Cleveland Heights Golf Course Getting Renovations

Published: Tuesday, July 16, 2013 at 3:58 p.m.

Last Modified: Tuesday, July 16, 2013 at 3:58 p.m.

The centerpiece of the overall project is rebuilding greens on the A Course under the direction of Lakeland golf course architect Ron Garl.

"It was time to address them and improve the putting surfaces for playability," said Brock Witmyer, general manager at Cleveland Heights Golf Course.

"I think it's been a long time coming," Witmyer said. "I think folks are going to be real happy with it."

The condition of the greens at the city's 27-hole public course has been in decline, a source of ongoing complaints by area golfers because of spots where grass had died, leaving bare sand and uneven, bumpy putts.

"We don't expect a country club. But we expect grass," said Paul Boeh of Lakeland, a longtime member who organizes the Cleveland Heights Men's Golf Association tournaments on Wednesdays.

"We're just all hopeful that this works," said Boeh, 69. "There's a lot of long-term members who are hopeful, and a lot of young players."

The project also includes:

A new irrigation system.

New forward tees on several holes.

Laser-leveling existing tee boxes.

Installing new netting between the driving range and No. 9C.

Repairing cart paths.

And paving the south end of the south parking lot.

"The city manager's office, the commissioners, they want this to work," said Bob Donahay, Lakeland's director of parks and recreation. "They want it to make money. That's why they've given us so much leeway to put more money into the course, even though it's losing so much money right now."

DRAIN ON BUSINESS

Many public and private courses are struggling in Polk County and around the nation. The National Golf Foundation reports that 155 courses closed nationally in 2012, compared with 14 openings, and that 68 percent of those that closed were public courses.

The closings of The Golf Club at BridgeWater in Lakeland and Sun Air in Haines City in 2011 exemplified what the NGF said is a net reduction of 500 courses nationwide since 2006.

In addition, there have been ownership or management changes because of financial hardship in the past few weeks at two Winter Haven courses ? Lake Region Yacht and Country Club and Willowbrook Golf Course.

Donahay, who became director 18 months ago, said Cleveland Heights is losing about $800,000 per year, which is subsidized by the city.

Witmyer said memberships have dropped significantly in the past five years, partly because the struggling economy has impacted discretionary spending but also because of the deteriorating quality of the greens.

"You pay your 20 bucks to putt. It's not fun when the greens aren't good," said Boeh, a member since 1990.

Some golfers are taking their business to other courses.

"There's people in my Wednesday group that said they'll come back when the greens get in shape," Boeh said, echoing a common sentiment.

Witmyer said there are about 125 memberships today, compared with 325-350 five years ago.

"A couple of years ago, we made some cuts to the budget," Witmyer said. "That maybe hurt us a little bit. I think that the golf course has gotten better. We're making improvements. I think people can see that we're improving the course. We want people to come here. We want to be the best municipal course in Central Florida."

Donahay said there are currently about 51,000 rounds per year played at Cleveland Heights, a William Flynn design that opened in 1925.

"We're hoping to see a spike," Donahay said. "To make a dent in the deficit, we need to be at 65,000 rounds."

UPGRADES THAT PAY

The bulk of the $175,500 project is $84,500 for green renovations on the A Course.

Garl is chairman of the greens committee, which had soil samples sent to the United States Golf Association's Green Section for testing this spring before finalizing a recommendation to the city for the best approach to revitalize putting surfaces.

Following strict protocols, the greens were rebuilt, scraping away the top four inches and replacing that material with a pristine mix of sand and peat. After smoothing and reshaping the surfaces, they were sprigged with Tif-Dwarf Bermuda grass last week.

Dustin Plemons, the course superintendent, said the goal is for play to reopen on the A Course on Oct. 15.

The greens are being rebuilt for the first time since 1999, when the A and B Courses were completely redone.

Donahay said greens on the B Course will be renovated next year right after the 4-Ball Invitational golf tournament in early April.

"The good thing about Cleveland Heights is a lot of people in Lakeland grew up playing the Heights," Donahay said. "It's kind of like being a Red Sox fan, or a Yankees fan.

"Everybody wants to gravitate back to the Heights. But because the product went south, we lost a lot of folks," he said. "We're hoping with an improved course, those people will come back."

Donahay has already enhanced the food and beverage part of the balance sheet. He said profits in the bar and restaurant have increased from $8,000 in 2011 to $80,000 in the 2013 budget year that ends Sept. 30.

He is hopeful that upgrades to the golf course will pay off as well.

"We're taking that same business plan and applying it to the greens side," Donahay said.

In addition to greens, project improvements include $30,000 for a new irrigation controller, $36,000 to repair cart paths and pave the south end of the south parking lot, and $25,000 for the driving range net that was left in tatters by the hurricanes in 2004.

The $84,500 for green renovations includes putting down sod on the practice putting green, work on tee boxes, reshaping the driving range tee area, and adding 10 artificial grass mats on concrete pads at the driving range for golfers to warm up on in addition to the existing turf area.

The top 4 inches of material removed from greens is being used to create new forward tees on some holes.

Donahay said 7,000 feet of cart paths ? out of a total of 25,400 feet or about 5 miles of paths ? will be repaired by the city's Public Works Department.

"We don't want people to come back and say, ?Wow, you guys hit a home run on the greens side, but those cart paths are terrible,'?" Donahay said. "We want people to come back and say, ?Greens excellent. Cart paths excellent. What a difference!' That's what we're shooting for.

"We want to show people that the city is committed to putting out a good product."

[ Del Milligan can be reached at del.milligan@theledger.com or at 863-802-7555. ]

Source: http://www.theledger.com/article/20130716/news/130719458

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