rules state entries are open to male amateur players who are residents of Vanderburgh, Posey, Warrick or Gibson counties.
This is all part of the fun at a local qualifier. And the city tournament has yet to begin. Action will be held on July 16-17 at Fendrich Golf Course, July 23 at Rolling Hills Country Club, and the final round will take place on July 24 at Evansville Country Club.
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.
Some are saying the two can co-exist, but the 9-hole course, according to a release earlier this month from the city’s park department, “is the only course without a lease agreement with a PGA professional or nonprofit organization.”
“Attempts to bid out the management of the course did not yield any viable options,” the Metro Parks release added. “During that process, Parks and Recreation received a proposal from the Olmsted Parks Conservancy to enhance Cherokee Park by making improvements and investments to revitalize the golf course property into active and diverse parkland.”
The interest from Olmsted Parks Conservancy stretches to at least 2019, when the nonprofit that supports Louisville’s 17 Olmsted-designed parks pitched a plan amid citywide budget cuts to turn Cherokee Golf Course from a “financial liability to a treasured park space.”
Founded in 1895, four years after famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and the city established Cherokee Park, the golf course is the fifth-oldest municipal golf course in the country and the oldest of the city’s 10 public courses.
It is one of three public courses in Louisville featuring nine holes instead of 18 holes.
Once up and running, there is “no doubt” the course will pay for itself, one official said.
QUINCY, Mass. – Furnace Brook Golf Club will open for the first time under city ownership on April 1, part of a plan to provide “affordable, local golf” to the city’s residents. The club will turn 100 years old next year and Quincy officials have plans to build a new clubhouse and make other improvements to the course.
Fees for Quincy residents at the 44-acre course will be $45 for 18 holes on weekdays and $55 on weekends, the same fees charged at county-owned Presidents Golf Course. Nonresidents will be charged an extra $10, which is still less than the fees were before the city takeover. By comparison, it costs $150 to play 18 holes in the summer at private Quincy golf club Granite Links.
Carts are $20 for 18 holes and $15 for 9 holes.
The city will also allow golfers to book a tee time online, up to 48 hours in advance, at furnacebrookgolfcourse.com. The website is expected to go live in the coming days. Limited and junior memberships are still available. Family and unlimited memberships are full but a waiting list is being compiled for the 2023 season, officials said.
“We’re really trying to open this up to the public. For 50 years it’s been a semi-private course, but if you talk to people, very few have really had the opportunity to take advantage of it,” Commissioner of Natural Resources Dave Murphy said Friday. “We’re going to run camps and clinics, have the middle and high school teams play out of there, and we’re really focused on not just existing golfers but people who have always wanted to play but haven’t had the chance.”
Fours Restaurant Group, which runs the sports bar in downtown Quincy, has been awarded the contract for food and beverage service at the clubhouse. That operation is expected to open at Furnace Brook in early April.
“They know this business inside and out and they offer a quality product,” Murphy said. “It’s going to be something that complements the golf course and The Fours is a great partner to us.”
PGA golf professional Tom Ellis, who worked at Granite Links, will be running day-to-day operations.
In December, Quincy officials presented a draft plan to residents for an estimated $7.4 million clubhouse renovation that would replace the existing building. The plan outlines space for a bar and grill, a large deck, a pro shop, locker rooms and a golf simulator.
“The current clubhouse is basically a converted house that was built in 1926. It doesn’t meet a lot of the standards required for a public building,” Murphy said at a meeting last year.
The existing maintenance building also needs work. Murphy described it as “basically a lean-to.” A new irrigation system was installed this winter.
Work on the irrigation system at the Furnace Brook Golf Club on Friday, March 25, 2022. (Greg Derr/The Patriot-Ledger)
The city’s relationship with the golf club started in 1971, when then-Mayor James McIntyre proposed a 50-year lease on the course. At the time, the club was unable to pay its 1970 property taxes – a $17,500 bill – and “saw no prospect of improvement in its financial future,” a 1979 Patriot Ledger article states.
