Philly to spend $9M to restore streams at Cobbs Creek Golf Course to stem flooding
The restoration includes creation of a 25-acre plain and planting 49,000 native trees and plants.
A few golfers were driving away Monday morning at the new 68-bay, double-decker, heated, illuminated driving range at the historic Cobbs Creek Golf Course.
But full restoration of the golf course won’t be complete until at least next spring or summer.
As that work progresses, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker and other officials announced that the city will contribute $9 million into restoring three miles of Cobbs and Indian Creeks, which flow through the golf course and contribute to persistent flooding.
Cobbs Creek Golf Course opened in 1916. The course, which spans 350 acres in a densely populated part of West Philadelphia, was notable for welcoming players of all ethnicities decades before other courses desegregated.
The restoration includes creation of a 25-acre plain and planting 49,000 native trees and plants.
“This effort is about much more than golf,” Parker said of the flood control and overall boost the new golf course — as well as a recently opened school — will bring to the community.
Why stream restoration is needed
Persistent flooding — and a fire — ultimately led to the closure of the 350-acre course in 2020.
The next year, it was announced that the nonprofit Cobbs Creek Foundation would spearhead the course’s transformation into a “world class” golf facility and raise $180 million for the project. Once the course is complete, the foundation will lease it back from the city for $1.
The foundation is spending $30 million in improvements to the creek in addition to the city’s $9 million.
The creek restoration work, which began in 2023, is roughly 50% complete, officials said. Parts of the waterways have been excavated and flow rerouted to mitigate downstream flooding.
Work will continue over spring and summer, including construction of a retaining wall, creation of the new wetlands, and the plantings.
Robert Baldwin, a project manager for Resource Environmental Solutions (RES), the company that has been contracted for the creek bed restoration, said hundreds of years of sediment has run off into the waterways.
“That built up beside the stream channel, made it unstable, made the banks vertical, and prone to erosion,” Baldwin said. “Ultimately the stream channel over-widened. It’s not a stable system.”
Baldwin said crews are removing sediment and lowering the elevation. He said some banks were 10 feet high. They’ll be lowered to one foot.
He expects the bulk of the work to be complete by the end of the year, including the plant of the trees and shrubs.
The felling of hundreds of mature trees in 2022 as part of the course renovation and wetlands rehabilitation outraged some neighbors, who had long used the woods for recreation.
Eventually, the city granted the Cobbs Creek Foundation an exemption from some environmental rules so it could restore the creek and wetlands and complete some parts of the course.
How’s the golf course renovation progressing?
Last spring, the 30,000-square-foot TGR Learning Lab opened, offering free, year-round educational programming to children in West Philadelphia and surrounding communities.
The lab is part of a partnership with Tiger Woods’ charity, the TGR Foundation.
Meredith Foote, executive director of the lab, said 53 schools have taken field trips there, and 7,000 children have visited.
A free spring course started Monday, she said, will run for 10 weeks.
“One of the unexpected benefits of this campus is that we have endless exposure to green space for our youth,” Foote said.
The courses are for grades 1-12. They include STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics), tutoring, college prep, and career-connected learning experiences.
And the Lincoln Financial Center at Cobbs Creek opened in December. The center includes the driving range, a pro shop, and Little Horse Tavern.
Enrique Hervada, chief operating officer for Cobbs Creek Foundation, said the harsh winter has slowed some work, but the driving range has been a hit since opening Dec. 12 and is generating revenue.
Hervada said the 20 heated bays help lure golfers.
“In parts of January it didn’t get above 30 degrees,” Hervada said. “We still had lots of people coming in. I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like on weekends when the weather is nice.”
In addition, the Q School, a 9-hole short course created by TGR Design, is scheduled to open in April.
The full 18-hole course is set to open in 2027, and the 9-hole Karakung course is set to open in 2028.