Courses

Great Park Losing Its Golf Course?

August 13, 2009

Another golf course development project looks like it's on life support.

A proposed 45-hole course that was to be part of the Great Park, $1.4 billion, 1,300-acre community recreation center in Orange County, Calif., that is also to include "sports fields, community gardens and a man-made lake" -- and as many as 4,800 residential units -- may be canceled. At least that's what the project's developers, Lennar Corp., want according to a proposed new agreement with Orange County officials that would help jumpstart construction of Great Park, which has stalled during the economic downturn.

Details on the latest developments in this story from last Friday's Orange County Register. More specifics on the Great Park project can be found here.

Great Park is being built on the site of the old El Toro marine base, which closed about a decade ago. Lost in the redevelopment was the El Toro Marine Base Golf Course, which closed in December 2006. Fans of that course thought they would get a new course in the Great Park project, so they are (naturally) upset at the lastest developments.

"Without a golf course [Great Park] is going to have a facet of society that is missing," Ron Bloes, a past president of the El Toro Men's Golf Association, told the Register. "Golf in Orange County is part of the lifestyle down here. It's entrenched in the community."

-- G.R.