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On Golf | Juniata: Back for another round

Every now and then a golf course deserves a fresh look, a new evaluation. In this case, it's Juniata Golf Club, the proud but humble little city-owned golf course in the Northeast.

Juniata Golf Club manager Bob Wheeler notes that "the regulars say it's the best they've seen it in years." The course has undergone refurbishment.
Juniata Golf Club manager Bob Wheeler notes that "the regulars say it's the best they've seen it in years." The course has undergone refurbishment.Read moreMICHAEL BRYANT / Inquirer Staff Photographer

Every now and then a golf course deserves a fresh look, a new evaluation. In this case, it's Juniata Golf Club, the proud but humble little city-owned golf course in the Northeast.

You might recall a visit I paid to Juniata last August. Conditions at the course had become so bad, regulars had taken to calling me to complain, hoping I could shame the owner (the city) and the operators (Liberty Golf) into doing something.

"They're not putting any money into it," one of the regulars, who was about to tee off, told me at the time. "There's crabgrass on the greens, crabgrass in the fairways, no grass on the tees. In all my years playing here, this is the worst. Everybody's unhappy."

All that, plus, as I saw for myself, almost no sand in the bunkers, although there were tufts of grass poking through what sand there was. Several of the pins didn't have flags. Juniata was a mess.

Barry Bessler, chief of staff of the Fairmount Park Commission, explained that Juniata was caught in a Catch-22: The only money the city was willing to sink into maintaining the courses was what came in from greens fees. But with rounds understandably falling, in part because of conditions, there was less to spend.

"Unfortunately, it comes down to simple economics," Bessler said.

To his credit, I never heard a peep out of Bob Wheeler, the retired cop who has been the general manager of Juniata for 17 years. I told Wheeler that if conditions got better at Juniata, give me a call. I'd like to write that story, too.

The call came the other day. A year later, Wheeler was proud of the improvements at Juniata, and he wanted to show them off.

"The regulars say it's the best they've seen it in years," he told as we toured Juniata in a golf cart one day last week. "We've even lured back some of the people we'd lost."

There was actual grass on the fairways - freshly mowed fairways, I might add. There was also sand in the bunkers, and the tufts of grass were gone. On the greens, I could see nary a bare spot or patch of crabgrass. Mowed that morning, the greens were smooth, true. Flags flapped on every pin.

Not everything had changed. As we drove from the 12th to the 13th holes - a route that took us under the Wyoming Avenue bridge - Wheeler glanced up at the wall of graffiti.

"As long as it's not curse words, I don't worry," he said with a hint of resignation.

While good weather of late has helped, Wheeler attributed the transformation at Juniata to the arrival last October of a new superintendent, Jay Jackson, a 22-year veteran of the business who has spent most of his career at private clubs.

Working with the same budget as before ($200,000 per year is a ballpark figure), Jackson and his staff of five have provided the elbow grease and tender loving care needed to dress the place up, starting with mowing the fairways three times a week and the greens six times a week.

"I'm working with what they give me," Jackson said.

At 5,275 yards, Juniata, built during the Depression by the Army Corps of Engineers, is never going to be Augusta National. It still doesn't have a proper clubhouse, and it has portable toilets. But right now, Wheeler and the regulars are happy with where things are going.

Outside the pro shop, Harry Kirchner, who has been playing Juniata for five years, was getting ready to start his round.

"Never seen it better, 1,000 percent better," said Kirchner, 60, a coin dealer from Kensington. "But don't write it up too good. Too many people will show up."