Source: Montgomery Advertiser
Patricia Pickett has never played golf before, never watched it on television. She said she hasn't had any reason to be interested in the sport.
But thanks to a new course being constructed just a block from her front door, she might consider picking up the game.
Along with her grandsons, Steven Michael Rogers and Austin Davis Rogers, Pickett has watched anxiously as the new Gateway Park golf course moves toward completion. With the new grounds, the southwest part of Montgomery is getting a facelift.
She and her neighbors are enjoying the change.
"It's going to be great," she said. "There is so much to like. The area will be better for it."
The course, which is estimated to cost nearly $ 1.6 million, is located just off South Boulevard and is easily seen from Interstate 65. It is part of a long-range plan that also will include a baseball / softball complex, football / soccer fields and a driving range.
"The residents in west Montgomery said they wanted it," said Wiley Steen, director of the city of Montgomery Parks and Recreation Department. "The land was available. It is something that will look good. You cut the grass every day, pick up the trash. It was a natural. It beautifies an area of a flood plain."
The nine-hole golf course measures approximately 3,000 yards from the back tee boxes, one of four sets of tees, and features plenty of sand traps and grass bunkers.
There are no par-5 holes, but there will be some water hazards.
"We tried to take into account that some of the players won't be able to force a carry over water," said Ken Morgan, who designed the course. "We try to keep it at a distance that most can handle. Fairways are actually generous. There is plenty of space for safety with 50-yard fairways (widths), which is more than adequate."
Modifications are being made to fit the course into an area known more for flooding than recreation. The land once was the home of a water-skiing school. The small lake still exists and will be incorporated into the project.
Parks and recreation assistant director Scott Miller said changes are being made to roads, bridges and the old Cloverland Ditch to alleviate any flooding problems.
Those plans revolve around building a major flow ditch.
"The course is designed to handle water," Miller said. "Everything is set up to channel water away from the fairways and greens. It would take a tremendous amount of water to flood the course, but changes in the ditch should remove even those problems."
Ironically, drenching rains have slowed the development of the par-32 Gateway Park course. It will include Tifton Dwarf grass greens that are expected to measure up against any in the industry.
Sprigs have been planted and grass can be seen in several areas. Walter Green, the new course's superintendent, expects the grass to be set by early fall.
"We set up construction for three weeks of work to one week for rain," he said. "It doesn't take long for the grass to start growing. But there are other issues that have to be dealt with, such as the clubhouse."
Construction on the clubhouse has yet to begin and may not for several weeks. Despite chances of flooding being diminished by land development, Steen says the clubhouse will be elevated to remove any further possibility of damage.
"We had to elevate our buildings to get them out of the flood plain," Steen said. "That's why the clubhouse will be like Kolomi (Golf Course), with the carts going under the building."
Without a clubhouse, the opening of the new course could be delayed until the first part of 2006.
"Our grass will be ready in the summer and we plan to plant it May 1," said Daryle Sager, director of golf for the parks and recreation department. "We could play golf in August, but I don't realistically see that happening because of the rain.
"I would like to hold off on anything until next spring because we will not have the clubhouse ready. I don't want to work out of a trailer."
A bridge located on Davenport Road and Gaston Avenue also is being moved to change the flow of traffic off Southern Boulevard. The bridge is among the improvements to the Cloverland Ditch.
While local resident Ellis Williams likes the idea of the new course, he would like the city to leave the current bridge and add another for golf traffic.
"That will put a lot of traffic by my door," said Williams, whose back yard sits just on the other side of the road leading to the new facility. "I like the new course. It should help the surroundings. But I wish they would leave the bridge and road where it is."
Gateway will be the lone golf course in that part of the city. Steen said area residents have repeatedly asked for a new park, preferably including a golf course.
"Based on our talks, this was requested time and time again, if only in the sense that it is something nice for that side of town," he said. "There are more parks in west Montgomery than the rest of the city. But not golf."
Sager has concerns that the area's golfers might not be interested in shifting their business to an area that has been plagued by petty crime in the past several years. He also worries that a planned basketball court could detract from the normal golfing experience.
However, Sager said precautions will have to be made to ensure safety.
"There will be some form of police presence," Sager said. "I would like to see a precinct there.
"I think we will have to market through the media and other outlets that this is a brand new facility that will be a gem for our parks and recreation. It will be a safe place to play, and it will be a very good nine holes of golf."
