Christmas 13—Green Ridge Golf Course has continued to be a great spot in Wickliffe for seniors, juniors and league play.
Located at 29150 Ridge Road, the nine-hole, 1,915-yard, par-32 golf course was a family farm prior to becoming a course in the 1920s, according to Wickliffe Recreation Director Tim Stopp. Prior to the city purchasing the course in 2005, it was owned by Ralph Bond and Eddie Garfield, two pro golfers.
“Arnold Palmer did play at the course, so it does have some rich history in the golf community,” Stopp said.
In 2005, Wickliffe voters wanted to keep the course a green space. Since the city purchased it, it has continued to be operated as a golf course. During the pandemic, due to outside recreational activities being the only things happening, people were able to get a nice feeling from their experiences at Green Ridge, Stopp said.
“It has its niche,” he said. “We are ahead of where we were last year. June, July and August are the money-making months. We had a good May this year and actually a good April as well, so April and May are going to help with some of the profits coming this year.”
Stopp is anticipating the same results for the month of August and September before things settle down in October and November.
“I don’t have a number of rounds, but the staff does a good job of accommodating people and making the course a good spot,” he said.
During a recent council meeting, Councilperson Randy Gerhardstein noted one of the golf course employees mentioned there were some difficulties with irrigation at the course. Plans are currently in place to remedy this, Stopp said.
“We have our city engineer in the process of making that a better system over there, so we’re coming up with a plan,” he said. “That’s still a work in progress. It’s not a cheap fix, so we’re still trying to find the best way to irrigate the course with the city engineer involved. That’s one of the standout projects.”
To this day, the golf course holds the distinction of being one of the oldest courses in Ohio, and little has changed in the course’s layout since its inception.
Increasing the cart paths and their condition are also among the projects at the golf course. This past winter, the Service Department also gave a facelift on the inside of the clubhouse.
“They’ve repainted, redid the lights and the floor, so it got a fresh inside for the clubhouse,” Stopp said. “We’re doing these different projects piece by piece, trying to improve the gem that it already is.”