Golf Pro Todd Fowler described the Rock Island, Ill., property as being in a “use it or lose it” situation, as low rounds could prompt the U.S. Army to close it down. Part of the property’s drop in rounds is likely due to stringent security measures enacted in December 2015 that required visitors to offer more than one form of identification to enter the island.
If the Arsenal Island Golf Course in Rock Island, Ill., doesn’t begin to be used more often, it’s possible the U.S. Army might opt to close it down, possibly leasing it to be run by an independent contractor or possibly utilizing the land it occupies for some other purpose, the Davenport, Iowa Quad City Times reported.
Arsenal golf pro Todd Fowler admitted that the course is nearing what he describes as a “use it or lose it” situation, the Times reported.
“There may be a better way of saying that, but this isn’t funded by the government, so we’re not necessarily going to be here if people don’t use it,” Fowler said.
Golf courses on military installations such as the Rock Island Arsenal don’t receive government funding. They are completely self-supported. Fowler said a few already have been shut down because of lack of use, although there still are close to 50 worldwide, some of which do very well, the Times reported.
The Arsenal isn’t one of those right now. The number of rounds of golf played on the course dropped by about 30% last year. That drop is partially due to stringent security measures enacted in December 2015, restricting the public’s access to an island that is primarily a military installation. For a while, visitors needed more than just one form of identification to enter the island, the Times reported.
In 2015, nearly 19,000 rounds were played on the Arsenal course, but last year, with the tighter restrictions, that number dipped below 13,000, the Times reported.
“The gate access change in December of 2015…that just clobbered us,” Fowler said. “That’s a significant amount of usage and money. We went, in Texas’ mind, somewhere from being a concern to being a big concern.”
Fowler met with security and Morale, Welfare and Recreation Division personnel and managed to get them to compromise on the restrictions. Prospective golfers now can go to the visitors center at the Moline gate and, after a cursory background check, obtain a one-year pass to drive onto the island for golfing purposes. After that, they can enter through any gate with no questions asked, the Times reported.
Fowler has seen a modest increase in the number of rounds being played since last November and is hopeful that interest in the course will continue to rebound, the Times reported.
“It’s just a beautiful setting with a lot of water hazards and great views of the river,” said Joel Himsl, the deputy garrison commander of the Rock Island Arsenal and one of the driving forces in making the golf course public seven years ago. “I would hate to see it just turned into pasture land or something just because we can’t get enough players to use it.”
The Arsenal course first opened in 1897. The first 18-hole layout in the entire country, the Chicago Golf Club, opened only five years earlier. It began as a five-hole course then, expanded to nine holes and eventually to a full 18 in 1902, the Times reported.
It was a private course until 2008 when it was taken over by a private developer. Late in 2010, it came under the stewardship of the Army’s Morale, Welfare and Recreation Division, based at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, and was made a public course, the Times reported.
“They basically threw the keys on my desk and said, ‘You’ve got it,'” Himsl said. “We took it over lock, stock and barrel.”
That development caused a spike in usage in 2011. Quad-Citians who had only heard about the Arsenal course came out in droves to see what it was like. Unfortunately, it coincided with a period when the course was falling into disrepair from a few years of neglect, the Times reported.
“When all these people were coming out to play here for the very first time, the course wasn’t in very good shape,” Fowler said. “That hurt us. It drove people away.
“If we can get our rounds back up to 18,000 a year, we’ll be close, and if we can get to 20,000, which has always been a goal, I don’t think we’ll have any problem breaking even,” he said. “Then the Army will leave us alone and go find somebody else that’s struggling.”
Regular visitors to the course think it’s worth saving just for its historic value alone. There are very few 120-year-old golf courses anywhere in the country and no others that are built on land formerly occupied by a Civil War prisoner-of-war camp, the Times reported.
“We can’t let this golf course go away,” golfer Charlie Coleman said. “It’s part of the history of the Quad-Cities.”
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