That begs the question -- does the city of Montgomery need another public golf course? The lone city-owned course, Lagoon Park, currently is being renovated several greens at a time, for budgetary reasons. Ideally, Sager said, all the greens would be done at once and the process would not carry over an extended period.
The greens are being updated to a newer type of grass on which balls roll faster and hold better on approach shots.
Sager says that's not enough.
"I have a 27-year-old golf course that hasn't been touched," he said. "Only in the last couple of years has it been given any breath of attention. What we are doing is a quick fix at Lagoon. Regrassing the greens is not solving the problem. Five to seven years from now, we will still have the same problem."
At one time, Lagoon Park was rated by Golf Digest as one of the top 100 public courses in the country. The average number of rounds played per year reached more than 60,000 on several occasions, the last in the mid-1980s.
A boom of new public courses hit the area in the early 1990s. Courses such as River Run and Kolomi were established in the tri-county area. Four years ago, the Robert Trent Jones Trail added its Capitol Hill course in Prattville.
With the construction of more courses, traffic at Lagoon Park has diminished. The course averages about 32,000 rounds of golf per year, almost half of the number of the early 1990s.
As numbers have fallen, so, too, has revenue. Sager said it is hard to break even with the current condition of the golf course.
In fact, Sager said the complex hasn't broken even in nearly 20 years.
According to Steen, that is why funds have not been delegated to the old course for more renovation. Steen admits, however, that the new course might not help get the city out of red numbers.
"There are virtually the same amount of golfers and more golf courses," Steen said. "It will be impossible to break even. That's my goal, but we don't do it at Lagoon for several reasons. Our expenses will always be more."
To offset the shortfall in revenues, Sager said he is trying to find cost-effective means to make up for losses in the future. That might mean higher greens fees at the new course.
But he believes golfers won't mind paying a little more for a high-quality tract.
"I am going to structure it the best way I can to make money," Sager said. "I see $ 21-$ 26 per round. Everything will be updated. But it's a bang-up tract."
Sager is contemplating the use of riding carts as a requirement for golfers mainly to increase revenue, despite a layout that is conducive to walking.
"It would not be a hard course to walk. In fact, I would say it would be easy," he said.
Steen echoed the reasons, but said that decision has not been made official.
"We've noticed in trade publications that the fitness trend has almost killed golf," Steen said. "I'm not sure if we can fight that. But at this point, we haven't decided whether or not using a cart will be required."
Steen believes the new Hyundai plant will attract a new group of golfers to the park. Golf is one of the most popular sports in South Korea and many Koreans have brought their love of the game to Montgomery.
"They are playing all over the area," Steen said. "This will be good in that they can entertain people. I think we will get a lot of play from Hyundai folks."
Sager said interest in the game should rise from the new course, particularly in the southern portion of town. Many residents living around the new course are excited about the prospect of traveling only a few hundred feet to play.
"I don't get to play much, but I would like to play more," said Tom Alexander, who lives in the area. "A lot of the neighbors have talked about it. They all like it and want to play."
Local golfers are contemplating playing the new course. Dixie Robinson recently moved from Michigan to the Montgomery area. He is an annual member at Lagoon, but he expects to try the new course as soon as it opens.
"Absolutely, I plan to play it," Robinson said. "I play five or six rounds a week, but I certainly want to see what it's about. Only having nine holes shouldn't be a problem. We'll just play them twice."
Other golfers seem more curious than excited about the new course. Most said they would try it at least once, though Bill Russell of Montgomery almost changed his mind when told the course is only nine holes.
"That makes a difference," he said just before playing a round at Lagoon Park. "I'm sure it will get a lot of play early, so I wonder how crowded it might be."
Sager said adherence to tee times should resolve any problems with buildups on the first tee.
"I would imagine for the first several months, it will be difficult to walk up and play, unless you are a single," he said. "Functionally, there will be 28 people on the golf course at one time. Anything after that, you run into trouble. And it will be tee time only."
Sager said the annual fees paid to play at Lagoon would not be honored at Gateway. Also, the same rules applied at Lagoon would be used at the new course. That means the course will be closed to bicycles, walkers, horseback riders and the like.
"I am trying to set up a golf course that will be functional to as many Montgomery citizens as it can be," he said. "It will have programs with the golf range set up in order to have clinics, so many can use the facility. There will be no activity that does not promote golf."
The course will open at 7 a.m. on weekdays and close at 5:30 p.m. or at sundown during summer months. Sager said tee times would be taken as soon as the start date is finalized.
Sager said the earliest the course could open would be Nov. 1 of this year.