The Atlanta Memorial Park conservancy is considering two master plan options for its course named after the legendary golfer, one of which includes shrinking it to nine holes and adding a driving range. The city is gathering feedback from the public and will revisit the plan on June 1.
The city of Atlanta is looking at ways to renovate the Bobby Jones Golf Course, one of city’s oldest public courses. One proposal includes changing the course from 18 holes to nine, the Atlanta-based WABE 90.1 FM reported.
Bobby Jones GC has been an 18-hole golf course since the 1930s, tucked into Atlanta Memorial Park. The park’s conservancy has been looking at a master plan to upgrade the park, WABE reported.
“We have obviously a lot of flooding here in Atlanta Memorial Park,” said Catherine Spillman, the conservancy’s executive director. “There are safety issues on and off the course.”
Spillman said the golf course sits on 120 acres of land, which makes the course very tight, WABE reported.
“Typically, if you were redoing a golf course today, an 18-hole course, it would be sitting on approximately 250 acres.”
The conservancy presented two master plan options to the city last year. One proposal includes shrinking the course from 18 holes down to nine and adding a driving range. Some of the park’s space will be used for a new parking deck, a new clubhouse and more green space. But at a public meeting Monday night that the city of Atlanta sponsored, some residents say the course is fine as is, WABE reported.
“I disagree with bad condition. It’s relative,” said Tony Smith, president of the Friends of Bobby Jones Golf Course. “It plays 46,000 rounds of public [golf] a year, so it’s never going to be up to the standard of a private country club.
“We’d like to keep it this way. We think there’s a great history here,” Smith said. “I disagree with totally redesigning and tearing up the entire course that Bobby Jones helped develop.”
But Spillman said a nine-hole course with a driving range could make the park more accessible to a diverse group of people, WABE reported.
“With golf, there are barriers to entry,” Spillman said. “You’ve got women, you’ve got young children who are trying to enter the game, but it’s difficult.”
She said if the park gives them a place to practice and offers youth programs, it could get more people into the game. The city is taking public feedback on the proposals and will hold its next meeting about the conservancy June 1, WABE reported.
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