As one course closes, another opens, aiming at golf's future generations
Golf has been called a good walk spoiled, but it's more than that. The sport provides moments to appreciate the natural grace around us as well as the human potential within. It creates opportunities to make more of ourselves, to overcome challenges and develop a sense of personal reliance while also nourishing friendships and competitive spirit. These benefits stay with us for a lifetime.
So it's exceptionally good news that in a couple of months, the once-bedraggled municipal golf course in West Palm Beach's south end will reopen, not paved over with housing, as developers envisioned, but rejuvenated and redesigned with an emphasis on instruction for area youth. For all its benefits, the sport perhaps more than others has a not-too-distant history of erecting barriers to entry, whether economic, ethnic or racial. This West Palm course, to be operated on a nonprofit basis by a foundation that aims to counter that legacy and to make golf more accessible to all. We laud the plan, thank those who contributed thought and money to make it happen, and we encourage residents and businesses throughout the area to help bring its goals to fruition for new generations.
The facility, at 7301 Georgia Ave., on the city's border with Lake Worth Beach, is expected to open in April, according to PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh, who spearheaded the project on an individual basis, separate form PGA, and raised $55 million to build and endow it. It will include an 18-hole course, a 9-hole course, a driving range and putting practice greens, as well as a clubhouse. Plans call for instruction for beginners to elite golfers, as well as in-school golf programs that bring students for their first golf outings. There'll be practice facilities for high school golf teams, scholarship awards and a caddie program, for high school kids to engage with business leaders.
The context in which this facility materialized made its creation unlikely, even without the pandemic getting in its way. Palm Beach has more golf courses, public and private, than just about any county in the United States. But recent years have seen one course after another lapse into ill-maintenance because of high costs and low participation and be converted into housing. West Palm closed its 179-acre site in 2018 and initially entertained a series of proposals that would have converted part of the property into condos or townhomes.
That soon may be the fate of Lone Pine Golf Course, 11 miles to the north in Riviera Beach, across Military Trail from Rapids Water Park. The pleasant, 18-hole course and driving range offer well-kept grounds, prices that are among the lowest in the county and a clientele among the most diverse in the county, reflecting that city's demographics. Sadly the family that has owned it for decades it has contracted to sell it to a homebuilder. And the city is preparing to rezone the property from recreational use, to allow a 286-home subdivision to spring up. The final city council vote has not yet taken place, but the initial vote went 3-2 in favor of the houses and townhomes, despite an outcry from neighbors who've enjoyed fairway views for some 40 years.
The city, which has tens of millions of dollars worth of capital projects in the works, has not sought to muster the additional untold millions that would be needed to outbid homebuilder D.R. Horton and preserve the site for recreation. Housing would bring the city a stream of property tax revenue; a city-owned golf course or park would not.
The good news is, Waugh says he plans to reach out to officials of Riviera Beach and other municipalities, to sign up children from those areas to participate in programs at West Palm Golf Park. At one point he considered Lone Pine as a site for the foundation's course but rather than buy that privately owned property, the foundation was able to lease the city-owned West Palm site for up to 70 years for $1 per year, with West Palm's enthusiastic cooperation.
The other good news: Waugh now is considering other sites in the county to duplicate the West Palm project.
Here's to many good walks spoiled.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Editorial | One course closes, another opens, welcoming golf's future
