By Rodney Page, Times Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
CLEARWATER — It is 5:15 p.m. on Sunday and Larry Thomas interrupts a conversation to answer the phone in Airco Golf Course's near empty pro shop. Thomas is the head professional at Airco and the only full-time staffer left in the building. The caller wants to know if it's too late to get in a quick nine holes.
"We're closed,'' Thomas said. "We're closed forever.''
There are only two part-time employees on this Sunday. They are busier than ever, taking down tee markers and flag sticks for the last time. As the carts come in from the final rounds, they are cleaned out and taken to the cart barn. They will be gone 24 hours later.
Inside the clubhouse, the small counter is void of any golf accessories. Computers and chairs are stacked in the corners of the room. The sign on the front door says, "Sorry, We're Closed.''
Soon, a large fence will wall off the course. After 50 years, Airco is now just a memory.
"In my opinion there is a lack of affordable public golf in this county,'' said Thomas, 55, whose last official day is June 3. "Airco offered that. But it's not up to me.''
Airco Golf Course (1961-2011)
Airco Golf Course opened in 1961. It was basically a flat, treeless layout on 123 acres adjacent to the St. Petersburg/Clearwater Airport. Trees were added, but it kept its basic layout throughout. In fact, its Bermuda greens from 1961 were never changed.
The course was designed by Chick Adams, who also has local courses such as Seminole Lake Country Club, Diamond Hill in Dover and Top of the World Golf Course in Clearwater on his resume.
Airco was run by St. Petersburg/Clearwater Airport. By 2008, when the economy was at its lowest, golf courses such as Airco started losing money. Depending on whom you ask, Airco lost between $150,000-$217,000 last year. Rounds were down to 28,800 in 2010. By contrast, Mangrove Bay Golf Course in St. Petersburg, which is run by the city, had nearly 70,000 rounds played in 2010.
In March, the County Commission voted 6-1 to shut down Airco (Norm Roche was the dissenting vote). They did leave a three month window to find a private investor, but that window closed with no takers.
In the coming weeks, Airco will start to resemble a golf course less and less. General maintenance will continue on the land, but grass and weeds will overtake the greens, fairways and sand traps. The land will eventually be used for something else, but nobody knows when or for what.
When it was built, Airco was on the outskirts of Pinellas County. There was no Feather Sound, no restaurants, no hotels, no Carillon. About the only thing in that part of town was the old Showboat Dinner Theater.
The theater is long gone, and now so is Airco.
Paying their respects
Golfers came and went throughout the day on Sunday. The biggest group gathered for the Last (and first) Annual Airco Open. It was organized by County Commissioners Neil Brickfield and Roche on the fly. They came up with the idea nine days before the closure.
There were five groups and 19 golfers overall. Most of them have lived in the area for a long time and played Airco regularly.
"It's like seeing an old friend on his death bed,'' said John Marron of New Port Richey, who has played Airco since 1977. "You hate to see him go.''
Roche, 49, not only played Airco often, he also used to work there part-time.
"I used to work here 30 years ago for extra cash,'' Roche said. "I would rake bunkers on Saturdays and Sundays. I'd jump on the old Kubota tractor and go. This place is special to me.''
L.J. Govoni and Dane Schaffer of Clearwater have played Airco together just about every week since discovering it last May. Now they'll find a new place to play.
"I live in Feather Sound so I may look into joining there,'' Govoni said. "But I liked Airco because it was wide open. Feather Sound looks like it has a lot of water. I'm going to lose a lot of golf balls.''
Last group ever
No one is sure who was in the first group to ever play at Airco, but let the record show that Doug Bevis, Derek Burgess, E.S. Schroeder and Jay Galvin were the last foursome to play Airco. The group was part of the Airco Open. In fact, they won the tournament with a best ball score of 7-under.
The sun was almost gone when the group rolled into the cart barn. Their cart was crammed with memorabilia, including an Airco sign and a ball washer. The four other groups in the hastily organized tournament were long done.
"It took us so long to play because we were busy getting all this stuff,'' Galvin said.
How did they get the ball washer?
"No comment,'' Bevis said with a smile.
As winners of the tournament, the group received a trophy. It didn't have an inscription yet because Brickfield didn't have time to get one. They also won something else.
"You won the right to play Airco for life,'' Brickfield said.
The award ceremony in the restaurant included trophies for second and third place, as well as a raffle to give away the tee sign from the 15th hole. As the ceremony concluded, golfers mingled for a few seconds. Then the lights were turned off.
You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here.
Exorcising a demon
The first hole at Airco gave me the creeps. It was nothing but a straight ahead par 5 with a few trees down the left and right of the fairway. But there was also a chain link fence down the right side that separated the course from the road and hotels.
It didn't look like it was in play, but as a junior golfer with a terrible slice, it was always in play. When people brought up Airco, my first image was that hole, with the ball sailing over the fence, hitting the road, bouncing 40 feet in the air and landing in a retention ditch.
There were much better holes on that course, but I only remember the first hole. With the course less than an hour from closing forever, it was time to grab the sticks and play it one last time.
The fairway looked like one of the giant runways at neighboring St. Petersburg/Clearwater Airport. I told myself not to look right and swing away. The drive had a slight fade, but it landed right in the middle of the fairway. The next shot was a 3-iron that bounded under a tree about 20 yards from the hole on the left side. The left side! There was no way I was going over the fence this time.
As I grabbed my clubs to walk to the next shot, my inclination was to fix the fairway divot. What did that matter? Tomorrow, the course is just another plot of land in eastern Pinellas County. Divot, Schmivot.
After my third shot rolled to within 6 feet of the hole, I grabbed my putter and sat my clubs down on the green. That's another golfing no-no, but again, what did it matter?
The birdie putt lipped out (some things never change) and I tapped in for par. Now, if somebody mentions Airco I'll still think about that first hole. But it will be about making a par and walking back to the clubhouse as the sun sinks below an airplane hangar.