For more than a century, the Bob O’Connor Golf Course in Pittsburgh’s Schenley Park has been a no-frills golf course open to anyone willing to carry their own bag, even when the city entered into a public-private partnership with the nonprofit First Tee, which operates the course for the public while using the game of golf to teach life skills to underprivileged kids.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With the city’s help, First Tee transformed the clubhouse into the Arnold Palmer Learning Center, but it’s been a losing proposition to the tune of about $100,000 a year. And so, First Tee unveiled a strategic redesign of the course, complete with revenue-generating features like a driving range and golf carts to close that gap.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We’re exploring ways to best utilize the current footprint to deliver our mission and make it more sustainable,” said Eric Amato of First Tee Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n
To date, relations between First Tee and the neighborhood have been cordial, but the initial plan has not been well received. The newly formed Friends of Schenley Park objects to a driving range, carts and cart paths, expanded parking, tree removal, and naming rights, saying even though First Tee is a nonprofit, the course will look like a commercial endeavor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“This isn’t Route 51,” Chris Zurawsky of Friends of Schenley Park said. “This is Schenley Park. This is beautiful Schenley Park. We want to keep this as noncommercial as possible. Keep it open to nature, beautiful views.”<\/p>\n
In meeting with the neighborhood, First Tee has dropped plans for a driving range with tall netting along Schenley Drive but is considering a smaller, more contained version. While the golf carts will be electric and non-polluting, they will still be needed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But ultimately it may be up to Mayor Corey O’Connor, whose late father the course is named after. The mayor says he’s talking to both the neighbors and First Tee, saying this will be a public process.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We understand both sides of it,” the mayor said. “I think it’s going to be an ongoing conversation. Nothing’s happening tomorrow.”<\/p>\n
There’s really no question that the golf course is here to stay, but what it will look like is a matter of public debate.<\/p>\n
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