CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. — Less than a week after announcing that Mason Rudolph Golf Course will close at the end of the month and become a park, Mayor Joe Pitts has said the city has put a pause on the plans.
Last week the Clarksville Parks and Recreation Department announced that Mason Rudolph Golf Course would have closed May 31 and reopened June 1 as Mason Rudolph Legacy Park.
The decision came after an evaluation of the property by Billy Fuller Golf Design, which estimated that making the property a viable golf course would be around $4.4 million.
With low golfer usage and a sinkhole opening on the course, Clarksville Parks and Recreation began evaluating the highest and best use of the property.
Initial plans for Mason Rudolph Legacy Park included open spaces, athletic practice fields, walking trails, pavilions, a playground and a community space for rent.
After Clarksville residents expressed both support and concern for the future of the golf course this week, Clarksville Mayor Joe Pitts said that the decision to make the course a park has been paused, explaining there are many issues to iron out regardless of which direction to choose.
“Throughout the early stages of this process, my singular goal has simply been to do what’s best for all Clarksville taxpayers with respect to future utilization of this property,” Pitts said. “I absolutely do not want this issue to become divisive in our community. I only want an end result that everyone can be happy, and comfortable with.”
In a media release announcing the park, the Parks and Recreation Department said the last year of full operation of Mason Rudolph Golf Course saw 2,790 individual golfer visits, less than the number of households in a one-mile radius of the 48-acre property.
Pitts said that the Parks and Recreation Department will formulate a specific strategy to formally gather public input that can be used to guide the future of the 43-acre site.
“To all residents, we say thank you for your interest and concern,” he said.