Englewood officials and course staff unveil master plan for Broken Tee improvements

Englewood — City staff and a golf‑course consultant laid out a multi‑year master plan for Broken Tee on Monday, describing a set of improvements intended to address chronic turf and drainage problems, modernize bunkers and cart paths, expand practice facilities and stabilize pond banks.

The plan will serve as “a guidebook and it’s a budgeting tool and nothing more,” said Rick Phelps, a presenter at the session. “It’s not a construction drawing, nothing’s gonna be built from this drawing.” The work is intended to be planned and staged over the next five to 15 years depending on funding and playing trends.

Why it matters: Broken Tee is an active public golf facility that operates as an enterprise fund; revenues from play must cover capital work. Staff said the course shows persistent agronomic problems driven by poor soils and legacy landfill and fly‑ash deposits, failing drainage lines, heavy play that stresses turf, and aging irrigation equipment. Those factors, staff and the consultant said, limit playability and increase maintenance costs.

Rick Phelps led the presentation and described a facility inventory completed in late 2023 that informed the master plan. Phelps said the inventory identified priority project categories: drainage and soil replacement in problem zones; bunker reshaping and size adjustments to create a cohesive bunker style; replacement or staged repair of asphalt cart paths; expanded and reconfigured practice…