Hi there, my name is Tony Hart, I’ll be your organizer for this event. For the past three years I have visited City Park nearly every day, often hiking upwards of 5 miles a day as shown on the Cover Photo above. I was aware of the Golf Course attempts over a year ago when it appeared in the Picayune, but my nerves were quickly settled by a New Orleans native that said there had been attempts for the past 7 years with no success. Unfortunately the time has come, and quickly at that. No signage, no public notification of a timeline has been presented.

Rather, on February 13th a fence had suddenly been erected. This installation caused a ruptured water main that drained into the Couturie Forest Arboretum for at least five days without repair and has been fixed as of February 23rd.

Friends, family, pets and even a brass band gathered at City Park on Saturday to protest a $24.5 million golf course. The effort was coordinated by the City Park for Everyone Coalition. Instead of the golf course, supporters want to keep the area a green space free to all.

Emily Schumacher stands with the Coalition. She utilizes the "green space" by bringing her students to teach them about Mother Nature. “We'll go through the paths and identify different things through the golf course and play nature games. They'll get different points for how many animals they can sight.” Schumacher says.

Passions flared Tuesday at the City Park Board of Commissioners meeting when more than sixty people gathered to challenge a planned $24.5 million golf course project in the park.

City Park CEO Bob Becker told the crowd that the state has already awarded a bid for the contract, construction has begun, and “golf is really not on our agenda.” But the board still heard more than an hour of comments from citizens who took aim at the role of golf in the park, as well as the board’s process for public involvement in the park’s post-Katrina renovations.

At issue was the footprint of the former East and West courses of the City Park Golf Complex, which were flooded after Hurricane Katrina and sat un-golfed for the last decade. While City Park, the State, FEMA, and a private foundation worked out a plan to create a single 18-hole championship-style golf course on the site, the links became overgrown, and residents began using the old courses for hiking and encountering nature.

NEW ORLEANS CITY PARK (WGNO) – Going into Tuesday’s board meeting for City Park, opponents of the new professional golf course knew they could do little more than complain.

“I realize all this is too late,” one man said.

The park’s board already approved a master plan last year, and construction on the new golf course is already underway. But the crowd still hoped to let the board know that they feel the golf course will take away green space from the park. They also feel the new golf course will serve far fewer people than the green space that’s being cleared for it now.

“Golf courses are the second worst land use that could possibly be used in an urban environment, second to grave yards,” another opponent told the board.

The hot topic as City Park's championship golf course becomes reality is moving the PGA Tour's annual stop in New Orleans, the Zurich Classic, from TPC Louisiana to the new tract. It's a debate that is down the road.

The new course, on which ground was broken Thursday, won't be ready until at least the fall of 2016 and the Zurich is contracted with TPC Louisiana through 2019. The smart money is on the event eventually moving to City Park. Location and a new course are the primary reasons why.

City Park is set to begin construction of a new championship-level golf course, nearly a decade after much of the 1,300-acre park was severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina. The $13 million, 18-hole course will be modernized with both beautiful and challenging shapes, incorporating many of the lagoons and oak trees from the former East and West courses while erasing their former flatness.

Yet to be named, the par-72 layout has been designed by nationally renowned golf course architect Rees Jones, as well as Torre Design Consortium, of New Orleans. It ranges from 5,100 to 7,250 yards and is bordered by Filmore Avenue, Harrison Avenue, Marconi Drive and Wisner Boulevard.

Though only a few ceremonial shovels of dirt were turned Thursday, the long-awaited construction of City Park's championship golf course has begun. After almost nine years of delays, roadblocks and federal hoops to jump through, City Park hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for the course on a chilly morning Thursday.

Duininck Golf Inc., which was awarded the contract in November, will build the $13.2 million course. Construction must be completed by the beginning of 2017, however, it could be ready by the fall of 2016, officials said Thursday.

You can't see it now among the overgrown cart paths and weed-choked lagoons but a championship golf course will soon rise in City Park. In two years or so, local duffers won't have to trek to English Turn or the TPC of Louisiana on the West Bank to enjoy championship-caliber golf. For the first time in decades, the East Bank could play host to a PGA Tour event.

Thursday was an important day for New Orleans golf.

City Park's long-awaited, oft-delayed $24.5 million golf complex finally broke ground and will one day be a boon for the local golf community. A new clubhouse, driving range and practice facility will be constructed on the footprint of old East and West courses, along with some upgrades for the North Course.

But the centerpiece—and future economic engine—will be the 7,300-yard Rees Jones-designed tract, which city and state officials broke ground on after nine years of planning and fund-raising.