Courses

Wallace “Ron” Ronald had the vision long before he had the location.

Ronald, who has served as founder or general partner in a number of Hartford-area restaurants, pictured a laid-back, relaxing space that combined the offerings of a brewery with access to meals from popular food trucks, keeping the “menu” fresh and labor costs down.

He eyed locations across Connecticut, including one near the Connecticut River, but ultimately settled on a place closer to home: the former Tower Ridge Country Club in Simsbury, near where he grew up decades ago.

The old clubhouse has been extensively renovated and turned into the Talcott Mountain Collective, which aside from beer offers a deliberately limited menu of pretzels, chili and pizza — to not compete directly with the food trucks — and entertainment such as board games, cornhole sets and outdoor fire pits.

“It’s still a magnificent piece of property,” Ronald said, referring to the site’s panoramic view of Talcott Mountain and the Heublein Tower. “But it was never a proper golf course. Some people enjoyed the challenge of it, but to me it was always a goat pasture.”

Today, some of the former fairways and greens have been repurposed as a disc golf course by a separate business entity, Tower Ridge Disc Golf, headed by David Tolk.

Tolk, who co-designed the 18-hole course, said disc golf is an ideal use for the land, as it takes advantage of the old course layout without the significant expense typically sunk into constant mowing and chemical treatments.

“We’re keeping the recreational spirit of it without all the maintenance costs,” he said. “It’s more environmentally friendly. That is a huge benefit of converting the space.”

While still a fairly unique case, the former Tower Ridge site is one of at least four golf courses in Connecticut to come under new management over the last year.

And while real estate and golf industry experts don’t necessarily see a broader trend unfolding, they acknowledge that mounting costs and declining profitability could in some instances prompt existing golf course owners to offload or lease out their properties, which are typically large and hard work to maintain.

“Some of these golf courses are not as strong as they used to be,” said Tom York, principal of transactional and advisory services at real estate consulting firm Goman+York. “We’re not seeing a trend, but maybe it stands to reason that some property owners are seeing new opportunities now.”

Connecticut has seen little growth in its economy or population over the years, York noted, meaning that golf courses that thrived in better times may not have the financial resources to continue under their existing business model.

“You own a piece of land. It’s either profitable or it’s not, or it’s marginally profitable,” he said. “When you take a look at it — is there something else that makes sense? Is there a higher and better use for that land? Each site will be a little different, but that’s the question each of them needs to ask.”

Aside from Tower Ridge, which is being leased by its new operators, 2021 was a relatively busy time for golf-related real estate deals.

In May, Quarry Ridge Golf Course in Portland was sold for $1.7 million to Nexus Golf Properties.

Around the same time, voters in Southington approved the town’s $4.5 million purchase of development rights to the privately-owned Southington Golf Course, a move expected to prevent the construction of a 114-lot subdivision on the property.

The transfer means that while the land will continue to be owned by the Calvanese and Kastner families, they would give up the right to build on it or use it for anything other than a golf course or recreational green space. The same would apply to any future owners.

And in December, Tallwood Country Club in Hebron was sold by the local McDermott family to Dana Barnes, manager of Concord Golf Properties, for $1.5 million.

Mixed outlook

The idea of financial hardships plaguing golf courses would appear to fly in the face of reports from industry groups trumpeting a major resurgence in the sport during the COVID-19 pandemic.

For much of 2020, golfing venues, which naturally lend themselves to socially-distanced play, were one of the few recreational businesses still up and running. Courses reported a huge increase in players returning to the sport, and beginners just taking it up.

Some courses saw record-setting revenues as a result of the local golf revival, said Tom Hantke, executive director and CEO of the Connecticut Section of the PGA.

But those gains were not evenly distributed across all operators, Hantke pointed out. Municipal golf courses, as well as some private clubs, did well, but some private, member-owned clubs are continuing to struggle with economic factors that first came to a head during the Great Recession.

“The challenges for the private member clubs are capital challenges — bunker upgrades, irrigation systems, aging maintenance equipment,” Hantke said. “Historically the way they paid for that was a loan from the bank, and assessing higher prices on members, but if the membership is shrinking that’s difficult to support.”

