Historic Bowden Golf Course (3111 Millerfield Road) opened to the public Friday, October 26 , after being closed since April 2018 so it could undergo a major improvement project. Community leaders and golfers celebrated the project’s completion with a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony and course tours on Thursday, October 25.
Click here to see photos from the grand reopening celebration & ribbon cutting.
“We can feel the anticipation for this weekend’s opening; we’re regularly getting calls and messages from people asking us about opening weekend and saying how excited they are that we’re putting this kind of money into the course,” says Brandon Doles, General Manager of Golf. “We’re looking forward to expanding programs for youth here, hosting more tournaments, and creating a much better place for golfers from the region and state to play.”
“Your Historic Bowden Golf Course is a central part of our community’s history, and it deserves to be one of the crown jewels of the recreation opportunities we provide to people of all ages,” says District 3 Commissioner Elaine Lucas. “
The project was funded with $480,000 from the voter-approved 2018 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) and includes improvements to the irrigation system, new landscaping, renovations to the clubhouse, and, most importantly, redesigned greens and tee boxes. About $625,000 was used from the 2012 SPLOST, bringing improvements at the course since 2014 to more than $1.1 million.
Improving Bowden Golf Course is part of Macon-Bibb County’s award-winning Forward Together Strategic Plan in the Quality of Life Focus Area. Projects identified by the Commission and public in this Area “support, encourage, and promote good living in Macon-Bibb with the arts and cultural events, tourism improvements, social and night life opportunities, and a community-wide system of passive and active recreation.”
About Historic Bowden Golf Course
The Charles L. Bowden Golf Course, located on Millerfield Road in Macon, Bibb County, Georgia, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on February 23, 2015. The nomination was sponsored by the City of Macon and the Macon Golf for Kids program.
This 18-hole public golf course was designed in 1938 by John “Dick” C. Cotton (1907-1994), a Macon professional golfer and businessman. Cotton and other local golfers approached the City of Macon about the need for a public course after the Lakeside Course in Macon closed in the mid-1930s. The mayor of Macon, Charles Bowden, agreed to assist in any way, except financially because the city had no money during the Great Depression to build golf courses. A former, but vacant, airfield in east Macon, known as Miller Field, proved to be the ideal spot to lay out an 18-hole course. With the help of Works Progress Administration (WPA) labor, equipment from various businesses throughout the city, and the sale of subscriptions to fund materials, the course was completed and opened in September 1940.
For more information about Bowden Golf Course’s listing
in the National Register of Historic Places and its history, click here.