Oklahoma City Council authorizes bond sale for new Lincoln Park Golf Course clubhouse

The council voted unanimously Tuesday to authorize up to $8 million in bond sales to pay for the $9.25 million project, which will raze the aging clubhouse and replace it with a 32,000-square-foot new building that will include multipurpose facilities.

“(The) vision is that this clubhouse will be for more than golf,” said Wendel Whisenhunt, director of the city's Parks and Recreation Department.

Big-money tournaments

A general obligation bond issue from 2007 provided $4.5 million for the renovation of the clubhouses at Lincoln Park and Earlywine Golf Course, with each course getting half of the money.

But consultants and the Oklahoma City Golf Commission determined the Lincoln Park clubhouse, built in 1960 with renovations only to the golf-cart storage area and restaurant since then, was in a condition too poor to be renovated and still meet current and future business models, Whisenhunt said. The extra revenue bond money will pay for a new clubhouse instead of a renovation.

“The golf courses (in Oklahoma City) are great,” said former Mayor Andy Coats, a member of the golf commission. “The gateways to our golf courses, the clubhouses, are not.”

The small and aging clubhouses don't provide enough room for tournaments, which are big moneymakers for golf courses. The city views its courses as economic development tools because they generate revenue and help attract businesses with coveted high-salaried employees.