Municipal Golf Network Webinar Program

Launched in 2022, National Links Trust’s Municipal Golf Network (MGN) Webinar Program is a free series of panel discussions featuring municipal golf operators, architects, managers, and other stakeholders who share the stories behind their municipal golf journey. With this series, NLT seeks to educate stakeholders nationwide on best practices in the industry.

UPCOMING WEBINAR: April 25 @ Noon ET

City of Denver Golf, Accessibility, & Adaptive Golf

For the next MGN Webinar Episode, we travel to the Rocky Mountains to learn about the impact the City of Denver golf courses are having on their communities. GCSAA Superintendent Pam Smith, the reigning Colorado PGA Section Superintendent of the Year, will touch on a few of the sustainability initiatives she's implemented at Denver's seven municipal golf courses in her 16 years on the job before focusing on her new passion project: accessibility and adaptive golf. Joining the webinar with Pam will be Kurt White, a handicapable golfer and the Partnerships Coordinator for the First Tee - Colorado Rocky Mountains, to talk about how municipal golf can set higher accessibility standards to provide equal access to the game for everyone.

Join us on Thursday, April 25th at 12pm ET to learn how Pam and Kurt are setting a higher standard for accessibility in municipal golf.

PreVIOUS WEBINARS

In this edition of our Municipal Golf Network Webinar Series, we feature the renovation of the Walter Travis-designed Great Dunes Course at Jekyll Island Golf Club in Jekyll Island, Georgia. Panelists, including architects Jeffrey Stein and Brian Ross, discuss the preservation of Travis’s architectural design as they transform the 9-hole golf course to an 18-hole facility, the installation of a saltwater irrigation system and saltwater tolerant turfgrasses to improve climate resiliency and sustainability, and the restoration of the great dunes that once attracted Walter Travis to the site nearly 100 years ago.

This episode of our Municipal Golf Network Webinar Program will feature the renovation of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park Golf Course. Opened in 1951, this 9-hole, par 3 golf is coming out of a 6-month temporary closure that will see improved turf conditions, a brand new irrigation system and an expanded practice facility that will increase the course's environmental sustainability while expanding accessibility and inclusion for golfer's of all abilities. Tune in to hear from course architect Jay Blasi (Chambers Bay) and other key stakeholders as they discuss different aspects of the project from design, construction, financing and utilizing public/private partnerships to reach their goals.

This episode of the Municipal Golf Network Webinar Program features the story of The Park in West Palm Beach, Florida.
The Park was opened to widespread acclaim this past spring. The renovated property features a Gil Hanse-designed 18-hole regulation course, 9-hole par 3 course, putting course, driving range, and The Path - a “needs based program including individual and group instruction, workshops, a youth caddie program, and event programming for the whole family.”
The project was driven by a public-private partnership led by PGA of America CEO, Seth Waugh. This partnership both funded the construction of the facility, while also building a fund to ensure that it will remain open and well-conditioned for the foreseeable future. This webinar dives into the story of The Park’s renovation, with a specific emphasis on community programming.

The first installment in the Municipal Golf Network Webinar Program in 2023 features the story of Charleston Municipal Golf Course or “The Muni.” This webinar will discuss Troy Miller’s Seth Raynor-inspired renovation of the course, the role that the non-profit “Friends of The Muni” has played in the course’s revitalization, and the course’s impact on the local community.

The course was renovated in 2020. Paying homage to nearby Yeamans Hall Club and the Country Club of Charleston, it was designed in the style of Seth Raynor. Since its reopening, the course has received universal acclaim, with The Fried Egg's Andy Johnson writing, "Above all, Charleston Municipal makes an emphatic case that municipal golf courses don’t have to be bland. They can take architectural risks, and they should, like the downtown buildings and botanic gardens that tourists love, offer a flavor of local history."

The fourth Municipal Golf Network Webinar tells the story of Buffalo Dunes Golf Course in Garden City, Kansas. Led by superintendent, Clay Payne, and architect, Zach Varty, the course is in the midst of a major renovation project. While projects of this scale, with green and bunker restoration and tree removal, would typically cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, the team at Buffalo Dunes is doing it for a fraction of the cost. How are they doing this? That question and more are covered in-depth in the webinar.

The third installment of this program highlights the story of the Bayou District Foundation and Bayou Oaks at City Park Golf Course.

In 2006, local New Orleans leaders formed the Bayou District Foundation in a bold effort to revitalize 18 blocks of the Gentilly neighborhood that were devastated by Hurricane Katrina. For residents of Gentilly, quality housing and access to healthcare, education and support services was not a given. Following the Purpose Built Community model developed by the East Lake Foundation in Atlanta, GA, the Bayou District Foundation implemented an intentional and holistic strategy to build a mixed-income community for New Orleans’ residents called Columbia Parc.

In 2015, the Bayou District Foundation partnered with City Park New Orleans to renovate the historic east and west golf courses of City Park and create an economic engine that could sustain funding for the new community development. Two years later, the Rees Jones designed Bayou Oaks at City Park reopened for business. Today the golf course helps to fund the myriad of programs integrated into the Columbia Parc community including:
- A Cradle-to-College education system to serve all of the neighborhoods children
- 685 mixed-income residential units where 100% of adult residents are employed, in vocational training or enrolled in college or university
- St. Thomas Community Healthcare clinic
- Access to recreational activities and open green space

In this episode you will learn:
- Why the golf course renovation was needed and what framework was used to develop the Columbia Parc community
- How income generated from Bayou Oaks provides sustainable funding for the community’s many programs
- Who the stakeholders are that manage and benefit from this project
- What the future holds for this operational model as well as takeaways other municipal golf stakeholders can use in their own community programming.

The second installment in the Municipal Golf Network Webinar Program spotlighted the fight to save Sharp Park Golf Course, a municipal Alister MacKenzie design in the Bay Area, and featured a discussion of the current state of municipal golf in California. National Links Trust co-founder, Will Smith, served as host and was joined by Richard Harris, Bo Links, and Craig Kessler.
Harris and Links are co-founders of the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance: the organization that spearheaded the effort to save Sharp Park. Kessler is the Director of Public Affairs for the Southern California Golf Association. As part of this, he has led the opposition to AB 1910, also known as the Public Golf Endangerment Act.

The first Municipal Golf Network Webinar covered the story of Winter Park Golf Course (WP9) in Winter Park, Florida. Will Smith, co-founder of National Links Trust, hosted and was joined by Keith Rhebb, WP9 golf course architect, Steve Leary, former Mayor of Winter Park, Matt Ginella, golf media personality and Winter Park community member, and Gregg Pascale, the course’s manager.

The discussion covered how the Winter Park municipal government’s willingness to invest in golf was the key driver to this project's success, how the unique and creative use of the space has driven the course’s ROI, why the support of the community was integral to the success of renovation, what facilitated the renovation team’s success in coming in under budget and ahead of schedule, why a more inclusive RFP model may have been the secret sauce to spur the project’s success, and more.