The City of Cleveland has taken back the day-to-day management of the Highland Park Golf Course in Highland Hills after the current management company opted not to renew its contract.
MAN Golf Management of Indianapolis has managed the 36-holes at Highland Park since September 2012. MAN Golf initially signed a 5-year contract with five additional 1-year renewal options, of which it exercised one. At the time, MAN Golf was the only company that expressed any interest.
MAN was responsible for course maintenance, the handling of golf greens fees and rental carts, and the operation of the restaurant and banquet room.
The City of Cleveland makes it tough for an outside management company to succeed at Highland Park. City leaders claim they want to divest of the day-to-day operations, but they still set greens fee pricing and make hiring requirements a part of any operations contract.
The City does not want to sell or lease the Highland Park Golf Course property either. They have not yet had any formal discussions for a take-over like they did for the Seneca Golf Course with the Cleveland Metroparks and its 99-year lease.
A spokeswoman in the City of Cleveland’s Recreation Department said that department will resume day-to-day operations with an opening before the end of May, but as of yet no person has been named to oversee those operations.
Calls to the golf course currently go unanswered. The former website for Highland Park at highlandgc.com returns a ‘no site found’ error.
A message from a call to Mark Nance, President of MAN Golf Management, was not immediately returned.
The course, located at the burgeoning intersection of Green Road and Chagrin Boulevard, has been the recipient of many highly critical reviews for poor turf conditions and bad service on Google, Facebook, Yelp, and GolfAdvisor.
A $1.7 million stream restoration program occurred at the golf course in 2016, led by the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, the City of Cleveland, the Village of Highland Hills, and the Mill Creek Watershed Partnership. The project restored a channelized section of Mill Creek, as detailed and shown in videos here.
I work right around the corner from this course. It would be great if it was in good, doesn’t even have to be great, shape. After work Play 9 would be terrific.
I moved to Cleveland Heights in August 2016. This is the only public course that isn’t a 30 minute drive. I would think that they could be profitable with the right money into and the right fee structure. I’m hoping that it doesn’t go to seed.
This current situation of not being even open nor having the grass cut is a disgrace and enraging. The City of Cleveland keeps screwing each and every one of the greater Cleveland residents who play public golf here, especially given it convenient location. Many of us black and white, grew up playing these two Sandy Alves golf courses (Donald Ross’ understudy) and know even recent times in which under the right care the two golf courses can be great to play and putt on. Sadly I bet TPTB will be cowardly quitters here and claim they can’t cut a profit. Golf has been privatized on the CLE east side unless you want to drive north or south 20 miles, damn shame on you CLE.