Sunlight beamed down as community members strolled up the track surrounding South Gleason Park on Tuesday, heading toward the sound of golf clubs striking balls.
“So who’s playing golf?” asked one resident as they watched different folks take turns hitting balls.
Behind Indiana University Northwest, dozens of Gary residents gathered on the green to celebrate the opening of the newly renovated South Gleason Park Golf Range, one of the city’s newest investments. The $173,000 project represents a stake in local parks and infrastructure.
“To me, this is Gary’s Central Park,” said Mayor Eddie Melton, looking into the crowd. “This is our opportunity to really leverage this opportunity and beautify it.”
The upgraded facility expands recreational offerings for Gary residents and visitors of all skill levels.
The park has a long history. It opened in 1928 as a segregated course, with an 18-hole municipal golf course and clubhouse for Gary’s white residents. Around the same time, Riverside Park, or North Gleason Park, was developed. Spanning over 300 acres, it let many Black residents play on a 9-hole golf course, swim, picnic, and more.
The push to desegregate South Gleason began in 1951, when the Chicago golf group the Par-Makers invited heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis to the park to play in a tournament. They hoped his presence and fame would force the board to open the parks. But it wasn’t until the 1960s that Gary native and golf pioneer Ann Gregory paid her fee despite the groundkeepers’ protests. That perseverance helped desegregate many of the city’s parks.
“We’re standing on a piece of history that we often don’t get a chance to acknowledge,” said Melton as he looked around. “As we stand here today, we want to acknowledge everyone who fought so hard to integrate, to get the right to participate [and] access not just this golf course, but so much throughout this entire country.”
A Chicago firm bought the park in 2020 for $9 million, but it sat abandoned and undeveloped for years. Recently, residents were awarded a $15,000 Love Your Block Grant to rebuild and revitalize a playground on the corner near the course.
The city has been planning the redevelopment of the nearly 100-acre course for a while.
“Improving quality of life is important because that’s how you get people to want to live in a place,” said Chris Harris, executive director of Gary Redevelopment. “Relationships are made in golf, and being able to have a space where you can do that and stay in Gary is so important.”
The upgrades include guest amenities and site security, specifically a new concrete tee line, a paved walkway, new range equipment, security cameras, and an upgraded alarm system. The new expansive driving range is more than 300 yards, with both a 14-bay artificial turf tee line and a 30-yard natural grass tee line. New features include smart tracking, which lets golfers track yardage in real time on their phones, and cashless, automatic golf ball dispensing.
Phase two of the improvements calls for installing a brand-new putting green in spring 2027. The range is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and offers an array of golfing options. For golfers who want a small basket of balls, prices start at $5, while large baskets start at $13.
Tracy Raoul of the Chicago Women’s Golf Club was among the first attendees to start hitting balls as soon as the ribbon was cut. She’s part of several golf leagues that have played at Gleason, and she’s excited about what the project could mean for Gary and youth looking to find ways to pay for school.
“Golf is the only sport that you can play from a toddler to an elder,” she said. As a longtime player, she advocates for the values and skills the sport can teach, especially in her community. “The youth will have some place to go. My motto is: hire a caddy, impact the life and courses, not corners.”
Raoul came to see the new course and support her league sister, Tracy Coleman, a Gary native who understands that advocating for change is the only way to get things done.
“Gleason is just one of the many beautiful parks that we have, but it’s important, as residents, that we attend [Gary] Park Board meetings [and] we advocate that we can use the park,” she said.
She remembers when Roosevelt, her high school, had a golf team and when her son played at West Side, but she didn’t grow to love the sport until someone bought her a set of clubs.
Like many, she hopes this will bring the sport back into the city and schools, creating opportunities and access for those who might not have had them before.
“Golf is a sport we’ve always played,” Coleman said. People of color currently make up only about a quarter of the golf population, and the number of Black players is a fraction of that number. “Now it’s an opportunity for us to build. Today is a win, and I hope we’ll continue to have more wins with all of our 56 parks.”
