A Golf Course on Burke Airport is a Very Good Idea

Brian Huntley is so intrigued by the prospect of a golf course on a portion of the land currently occupied by Burke Lakefront Airport that he submitted preliminary designs to do just that 20 years ago as the City of Cleveland and stakeholders worked on the 2004 Waterfront District Plan commissioned by former Mayor Jane Campbell.

Two decades later, as Cleveland pushes to close the airport and debates what exactly to do with the 450 acres of land if those efforts are successful, his opinion hasn’t changed.

“That property is gorgeous, and I think downtown Cleveland is an awesome draw,” said Huntley, a golf architect who’s designed or renovated more than 125 courses nationwide, including Shale Creek, The Quarry and Eagle Creek in Northeast Ohio. “I definitely think an affordable first-rate golf course could fit on the property.”

The North Coast Waterfront Development Corporation, the non-profit tasked with overseeing Cleveland’s waterfront transformation including the current stadium site, last month shared some initial plans in collaboration with the city for what the future of Burke could look like. It also created a community survey to get feedback on those plans and other site-use options – parks, development, a youth sports complex, restaurants, a beachfront promenade and more.

Among those possible options: an 18-hole golf course on just over a quarter of the plot.

Scott Skinner, the non-profit’s executive director, told Scene the plans served a variety of functions and come at an important time in the conversation. After all, if the city is going to convince the feds and city council to close Burke, it should have some pretty clear ideas on what it would do with the land.

The question, as it has been for decades, is what is feasible and what makes the most sense. The plans were a kick starter.

“You just want to hear what everyone thinks,” Skinner said, noting that there had been more than 4,500 responses to the survey in the last three weeks. “For a lot of folks, it’s difficult to ideate what it could be.”

What it must be, he said, is something that brings the city to the water in a meaningful way and brings partners together to do so.

“We’re looking at the future land use of Burke through three lenses. Public access: How do we create new ways to use the waterfront. Within the golf course and the rest of the site, there’s almost 10 miles of walking and biking trails. Two is community impact. Creative uses but also uses that drive visitors to Cleveland and the region to increase direct tax revenue. And the third is financeability. We can’t be in a place where we close Burke and overly rely on government funding to redevelop the site. We need public-private partnerships.”

A public golf course actually fits the model perfectly. It would drive revenue, making it easier to finance from the start. It would activate a part of the site nine or ten months of the year (and in the off months, could serve as an area for snow-shoeing or cross-country skiing). It would take up only slightly more than a quarter of the land while merging with surrounding free amenities. And a public-private, or public-private-nonprofit partnership, would ensure affordability and access for locals. (The latter is a tri-sectoral win, in Cleveland parlance.)

The point, as Skinner told Scene, is that Burke has a giant footprint and there are endless options on how to provide access to whatever attractions are built.

“I think 450 acres is a lot of land and there are lots of different things you could do. Not every square foot solves for every issue we face in Cleveland. It’s important to me and for the mayor and for broader efforts that we create free accessible space for all Clevelanders. But there are lots of creative ways the general public can have access,” he said. “In terms of the youth sports complex or golf, the real benefit is that this is publicly controlled land that you have a lot of levers to pull for future development partners to ensure public access. For example, can we offer discounts as part of those lease agreements?”

The models are out there to make a Burke golf course something for all Clevelanders, said Tom Coyne, the best-selling author of books including A Course Called America and the editor of The Golfer’s Journal.

He pointed to The Patch in Augusta and Cobbs Creek in Philadelphia as examples Cleveland could and should follow. In those and other cities, partnerships have been created with foundations and nonprofits to renovate affordable municipal courses, build infrastructure like learning centers and leadership academies, and provide free or discounted access to the game and instruction. Greens fees run downright affordable for residents and more for out-of-towners.

“It’s the anti-elitist approach, which is pretty popular right now and definitely a cool way forward,” Coyne told Scene.

Cleveland has some experience already in that regard, after handing over the city-owned Highland Park golf course in Highland Hills to a nonprofit foundation, which is still getting its sea legs and working on course and building renovations. The Metroparks would, of course, be a natural partner, given its roster of and history managing highly rated courses. First Tee Cleveland, a nonprofit headquartered at Washington Golf Learning Center dedicated to building youth development through the sport, would probably jump at the chance to expand its footprint and capacity.

