New Plans For State-Owned Bobby Jones Golf Course Announced

“We’re very excited that the transaction has been closed and we’re looking forward to getting started on the renovation project,” said Marty Elgison, president of the foundation and the Jones family attorney.

Renovation Plans

The renovation project involves downsizing the public golf course from 18 holes to reversible nine holes, building a driving range, short game practice area, pro shop, cart barn, and a kids section with “wee links,” which will be called “Cupp Links.”

It will be named in honor of architect Bob Cupp, who designed the new golf course before he died in August.

In addition, the foundation plans to partner with Georgia State Golf Association and the Georgia Section of the PGA of America to build a new golf center, the “Georgia Golf House.”

A new parking deck will also be built to accommodate golfers and tennis players who play at the adjacent Bitsy Grant Center. Two tennis courts will be added and the foundation will help coordinate the relocation of a few tennis courts that are currently in a flood plain next to the new parking deck.

Bobby Jones will also serve as the home base for Georgia State University’s golf teams. The foundation said it is looking to partner with the university to build an instructional facility on the property to teach the game year-round.

Opposition To The Sale

The Friends of Bobby Jones Golf Course has been fighting the sale of the course by the city of Atlanta since it first formed in 2011.

President Tony Smith said he’s concerned about the stature and history of the course being lost.

“It’s just the change of use from the existing historical situation that has bothered us,” Smith said. “These are all going to be changed use when you build parking decks and nine holes and double-ended holes and training facilities.”

Smith said he’s not sure what’s next for his group.

“We’ll continue to try to just focus on the historical component and we’re trying to figure out exactly what our mission is now,” Smith said. “It was an exhausting four years trying to hold on to the golf course as it was and we did not win that battle.”

Safety Concerns

Catherine Spillman is executive director of the Atlanta Memorial Park Conservancy, where the Bobby Jones Golf course is located. Her group has been holding public workshops on the future of the park since 2013.

“A lot of the concerns that were expressed were the safety of the course,” Spillman said. “People nearly getting hit or hit by golf balls, the proximity of people walking on Northside Drive.”

Spillman said the downsized course will help address that. She said she’s also looking forward to the multi-use path around the golf course, five-foot sidewalks on the West side of the park and watershed improvements.

“By turning it into a reversible nine with the practice facility, more families will be able to use it, children will be able to use it, hopefully more women will get into the sport and that just opens it up to a larger number of users,” Spillman said.

A spokesperson with the Georgia Building Authority said the state will not fund the renovation project.

Bobby Jones History

The course, which is also an 1864 Civil War battle site, was built in 1932 as an 18-hole public golf course to honor Atlantan Bobby Jones. Jones is one of the best known golfers of the early 20th century.

It’s also where more than 60 years ago, Alfred “Tup” Holmes and his family were turned away because they were black. The course was one of seven public golf courses in Atlanta at the time.

Holmes sued in 1953 and two years later, in 1955, the case reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

Justices ruled in his favor and the decision desegregated America’s public golf courses. It is recognized as the first desegregation lawsuit in Atlanta.

City Golf Courses

The city of Atlanta sold the golf course to the state this summer in exchange for a parking deck and state property near Underground Atlanta.

The management company, American Golf, decided not to submit a bid to lease and manage the city of Atlanta’s five public golf courses because of this sale. Mosaic Clubs and Resorts is now maintaining the Bobby Jones Golf Course until renovations begin next year.

American Golf had also been managing four other city golf courses for the last 30 years: North Fulton, Candler Park, Brown’s Mill and Alfred “Tup” Holmes.

The city of Atlanta’s Parks Commissioner Amy Phoung said after American Golf’s lease ended on Nov. 1, the city hired many of the management company’s former employees as subcontractors and added city staff members to maintain those four golf courses.

“The main comments that we’ve heard from folks who visited our golf courses since Nov. 1 is that the clubhouses themselves are extremely better-maintained,” Phoung said.

She said the warm weather has also been a factor in seeing increased number of players at some of its courses, with about 100 rounds of play in the first two weeks after the transition.

Phoung said pricing will stay the same and is working to honor older membership packages. She said the city expects to make an announcement on a longer-term management plan in February 2017.

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