Grandview Golf Club Holds Memories for Golfers
With the closing of Grandview Golf Club, writer Rich Kelly reminisces about the golf course. It's assets were auctioned off on May 21. I first…
With the closing of Grandview Golf Club, writer Rich Kelly reminisces about the golf course. It’s assets were auctioned off on May 21.
I first became acquainted with Grandview while in high school in Chardon.
As a member of the Chardon’s class of 1966, my senior season saw my first limited varsity golf action at Grandview.
I wasn’t sure how to get there, but as I learned after graduation, when I had to pay to play, I realized golf could be something to keep going with.
If you were in your car heading to the Middlefield Cheese Factory, you had to be alert crossing the Baltimore and Ohio railroad tracks for golf balls coming your way at a high rate of speed.
At the same time, and something that was in the minds of a lot of golfers over the years on the course designed by Hugh Johnson in 1929, a golfers mind had to be focused on hitting your tee shot straight, because if you sliced one to the right off the tee, it was literally possible to scare a motorist to death.
Heading toward Middlefield on 608, it immediately brought to attention the certain special traits Grandview presented on its very first hole, a short par 3 which bordered the edge of the roadway.
Today the course lies completely inactive with empty buildings an empty parking an empty pool area and an empty restaurant.
No Trespassing signs warn visitors of being prosecuted, and it is almost possible to hear shrill clanks of drives of aluminum clubs striking the ball off on its merry adventure of the 18 holes of the club.
Grandview had some very good times. As of this writing, I have not had a chance to talk with longtime superintendent Tom Fritz, but after a good beginning last fall with a fine tournament effort on the links, as well as some fine dining, I thought, in the restaurant there, it seemed like Grandview was off to a solid year.
The course now is broken up into 15 parcels of land, ready for development.
Lot 10 is home of the clubhouse, restaurant, and pool areas. The silence of the entire area makes one wish they could come up with the winning lotto ticket to claim ownership and restart the golf course as it was, but that is unlikely.
Reviews over the years of the facility are mixed.
The restaurant was a place of fine dining back in the early 2000s.
Maybe something happened in later seasons, but without talking with those who played and worked there, it’s tough to say what went wrong to the point where they went out of business.
Many different factors come into play.
Running a family golf course takes time and money. With the rise of some state run courses new to the area, it might well be that playing private clubs got to be too expensive.
For a while, especially after I graduated from Chardon, that did become the case, although the main reason I gave up playing was my own temper after a bad round.
Had a bad round one day at Hidden Valley in Thompson, got so mad, when I went bowling that night at Ernst Lanes, I sold my clubs and have’t picked one up since, other than a round of putt putt with my grandkids.
For what it’s worth now, the Grandview Golf Club and restaurant now sits vacant, waiting for a facelift to be determined by time and money.
I am sure there are generations of memories of nights and days spent on the course or restaurant that will make some folks smile with remorse.
Whether a solid golfer or just a weekend duffer, as I was, good things abounded at Grandview for many.
Chardon grad Ed Betzer, a solid golfer in his day in this area who now lives with his wife, Pat, and family in Florida, played the course and had the thrill of scoring a hole in one on the first hole along route 608.
Many of us came close, too, and many a high school, especially Cardinal, saw stories of near misses of either an ace or a smashed windshield or dented fender develop for its players.
Those memories will now need to be built at different courses.
The Huskies will take their efforts to Rolling Green Golf Club on Mayfield Road this fall. That means new memories for many, but the old ones will also last long into the future, both good and bad.
With the closing of Grandview Golf Club, sad ones as well.
(Editor’s note: Grandview Golf Course was auctioned off in parcels in May to a variety of owners. The restaurant and swimming pool were purchased by Tom Blair Jr., according to the Geauga County Recorder’s Office.)
