The city is now considering a sixth option about the future of golf in Columbus, adding an option to close Par 3 and Otter Creek’s east nine.
The option was mentioned during a Columbus Parks Board meeting Thursday, in which board members talked over the city’s proposed plan to close Greenbelt Golf Course, and public reaction to that proposal that was given Wednesday night at a public information session at The Commons.
Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop and parks board President Mark Levett spoke to people who attended the Wednesday session, and said they are now looking into the additional option.
The original recommendation to close Greenbelt is one of five options listed in a community golf report by created by Tobi Herron, president of Inspire Motives LLC and former board member at Otter Creek. These options included:
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Closing Greenbelt while keeping Par 3 and Otter Creek open.
Closing both Greenbelt and Par 3 while keeping Otter Creek open.
Closing Otter Creek while keeping Greenbelt and Par 3 open.
Closing the east nine of Otter Creek while keeping Greenbelt, Par 3 and Otter Creek’s north and west open.
Closing Greenbelt and Otter Creek’s east nine while keeping Par 3 and Otter Creek’s north and west open.
At Thursday’s parks board meeting, Levett said that the reason most scenarios did not include closing Par 3 was because the course’s losses were “insignificant” compared to those at both Greenbelt and Otter Creek. According to Lienhoop’s presentation, in 2019, Otter Creek lost about $370,000 Greenbelt lost about $136,000. In the same year, Par 3 lost $34,000.
The option of closing Par 3 was met with interest by public visitors who spoke at the board meeting, including Steve Cohen, who operated both Greenbelt and Par 3 prior to 2015 when the city took over management of the two courses.
“You’ve got three rungs to the step stool: Otter Creek at the top, Greenbelt in the middle, Par 3 at the bottom,” Cohen said. “You can take the Par 3 out, replace it with another Greenbelt rung and still have a three-step step stool. You don’t have that middle step missing. And you take Greenbelt out, you’ve got that middle step missing. It’s extremely hard to rationalize or to see golfers going from Par 3 to Otter Creek.”
Levett replied while he agreed with Cohen’s analogy, integrating aspects of Par 3 at Greenbelt could prove complicated.
“I think that’s an option, but intermixing people with drivers and long irons with people who are just playing with wedges on the same hole, and the timing, and maybe it could happen,” he said. “I just don’t know how to make it happen.”
Levett also said that after Wednesday’s public meeting, he looked into how much play there is at Otter Creek’s east nine and was surprised by his findings.
“So you look at the 24,000 (18-hole) rounds in 2019 at Otter,” he said. “So every round has included two nines. Only 3,800 of the rounds were on the east. … That’s 3,800 nine rounds on east, so you’ve really got to double the 24,000 into 48,000. So you’ve got 48,000 as a total of nine-hole rounds played. So it’s less than 10%.”
Levett said that the option to close Par 3 and the east nine of Otter Creek will be analyzed by Herron. However, board member Josh Burnett said having a former Otter Creek board member involved in the analysis might project the appearance of bias.
“When I worked at Cummins, Tobi was one of the top-notch analysts in my department. She was, you know, you could count on her to always be objective. Her numbers were correct,” Levett said.
Burnett noted that Levett’s personal connection to Herron could also be perceived as a bias. He also suggested that the city speak to Mike David, who is the executive director of the Indiana Golf Association and a Columbus native.
“He (David) actually was approached by Tobi,” Burnett said. “And all the analysis was actually against what he had given her. … And he actually asked that you, as well as the mayor, would talk to him about that, because the scenario that he gave Tobi was to close the east nine and to close Par 3. And that was left off the study.”
Levett said that several opinions were collected during the analysis and added that he would make a point to reach out to David in the future.
There was also discussion of the idea that even assuming Herron’s report is correct and objective, she could be turned into a scapegoat if Greenbelt closes.
Levett replied that he would step forward and “take the heat” if Greenbelt closed. One visitor from the public, Doug Bieker, the head boys’ golf coach at Columbus North, said Herron likely wouldn’t get the brunt of any backlash.
“If Greenbelt closes, I don’t think it’s a person that the golfers are going to vilify,” Bieker said. “I think the golfers of Columbus would vilify Otter Creek, because I think the perception would be that Otter Creek did this to Greenbelt.”
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Next steps will include discussion, possibly followed by voting on a resolution for or against the city’s recommendation at a Columbus City Council meeting on July 21. That would be followed by a possible consideration of a resolution at a special parks board meeting Aug. 3.
Both Lienhoop’s presentation and the community golf report can be accessed at the parks department’s website at https://columbusparksandrec.com/projects-planning/.
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