The Coaster

Coaster Photo: Ocean Township Mayor Bill Larkin cuts the ribbon at the re-opening of the Colonial Golf Course in Ocean Township Saturday.

By DON STINE
Area golfers said they are very happy that the Colonial Terrace Golf Course in Ocean Township a local landmark is now renovated and reopened.

Township officials held the ribbon-cutting ceremony Saturday and golfers are definitely ready to tee-off.

The course looks good, beautiful, better than ever! Ill try to play everyday, said 93-year-old Leo Krautheim, who has played golf at the course for decades.

The township has been renovating the nine-hole golf course, located on Wickapecko Drive in the Wanamassa section, since last spring after purchasing it from the former owners last year.

The golf club was founded by Celio Gonzalez, a Spanish immigrant, in 1925 and was a well-known and popular landmark. The course was one of the few non-segregated golf clubs in New Jersey and even the famous Harlem Globetrotters played there.

The site also once contained a restaurant/nightclub, called the Wanamassa Gardens, and hosted entertainers like Jackie Gleason, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Pearl Bailey and Cesar Romero.

This is like a dream come true to preserve this little piece of history, said Regina Savage, who is a descendant of Gonzalez and who managed the club for the last 20 years.

The golf course, affectionately known as The Patch, has always been owned and maintained by the family.

There will be no homes built there and it continues a tradition. This is what we always wanted to see. We never wanted to see the golf course developed with houses. The Patch lives, Savage said.

Savage said she and her family members, who also attended Saturdays ceremony, are quite happy with all of the improvements the township has made to the course.

I dont know if any of this would have happened without the foresight and courage of the township to purchase the site and really do it right, she said.

John Everson, who lives across Deal Lake from the third green, said he has been playing the course at Colonial Terrace for more than 20 years.

The course looks magnificent and the fairways are beautiful, he said.

Everson, who is also head of the Deal Lake Commission, said he believes preserving the open space, which is zoned for single-family homes, is the greatest benefit.

A great benefit may be the ability to now apply for grants to help stabilize the lake banks here and make stream improvements. This is all very, very positive for the lake and the township, he said.

The township acquired 19.5 acres of the 54-acre tract last year using various grants to help offset the $4.5 million expense. The township already owned the remaining 34.5 acres for decades due to unpaid taxes prior to World War II.

The First Tee of Monmouth and Ocean will offer golf programs for children between 8 and 17 years old at the Colonial Terrace Golf Course.

First Tee offers educational golf and self-improvement programs to young people and hopes to make the golf course their new headquarters.

Welcome back to the patch. It is going to live on in Ocean Township, said Mayor William F. Larkin.

Coaster Photo: Scouts raise the flag at the Colonial Golf Course on Saturday.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, May 22, 2008 at 2:05 pm and is filed under Ocean Township. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.