A few days after I posted History of Cobbs
Creek GC: Uncovering a Treasure, an email landed from Hank Church,
a regular reader of MyPhillyGolf
and a longtime regular at Cobb’s Creek
GC.
Hank, one
of 40-plus members of the Cobb’s Creek
men’s golf association who play the course year-round, had questions: Okay, he wrote, Cobb’s is not in the greatest condition, but why would anybody want
to sink money into restoring it to its original design?
I told Hank what I knew, plus I forwarded his
email to Mike Cirba,
author of the History of Cobb’s Creek GC
and leader of Friends of Cobb’s Creek,
the group of golf course architecture enthusiasts and historians behind the
push to restore the course.
Cirba,
an information tech officer for a company in Allentown (and a Cobb’s semi-regular) knew these
questions were out there, and he considers them understandable and
reasonable. A few days later, he
copied me on his response to Hank. Cirba agreed to let me to post his response, with minor
editing.
Here it is:
Dear Hank,
Joe Logan was kind enough to forward
your email regarding Cobb's Creek. I wanted to answer your
question, and I certainly appreciate your concerns. All of
us who formed "Friends of Cobb's Creek Golf Course" are
public course golfers ourselves, and I can tell you that everyone involved
in the project wants to ensure that the golf course
remains affordable and available to the regulars who have supported the
course over the years. Certainly, there have been discussions about
structuring fees in a way where city (and immediate surrounds) residents
are given discounted rates.
I think the reasons for restoring the
old layout are simple. At the time it was built it was known as the
best public golf course in the country, and its reputation continued through
the 20s, hosting the US Publinks tournament in
1928. In the 1950s it was decided to locate an Air Missile defense
base on the property, where the City Line Driving Range is today.
That loss of 15% of the total property acreage forced a re-routing into today's
configuration. Five of the very best holes were lost and their
current versions are quite cramped in spots (and inferior to the originals) due to the loss of width and overall
acreage. Whether we can convince everyone
of that will have to be seen and judged by the ultimate results, but we have
had world class architects on site who agree that the course has
absolutely amazing potential, that the original routing was ingenious, and
is very special. The fact that some of the
greatest architects in the history of the game collaborated on the original
course (and very little else) makes it a historic treasure worth restoring, in
my opinion.
More importantly, the status quo is not
maintainable. Due to the passage last June of the city's Stormwater Management Plan (an EPA requirement), SOMETHING
is going to happen to the golf course along Cobb's Creek itself.
It can be very bad, and the potential is there to lose ALL of the creek
holes.
Given the history of flooding along the golf course, one of our
biggest goals has been seeing a long-term fix to this situation.
Fortunately, the groups involved have been proactive in trying to work within
the Philadelphia Water Department goals and guidelines in attempting
to come up with a plan to achieve the goals of cleaner water, mitigated
flooding, and creation of new wetland areas while preserving the golf
features.
The financial end of this was never my
motivation, either, but with the present situation nobody is making money,
including the city. You have a decaying infrastructure (an
irrigation system from the 50s), buildings in need of renovation, alienation
from the neighborhood, practice facilities divorced from the main property, and
a host of other issues. This place could and should be a landmark
for the city, and a destination spot.
Hope this helps...I'd be glad to answer
anything else I can and hopefully you'll be hearing more details later this
summer.
Very Best Regards,
Mike
