Mobile’s renovated municipal golf course is about to get a professional once-over. The city has moved forward with a $60,000 contract that brings a nationally known golf architect to Azalea City Golf Course to study the grounds, talk to the golfers who play there and draft a plan for what comes next.
The agreement with Richard Mandell Golf Architecture, a firm based in Pinehurst, North Carolina — a village better known as the home of American golf than for its population — includes creation of a professional business plan for the course along with architectural consulting services. Public works director Shonnda Smith presented the contract to the City Council during its pre-meeting work session, telling members that Mandell will visit the course and perform a full assessment of both its grounds and its operations.
Just as important to city officials, the architect will sit down with the golfers themselves. Smith said Mandell plans to engage with local players as part of the process, gathering their impressions before making recommendations for the course’s development.
Council sees a first-class future
District 4 Councilman Ben Reynolds, whose district includes the course, welcomed the hiring and said he expects visible results.
“I look forward to seeing an outcome that is going to be positive,” Reynolds said. “I can’t wait to see it be the first-class facility it can be.”
The council was expected to take up the contract for final approval the following week.
A course already in transition
The study is the latest step in a busy stretch for the course. In March, the city unveiled an upgraded website for Azalea City aimed at modernizing how golfers find information and book tee times. Around the same time, the clubhouse was renovated along with portions of the course itself — work that city leaders framed as the beginning of a longer-term investment in the property.
Mayor Spiro Cheriogotis has pointed to the course’s popularity as evidence that the spending is warranted, saying Azalea City ranks as the second-busiest municipal golf course in all of Alabama in terms of rounds played per year. Heavy play is both a blessing and a burden for a public course: it proves demand, but it also accelerates wear on tees, greens and cart paths, which is precisely the kind of issue a professional assessment is designed to quantify.
Why cities invest in their courses
Municipal golf courses occupy a peculiar space in city budgets. They are expected to pay their own way, yet they also function as public parkland, youth sports venues and, in many communities, some of the most affordable recreation available. When a city course falls behind on maintenance, rounds decline and the deficit grows; when it is kept competitive with private and semi-private alternatives, it can become a genuine community asset that runs close to break-even while serving golfers who could not afford a private club.
That balancing act is what the Mandell contract is meant to address. A business plan grounded in an architect’s assessment gives the council something it has not had in the recent past: an independent, professional read on what the course needs, what it costs and what revenue it can realistically support.
For the golfers who fill Azalea City’s tee sheet week after week, the hope among city officials is simple — that a course already drawing some of the heaviest play in the state will soon look and play like the first-class facility they believe it can be.