Landfill Golf Courses

[Rick Sides]

On my way home from work each day, I drive by a landfill that would make a perfect golf course.  The dune like structures with the high fescue grasses growing this time of year, make me want to get out of my car and start routing holes.  I know there is a course in NJ called McCulloughs Emerald Links that was built on a landfill, and I think Liberty National and Bayonne may also have been.  I can't help but wonder if more courses will be built on these structures.  Although I know piles of trash are under this landfill I stare at, it looks like something right out of Ireland.

[Richard Hetzel]

The Phoenix just south of Columbus, Ohio. Very FUN golf course, and plays fast and firm! Easily seen from Interstate 71, north or south.

[David_Tepper]

Rick Sides -

I think there have been several threads here on this topic over the past several years. I believe sites such as these are referred to as "brownfield" sites.

Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, Shoreline GC and the Metropolitan GL have both been built on sites of this type.

Here is a website on this topic: http://www.brownfieldrenewal.com/print-features_feature_story_reclaiming_land_for_golf-434.html

DT

[Matthew Runde]

I think there are also quite a few courses that could go the other way.

[John Moore II]

Landfills being converted to golf courses provide for a great use of that land, I think. It provides a recreational environment for much of the community and provides the municipality a good source of revenue. This from otherwise dead land. They have one here in Hampton, VA, The Hamptons. Very poor design, but hey, it does the two things I mention above, just not for me.

[Jeff Spittel]

Wildcat in Houston has two courses built on a landfill south of town. Pretty cool views of the skyline, but the courses are a bit tricked up for my taste. Definitely some stern tests from the tips when the wind is blowing.

[PCCraig]

Willow Hill in Northbrook and Harborside on the South Side are two in the Chicago area that were born from landfills. Courses on top of old landfills are a great way to make a "brown" area "green" again. I expect though that it's hard to get them built these days as they are probably more expensive to build than a traditional course? Even if the land is leased?

[Mike Wagner]

Newcastle in Bellevue, WA.  Cool clubhouse....not so cool course(s).

[Mark McKeever]

McCoullough's Emerald links is a great landfill course.  When I am down at the beach in OceanCity I usually try to pay them a visit.  If you sign up on their mailing list, they send out some really good deals for afternoon play.  Its very easy to get out there with 40 dollars in your wallet and its a nice track with some very challenging holes.


Mark

[John Moore II]

Willow Hill in Northbrook and Harborside on the South Side are two in the Chicago area that were born from landfills. Courses on top of old landfills are a great way to make a "brown" area "green" again. I expect though that it's hard to get them built these days as they are probably more expensive to build than a traditional course? Even if the land is leased?

I don't think it is that much more expensive because from what I understand, only very limited earth moving is allowed because you can't cut more than a few feet into the earthen cap they put on the fill to protect the rubber membrane that prevents gas leaking. That is why you end up with some odd holes on the flats around the fill if you are not careful.

Bayonne and Liberty National are odd though, from what I know they were not traditional landfills but hazmat sites, so it was a much different land condition.

[Carr Harris]

Isn't TPC Avenel also a former landfill site? I seem to remember reading once that it was.

[Carl Johnson]

Charlotte has two municipal courses built in part on landfills: Renaissance Park and Charles T. Myers.  Although I know others disagree, I don't think the layouts of either are bad.  I have not been to Myers in years, but the conditioning at Renaissance is poor, to say the least.  A lot of that has to do with the money the government is willing to spend on the course, but beyond that you've got places where trash and gross looking liquids make appearances through the "soil."  A number of years ago they had to shut the place down to deal with methane levels.  It must not be easy to build on a landfill.  In any case, as munis the courses serve a purpose.  http://www.charmeck.org/Departments/Park+and+Rec/Activities/Athletics/Golf.htm

[Matt_Ward]

If I'm not mistaken the 36-hole complex at Industry Hills is a landfill layout.

In regards to McCullough's -- it's a decent layout -- great -- no.