Beyond the attractive and unique opportunity to build a first-rate golf course on the shores of Lake Erie in the shadows of the city skyline (more on that in a bit), the larger opportunity is to build something that could grow the game for everyone in Northeast Ohio.

One roadblock, as demonstrated elsewhere and already in early in the wake of the release of the plans, is likely to be sport’s reputation, one both accurately earned and wildly untrue. It is, and will continue to be, a polarizing idea if only taken on a surface level.

“If you have public land, the instinct is not necessarily to turn it over to a game that has been known for wealth and exclusivity, although we know it really isn’t or doesn’t have to be,” said Coyne. “If you don’t want golf to be elitist, you can sit back and say that, or you can do something meaningful to create and maintain the places where it’s not, and we need to do that.”

As City Council goes through hearings on Burke’s future, those sentiments are already popping up.

“We’re gonna close Burke airport – and do what with it?” said Councilman Mike Polensek at a recent meeting. “A golf course and ball fields? The only thing missing is a petting zoo and a putt-putt.”

“Putt-putt’s a great idea. We don’t golf. We can’t afford golf. But we’re putt-putt people,” responded Councilman Austin Davis.

A putting course centering kids and families could absolutely be part of a golf center at Burke, for what it’s worth. But that’s the point quotes like this miss, even as it’s clear Davis believes in developing Burke through a variety of uses and levels of access. But it was a telling response for how the discussion will likely play out, given experiences elsewhere.

“The challenge, and they found this at Cobbs Creek, is overcoming stereotypes and going to a government where people represent struggling districts and making the case about community, enrichment, job access and opportunity,” Coyne said. “They had to drill the notes into them. And, in fairness, it probably wasn’t until they got Tiger Woods to sign on… Without that it may or may not have happened. Tiger’s name obviously gives the project a certain amount of weight that politicians understand whether they play golf or not, to allay any fears that what you’re doing is just for rich white dudes.”

Tiger Woods probably isn’t going to be in Cleveland’s future, but when it comes to architects, other big names might, because a blank slate for a highly visible course on the lakeshore, with a strong community aspect, is an opportunity that doesn’t come around often. Noted designers including Gil Hans have worked pro bono on renovations for some of the previous projects, for example. And Coyne added: “The most important part of the project would be to get Smyers, Craig & Coyne involved,” referencing his golf course design firm.

Brian Huntley said the same of his.

In an era when golf is exploding in popularity and rounds played, new course construction has veered almost entirely toward mega destination resorts or country clubs with budgets in the tens of millions of dollars. New public daily rate courses just don’t exist, especially in the Midwest, while existing small, family-run courses are closing outright or selling to developers and some publicly owned courses are being shuttered to return to parkland origins. In Huntley’s view, something like Burke would be much-needed step back in the right direction.

“They’re not servicing the people that we need to service. Eighty percent of golfers are still public golfers,” Huntley said. “A lot of these new courses, they’re beautiful, but they’re not great courses because they focus so much on aesthetics and they don’t really focus on playability or the affordability aspect of it. They’re not doing what we need to do, which is make golf affordable and fun.”

He estimated a first-rate course at Burke would cost somewhere between $8 and $10 million and has no concerns about someone crafting something interesting and playable on the flat terrain.

“You could try and mimic some stuff from Ireland or Scotland. Obviously, you don’t have the dunes. But there on the coast you kind of rely on the wind. The piece of property isn’t anything special, but you could certainly create some neat effects and concepts without being gimmicky. You build a retention pond, you move some dirt, you build high and low points,” he said. “There are a lot of great, great courses that are relatively flat. It could be very natural looking and come across really neat.”

“I’ve always said, why not Cleveland?” Huntley added. “In a lot of these bigger cities, you have a public golf course that people travel from around the states to come see.”

It’s still very early days, of course, with lots of potential to explore and feedback to be gathered. But it’s certainly a possibility.

“There’s a lot there and we want to leverage our assets,” said Scott Skinner. “This is 450 acres of public land and two miles of shoreline. As much as we can, we want to activate it.”

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