Under the lease, the club was to pay the city $1 per year for 50 years in lieu of taxes. At the end of that time – June 2021 – the land would be given to the city. As the end of the lease approached, Koch said he and his staff spent time meeting with the club’s management to discuss the best course of action. It was decided the land will remain a golf course, but the city took over its maintenance and management in January.
The course has been known as the Furnace Brook Golf Club since 1938, when the name changed from the Stoney Brae Golf Club. Stoney Brae was built in 1923.
“We are excited to add this recreational opportunity to our inventory of parks and open spaces,” said Mayor Thomas Koch said in a statement. “Our plan is to provide affordable, local golf for our residents and in the process introduce many more residents to the game of golf. This is a beautiful parcel of open space and we are glad to keep it as such for generations to come.”
The fiscal 2022 city budget included $400,00 for golf course operations, with the idea that membership, fees and cart rentals will cover the annual operating costs going forward. This appropriation included $41,500 to hire a course superintendent, $32,500 for a golf pro, $26,000 for a part-time administrative assistant and $42,500 for seasonal help.
Once up and running, Murphy said there is “no doubt” that the course will pay for itself through membership fees, fees and cart rentals.
Reach Mary Whitfill at mwhitfill@patriotledger.com.
Negotiations between the university and the city are ongoing, and organizers admitted there’s plenty of work left.
AUSTIN, Texas — As soon as Verne Lundquist got the call, he knew he had to be part of the fun. Not just to enjoy the company of his buddies, many of whom he remembers from his time at Austin High School, but to help save a vital greenspace in the center of one of the nation’s hottest housing markets.
That’s why Lundquist – the 81-year-old sports broadcasting legend – was one of the many stars Sunday night at Imagine Muny, a Texas-sized gala at the Moody Theater made famous by the TV show Austin City Limits. The event, which organizers say netted around $800,000 to help restore Lions Municipal Golf Course, was a bona fide success in terms of fundraising, but perhaps even greater was the awareness the evening brought to a cause that’s been dragging out for decades.
For those who’ve missed the backstory, the 141 acres on which Muny sits are extremely valuable. The City of Austin has conducted stakeholder meetings, asking for public input on zoning for the area, and boyhood friends Ben Crenshaw and Scott Sayers put together the Muny Conservancy, hoping to purchase the area for a reasonable price and preserve it for years to come.
The parcel 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 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.
Lukas Nelson waves after performing during the Imagine Muny gala at ACL Live’s Moody Theater on Sunday night. Nelson joined Eric Church, Asleep at the Wheel and Jimmie Vaughan. (Photo by Tyler Schmitt for the Muny Conservancy.)
But the outpouring of support at the event – which included appearances by musicians Eric Church, Lukas Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel, as well as a surprise visit by Jimmie Vaughan – certainly might help to lean opinions. Among those who were part of a special video presentation were celebrities Luke Wilson and Kyle Chandler. Sports personalities on hand included former PGA Tour pro Mark Brooks and former TCU head football coach and Texas special assistant Gary Patterson.
“Just look at this event. You get some sense of what this golf course, this beautiful place, means to so many people in this city,” Lundquist said while musical acts rotated through the famous theater’s stage.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CaSzsbUFcr0/
Lundquist – whose famous calls at the Masters include Jack Nicklaus’ birdie putt on 17 in 1986 that gave him the lead and Tiger Woods’ dramatic chip-in birdie on the 16th hole in 2005 – admittedly doesn’t get around like he used to. The national broadcaster lives in picturesque Steamboat Springs, Colorado, but he and his wife, Nancy, purchased a small condo in Austin three years ago and he comes back to his hometown for at least a few months each year.
“I’ve known Scott Sayers and Ben Crenshaw for more years than they want me to admit,” Lundquist said, noting that his sister was a year behind Crenshaw in high school. “Whenever we’re back here, we want to be here to support this place. It’s an amazing undertaking. Really it is.”
Sayers, who helped coordinate the event, said it was a smashing success on multiple levels.
Scotty Sayers, left, and Ben Crenshaw enjoy a laugh during the Imagine Muny gala at ACL Live’s Moody Theater on Sunday night. The event netted around $800,000 for renovations to Lions Municipal Golf Course. (Photo by Tyler Schmitt for the Muny Conservancy.)
