‘Hold-ups, armed robberies’ make for unusual golf hazards
Baltimore County’s gain was Baltimore City’s loss in the most recent rankings of Best Municipal Golf Courses in the country from Golfweek Magazine.
Greystone Golf Course, in White Hall, was new to the top 50, checking in at number 28. The course, managed by the county Revenue Authority, was the only public course from Maryland to make the list.
The 2009 and 2008 lists were among the topics of discussion at Thursday’s meeting of the Baltimore County Revenue Authority board.
Last year, Mount Pleasant Golf Course, in Baltimore, was the only course in the state on the list, coming in at No. 12.
That ranking surprised some members of the board who made a few jokes at the expense of the city course.
“For hold-ups, armed robberies,” quipped board Chairman Hannan Sibel.
“That shows you how much credence we can give to this list,” added Leslie Pittler, a board member.
Lynnie Cook, the executive director of golfing operations and the incoming chief executive of the authority, said the 2008 ranking for the city course prompted “numerous phone calls.”
Cook added that there was a meeting between him and editors of the magazine, which he referred to as “my come to Jesus meeting with the people at Golfweek.”
“Long story short, the ones in red you will notice were removed from the top 50,” said Cook, who ran the Baltimore Municipal Golf Corporation before taking over at the authority five years ago.
“I think in talking to their editor … they’ve come up with a new process for ranking golf courses,” Cook said. “He realized it was a problem, he apologized for it, but he said at this point there was nothing that could be done about it.
“A mistake was made,” Cook concluded. “It was corrected, they have been stricken from the list and that’s all I’m going to say about Mount Pleasant. “