Matt LaWell (3)
Sometimes, a park is just a park. Sometimes, a building is just a building.
Sometimes, they can be something more.
Over the last century and change, the almost 60 acres that are now a part of Washington Reservation, within sight of the Cleveland skyline, have provided a home to an amusement park, then a public recreation area, then a spot for a steel company to dump debris after a mill expansion, then school buildings, and then deterioration. Buildings shuttered. Trails disappeared. Only years of loving lobbying saved the patch for future preservation.
Today, Washington Reservation is a part of the Cleveland Metroparks, an inspired system that features nine golf courses and 18 reservations over more than 25,000 acres of Northeast Ohio. Washington itself features a 9-hole course designed by golf course architect Brit Stenson, who has long subscribed to a sustainable and environmental approach while designing more than 70 courses. The 1,490-yard layout, which is maintained by superintendent Steven Shavel’s team, holds an Audubon International Certified Gold Signature Sanctuary designation.
Stenson returned to Washington earlier this month, part of a crowd proud to open the Woodworth Activity Center — a 12,000-square-foot gem on the edge of the reservation that was long among those once-shuttered buildings and provides a new home for First Tee – Cleveland. The parking lot fills up early on a Thursday morning and overflow spills onto the lawn. First Tee participants stand outside every door, ready to open them for guests. Inside, lightbulbs shine new, walls gleam clean. Everybody funnels to the large room in the back, near a trio of Full Swing golf simulators, to talk. Eventually, a series of speakers steps behind a microphone to deliver thoughts about a proud moment.
“This is a place where kids should be — where they’re allowed to be,” Brian McFarland, the associate director of First Tee – Cleveland tells everybody. “They’re wanted here.”
The center is the result of more than six years of work and a $3.5 million capital campaign. Construction finished on time and within budget, board chair Ronna McNair said. “Amazing,” she says, adding that there are circles on the donor wall that need to be filled. “There is still time to make that donation that will benefit the ongoing success of the program,” she says.
Soon enough, the center will buzz with the excited noises of childhood. During this opening ceremony, there is less elementary chatter and more clapping. Some of it is for Brian Zimmerman, a longtime turf pro who has guided Cleveland Metroparks as its CEO for the last 14 years.
Former turf pro and Cleveland Metroparks CEO Brian Zimmerman
“When you see what this facility has been able to do, it’s a lasting legacy and it’s a testament to everyone that I’m looking at this morning,” he says. “When you think of a dream, you think of a vision, you think of an opportunity …” He trails off for a moment. He has prepared some notes but opts to speak without them. “The game of golf has brought all of us together for a very common purpose,” he says.
Helping children fall in love with golf.
Helping children.
The Cleveland Metropolitan School District educates more than 35,000 students. Almost none of them have ever stepped on a golf course or even clutched a club, Desiree Powell says. She would know. She’s the executive director of athletics, student activities, health, wellness, and physical education for the district. She wants students from every one of the district’s 66 K-8 schools to incorporate Woodworth into their physical education. “Our kids are starting to learn the foundation and the basics — not just of holding the club but of looking people in the eye,” she says. “It’s allowing them to dream and become a better version of themselves.”
The kids are springing up just as the reservation, just as the golf course, just as this building have all sprung up.
The last speaker is a boy named Gregory Poindexter Jr. His middle name is Sifford, an homage to his great-grandfather Charlie Sifford, the legendary golfer who trampled over segregation, played on the PGA Tour, inspired Tiger Woods and longed played his golf on the East Side of Cleveland.
Greg shares two lessons he learned from his famous great-grandfather. One is to never give up and always do your best. And the other? “Save money,” Greg says. The room erupts in laughter.
Near the end of the morning, after the microphones are switched off and the ceremonial putts skitter across the indoor turf, after some attendees return to their offices for the rest of the day, Zimmerman turns to Stenson and asks, “Did you ever think it would turn into this?”
Stenson responds with a memory. Only years after laying out the course, he says over the din in the room, did the removal of a stand of trees reveal a stunning view of the Cleveland skyline.
“Sometimes,” he says, “you get lucky.”
Matt LaWell is Golf Course Industry’s managing editor.
