Bendelow

That is a good summary of what I saw streaming online. I read that puff piece on Jenni Peters and noted that she didn't even mention City Park.

At BREC headquarters on Florida Blvd. at Ardenwood. 5:00 p.m. Be there and voice your opinion (2-minute limit) if you value golf at City Park and in Baton Rouge generally.
Thanks.

Corrected, thanks.

BREC/Sasaki Meeting – September 17
City-Brooks & Perkins Road Park Planning

BREC and its consultant, Sasaki, are holding a public meeting on Thursday, September 17 to present their latest direction for City-Brooks and Perkins Road Park.

If you care about golf at City-Park, the future of the course, or how BREC makes decisions about major park projects, this is the time to show up and be heard. The last few months have raised real questions about process, transparency, and whether public input is actually shaping the outcome.

Attendance matters. Public comment matters.
If you play City-Park, grew up on it, or want to see a real golf architect involved, make plans to be there.

Tuesday, September 17 – 5:00 PM
BREC Administration Building (Florida Blvd.)

Bobby Jones Golf Course on Northside Drive, very near to Phipps Plaza. Googe for details.

The best thing is that it keeps the golf course intact as is. I didn't know that much land was available near McKinley for a track. The place for Sasaki to focus on is Brooks Park, not nibbling away at the golf course. BREC is wasting $600,000.

If BREC would invest in City Park the way it has in Clark, they might be able to raise fees a bit. But remember, BREC is public golf, and the fact that City Park more than pays for itself is a testament to its value.

BRAF wants to create a special taxing district there, but not for the golf course.
In 2025, City Park golf course generated a $75,000 surplus while keeping fees affordable or even "cheap." This year it is on track to host 30,000 rounds of golf, the estimated maximum capacity as reported by the National Golf Foundation. Alter the course substantially by removing the yardage equivalent of one hole and there is no telling how much play would be reduced, but as much as 50 percent has been suggested.

Polito and his design firm Sasaki claim their plans build around the existing course, but in fact their plan take 350 yards off and reduce par from 321 to 31. Taking 350 yards is like taking out an entire hole, and no one wants to play a chopped golf course like that.

Polito is trying to sound like a knowledgeable golf insider when in fact he knows or cares nothing about the beautiful, historic, City Park golf course, home to generations of Baton Rouge golfers for a hundred years.

There are two ways to kill off golf at City Park, and both are happening in the background.
1.Design it to death. Start shrinking holes, cutting into the footprint, or adding stuff that doesn’t belong on a golf course. Make it less playable, less attractive, and less viable. Slow motion kill.
2.Govern it to death. Put City Brooks into a conservancy with its own board and its own legislation. Once the public loses control, priorities shift and golf gets phased out over time. Structural kill.
People keep treating these as separate issues. They’re not. They’re two paths to the same outcome if nobody pushes back.
City Park Golf Course works. It’s affordable, historic, and heavily used. The public deserves a say before anything gets carved up or handed off.