Donald Ross Muni on the Chopping Block – Will they Plow Paradise to Put in a Soccer Field?

Paraphrased Joni Mitchell lyrics aside, how a Donald Ross muni could be wiped off the map in a matter on months, and why we need muni golf to survive

Donald Ross in 1904 via wikicommons.

Like most stories I tell, I have to go back to go forward.

I left the game for almost two decades and was born-again thanks to my son asking to try the driving range attached to the mini golf course we were playing in Easton, PA.

Now, we’re both learning the game. Aiden, 10, is learning for the first time. As for me, age 10 x 4.4, I’m in complete game rebuild mode as I never really learned right the first time.

My first round ever with Aiden, using our custom golf balls, Father’s Day 2018

When I first attempted to learn the game it was during my freshman year of high school at Horsham Valley GC in Horsham, PA. A very short par 66 pasture, this barely above basic course was never the best kept, never the biggest challenge, and never the most wonderful to play (as in hitting a green so waterlogged that my 125-yard wedge literally sucked into the ground, burying my Maxfli HT90 almost ⅔ into the soggy bentgrass, a mere 2 inches from an ace). 

No matter how crappy that track was, I still loved it. It was cheap, it was a place to learn, and it was my St. Andrews. While not a muni, it was a well loved local dive of a course that didn’t cost an arm and a leg to play.

Developers bought that course a few years back and replaced 315-yard par 4’s with cookie-cutter McMansions that are uglier than me after being awake for three days.

But I digress. When getting back into the game I decided that I didn’t really care about some fancy golf club to play on and pay monster member dues. While I find myself a very metro Philly kid, golf courses that sing to me are the public tracks, the munis, the diamonds with good rough, and at prices that make me say yes, take my money.

Last summer a great article appeared on Golf.com’s website highlighting a muni that I didn’t know existed. Tumblebrook Golf Course is owned by Upper Saucon Township, just south of Allentown, PA and in the same relative neighborhood as the legendary Saucon Valley. Little did I know that you or I could play 9 at a Donald Ross hidden wonder for less than a twenty.

Owned for a few decades by their local government, Tumblebrook has been a long reaching case of what do we do with this thing? Research showed they had a long term lease operator who did OK with the place but reportedly his health needs caused him to leave the lease. A more recent operator tried a different approach of beer sales and weeknight porch parties to generate interest. Frankly, I thought it was rather odd and the place wasn’t making money still.

My goal was to start the 2020 golf season playing this Ross at a definite Joe Q. Budget golfer rate. While it might not be all Donald dreamed about when he drew these links for a homeowner who once owned the property (yeah, this was as private of a private golf course as you could get), it kind of had some of Donald’s design charms still hidden in its bones. My wonderful plans were squashed when COVID-19 shut everything down (just like everyone else’s were).

As if the pandemic wasn’t bad enough, the new lease holder with the unusual social marketing play decided after two seasons he wanted out and was granted release by the Township. Considering their desire to have others run their owned asset, the ending of the lease meant what everyone suspected: Upper Saucon Township has zero interest in maintaining and running a golf course. 

Their Township grass cutters are mowing the land, and if no other lessee or buyer comes forward to preserve the course in the very short term, a Donald Ross might soon be plowed over and turned into athletic fields if Pennsylvania’s government awards a special grant request.

This global pandemic hurt in so many ways: lost lives, millions sick, many more unknown carriers, heavily strained and not well equipped medical centers, entire states virtually shutting down, massive unemployment, and an immediate recession that literally took this country from doing 75 MPH to zero, slamming us all into the dashboard because no one was wearing a seat belt.

But for golf, I fear THIS is our tipping point. Municipal golf courses and public tracks have been vanishing en mass as interest in the game has seemingly now hit a stall after a stretch of falling participation nationally. It doesn’t matter if they were designed by Donald Ross or Rachel’s Ross, we’re losing ground and further widening the gap between the haves and have nots in this game when we need to be in growth mode.

There were three golf courses within a 15-minute drive from my house, and five or so within 30-minutes. We just lost Mahoning Valley in Lehighton, PA last year, and Villas Crossing just over the county line about 18 months before that. 

Now just three remain, with my favorite being Indian Mountain GC in Kresgeville, PA. Why is it my favorite? Because 9-holes and a cart often means I get change from my twenty, because while there’s not much difference between the rough and fairways the greens are actually pretty good, and because it’s a place where a guy like me who is (re-) learning to play the game can take his kid to teach him in a perfect training ground.

Municipal and public courses are what we need to grow the game. Most municipalities struggle to run their government let alone know how to take care of bentgrass. But we need to reinvest in this game, and there are many great municipal grounds that thrive in the face of everything, like Winter Park 9 in Florida and Rockwind Community Links in Hobbs, NM. These need to be studied on how to be a winner and maybe make their towns a few extra bucks after expenses.

A Model Muni: Rockwind Community Links

When is a golf course more than just a golf course? Learn how the city of Hobbs, N.M., transformed their course into a community hub and provided a blueprint for other municipalities. For regular updates from the United States Golf Association, visit usga.org.

Instead of ruining a good walk before we have the chance to tie our spikes, we need local governments to learn how we all can benefit from the fresh air, the chance for exercise, a place for camaraderie, a place they can actually make a buck for their local coffers, and maybe the chance to give birth to the dreams of the next Justin, Jordan, Rickie, or DJ to take their first steps on their St. Andrews. 

Otherwise a game in which new drivers run $500 & up and fewer public places to play are the norm will eat much of its future by itself. I’ll do my best to keep finding these diamonds for us but it’s going to keep getting harder to find that shine if this keeps up.

So my question to you, our Golficity faithful, is what can we all do? How can we slow or stop this retreat? Which courses do you know of that need love? We’re a community, and it takes a community to save a community.

Cover Photo via Wikicommons