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Wheel' rounding into shape

Updated: 06/14/2007 07:41:29 AM EDT

FAIRFIELD — There is a grand vision still to be realized. Ever so slowly, that vision is coming into focus. You can already see subtle changes taking place, little things to whet the appetite and build hope that these two old courses can, and will, one day return to their former glory.

For the past 75 years, D. Fairchild Wheeler golf course has been a staple of Bridgeport's history. J.J. Henry played on both the Black and the Red courses growing up. So did Julius Boros, who, as the story goes, played 108 holes at the Wheel in one day.

Former PGA pros Ken Green and Brian Claar played the Wheel. So did former Senior PGA player Doug Dalziel. Countless names, from Jerry Courville Jr. to Dick Siderowf to Jack MacConachie, all practiced there.

The Wheel was once a shining jewel, but it became tarnished and disgraced and all but forgotten. Thankfully, however, the Wheel lives again. "It seems like everyone's happy," said D. Fairchild Wheeler course manager Alex Head while sitting in his office Wednesday afternoon. "It's exciting. We're hearing a lot of good things about the condition of the courses. There's a lot of history here. We want to give everyone a reason to come back."

The city is in the middle of a massive $3.2 million restoration project at the Wheel, which began last year with the completion of a new water irrigation system and will continue next week with the re-opening of the expanded driving range, according to Public Facilities director George

Estrada.

Along with that, plans over the next two years include the reconstruction of all 36 tee boxes and many of the sand traps on both the Black and the Red courses.

All I can say is ... it's about time.

Remember National Fairways? Remember what happened? Our shining jewel was supposed to get even better. But instead of turning into one of the best public courses around, the Wheel, for whatever reason, went flat. The Black and the Red became an embarrassment before the city finally took back control of the courses. Even after that, there were a lot of whispers that the Black and the Red might not ever recover.

But they have. A recent round played at the Red found its greens to be in perhaps their best shape in over a decade. More importantly, on every hole, there was grass. Real, defined fairway grass.

"We're seeing the courses come back (grass-wise)," Estrada said in a recent conversation. "We did work this spring to the tees and greens and we did extensive work before the winter to the greens. We've gotten some good feedback on the greens."

Estrada hopes the good feedback will lead to more rounds played. Well, so far, so good. In April, according to Head, the Wheel hosted 2,835 rounds. In May, that number jumped to 6,944 rounds.

"We're seeing a lot of traffic now on weekday afternoons and on weekend afternoons, those times are usually pretty slow," Head said. "It's really starting to pick up."

Last year, the Black and Red courses hosted 57,000 rounds of golf. Not bad considering that between May and September, all four nines were closed for upwards of a month and a half to complete the irrigation project. But it's a far cry from what Estrada said the Wheel hosted in the late 1970s — 110,000 rounds. "What that tells me is that I can double (the business) what I'm doing today," he said. "So we have to start putting together a financial plan for the golf course so that we can project where we're going."

Part of that includes a $30,000 master plan, funded by the First Tee program, to determine what needs to be done to make the Wheel better. For example, the Wheel needs to decide the tee boxes that have to be moved, the bunkers that have to be reconstructed and the greens that have to be modified. "The First Tee has been an incredible resource because they have the ability to reach out to the PGA organizations throughout the tri-state area and bring their expertise," Estrada said. "We've been capitalizing on that ability. We've had landscape architects come in and PGA pros that have come and played and evaluated the courses.

"The plan will tell us what we have to do, and then we'll have to sit with the Fairfield regulatory agencies and find out what do we need to do to abide to the regulations. This is a two- to three-year comprehensive program."

In the meantime, work continues. The other day, drainage work was taking place at Red No. 10, while over at the driving range, clearing of debris continued. The range is expected to be open in time for Henry's clinic with the First Tee group on June 26.

"We know there are a lot of things that have to get done, the cart paths, the tee boxes, the bunkers," Head said. "Once the master plan is complete and we determine what we need to do first, we'll go out and start to attack the course."

Now that sounds like a plan.

Contact Chris Elsberry at celsberry@ctpost.com

D. Fairchild Wheeler 2007 rates

18 HOLES

WeekdayWeekend/Holiday

Senior residents$14$16

Regular residents$17$19

Non-residents$28$35

Juniors$14$16

9 HOLES

WeekdayWeekend/holiday

Senior residents$11$13*