The Week That Was, may 12 2019

     Roy Case, who unapologetically designed courses that, in his words, “the average golfer can enjoy,” died late last month, just days short of what would have been his 85th birthday.
     Although he was typically identified as a British architect (he was born in Wimbledon, England), Case lived for several years in Jamaica, and he began designing golf courses from a base in Florida way back in the late 1970s. He never made a name for himself outside golf circles, largely because he was out of step with the prevailing design fashions of the 1980s and 1990s. Those years were the heyday of over-indulgent golf architecture, and Case disdained courses that, to his eye, looked as if “they were designed to be photographed rather than played.”
     In a 2008 interview with Golf Club Atlas, Case celebrated the demise what he characterized as the “torture-by-golf” era of golf architecture and encouraged his colleagues to create playable tracks for fair to middling amateurs – the golfers he correctly understood to be “the foundation of the industry.” He worked mostly in Florida (his portfolio there includes Okeeheelee Golf Course in West Palm Beach and Osprey Point Golf Club in Boca Raton), but he also completed courses in Illinois (Mill Creek Golf Club in Geneva), Mississippi (The Refuge in Flowood), New Jersey (New Jersey National Golf Club in Basking Ridge), and New York (the now-defunct Minisceongo Golf Club in Pomona). Along the way, he became known for designing courses on landfills, such as Park Ridge Golf Course in Lake Worth, Florida and Wildcat Golf Club in Houston, Texas. (He even taught a class on the subject at Harvard Design School.)
     Case was also generous with his time, and on several occasions he shared ideas with me as I was beginning my career in golf journalism. He always left me with something to think about.

     In an effort to jump-start international tourism, an economic-development group has initiated plans to develop a resort, including a golf course, in what’s said to be a vacation destination along Bangladesh’s southeastern coast. The Sabrang Tourism Park, as it’s currently being called, will take shape on more than 1,000 acres just outside Cox’s Bazar, which Wikipedia declares to be the home of “the longest natural sea beach in the world.” The resort has been master-planned to include several hotels and eateries (one of them a “floating restaurant”), an aquarium, eco-tourism attractions, entertainment venues, duty-free shops, a hospital, and the aforementioned golf course. At least part of the resort is scheduled to open next year. And if Golf Digest’s count is accurate, the golf course would be Bangladesh’s 16th.

     Desolation Row – The National Golf Foundation has determined that 198.5 of what it clumsily calls “18-hole equivalent courses” closed last year, and a keen industry observer recently said that our industry needs to draw the curtains on 500 to 1,000 more to reach the much-desired equilibrium between supply and demand. With those numbers in mind, here are some venues that are going or already gone.
   – Santa Clara Golf & Tennis Club, a 32-year-old venue in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley, will close in October. The club, which features an 18-hole, Robert Muir Graves-designed golf course and “the toughest par-3 holes in the South Bay,” will be replaced with what promises to be “a city within a city of entertainment, food, retail, shopping, offices, and residential.”
   – War Memorial Golf Course, a long-threatened municipal facility in Little Rock, Arkansas, will reportedly close next month. The Arkansas Times thinks that the par-64 track, a Works Progress Administration project, may soon be joined on the dustbin of the city’s history by Hindman Park Golf Course.
   – Pleasant Hill Golf Course, in suburban Reading, Pennsylvania, closed at the end of last year’s golf season and doesn’t appear likely to reopen. The owners of the 18-hole, executive-length layout have offered their 102 acres for sale, with a price of $3.5 million.
   – Generals Ridge Golf Course, one of four money-losing venues owned and managed by Prince William County, Virginia, is on the endangered list and could close later this year. The 18-hole, Jerry Slack-designed track, said to be “one of the most challenging courses in the DC region,” has reportedly lost more than $250,000 annually of late.
   – Papio Greens Golf Center, a 17-year-old property in Papillion, Nebraska, has closed “suddenly” and “permanently,” according to WOWT-TV. The center and its 18-hole, executive-length course are owned by Southridge Church, which hasn’t explained why it pulled the plug.
   – Vista Hills Country Club, a nearly half-century-old venue in El Paso, Texas, is reportedly “being forced to close its doors” due to “financial strain” caused by a loss of members. The club features an 18-hole course that was co-designed by Bruce Devlin and Robert Von Hagge.
   – Woodlands Country Club will likely soon be added to the list of defunct courses in Florida. Pending a successful rezoning, Clublink will sell the struggling club and its 36-hole, Devlin/Von Hagge golf complex, to a residential developer.
   – Bar Harbor Golf Course, in greater Bangor, Maine, won’t operate this year, and the family that owns the 50-year-old facility says that it won’t reopen “under our watch.” Bar Harbor features an 18-hole, Phil Wogan-designed golf course, and it’s reportedly on the market for $2.49 million.
   – Summit Chase Country Club, a 46-year-old venue in suburban Atlanta, Georgia, wants to replace two-thirds of its 27-hole, Ward Northrup-designed golf complex with a gated community for “active and mobile” seniors. A final decision on a requested rezoning hasn’t been made, but the proposal has received a preliminary approval.

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