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Marine Park greens to get greener

Marine Park greens to get greener
Community Newspaper Group / Colin Mixson

The Marine Park Golf Course will be the “Barclays Center” of golfing once it completes a $5 million renovation, promised the golf course’s co-manager, who is in the process of upgrading all 18 holes to attract pro-golfers who tend to test their swings on out-of-town links.

“Better golfers right now will get in their car and leave Brooklyn to go to Long Island, and our goal is to keep them close to home and keep those dollars in Brooklyn,” said Adam Giordano, who signed a 20-year lease with the city to manage the neglected course and set about whipping it into shape three years ago with new bunkers and tee-boxes, renovating ruffs and raising mounds, and filling sand traps, in addition to sprucing up the landscape. “Along with the Nets and the Cyclones, we can have a golf course that receives national recognition that goes along with those things.”

Giordano said the improvements at the city’s only links-style, coastal golf course have already struck a hole-in-one with the experts.

“There are golfers who have expressed interest in holding events here,” he said.

But first the parched green has to be rejuvenated. Giordano and his team are using creative, sustainable ways to water and nourish it, including using horse manure from local riding clubs and leftovers from area restaurants as fertilizer, he explained.

Currently, the course is in the middle of its renovation: barren mounds and piles of dirt line the fairways. Golfers are still playing, and say the construction hasn’t affected their swing.

“We really don’t see the work being done,” said Joe Passantino, after finishing an 18-hole round. “Most of the stuff they’re doing is going up at night.”

Longtime golfers are happy to see their public course getting the country club treatment.

“This is no longer Marine Park Golf Course,” said golfer Mark Woseley. “It’s the Marine Park Country Club!”

Reach reporter Colin MIxson at cmixson@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-4514.

The place to practice: Ryan Price doesn’t usually play the Marine Park Golf Course’s renovated 18 holes, but he loves the newly installed driving range.
Community Newspaper Group / Colin Mixson