According to the CT PGA, which oversees golf courses in Connecticut and western Massachusetts, its region has lost 17 golf courses since the early 2000s, and many of those fit the profile of member-owned clubs that couldn’t support themselves, or family-owned clubs that had no family members willing to take over the reins.

“I think right now, there are some private owners who are looking to exit their family business,” Hantke said, referring specifically to Tallwood.

Hantke said the PGA is aware of the developments at the former Tower Ridge course in Simsbury, but he doesn’t see conversions as the way of the future.

“I don’t see a lot of that repurposing taking place,” he said. “That would be the exception, not the rule.”

In general, Hantke said he’s optimistic about golf in Connecticut, because of the pandemic-inspired surge in interest, and private clubs are investing more money into their operations, making clubhouses amenable to weddings and outdoor dining, and setting up ranges and learning centers to help newcomers pick up the sport.

Barnes, who also acquired Twin Hills Country Club in Coventry in 2018, also sees the positive. There’s no rush to unload golf courses, he said, only “case by case” opportunities that come up as owners, for their own reasons, decide to exit the industry.

Barnes said his group, Concord Golf Properties, is currently in “acquisition mode,” looking to add more sites in Connecticut, southwestern Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

New opportunities

Ronald, of the Talcott Mountain Collective, said he wasn’t initially concerned with using the golf course at Tower Ridge, as he only planned to gut and remodel the clubhouse and use some of the surrounding outdoor space for games. But business associates made the case for a disc golf course, pointing to the sport’s growing popularity and the appeal of an added draw for the Collective.

Now, players can golf for a round or two and then retire to the clubhouse for drinks and food.

“I knew it was not going to be a big expense,” Ronald said. “The truth is, this disc golf helps fulfill my vision. It really rounded out the Collective.”

So far, the conversion has gone off smoothly.

The disc golf course is bringing in a steady stream of returning players, Tolk said, and business is expected to pick up in the spring, as temperatures rise and more people gravitate toward outdoor venues.

The plan is to expand the course, with glow-in-the-dark night disc golf, a summer camp for children and opportunities for corporate events and team-building exercises.

“We want to be the gold standard for a pay-to-play course,” Tolk said.

A chat with the Discmania owner and founder.

February 16, 2022 by Jesse Weisz, Steve Andrews and Bogi Bjarnason in Interview with comments

This is the the beginning of our Q&A interviews in our European Re-Open series that highlights European disc golfers as international travel reopens in 2022.

Jussi Meresmaa is a man of many talents who laid the groundwork for much of the European disc golf scene back when Finland was still synonymous with hockey and the words “disc golf” drew blank stares anywhere south of Schleswig-Holstein.

He is the owner of Discmania, the man behind the European Open, and a marketing wizard, but he is foremost a guy who threw away a 1039 career-high rating to focus on the greater good of the disc golf community rather than chase individual glory across the fairways of the world.

With mere days until the US and European disc golf scenes collide anew, Meresmaa is the man with the skinny. Read on for a crash course in statistics, a roasting of European putting performances, and why he thinks MPO players from east of the pond don’t have a great chance to win US elite series events.

Ultiworld Disc Golf: We see many “corporate” and other sponsors from outside of disc golf support Finnish players, courses, and events. Does this mean that Finland currently has fully pro players competing within the European scene without holding down any sort of seasonal jobs?

Jussi Meresmaa: Finland now has six to eight full-time pro players. That is an amazing development over the last few years. All these pros are primarily supported and funded by the manufacturers, though. It’s true that more “corporate” sponsors are tipping their toes into disc golf, but we have not seen it yet on a bigger scale.

All things being equal, could players like Niklas Anttila and Oskari Vikström launch full tours this year without somehow supplementing their income?

Touring in Finland and Europe, yes absolutely. Touring in the US, not full-time yet. I believe most of these Finnish pros are making 1-2 trips to the US this season.

Going on a full tour in the US as a European is very tough. Fortunately, European events are also getting bigger and better.

Apart from COVID travel restrictions, what do you feel are currently the major hurdles for Finland developing a “1050 boy”?

