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Detroit Golf Course To Close After Nearly A Century

DETROIT (WWJ) - It's the end of an era.

Detroit's New Rogell Golf Course is closing for good this week. The owner, Greater Grace Church, has sold the 120-acre site to Detroit Memorial Park Cemetery.

"We all love the New Rogell Golf Course, but a decision has been made to move in a different direction," said Professional golfer, Lindsey Mason, III, manager and trainer at Rogell.

Mason said the last skins game is this Friday, beginning at 11 a.m.

"... The golfers, we're going to play the game of golf, talk about the good times, talk about the good shots that we had," Mason told WWJ Newsradio 950's Stephanie Davis.

Mason
Lindsey Mason, III. Pro Golfer, Trainer, and Course Manager (credit: Stephanie Davis/WWJ)

"There's going to be a great deal of emptiness, but these individuals here -- they will move on and play other golf courses," he said.

The course is the only African-American owned in the state-designed by famed architect Donald Ross -- the same person who designed the Oakland Hills course.

Davis spoke also with Detroiters Gerald Smith who was getting in a final round on the links.

"I always contend that this course, the architecture of this course, was probably the premier in the city," said Smith. "No other course has what this course has."

Rogell would have marked its 100th anniversary in 2014.

Charles Pickens has lived near the course for 40 years. "... to see it go ... it hurts because it's a historical site. And when you see history go, it's sad," he said.

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