April 2025. By Andrew Hartsock.
The historic golf course is getting its needed irrigation system, but work — and fundraising — remains.
When Mike Kuhn was first approached about helping Clearview Golf Club in East Canton, Ohio, get a much-needed irrigation system, he agreed before he even knew about its place in golf history.
“I didn’t know all that historic side,” says Kuhn, president of irrigation design consulting firm Michael Kuhn & Associates Inc. “I didn’t know about William Powell, about him being an African American and a war veteran and what he did.”
What Powell did at Clearview was unprecedented. It’s the only course in the United States that was designed, built and owned by an African American.
“A lot of people said we needed to design some huge system,” Kuhn says. “I said, ‘No. Clearview is such a wonderful piece of property. What Mr. Powell did in designing that with no architect’s background, no agronomic background, was amazing. But they’ve got a small staff. You don’t give somebody like that a 2,000-head irrigation system. They’ll never be able to maintain it.’ I wanted to give them something they could handle and maintain for the next 20 years.”
Kuhn used his leverage as an accomplished, connected consultant to secure materials, often at a discount, and brought on LaBar Golf for the install. Work began in earnest earlier this year, and Kuhn reports all the mainline pipe is in the ground and tied to the pump station from Watertronics.
“We were starting from scratch,” he says. “All the greens are laid out right now. I know I have to get Larry water on his greens. Then in a couple of weeks we hope to get started on fairways and tees. I’m hoping by the first week in June we’ll be wrapped up.”
Read the full article at GCMOnline.