This is an interesting question. If you look statistically, in 2020, PDGA had a total of 71,000 active members. There were four “1050 boys” in 2020 (McBeth, McMahon, Wysocki, and Heimburg). So, there was one 1050-rated competitor per 17,750 players. Finland had 3,300 PDGA members in 2020. So, statistically it’s understandable that Finland is yet to have their own “1050 boy.”

I think one big factor for this is also the fact that the sport is young and players are developing very fast. There are less rating points to earn, and at the same time there are masses of fast-improving players whose rating is “behind.” When this gets established in the future, we will see 1040 boys and hopefully also that 1050 boy. We can see that already on the FPO side. At the moment, Europe has three FPO players in top-4 per rating (Kristin Tattar, Henna Blomroos, and Eveliina Salonen)

When/if things return to normal, do you see Finnish players spending the off-season in Arizona (or similar US locations), or do you think places like Mijas, Spain, will emerge as off-season locations for European players as the sport spreads in Southern Europe?

I think both, but more Europeans will spend their off-season closer to their home, like Mijas. Some Finnish players are there as we speak.

Currently, we do not have the “perfect” facility in Southern Europe yet, but I’m sure this will happen in the next few years.

Disc Golf is so popular in Finland that it’s broadcast on TV and the European Open had the largest gallery on tour even pre-pandemic. Could that mean that DGPT events will be on Finnish TV in the not-so-distant future? If so, would that attract corporate sponsorship to the DGPT?

I don’t believe in TV as much as I believe in streaming. Broadcasting companies are of course moving to streaming, and that´s where disc golf´s opportunity will be. I can see DGPT finding distribution partners in Europe too, but that might take some time.

Finnish broadcasters could be interested in distributing DGPT events, once we get Finns (MPO and FPO) there to compete. Every country loves seeing their own athletes succeed.

How long do you think it will take for a European player to be promoted to the Discmania Sky Team?

I want to keep these highest levels of Team Discmania very exclusive. It needs to mean a lot to get into our Tour or Sky Team. Noteworthy is that this is the first real year when we have our Finnish team members fully committing to disc golf. I would estimate that in the earliest that could happen in 2023 to 2024.

The past two years have provided few opportunities for European players to travel and compete outside of Europe. At the same time, many players have been able to achieve great results and focus on their games. Do you think that this time has hurt or helped their chances of making an impact on the US Tour?

This is a two-edged sword: I think US players have gotten better quicker since they can play against the toughest competition every week. Every player needs the highest-level competition in order to get better. So, yes, time has hurt Europeans. But at the same time, Europeans have really increased their level of play here. I guess we will see when the season starts…

When you are looking at players competing in Europe, what aspects of their mindset, habits, or game makes you think they will find success in the United States? Are there different keys to success for competing in Europe versus the United States?

Europeans have always been great off the tee, and always quite poor on the green. I can see more Europeans having success on the green, so that will level the playing field. I think, in general, Europeans will do better on long and open courses against US competition. On a major level, I think US players have the biggest edge: they know how to win majors. After Jesper Lundmark, we have not seen a major winner.

We all expect the FPO big three to make a big impact on the tour, but which other players do you think will find success this year?

This will be very interesting to see! I would say two guys will make the biggest impact on the US tour this year: Niklas Anttila and Väinö Mäkelä. These guys have “it.” It will be quite a rough intro to all Europeans coming to Vegas, but I expect these two guys to rise into their “1035 level” fast.

What percentage chance is there that a European man will win an elite series event in the US in 2022?

2.5%. We will see European(s) in the top 5.

What are the major storylines involving European players that US audiences should be watching for?

If restrictions allow, there will be a fresh European breeze on this year’s tour! That’s the story line we should care about at the moment.

WALESKA, GA – Reinhardt University has opened its newly expanded 18-hole disc golf course on Feb. 12.

The original nine-hole course opened on campus in fall 2014. Since then, the popularity of disc golf among Reinhardt students and the public has grown exponentially.

Reinhardt senior, Austin Daman, president and captain of the Reinhardt Disc Golf Club Team, attributes much of the growth to the pandemic.

“When COVID-19 started, people were afraid to go into buildings, but they weren’t afraid to go outside,” Daman said. “Disc golf grew in popularity because people could easily distance from others, no one shares equipment, and the sport is healthy, outdoor exercise.”

