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New Ohio layout built on landfill

A new golf course in Columbus, Ohio built atop a landfill can bury its past but can't always hide from it.

The complete story

When the first players tee off at Columbus’s Phoenix Golf Links on June 1, they'll surely find clues that the course was once a garbage dump. For example, there's the tall flare on the southern edge of the course, burning off 1,800 cubic feet of methane gas per minute. There are also gas-extraction wells surrounded by wooden fences and marked with signs that read, "Warning: flammable gas.''

In addition, visiting golfers might puzzle over the extra hole, a short par-3 built in case the garbage gives way beneath one of the other 18 holes. There is no need to hide the past life of the course, says Mike Long, executive director of the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio. Instead, he celebrates it.

"We think it is a good story about how you can take something that was a negative and make it a positive, save taxpayers money and protect the environment,'' Long says. As golfers might guess, fairway grass has grown nicely at the Phoenix, a par-72 public course on Jackson Pike on the southern side of Columbus.

The solid waste authority has given a long- term lease to Petro Environmental Technologies of Cincinnati. In exchange for getting the land for $1 a year for 50 years, the company has invested more than $4 million in building the course and will maintain the clay cap that keeps the landfill from leaking, saving the authority $100,000 a year.

Course developers already have booked a golf outing of players likely to appreciate the Phoenix for what it is and what it was. The Solid Waste Association of North America, which is holding its annual convention in Cincinnati in October, will bring its golf outing to the Phoenix.

Using the landfill is a win-win situation, National Golf Foundation spokeswoman Judy Thompson said. "It has been done since the '50s. It's a pretty good option for many municipalities to use land that otherwise is wasted.'' The organization, which has held seminars on the subject, doesn't tally the number of landfill golf courses, but Thompson says most are in California, Colorado, and Florida.

Planning a trip

To get to the Phoenix, use the Expedia.com Flight Wizard to book a flight to Columbus (airport code: CMH) and use the Car Wizard to rent a car there. Use Expedia.com to book a room in the Columbus area(www.surpriseitscolumbus). You can also use the Expedia.com Golf Travel section to reserve a tee time many area courses.