“The musical guests and the finish to the thing were as good as I’ve ever seen,” Sayers said. “And we did what we hoped to do financially, to be able to make improvements to Muny, which was important. But the awareness is the key – we need folks from the city and the university to both realize this isn’t something for a small subset of people, or just a few folks who are interested. This is a place for the entire community. I think this proved that.”
The conservancy hopes to partner with the city to keep Muny in the best shape possible before any decisions are made by the university on potential permanent uses for the property. Recently, a fleet of 62 new golf carts was introduced at the course and a new roof was constructed on the clubhouse, all with help from the city. The money raised at Imagine Muny will help with more renovations and improvements.
But the final decision is yet to come. Negotiations between the university and the city are ongoing, and Sayers admitted there’s plenty of work left.
“This is a critical stretch, for sure,” he said. “We just hope that whatever develops that we keep all 141 acres as greenspace. If the conservancy gets the course, and we hope that happens, renovations will take time, but will be worth it. It’s a place that just means too much to so many people.”
Groups feel that the bill targets golf, because there is no mention of soccer, baseball stadiums or tennis facilities.
Perhaps the greatest example of how differently the two sides see the California Assembly bill now known as AB1910 is what the opposing sides call it.
Assemblymember Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens) calls the bill she authored “Incentivize Conversion: Accessible Open Space & Affordable Housing.” Officials at various golf organizations in the state who oppose the bill refer to it as “The Public Golf Endangerment Act.”
The bill, which would allow municipally owned golf courses in the state to be transformed into affordable housing, is now in its third life. Garcia introduced the bill, known then as AB672, last year, but it never advanced out of its first committee. The bill was re-introduced in January and made it through two committees before stalling and dying in the assembly’s appropriations committee.
Garcia has now introduced the bill again with a new number but with the same basic intentions of the bills introduced last year and again in January. The legislation would allow the state to redevelop municipal golf courses into affordable housing. The earlier version of the bill focused on municipal courses in densely populated urban areas, but the current bill could allow development of any municipal course in the state. The fact that Garcia has now introduced the bill three times shows how dedicated she is to the idea.
“Studies show low-income communities and communities of color lack access to open space and lack housing security,” Garcia said in a tweet on her account as assemblymember for the 58th district. Garcia is also leaving the assembly to run for a newly drawn U.S. congressional district. “#AB1910 will chip away at these two injustices to help ensure that everyone is safely housed AND has open space to recreate.”
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Arguing for the future of the game
The powers in golf have pushed solid arguments about stopping the bill, including how a municipal golf course can be a center of recreational activity for a community, not just a place to hit a small bucket of balls or a place to play nine holes every once in a while. But the sport’s leading figures do point out two major issues with what Garcia has proposed, other than the feeling the bill circumvents the state’s Park Protection Act and that it could decrease the number of courses in the state.
First, groups like the Southern California Golf Association and the PGA of Southern California obviously feel that the bill targets golf, because there is no mention in the proposed legislation about converting soccer complexes or recreational baseball stadiums or tennis facilities. Only golf courses are specifically mentioned.
“The ONLY ‘accessible open space’ targeted is golf,” said Craig Kessler, director of public affairs for the Southern California Golf Association in an emailed letter to SCGA members about the re-introduction of the bill last week. “The Assembly Member’s Tweet on the subject makes that clear. A very large golf ball appears prominently; not open space or housing – a golf ball and little else, a popular name brand no less.”
Second is the idea that by going after municipal golf courses first, the door could be opened to propose development of other golf courses in the state in the future.
“Public parkland golf courses (municipal) are 22.3% of California’s golf stock; however, for reasons we have outlined in detail many times over the last year, the line from this bill is a straight one to the state’s daily fee and private club facilities,” Kessler said in his letter. “In both cases, it’s all about the land all the three species of course sit atop, and golf’s continuing legitimacy to employ that land as it has for more than a century.”
