Restored City Park Keeps New Orleans Golfers in the Swing

By: Steve Habel

All the talk surrounding public golf in New Orleans these days is about the ground-breaking and continuing construction of a new championship course in venerable City Park, the one-time home of four layouts on the east bank of the Mississippi River.

The park was swamped by Hurricane Katrina and the courses - called North, South, East and West - were completely destroyed, with nearly 5,000 acres of the park reverting to swampland.

The North Course was rebuilt and opened for play in 2009 as a par-68, 5,737-yard track. It allowed golf to continue to be played while plans were developed and money secured for the new layout that could potentially be the site for the PGA Tour's Zurich Classic (it's currently being played at TPC Louisiana in nearby Avondale).

Construction of the new Rees Jones-designed Championship course (that's what it's being called right now), was begun in February 2015 with hopes that the first shots might be played on it in mid-2017.

The $24.2 million facility, with the course occupying the 250-acre plot used by the former East and West courses, will stretch 7,250 yards and include a new clubhouse. Also part of the project is $1 million worth of improvements on North's clubhouse.

History Abounds at City Park

New Orleans' City Park is one of the country's oldest and largest urban playgrounds. With the first parcels acquired in 1854, its 1,300 acres illustrate this city's remarkable history.

The original City Park golf course was built in 1902 and consisted of nine holes. It was redesigned and expanded to 18 in 1921 and expanded again to 27 in 1922. This became to be known as South course, or No. 2.

In 1933, federal money from the Emergency Relief Administration (ERA), a precursor to the Works Progress Administration (WPA), was used to design a course between Harrison Avenue and railroad tracks. This was called the East course, or No. 1, and was designed by William Wiedorn, a landscape architect and city planner, and Joe Bartholomew.

The course was built during 1934 and formally opened January 13, 1935. It was carded at 6,445 yards. The Crescent City Open (1938) and New Orleans Open (1939-1962), forerunners of today's Zurich Classic, used it 13 different times for the tournament.

The West course opened in 1957. For a short time, parts of the East and West courses were combined into No. 3. Then, in 1968, a new North course opened, designed again by Wiedorn and Bartholomew, giving the complex a total of 72 holes. The North course area required extensive fill since it was located on low-lying land.

During the 1990s the names of the four courses were officially changed, and the entire City Park operation was renamed Bayou Oaks Golf Complex.

North Course Offers Challenge

Despite its truncated length, today's North course is no pushover. Its front nine sports a mixed bag of par-4s, four of which play 396 yards or longer, while the 262-yard fourth can be played as either a short two-shotter or a very long par-3.

No. 3, the outward half's lone par-5, is no pushover because of its rolling terrain and that it's at or below sea level (New Orleans' "elevation" ranges from minus-6.5 feet to 20 feet), making it play longer than its 490 yards. The 3,224-yard front nine presents a respectable test thanks to its narrow fairways.

The home half is where the revamped North was abridged after Katrina, playing only 2,552 yards with four par-3s and five par-4s. But the finish here - a 196-yard par-3 followed by two par-4s over 400 yards - makes golfers forget about the final nine's par of 32. It's best to concentrate and not be overconfident during this stretch to the clubhouse.

There's plenty of play at North and you're likely to encounter just about every type of player - it is, after all, a municipal track and the city's golfing hub. Head to the course knowing what you're in for and understanding you'll be playing on a hallowed golf ground that the people of New Orleans worked hard to get back on line.

Beaucoup Off-Course Fun

If you've never been to New Orleans, it's a must-visit destination for the variety of things to do. There's the famed French Quarter and Bourbon Street, restaurants with world-class dining on nearly every corner, the Garden District (reached by streetcar, of course), the Arts District, Audubon Park, New Orleans Aquarium, National World War II Museum, Superdome, Fair Grounds Racetrack (the second-oldest in America), and, of course, the mighty Mississippi.

On a recent trip, we stayed at the Maison Dupuy Hotel, a historic but updated inn just two blocks from Bourbon Street. The hotel is a mix of what's best about the old and new of the Crescent City; it was recently chosen as one of the top 172 hotels in the United States. It's a charming, distinctively New Orleans place to stay.

Our restaurant stops included a five-star, five-course meal at Tableau, located on picturesque Jackson Square at Le Petit Theatre, which features a menu showcasing regional ingredients and classic French Creole dishes with a unique twist. The newest restaurant of New Orleans' famed Brennan family allows guests a front-row seat to the culinary action beside an open kitchen in the restaurant's main dining room.

We also ate at Acme Oyster House, a staple for tourists and locals alike that has offered ice-cold, just-shucked raw and/or charbroiled oysters, and seafood, since 1910. For me, no trip to New Orleans is complete without a stop here.

Breakfast came via early-morning stops at Café du Monde, the French Quarter's original 24-hour coffee stand, in business since 1862. We enjoyed a strong cup of chicory-laced coffee au lait, mixed half and half with hot milk, and a bag of the stand's famous beignets, a square, deep-fried piece of dough covered in powdered sugar and served hot.

Tourism in New Orleans continues to rebound. The city welcomed 9.52 million visitors in 2014, an increase of 2.6 percent, or about 240,000 people, from 2013 (9.28 million). The 9.52 million visitors spent $6.81 billion, a 5.3 percent increase over 2013 and the highest spending in the city's history, according to a study released in March.

After Katrina, the number of out-of-towners dropped to 3.7 million in 2006, with $2.9 billion in visitor spending. Those numbers have steadily increased, with spending more than doubling the figures after Katrina. Thankfully, it looks like the "Big Easy" has returned to its former glory.

For more information about the City Park Golf Course, go to www.cityparkgolf.com. For planning a visit to the Crescent City, visit www.neworleanscvb.com.

Steve Habel is a freelance writer contributing Cybergolf news stories, features, equipment and book reviews and personality profiles from his base in Austin, Texas. He also works as an associate editor for Horns Illustrated magazine, a publication focusing on University of Texas sports, and is a contributing writer for Texas Golf Insider, Golf Oklahoma magazine, Tri-State Golfer and ATX Man magazine. Habel's blog (www.shotoverthegreen.blogspot.com) features news on golf and chronicles his many travels, including playing almost 1,000 golf courses since 2008. Habel is a member of the Golf Writers Association of America and the Texas Golf Writers Association.

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