Increased growth and popularity have disc golfers searching for courses, and Reinhardt boasts a prime location.

“It’s in the middle of a disc golf ‘dead zone,'” Daman said. “Only one other course exists in Cherokee County – Sequoyah Park in Canton. Now, Reinhardt is on the map for disc golfers in Blue Ridge, Jasper, Ellijay, and Canton.”

Last spring, Daman, who has been playing disc golf for more than three years, approached Reinhardt’s Dean of Students, Walter May, about launching a disc golf club team and expanding from nine holes to a full 18-hole course.

“We had increasing interest in disc golf on our campus, and thought it necessary to re-envision and expand the course from the original nine-holes to a tournament-ready 18-hole course,” Daman said. “Upgrades now make the course both challenging enough and large enough to be competitive and attract more advanced players.”

Mark Sheldon, owner of TrainHopper Disc Golf, led the course redesign. An avid disc golfer, Sheldon started his organization to create disc golf tournaments in the metro Atlanta area. Reinhardt’s course was his first design project. A resident of Cherokee County, Sheldon played the original course and formulated new ideas. He describes the new course as an “intermediate level course that highlights the natural beauty of the campus, designed to blend into the campus scenery.”

The February tournament will be the second event hosted at Reinhardt.

“Last summer we had a tournament called Fairways and Fireworks – a fundraiser to help the disc golf team and support course expansion,” Daman said. “We had a full tournament with 18 holes, and considerable attendance and participation – a great display of support that helped raise funds to move us forward.”

North Georgia disc golfers have been eagerly watching the progression of Reinhardt’s new course.

“The tournament sold out within four hours of opening registration in January,” May said.

Amateurs and professionals will compete in the tournament.

Reinhardt’s course is also included on the UDisc app, used by disc golfers worldwide, to find courses and track their scores. During January, more than 100 disc golfers logged their scores on the Reinhardt course, nearly three times more than in all of 2021.

The Reinhardt disc golf course is open daily to the public. For information on Reinhardt’s disc golf course, complete with a downloadable course map, disc golf rules and safety information, visit online.

Stuart Mullenberg couldn’t wait to check out the disc golf course at Washougal’s Hartwood Park when it opened in April 2021. Once he got there, however, he couldn’t wait to leave.

Mullenberg walked around for a bit but soon left, dissatisfied with what he considered a confusing layout and lack of safety precautions. To this day, he still hasn’t played a single round at the 18-hole course, which sits just a few miles from his house.

Mullenberg soon discovered his opinions on the course were shared by other local disc golf enthusiasts. The course also has drawn criticism from local residents who were tired of watching golfers accidentally throw discs into their backyards and listening to their loud and sometimes profane banter.

To fix the problems, city of Washougal officials decided to rip the course out and start over.

This time, the city is working with renowned disc golf course designer Avery Jenkins to create a new nine-hole course at Hartwood Park that they hope will be an improvement for disc golfers and the park’s neighbors.

“It feels like a fresh start since Avery got here,” Mullenberg said. “The stuff that should’ve happened the first go-around is happening now. I would describe it as a reboot — that’s the perfect way to put it. It’s like, ‘OK, we tried once. It didn’t go well. Let’s get a fresh start for everybody.’ We talked about where the compromises are with the neighbors, and I think we got some. It’s a better course for the neighbors and the golfers.”

The city is hoping to open the new course in June.

“It’s going to be a great experience to have a legitimate, really nice, fun, playable nine-hole disc golf course at Hartwood,” said Jenkins, who lives in Oklahoma. “It revitalizes and renovates that park in general, and is going to make it more of a draw.”

“Avery’s goal was to make a safe and great playing course for Washougal,” Washougal public works director Trevor Evers added. “He worked with the neighbors and the disc golf community to see what worked best for everyone.”

Mullenberg is much more optimistic about Jenkins’ layout than he was about the original design, which he labeled “a disaster.”

“It just wasn’t good. It was trying to be too much,” he said. “It was not done well. But I think we got lucky that it was so bad. It was demonstrably poorly done. The city didn’t know any better until everybody in the disc golf community came and said, ‘We know it doesn’t work for the neighbors and it doesn’t work for us, either. Here’s how you fix it — you have it professionally designed.’”