Even as the powers in golf in the state celebrate the bill’s two previous failures, they have to understand that this third attempt at passing the bill might not be the last. The SCGA, the SCPGA, the California Alliance for Golf and golfers themselves have to keep pressing the message that any golf course, but particularly municipal golf courses, are important to communities in general, not just to golfers.
The attacks will be coming, and so the defense must keep coming as well.
Larry Bohannan is the golf writer at the Palm Springs Desert Sun part of the USA Today Network. He can be reached at larry.bohannan@desertsun.com or (760) 778-4633. Follow him on Facebook or on Twitter at @larry_bohannan.
The state bill proposes unspecified funding for repurposing publicly owned golf courses into housing developments.
A California Assembly bill that potentially could fund the repurposing of municipal golf courses into land for housing is moving forward again after dying in committee in 2021.
The gist of Assembly Bill 672 is that California faces huge homelessness problems and soaring housing costs, so municipal golf courses could be shut down and the land developed into housing, including at least 25 percent occupancy by low-income households.
Since being revived in early 2022, AB 672 has been significantly modified and passed two Assembly committees this week. It likely will reach an appropriations committee next week, and if approved there, it eventually would move to the full Assembly and then the California Senate for a vote.
The bill has caused outcry from many golfers and organizations, especially in the form in which it was written in 2021 that would have mandated that municipal golf courses be converted into housing.
In the bill’s current form, there is no such mandate. Instead, local governments and authorities would be allowed to make choices about closing municipal courses, and state funding would be made available to subsidize development into housing. Basically, it’s a much softer bill now than in its original form. And it faces huge obstacles in ever passing into law, not the least of which is that its current form does not specify any funds for development subsidies. In its original form, AB 672 provided $50 million for subsidies, but that funding line has been stricken from the current bill.
My bill #AB672 passed Asm Housing & Local Govt Cmt today! 🎉 It will create a voluntary incentive for public agencies to consider municipal golf courses for affordable housing & open space.
This is about providing more tools to address housing issues and think outside the box. pic.twitter.com/jzdnyBDXJW
Craig Kessler, the director of public affairs for the Southern California Golf Association, on Thursday told Golfweek that the bill has gone from having a devastating impact in its 2021 form, to having significant impact, to now having much less impact if it were to pass. He also predicts many hurdles for the bill from supporters of public-access golf in the state.
“While I was never optimistic about this bill dying early in the 2022 process, I remain optimistic that it will not get signed into law in 2022,” Kessler said, “but only if the golf community continues to be as engaged in the next few months as it has in the past few months.”
There are more than 200 municipal courses in California, making up 22 percent of all courses in the state, including such highly ranked facilities as Torrey Pines, site of the 2021 U.S. Open in San Diego. AB 672 does not address privately owned public-access courses, such as most daily-fee courses, or privately owned country clubs.
The bill in its current form would:
Provide incentives in the form of grants to local agencies that enter into a development agreement to convert a publicly owned golf course into housing and publicly accessible open space.
Mandate that at least 25 percent of all new dwelling units would be occupied by lower-income households for a period of no less than 55 years.
Garcia describes the proposed law officially as the “Conversion of Publicly Owned Golf Courses to Affordable Housing” in the bill, but the bill does not specify or cap what type of housing might constitute the remaining 75 percent of dwelling units.
At least 15 percent of any such development must be open space, but golf courses would not be considered open space.
No more than a third of any such development could be used for non-residential purposes, including parking.
The municipal Rancho Park Golf Course used to host the PGA Tour’s Los Angeles Open. (Todd Kelly/Golfweek)
Larry Bohannan of the Palm Springs Desert Sunreported last April that the proposed law would remove municipal golf courses from protections of the Public Park Preservation Act, provide an exemption to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and make it easier to rezone public open-space land for housing.
Proponents of the bill have said thousands of dwellings could be built on converted golf courses to ease housing problems. Garcia’s bill states that “Existing law establishes the Department of Housing and Community Development and requires it to, among other things, administer various programs intended to fund the acquisition of property to develop or preserve affordable housing.”
Municipal golf courses in California are under attack.
These facilities carry a special meaning to California golfers, allowing all to access the game.
