Taming the Wildwood

Municipal golf course stays open while renovating for Centennial season

By John Burbridge

sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — If only Wildwood could talk.

Or maybe it has ways to make others talk — like POWs.

Forget waterboarding and other forms of enhanced interrogation, if you really wanted to force the World War II German prisoners housed within the Charles City park grounds to spill the beans, all you likely had to do was issue a simple threat.

You can go home now.

“From what I heard, they didn’t want to leave,” said Joel Bruner, superintendent of Wildwood Municipal Golf Course. “They knew what was waiting for them when they got back home.

“I don’t know if they were given a chance to actually play here. But staying here couldn’t have been much worse than what our POWs experienced over there.”

Born from a 75-acre land donation from Getrude and E.M. Sherman and their Sherman Nursery Company, Wildwood is entering its 99th season. The nine-hole course has played through a lot of history and has had its share of facelifts.

“At one time the ninth green was positioned right in front of the clubhouse,” Bruner said. “You overshoot your approach and you hit the building or send the ball through a window.”

Wildwood’s biggest facelift is underway and will be ready to be formally unveiled for its Centennial season next spring.

“We had to adjust to the game’s technology … the equipment now available for the players,” Bruner said. “Golfers are hitting much longer these days, so there was need to lengthen the course in some areas to add to the challenge.”

Bruner also said they needed to loosen up space within the course to prevent errant shots from being hazards to golfers on adjacent holes.

The solution involves creating three new holes — or rather creating one entirely new hole and using parts of three current holes to form the other two.

Hole No. 5, currently a simple Par 3, will become Wildwood’s new No. 4, a 340-yard Par 4 dog-leg.

Hole No. 6 will be lengthened 100 yards, becoming the new No. 5 — a 430-yard Par 4 straight shot.

“We kept the large Oak (on the left side of new No. 5 tee) to line the course and keep things interesting,” Bruner said.

The new No. 6 — a 180-yard Par 3 — will be the completely new hole. It will occupy Wildwood’s old playground and parking lot area along the northern edge of the property.

“We got some complaints from people who have youthful memories of doing things back there when there was still an access road to get back there,” Bruner said. “It became a late-night hangout, and some of things that went on back there were elicit and not always lawful.

“Plus, the equipment and shelter were old and no longer up to safety standards, so we had to take them down.”

Bruner helped design the renovations as well as providing a plan to keep the course open this season amidst the project.

“A lot of courses have to shut down for a whole season whenever they redesign,” Bruner said. “We couldn’t really afford to do that here.”

Bruner said that he and the city are trying to do much of the work themselves — including tilling, smoothing and seeding — to keep the costs down. They did contract someone (Cutting Edge) to do the new greens.

The hope is that all this work will pay off with increased business.

“That’s part of the plan,” Bruner said. “Usually, curiosity will initially bring people out just to see things for themselves. We’re hoping they come out and keep coming out.”

Bruner said that many golf courses across the country are losing money and going under.

“I believe there was a craze to build too many of them,” Bruner said. “It was during the height of Tiger Woods’s career when golf was very popular and everyone thought building a course was a way to make a lot of money.”

The formula to make Wildwood more profitable is not a simple one according to Bruner.

“We are funded by taxpayers so we have an obligation to provide public amenities,” he said. “We want to make sure residents can play this course at a very affordable price. If we raise our rates to generate more revenue, people might not want to come out here anymore.”

Bruner said that full-time city employees are still granted free memberships, though for family memberships they have to pay the difference in cost from the regular membership fee.

“We still offer it, but it really doesn’t get utilized that much,” Bruner said.