From Landfill to Links: The Future of Urban Course Design?

John Paul Newport had a very interesting read over the weekend in Wall St. Journal about the next Liberty National.  No, I don't mean a course that is spellbindingly awful in its design.  But, I do mean a course that is built on top of a former dumping site.

The $123 million project was slated to have been completed at various dates in the decade since then-Mayor Rudy Guiliani kicked off the project to convert Ferry Point from a municipal dump into a Jack Nicklaus designed dogleg right.  Just about eleven years later on September 11, the funding for construction of the course was approved.  Stakes are in the ground to mark the layout of the course, and the dirt will move on October 22.

Of course, Ferry Point will be intended to be a course that could host a PGA Tour event or major championship.  After all, if that Tom Kite mish-mash of design can host The Barclays, surely a Nicklaus design can host the US Open.  (Besides, the other courses in New York City are kind of a disaster for the USGA right now.)

Unlike Liberty National, though, Ferry Point will be a public course.  Nicklaus told Newport that he hopes that amateur hacks like us can appreciate and enjoy the course. 

It might seem like this is bizarre, but the notion of developing new municipal tracks on former landfills or dumping sites is becoming a highly-visible trend.  With the lower availability of urban land and the desire to eradicate dumping grounds from city centers, golf courses are a great fit.

Now the question - as Tom Dunne poses - is what the green fee will be.  Will be closer to $100+ and outprice the average weekend player, or will it cater to a normal daily fee golfer?  John Paul suggested as Dunne's Out and Back that the course will play at the latter fee structure.

All in all, this is an interesting profile in what could be the future of the municipal course in America.  Outside of Chicago, the urban course is perhaps a dying notion - at least new construction.  In a time when suburban high-end daily fees and private clubs are going belly-up in droves, courses like Ferry Point may be the bastion of future design. 

American golf course supply clearly outpaces demand for the sport.  For many observers, a large reason behind this disconnect is because of the parallel disconnect between what golfers will pay to play and the premium features built into modern courses.  Can a project that costs $123 million to reclaim the land and build the course do a better job of connecting the average golfer with average prices?

Perhaps even another question is if this trend could help reverse some of the notion that golf is an environmentally-offensive venture.  Courses like Liberty National have been touted as great for the environment.  A dumping ground turned into golf course has to be a serious improvement.  But, environmentalists will raise a lot of protest that anything would be better than a golf course on a former dump site short of another, more toxic dump site.

Successful projects like Liberty National, but done for public good like the intention behind Ferry Point, could do quite a bit to give golf a good name as an environmentally-friendly option for reclaiming land.

The only potential irony in all of this is that municipaltities and other public courses that are being closed around the country could be converted to new landfills to take the place of urban dumps that have become an eyesore in the quest to reconstruct the beauty of the American city's skyline.