According to a report in the Louisville Courier-Journal, Cherokee Golf Course, located in one of the city’s most iconic parks, could be eliminated and turned into “diverse and active parkland” under a local conservancy’s proposal.
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.
To read more of the story from the Courier-Journal, click here.
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