The two holes across the road are compeletly out of place and the 18th hole is a lame finisher.

[Pete Stankevich]

My former boss, Roy Case, has done a bunch of landfill courses, as well as having helped Eric Bergstol with Bayonne.
In fact, Links Magazine dubbed him "Lord of the Landfills" in one article.
He was the subject of the GCA Feature Interview in Februrary 2008.
If you're in the West Palm Beach area, check out Park Ridge GC, which is a terrific landfill golf course.

[Tim Leahy]

Quite a few landfill courses here in Cali. One early one was River Ridge in Oxnard. They mad one mistake there though they forgot to add vents for the gas that comes up and some poor chap tossed a lit cigarette butt into a cup hole and it exploded. Now they have vents built throughout the course.

[Bill Seitz]

If I'm not mistaken the 36-hole complex at Industry Hills is a landfill layout.

The story I was told is that they had Lee Trevino out there for some event quite a number of years ago, not long after the complex was built.  After about seven holes, he walked off the course and said "they ruined a good dump when they built this place".  I can't vouch for the veracity of the statement, but there certainly used to be a lot of criticism of those courses.  I remember the Babe being ridiculously tight.  I believe they played an LPGA tournament on the Babe one year, and they refused to go back. 

Tim, I did a lot of sales tax work for a large waste disposal company and toured one of their landfills.  Almost all of them these days have wells drilled into the fill to capture the methane, which is either flared off (if it's a small operation), or collected and converted into electricity.  At the site we visited, they generate enough electricity from the methane to fuel their plant and sell some electricity back to the grid.  There's also a golf course built over the closed cells, Settler's Hill in Chicago's western suburbs. 

[Phil_the_Author]

Merrick Road Park Golf Course in Merrick, New York.

I guarantee you'll play it in under four hours... unfortunately its only 9 holes...

[Ulrich Mayring]

Here are some construction pictures from Mainzer Golfclub here in Germany:









Ulrich

[Lester George]

Rick,

Check the video on Lamberts Point in Norfolk, VA.

www.lambertspointgolf.com

Lester

[Aidan Bradley]

I believe Scholl Canyon in the LA area is built on a landfill.

[Tim_Cronin]

Adding to Pat's note, there are at least three more in the Chicago area: Settler's Hill in Geneva, Lost Marsh in Gary, Ind., and the newest and perhaps best, the private Chicago Highlands in Westchester. All the others are public.

[Mark Smolens]

Happened to play Lost Marsh yesterday. Though their switching the nines was a somewhat odd decision (now you start with a difficut par 4 with water left and right, and uphill par-3 into the prevailing wind, and a 465 yard par-4  again with water on both sides) in terms of causing pace-of-play issues, I enjoyed the course. The conditioning issues which I found on my last visit a couple of years ago have been corrected. They've removed tons of reedy junk which served no purpose other than to slow down people who don't hit it straight. The fairways played firm (unlike nearby Harborside), and the greens were excellent. Plus it's $30 cheaper than Harborside, and still very accessible to downtown. . .

[JLahrman]

Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, Shoreline GC and the Metropolitan GL have both been built on sites of this type.
DT

In addition, much of the land used for the 18-hole course at Monarch Bay is reclaimed landfill.  Monarch Bay and Metropolitan are right down the street from each other, both courses are worth a play.

The Phoenix just south of Columbus, Ohio was mentioned on another thread.  Not a great course but not awful, has probably been open for 15 years now.

[Richard Hetzel]

Here are some construction pictures from Mainzer Golfclub here in Germany:


Ulrich

Ulrich,

Where is this course located in Mainz? I used to live in Wiesbaden-Biebrich while stationed at Wiesbaden Airbase from 1987-1990. I spent a lot of time in Mainz!!!! I miss it dearly!

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Cave Creek GC in Phoenix, AZ is another landfill course:


http://phoenix.gov/recreation/rec/facilities/golf/golfcourses/cavecreek/index.html