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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Improved Muni course debuts 

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Early in the morning Thursday, Oct. 2, a host of familiar sounds returned to Pine Grove Drive. The starter calling out names for the next up on the tee, the thrum of gas-powered golf carts and the whack of a tee shot down hole No. 1 at the Wilmington Municipal Golf Course.

Area golfers have lived without the Muni all summer after it was closed at the end of April for a $1.5 million renovation project encompassing an overhaul of the course’s greens, bunkers, and irrigation and drainage systems.

Muni course manager and head pro David Donovan spent a majority of Monday, Sept. 29, touring members of the public around the course. A majority of those who came out were regulars like Dave and Linda Crowell of Pine Valley, and some of whom have called the course home for as long as 70 years.

Like others, the Crowells could not believe the way the Muni’s mostly flat, small and sluggish greens were transformed into large, undulating and dynamic greens complexes.

“This looks really great and it is going to be a big deal for the city,” Dave Crowell said.

The Muni’s ribbon cutting Wednesday, Oct. 1, featured members of Wilmington City Council and the golf course committee officially reopening the 1928 vintage Donald Ross-designed course before the first day of play Thursday.

Amy Beatty, Wilmington Parks and Downtown Services Superintendent, said the city was relieved to reopen the course on time.

“It is always important to complete a significant project on time but with this project that was more critical than usual because the golf course operates as an enterprise fund and we used some of our fund balance to pay for the project,” Beatty said by during a Monday, Sept. 29 phone interview. “In doing so we looked at projected revenues to expenses and set our new rates based on reopening the first week in October.”

Heavy rainfall in July and August after the sod and grass sprigs were laid had her worried.

“The rain was a double-edged sword because we were unable to sprig in some areas we had identified and we had to sod those areas instead,” Beatty said. “The type of rain we were getting would just wash the sprigs away so sodding those areas added a little cost to the project but the flipside is that sod came in beautifully because of the rain.”

Beatty attributed the timely completion of the project to the hands-on approach of project architect John Fought, contractor Duininck Golf, and the golf course staff she said worked around the clock seven days a week for the past month.

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