Wednesday
Oct242007
"In June 2007, Lincoln's only fairway mower broke."
Lincoln Park, the city's oldest and most scenic golf course, is Exhibit "A" for the need to change the public golf course maintenance status quo. Lincoln's fairways are a patchwork of gopher mounds, leaky-sprinkler-fed bogs, and brown patches where the water has been shut off to stop leaks. In June 2007, Lincoln's only fairway mower broke. Instead of repairing or replacing it, the Recreation & Park Department mowed the fairways infrequently all summer with a narrow, slow, trim mower, leaving grass so tall that the fairways became indistinguishable from the roughs. After rain, Lincoln's fairways become waterlogged and inhospitable both to golfers and mowers, due to poor drainage system. The quaint, 1920s clubhouse is dilapidated, its public rooms empty, food service minimal and the bathrooms dank. The pro shop and restaurant have been on a month-to-month lease for more than five years, discouraging the concessionaire from making needed repairs. It is more than coincidence that the number of annual rounds declined from 55,000 in 2002-03 to 35,000 in 2005-06, the last year for which complete figures are available. So far as we are aware, the city has no current cost estimates for the needed infrastructure repairs.And this was disturbing...
Why is this happening? Between the Recreation and Park Department, the Board of Supervisors, and the Mayor's Office, no clear statement has been made of the city's intentions at Lincoln. But one thing is perfectly clear. Lincoln is extremely valuable property, as it adjoins the exclusive Seacliff neighborhood. When neglected or abused, such property becomes target for developers. And thus civic birthrights are lost. At Lincoln, there is an ironic twist to this old story: a so-called friend of public parks, San Francisco Neighborhood Parks Council, is calling for construction of an "event center" on Lincoln's famous 17th hole. No details have been released, but an "event center" inevitably means building complexes, roads, parking facilities, congestion, noise and traffic. And all of this in the middle of the famous view of the Golden Gate now enjoyed not only by golfers, but also neighbors, strollers, schoolchildren, bikers, motorists, dog-walkers, birders, museum-goers, not to mention visitors from around the world.
A shame the PGA Tour, which is using nearby Harding Park, can't step in and offer the city some assistance. Then again, maybe some of the city don't want any help. The worse it gets, the less it makes and as the columnists note, the more willing people are to accept redevelopment.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007 at 07:33 PM
Reader Comments (14)
BTW, I would have no faith in any study done by the city.
Holy crap. Instead of expending rhetoric and lamenting the conditions and the overall degradation of the facility, San Francisco's newspaper columnists ought to get off their asses and FIND OUT WHY.
THAT is what journalists do.
And the PGA Tour should keep its nose out of this.
4p
Speaking of Cobb's Creek, I played there recently and notwithstanding Hanse's recent remedial work on 2 or 3 flood damaged holes, the course needs so much work-tees, bunkers, fairways and greens all need TLC. A new irrigation system is needed. The famous 3rd hole(very similar to the 11th a Merion East) is a disaster. The green needs to be rebuilt entirely.The course should be closed for at least a year. The problem is politics. Unlike, SF, the city does not maintain the course. A lessee does and any proposal for renovation must be approved by the city. Unfortunately, the city will say they don't have the money.It's a vicious circle unless outside money- corporate, USGA, PGA and/or local golf associations chip in to save this course which was one of the most popular munis in America years ago.
Phoenix just turned over Papago to the AZ Golf Association who will manage the course and move their corporate HQ there and close the course next April for about 8 months and spend 8M to renovate this once very popular muni which, by the way, is in much better shape than Cobb's Creek.
www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/100366
Would it serve "golf" right if the same thing happened to all the munis in Buffalo? Let's turn Grover Cleveland GC into a Wal-Mart.
This isn't a "tit for tat" situation.
Just a thought for the folks in SF -- I'm sure that there are enough golf course management companies out there who would be willing to bid on taking over.
An events center will never happen - the Seacliff folks are fed up with the traffic on weekends as is.
Lincoln is a dump and it always has been. The only redeeming qualities are the view from the 17th and as a place for beginners to learn the game.
As for the Tour helping, when they renegotiated with the City after overbooking the WGC's, part of the new President's Cup deal was to dedicate one million towards the renovation of Lincoln. However, that was going to be at the expense of the First Tee...guess we know who won that.
Not only did privatization vastly improve the conditions to where they looked and played like real golf courses again, at the end of the first year despite all the money spent on capital improvements (first act: blow up the asphalt tees) Kemper turned over $500,000 in profits to the city.
In a nutshell: better course conditions, no more $2 million financial drain, $500,000 profit to taxpayers.
Think there was any employee theft and ghost payrolling when the courses were run by the city? The Chi Park Dist for years has been the summertime catch basin for "privileged" youth (family members and neighbors of the politically-connected) for no-show or light duty, well-paying jobs.
Kudos to Kemper for cleaning it all up.
4p
I have a picture from the 1930s of the tee featured in the postcard in Geoff's post. While the spans of the Golden Gate are there, the roadway is not completed. I hate to think that this historical spot is even being considered for a concrete event center. I feel particularly sentimental about it, as I received my engagement ring at that tee.
The ONLY difference is private sector versus public sector management. And the comparsion is as shocking as it is clear.
Lincoln Park is by no means a perfect layout. But it has a handful of beautiful holes, and it is absolutely deserving of better care and maintenance.
Surely, the municipal versus commercial management issue has to be a huge embarassment to the loyal defenders of the public sector in San Francisco.
I'd play Lincoln Park happily once a week if it were maintained properly.
(By the way, I remember what Harding Park was like 2 or 3 years before they began that restoration. There were no fairways to speak of. It was all the same cut, everywhere. Grass that got mowed, sometimes. Greens that Stimped at about 5 feet. With a damp, dank, depressing, garage-like clubhouse. The common thread between Harding and Lincoln Park Golf Courses? San Francisco city government.