Golf with a purpose: how the park dared to be different

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — It’s lunchtime on a Saturday afternoon in mid-November and the word of the day is eclectic. I’ve just completed my morning round at The Park with a three-putt for par on the forgiving 18th hole, and I saddle up at the cabana, the bar/small bites strategically located at the front of the property.

A foursome sitting a few holes ahead of me heads to their car – keeping their anonymity in mind, let’s just say they can be members wherever they want in the golf-rich West Palm Beach/Jupiter area. The brothers making the turn to the back nine want to chase their transfusions with High Noons. Although they represent very different sides of the Saturday golfer spectrum, you can recognize both groups by what a golfer ‘looks’.

But the cabana occupies a prime location on the property, and not just because of its distance from No. 10 on the main course. At the start of the par-3 course (a collection of wedge-and-putt holes that are illuminated at night), three twenty-somethings stand with a handful of clubs to share. And on the walk-in golf course, a few children share the green complex with another group of twenty-somethings: three boys, three women and two putters.

Oh, and that building behind the putting course? That’s The Path, where students from local schools – one of which is just on the other side of the driving range – come in the afternoons for free tutoring, academic enrichment and golf lessons. Everything here ultimately benefits the more than sixty children from five local schools who come here at least a few days a week.

When a group of local leaders took over a failed municipal course and raised $50 million for it—and recruited Gil Hanse, one of the world’s leading working architects, to build a new course in its place—they had designs that went far beyond a top project. -100 golf course.

They wanted change, to use golf to help and be a resource that would support the community surrounding the course, which is not nearly as affluent as the greater area.

“We define success as saving two to three families,” said Dave Andrews, director of The Path. “If we can just take three or four families and give them the world. We have had families come to us who are homeless and struggling with things we can never solve. But we help.”

If it is easy to imagine a future where someone can say he/she has arrived The park to putt and have a cocktail with their friends, graduated from The Lit 9 and finally made a tee time to play the big course, that’s because that’s the dream of many a golf industry professional. Recreational golf’s post-COVID-19 moment continues unabated, and the more options there are to make that first 18-hole, par-72 round not so intimidating, the better. But it won’t be everyone’s journey, and that’s okay.

“The par 3 gives you the fun and the intangible aspects of the game. That’s fine,” said Brian Conley, the park’s general manager. “Too often those finish lines are the barriers.”

But for those who do – and for those looking for the next cool new job – The Park is a great option. It’s especially noticeable in this area where so much golf is played with a housing development on the left and water on the right. There is no water at all on the course designed by Hanse and partner Jim Wagner, who were attracted to the project for its community aspect. (The two waived their fee, That’s what the fried egg reports.)

Instead, they’ve created a large ballpark, with generous fairways and enough waste management areas to keep your attention. The rolling topography is also distinctly un-Florida-like and is used to great effect. The par-3 seventh plays slightly uphill to an inverted Redan Green. The dogleg par-4 12th has a blind shot into the green. The three-hole stretch from 15 to 17 is highly scoreable with a par 5 that the average player can reach in two, a driveable par 4 and a par 3 with the kind of striking greenside bunkers that fans of Hanse’s other work (including Streamsong Black, another property in Florida) will recognize it. But it remains challenging enough: a playing partner and I watched online tee shots on the 17th get pushed 10 yards right of the green by a gust of wind.

The Park is simply a great golf course, and when you consider that it is a municipal golf course – with a variable pricing model that makes it very reasonable for locals – the value is sensational.

“If you play well, you score well,” Conley said. “If you play bad, you know you’re playing bad, but don’t be ashamed of it.”

You know they have something in them that those who belong to the many private clubs in the area still make the trip, as well as the chance that The Park will host a future version of ‘The Match’, the popular golf special that was made for TV. .

All from a piece of land that closed a golf course in 2018 because too much money was lost for the city.

West Palm Beach was approached several times with different options for what to do with the closed West Palm Beach Golf Course, all centered around the idea that a private company would come in, revitalize the land and exploit it for the city.

The park has attracted attention since it opened earlier this year.

Seth Waugh, now the CEO of the PGA of America, and a group of residents had the vision: “Create a premier facility with world-class resources and give the West Palm community access to it, while still providing it at a very low cost exploited. high level,” says Conley – and then managed to raise more than $50 million in donations to make it happen.

The city bought in – it’s a 50-year lease, $1 a year – and as Hanse and his team went to work, so did Andrews. The Path, which is supported by a donation and any proceeds from the course, was a blank slate when he arrived, and Andrews spent months in the community, trying to figure out where the need lay. Over time it became clear.

“The Path was created to be the most authentic, inviting and welcoming program for identifying the next generation of leaders,” said Andrews. “We not only grow the game and introduce these children to golf, but we also serve as mentors, provide them with educational tutoring and help them with homework.”

There are 63 students from 50 families across five local schools who come to the center, which is staffed with paid teachers who provide academic assistance and enrichment with arts and STEM lessons. Topping readiness tests is a priority for elementary school-aged children, and high school students are looking at internship opportunities in the golf industry.

There’s also golf: they spend half their time on site every day with a club in their hands. The goal is to introduce the sport as a fun activity and allow each passion to develop organically. Children who ask for a new glove or a club for Christmas count as wins.

What’s next? They don’t know. Everything is still so new that it all seems possible, as long as they continue to lay the foundation well. That’s a good place to be, and that’s because The Park was daring in its origin story.

(Photos courtesy of Het Park)