By MADDY VITALE
Ocean City has a lot to offer when it comes to attractions — the beaches, the Boardwalk and the bay, and also golfing at the city’s Municipal Golf Course on Bay Avenue.
While the course, located at 26th Street and Bay Avenue in the same complex as the Municipal Airport, offers an enjoyable experience for new golfers and pros, it has one problem.
Errant balls are flying up and over the protective netting at the first hole and onto the sidewalk, nearby neighbors’ yards, and even the road.
That is where Mayor Jay Gillian comes in. He, along with other city officials, heard the concerns of the neighbors. They are working to fix the problem.
“We met with neighbors of the Ocean City Municipal Golf Course and we will be reconfiguring the first hole of the course to address their safety concerns,” Gillian said in a statement.
The city has installed netting that provides a barrier between the golf course and Bay Avenue. Yet golf balls are still ending up off the course and on the road.
While city officials and the mayor can’t improve someone’s golf swing, they can reconfigure the course to make it a bit more difficult to do that pop fly. That, they said, is their goal.
Gillian noted at a City Council meeting on Thursday that the golf course has been enjoyed by families and seniors for years.
Families were out for a day of golf while vacationing in Ocean City on Monday. The course, they said, is great for all skill levels, but they agreed that there are those occasional errant balls that go off the course.
Tracy and Elliott Nix, of Glen Ridge, N.J., made their golf day a three generational family outing.
They brought along their daughters, Harper, 15, Georgia, 12, and 10-year-old Finley and the girls’ grandmother, Gigi Schumacher, of Jupiter, Fla.
“I have been coming to the course since I was a kid,” Tracy Nix noted. “We have three generations golfing at the course. This is a great course for kids to learn on.”
Georgia said it is her favorite course.
“I learned on this course,” she said, before the family started their game. “The course is amazing.”
Elliott Nix’s family has a vacation home in Ocean City. He noted that his family has been playing on the golf course for years.
“We love it,” Elliott said. “It is a great course for kids.”
On Thursday, prior to the City Council meeting, Gillian met with the neighbors near the course to discuss their concerns.
The city temporarily closed the first hole, creating essentially an 11-hole course now. The goal is to reconfigure the course to ameliorate the problem in the near future.
“You tee off facing Bay Avenue at the first hole. It has been an issue over the past few years,” Michael Allegretto, aide to the mayor, explained on Monday. “More people are playing at the course so there are more balls being hit over the net into the street, houses and the sidewalk. We realize safety-wise we needed to cut down on the number of balls leaving the course.”
Over the years the city has improved the golf course for safety. Nets were added along Tennessee Avenue and holes were shortened along Bay Avenue.
The city has also had discussions over the years with golf course designers about making it a nine-hole course, Allegretto said.
Ron Kerins, of Brookhaven, Pa., and his sons, Ryan, 17, and 14-year-old Jack, make it a point to golf on the course whenever they come down for a vacation.
“It is a good strategy course you could learn from,” Ron Kerins said.
“I like the course,” Ryan added. “It looks even better than it did last year.”