Learn how you can #SavePublicGolf, and join the SCGA in opposing the Public Golf Endangerment Act!
Supporters of golf – including the Southern California Golf Association and the California Alliance for Golf – have countered that golf courses serve as necessary green spaces in otherwise crowded cities, and that municipal golf courses typically serve lower-income players of diverse backgrounds, frequently with programs designed to introduce the game to such players.
“Removing golf and only golf from the 50-year-old protections of CEQA and the Public Park Preservation Act amounts to a determination by legislative fiat that golf is no longer part of the greater family of publicly accessible recreational activities,” James Ferrin, president of the California Alliance for Golf, a non-profit trade organization, said in a letter to the Housing and Community Development Committee and other assembly members in 2021, as reported by Bohannon. “The State of California should not be favoring or disfavoring specific recreational activities nor picking winners and losers among them.”
Sunshine is vital in helping golf courses grow agronomically. But one municipal golf course in the Cape Cod hamlet of Brewster is planning to harness the sun’s power to grow its ledger as well.
On Dec. 20, according to Brewster Town Administrator Peter Lombardi, Cape and Vineyard Electric Cooperative’s solar projects at Captains Course golf course should clear the final local permitting hurdle. It should begin producing electricity in January. Unlike previous solar projects, this is not a net-metering arrangement where the power produced is net-metered against the electricity consumed by the town.
“We have a lease agreement with the developer that was brokered by CVEC. They will be paying $86,000 a year, that’s net some administrative charges CVEC charges,” Lombardi explained. “This is a check to the town. These are not power purchase agreements where credits are applied to the town this is a straight lease agreement (for 20 years) where they pay the town a check for the right to lease space.”
That means Brewster doesn’t have to worry about maintenance costs, fluctuating electric rates or government policies.
“Of the $86,000, $20,000 is allocated to the general fund,” Lombardi said. “That was a decision the Select Board made last fall. That will help offset the cost of having a part-time energy manager. That position has been funded through a Green Communities grant. Starting next year we’ll have $20,000 to cover that position. The other $66,000 will go to the golf course.”
That cash comes from DSD which has partnered with CVEC on three projects, the other two being at Monomoy Regional High School and the Sandwich Police Department. CVEC said the three projects would save $100,000 in energy costs. The bulk of that is at Captains Course. Overall CVEC has helped install 32 megawatts of renewable energy on Cape Cod and the Islands and they manage virtually every municipal installation.
Shelter Under Solar: Vehicles ate parked beneath the solar array at Captains Course in Brewster, Massachusetts. (Photo by Rich Eldred/USA Today Network)
The energy manager is a new position created by the town. It actually reflects one day a week of work from an employee of the Cape Light Compact who will spend that day working on energy efficiency grant applications under the Green Communities act for Brewster. The goal is to have Brewster to have a net-zero energy budget by Fiscal Year 2023. The CLC was the rent organization for CVEC before it was spun off on its own. CLC is funded by a fee on electric bills of Cape Cod customers and administers energy efficiency programs that saved Brewster residents $292,340 in 2020 and provides a power alternative to Eversource.
The Captains installation is mounted above the parking lot outside the clubhouse. It functions essentially as a carport over the lot and has the advantage of utilizing grass strips between the lots so no parking spaces are lost to the base mounts.
The array at the driving range covers 37,000 square feet is a 480 KW system and should put out 740,000 kilowatt hours a year and will last about 20 years. The monocrystalline panels produce DC energy that is converted to AC by a converter and transferred to the grid. The golf course array over the Captains Course parking lot covers 63,000 square feet and is a 1490 KW system with a potential output of 1,400,000 KW hours a year.
DSD is based in Schenectady, New York. They completed the physical installation in early October. Combined with the array at the driving range the two carport canopies can produce 1763 megawatts and can store 892 kilowatt hours of electricity. DSD said that could power 262 homes annually.
“We are working with the developer to produce energy credits from both projects. We’re looking at producing credits to something equivalent to just under $7,500,” Lombardi said. The credits would help offset the golf course’s energy bill.