Wright took Mullenberg’s advice and reached out to DiscGolfPark, a Colorado-based course design company, and was eventually put in touch with Jenkins, who won the 2009 Disc Golf World Championships event and has designed 30 courses around the United States.

“I continue to perfect my craft,” said Jenkins, who works for Discmania, a Finland-based disc manufacturer, as well as DiscGolfPark, which is owned by Discmania. “I just surpassed 1,300 courses played in 21 countries and 49 states, and I like to learn from courses that I play — certain features that I want to incorporate and also some things to avoid when I’m designing. There’s not a more critical disc golf course designer out there anywhere in the world.”

Jenkins first suggested the Hartwood Park course should be nine holes “due to spacing,” according to Evers.

“Ultimately a nine-hole course was a better option to address homeowner concerns about the course while also taking into consideration existing wetlands and buffers,” Evers said. “The nine-hole course designed by Avery also goes further to accommodate multiple uses inside the park — walking trails, play structure, open space and disc golf — then the 18-hole course did.”

Jenkins also prioritized safety while designing the new course.

“The previous course played right next to the playground, and a slip or errant shot could really do some bad things,” he said. “I made sure that when I designed (the new layout), I was going to have all safety parameters and spacing and buffers in place so that nobody was going to get hit with a disc.”

Mullenberg said that the new course will be fun for casual and experienced players alike. He hopes to organize kids’ events at the course as soon as this summer.

“I can say that it is (a good course),” he said. “When you stop trying to bite off more than you can chew with the size of the space, all of a sudden you’re making a lot fewer compromises in safety, playability and the quality of the shots that you’re going to throw. The redesign took the course away from the neighbors’ property and made safer shots and shots that are more family friendly. It’s a more playable, fun and enjoyable course.”

After Jenkins sketched the new layout, city officials, council members, parks board members and disc golfers, including Mullenberg, walked around the park with some of the local residents to address their concerns.

“My sense is that real progress was made,” Mulllenberg said. “(The neighbors were in a) totally different mood (at the end of the conversation) than they were at the start, which was pretty contentious. I really think they saw we put a lot of care into the redesign. We’re taking care to answer their questions, address their valid concerns, make some compromises where we’re able. I think some minds were changed.”

The city hired Vancouver-based PBS Engineering and Environmental Inc. to conduct a mitigation plan, which recommended that the city plant at least 10 Oregon Oak trees and eight Douglas Fir trees within the park’s riparian habitat zones and install a split rail fence around the habitat perimeters.

The city is also removing prickly blackberry bushes, which threaten to swallow errantly-thrown discs and cause safety hazards, from the perimeter of the course.

“(Golfers are) looking for variety and variations, not the same monotonous throws of the same distances,” Mullenberg said. “I wanted to create something more than that. I recommended that they plant some more trees out there, and Michelle threw out 20 to 25 tree placements in certain choice areas that are going to dictate certain shots or shape those holes. And eliminating blackberries is going to provide a way better experience for the players. They were definitely overgrown in certain areas, and I did my best to avoid those areas and provide enough spacing so that people weren’t aren’t throwing (discs into them) all the time like they were in the previous design.”

The course will not impact the existing wetlands and their designated base buffers, according to the study.

“The strategy of the mitigation efforts is to increase the overall value of the riparian habitat given the conditions of the site,” Evers said. “(The study concluded that the) proposed project is not anticipated to have an impact on the functions of the existing riparian habitat, but the loss of emergent vegetation lawn areas can be successfully mitigated through the installation of native vegetation.”

Mullenberg joined the Washougal’s parks board in January at the request of mayor Rochelle Ramos, who learned about his involvement in the project.

“Stu was a big advocate for getting things going and pushing them through,” said Jenkins, who has known Mullenberg since 2014. “I indirectly got him involved with this by staying at his house (when I came to Washougal in September). When things got kind of rough and bumpy, he steered the ship and quieted a lot of concerns. He was the catalyst for all of this.

“And the cooperation of the city of Washougal and Michelle and her team has been great. There’s been a lot of red tape and hoops (to jump through), a lot more than most courses have to go through, but she’s been persistent. I’ve had very good communication with her, and it’s been a pleasure working with her throughout the project.”