Bellinghamgolfer.com

Seattle has an affordable housing problem, and the Mayor - Jenny Durkan - is looking into the possibility of closing one or more of the courses to accommodate new residential neigborhoods. Earlier this year, Mayor Durkan spent $104,000 of City money on a 131-page study completed by Lund Consulting, Scanlan Consulting, and Cocker Fennessy that analyzed the economic viability of Seattle’s publicly-owned courses and whether or not the land upon which they sit might be better-suited to other purposes.
After summarizing what had occurred up to that point and the resulting editorials in the Seattle Times and various Seattle-based blogs (owned, in almost all cases, by environmentalists and anti-golfers), we put forward a couple of ideas on how to address the issue. We knew the first - closing one of the courses and building an entirely new one on Discovery Park, was controversial and would elicit a strong response and, sure enough, there were plenty who thought it a worthwhile plan, and plenty more whose comments were less than polite.
I submitted a second proposal but Cascade Golfer chose not to run it as it advocated the loss of green space - something to which the publication is strongly opposed. They're right. Seattle can ill-afford to lose any of the precious little green/public space it has now. But I still quite like the idea and Golf Channel's Matt Ginella was all for it so, with the magazine's permission, I'm posting it here:

Though we love the Discovery Park idea and think it makes a lot of sense if managed correctly, we appreciate it may ruffle one political feather too many. The following plan, though, strikes us as a potential no-brainer even if it does mean the loss of park space.
In today’s world, golf – at least the prevailing form of it – is becoming increasingly impractical. It takes too long, and requires more space, water, chemicals etc. than is reasonable. Scientists, agronomists, superintendents, etc. are making a huge difference to the environmental impact the game makes, but as the Urbanist quite justifiably pointed out in its editorial, golf uses more than its share of water.  
If the City was to turn one or two of its 18-hole courses into excellent nine-holers, it could not only sell the land on which the other nine sat, but also half its inputs bill.
Golfers are traditional folk at heart and, though 18 certainly hasn’t been the standard for the number of holes on a golf course since the game was first played, it has been the number for long enough (the Old  Course at St. Andrews was shortened from 22 holes to 18 in 1764) to make people wary of anything else. Plenty of the city’s golfers will think a nine-hole course is lacking, sub-standard, unworthy.
But the benefits are unmistakable. If the City was to sell 100 acres of Jackson Park, for instance, for $50m (estimate calculated from various Seattle real estate web sites), it could transform the remaining nine holes into something really special - something that attracted golfers from far and wide, raised house prices in the vicinity, provided the ideal learning center for young golfers, and so much more besides.
And yes, it’s been done before with amazing results.
Winter Park is an affluent suburb of north Orlando, FL. Golf was played there from the beginning of the 20th Century, but its current nine-hole layout opened in 1937. By 2010, however, the course was in a state of disrepair. “There were weeds all over the place, the playing surfaces were awful, and there was barely any sand in the bunkers,” says Golf Channel’s Matt Ginella who lives in Winter Park and is now on the golf course’s advisory board. “People still played there, but it was losing $250,000 a year.”
Winter Park golfers, motivated by its upcoming centenary (the club had first used the site in 1914) committed to renovating the course. Their initial choice for designer was Nick Faldo. “Nick Faldo?” says Ginella, alarmed. “Nick is a six-time major champion and TV analyst. How much do you think it would have cost to hire him?”
The mayor, Steve Leary, merely wanted the course to stop losing money. “Just help me break even, he would say,” Ginella remembers. Eventually, the City chose two virtual unknowns – Keith Rhebb and Riley Johns – for the work. It was a wise decision. Because neither was particularly famous, they came cheap. But both were very experienced shapers, architects, and course-builders, and highly-regarded in the industry.
They changed everything, and completed the job on-time and under-budget. The effect on the community has been profound.
“The place is busy every day now,” says Ginella. “People are out there playing golf, walking their dogs, jogging, cycling. I even saw one guy practicing his cast. He was out on the fairway and would move aside when a group of golfers came through. Then he’d move back and start casting again. At certain times, the place is teeming with kids. It’s just a busy, healthy scene, and the course stands to make $150,000 this year. Which politician wouldn’t like that?”
Steve Leary certainly did. He was re-elected in March 2018 with 72% of the vote.
And this sort of thing is not just happening at Winter Park. “It’s the way the game is going,” says Ginella. “We have enough 7,500-yard, $200-$300, championship courses. The time for that sort of place has come and gone. We now need shorter courses where everyone is welcome, the fees are affordable, and which are better for the environment.”
And they are sprouting up all over the country. Goat Hill Park in Oceanside, CA is a great example. What designer Mike Nuzzo is building at Grand Oak Reserve near Houston with nine regular holes, a nine-hole pitch-and-putt, and nine-hole putting course is the sort of facility that will appeal to many different people, not just middle-aged guys. Course-owner Lew Thompson has just hired Rhebb and Johns to build a short course at Forest Dunes in Michigan (update - the course was completed in just 81 days, and will open next Spring).
Ginella acknowledges Winter Park and the other neighborhoods or resorts where these shorter/par 3/nine-hole courses are being built are somewhat different to urban/suburban Seattle. “Most are not located in big cities,” he says. But, he adds, the new Bobby Jones course in Atlanta is a great example of what Seattle could do. “They took an old, 18-hole course in a terrible state and turned it into an extremely popular, reversible, nine-holer,” he says. “Georgia State University uses it, it houses the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame, and members of Atlanta private clubs love it so much they come play it. Bob Cupp designed a really good course that is fun for everyone.”
Doesn’t that sound appealing? Couldn’t we hire Rhebb and Johns, or Rob Collins and Tad King who designed the immensely popular nine-hole Sweetens Cove in Tennessee, Andy Staples, Jay Blasi, Brett Hochstein, Jeff Mingay or any of today’s other talented, young architects to turn Jackson and/or Jefferson into really great nine-holers with space for the First Tee and community events?
Ginella certainly thinks so. “If the Mayor of Seattle was to visit Bobby Jones GC or Winter Park, I guarantee she’d be all-in," he says.
Riley Johns thinks so too. “The Winter Park model could work anywhere there is a demand for public golf,” he says. “And it doesn’t have to be nine holes. I actually think 12 is ideal for a municipal course. Losing park space is never ideal, especially in Seattle which doesn’t have a great deal to lose. But a fraction of the money raised from selling the land to developers could/should be invested in the golf and park space that remains. I always find it odd when a dilapidated golf course claims people aren’t playing golf anymore. It’s like a terrible restaurant saying people don’t eat out anymore. Lackluster products won’t bring people through the door.”
And good architecture and enjoyable, profitable golf doesn’t have to be expensive, Johns adds. Turning Winter Park from a tired, loss-making course into a money-making community asset of which the locals are extremely proud, cost a little over $1m. “It’s all about creating an experience that fits the local character,” says Johns. “The successful recipe at Winter Park was quick, fun, affordable golf.”
Sounds perfect for Seattle.