So long to Riviera Beach's lovely Lone Pine ... and say hello to West Palm's The Park

This column reflects the voice of its writer, not of The Palm Beach Post newsroom or editorial board.

It has been a thrill, taking on the game of golf the past couple of years, trying to master the myriad split-second variables that go into consistently hitting a dimpled ball in a straight line. Yes, there've been times when I felt the sport's name should be changed to a different four-letter word. But my friends and I have battled back against the frustration and always enjoyed the comradeship and slow progress made on our mornings tracking through the dewy grass. This is a sad week for us, though. Because, while we sampled public fairways from Boca Raton to Boynton Beach, Lake Worth Beach and Palm Beach, and out as far as the lovely course in Belle Glade, the place we always came back to was Riviera Beach’s Lone Pine Golf Club, as we did Sunday, for one last round.

A family-owned, affordable and nicely kept course, Lone Pine’s 18 holes nestle in a modest neighborhood off North Military Trail, sections of it within earshot of untamed mufflers on the busy thoroughfare, and of the rock ‘n’ roll from Rapids Water Park’s p.a. system, just across the street. Yet, as unassuming as the course was, its fairways and greens served as a sanctuary for townsfolk of all ages, shapes and colors. Also taking refuge: families of Egyptian geese, sandhill cranes, squawking blue jays and crows, parakeet squadrons and lonesome hawks high above, not to mention the fish below, among the countless submerged golf balls beyond reach of extension-pole retrievers, in Lone Pine’s voracious ponds.

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Alas, Lone Pine closed for good on Sunday. My friends and I will miss it.

Pending another vote or two of a city council majority more concerned with revenue than recreation and unaware, perhaps, of the soul-replenishing moments a game on the grass provides, backhoes will flatten the fairways to make way for a couple hundred more townhomes and houses.

My first golf swing came with my dad, a few decades ago

As I think about it, my first swing of a golf club was not just a couple of years ago but a few decades back, when I was in my 20s. My parents had split up and when I drove to visit my Dad, once in a while he would convince me to golf with him on his local course. I wasn’t into the game at that point. I played dutifully. But when my kids were born, I was off the hook. He loved nothing better than taking his grandchildren out on the course and letting them sit on his lap and steer the cart while they tore up and down the hills like maniacs.

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My father died nine years ago at age 93. I didn’t play for years after that. No reason to. It wasn't my thing. But somewhere along the line, my wife came across a Groupon deal for golf lessons and thought that would make a nice holiday gift for our son, by then in his early 20s. Soon, my son and I began to play together. Now, every other weekend or so, I drive to his neck of the woods or he meets me part-way, and we golf. That has become our thing. He still insists on driving the cart, of course. I look at him behind the wheel and picture him on my father’s lap and realize how meaningful it must have been for my father. Strapped on the back of the cart: my Dad's old Callaway clubs, which we share.

When I would go solo or with friends to Lone Pine, I’d often see a mom or a dad, sometimes a grandfather, with their kid on the putting green or driving range, and sometimes in a golf cart on the course. I know now what those moments mean to them. 

Riviera Beach, other than its Singer Island enclave, is not a wealthy town, so I know that it was Lone Pine’s very modesty that made it accessible to so many local golfers, and that made their special moments possible. So it’s sad that, in a county that has more golf courses than virtually any other in the United States, Riviera Beach hasn’t a single course and those in neighboring towns aren’t nearly as affordable as Lone Pine was.

As an affordable golf course closes, another course re-opens with an expensive facelift

By happenstance, the morning after Lone Pine closed, West Palm Beach’s shuttered municipal course reopened 10 miles to the south. Transformed into “The Park” by a nonprofit foundation, the luxurious facility promises outreach to area schoolchildren with programs in science, technology, engineering, the arts and math, that tie into its focus on golf.

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For many who frequented Lone Pine, The Park’s rate schedule will be far too steep for the course to serve as a replacement, even for those who qualify for a West Palm resident discount. But if it lives up to its promise to focus on children’s transformation — and in doing so, reaches out to schoolchildren from Riviera Beach and other neighboring communities — it will be worth the millions that foundation donors contributed to bring it into existence.

In a brief ceremony inaugurating The Park on Monday, West Palm Beach Mayor Keith James expressed hope the facility’s programs would, decades from now, lead surgeons, lawyers, nuclear physicists and others to look back in recognition that The Park’s contribution to their childhood helped lead to their success. I share that sentiment, even as I worry The Park’s prices might exclude many who are children only at heart.

But time marches on, so I wish The Park all the best and I thank the Gerlach Family for making Lone Pine the place it was for as long as they did. And to those whose yards, pools and picture windows line Lone Pine's now-lonesome fairways, I can only say, well, sorry about that.

Tony Doris is the editorial page editor for The Palm Beach Post.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Riviera's Lone Pine golf course closes; will West Palm fill the gap?