Growing a Golf Course by Serving a Community

Indoor-Outdoor bays to try clubs during golf club fittings

Golf Course Trades first shared the story of Whitney, Lindsey and Kathryn Neidus in 2019. At that time, the three sisters were four years into revitalizing the StoneWater golf facility, transforming a declining property into a refreshed and energized golf course, pro shop, restaurant, event venue and community hub.

Earlier this month, the Linksman Golf Academy was announced as the newest addition to the facilities at Stone Water Golf Course. Offering a year-round indoor/outdoor golf training center and club fitting facility, the Linksman Golf Academy is designed to make it easy for golfers of all ages and all skill levels to advance their game.

Linksman Golf Academy at StoneWater

Challenges You Expect and the Ones You Never Saw Coming

The golf training center is a logical next step in the development of the golf facility at StoneWater. Following a strategy that combines skills, instinct, passion and a commitment to serve, the Neidus sisters have grown the business. They have moved forward despite the predictable agronomic and weather-related challenges golf courses inevitably face, compounded by a global pandemic and down-trending economy.

Through it all, Whitney, Lindsey and Kathryn have remained flexible to adapt, responding to the situations and the needs and interests of the Highland Heights community and recreation and food-loving golfers in nearby Cleveland and throughout northeast Ohio.

Two Simulators are available year round for practice, parties, team building activities and more.

Linksman Golf Academy at StoneWater

StoneWater Golf Club is a public-private facility offering memberships and daily fee play. To better serve the growing numbers of golfers, from beginners to advanced, Linksman Golf Academy includes:

Three indoor/outdoor hitting bays
Two golf simulators
Custom club fitting supported by Trackman Launch Monitors
State-of-the-art video analysis
On-course instruction
Private lessons
Golf schools
Men’s and Women’s Clinics
Junior programs and golf camps

Golf Instructor and Director of Player Development Joe Meglen says, “We’re dedicated to providing the best golf has to offer, bringing together the latest instructional technologies with the practical knowledge of our experienced team of teaching professionals.”

Joe, who has been named one of Golf Digest’s “Top 40 Young Instructors in America,” describes the uniqueness of the golf academy, explaining, “Our location within the StoneWater golf course enables our professionals to combine the value that comes from teaching with state-of-the-art instructional tools with applying the value of the lessons to the realities of being on an actual golf course.”

Joe is joined on the teaching staff by Master Instructor and Northern Ohio Hall of Fame Golf Instructor Bob Bourne, PGA Professional and TV host Jimmy Hanlin and StoneWater Head Golf Pro Bryan Huff.

Joe Meglen (left) giving a lesson at the Linskman Golf Academy

The Way to a Golfer’s Heart

StoneWater Golf Course, an award-winning Hurdzan and Fry design, is a semi-private course that winds over 180 acres in the private Aberdeen Community. Defined by woodlands, wetlands and waterfalls, the course is a sanctuary for wildlife, dew sweepers and favorite foursomes.

But StoneWater has become more than a serene venue for playing eighteen holes. Families grab lunch or sit down to dinner together at The Rustic Grill. Locals drop by just to stay connected and friends laugh out loud and share a drink at hosted events or commemorate milestone moments with the people they cherish most.

With the Neidus sisters’ handprints on every phase of the facility’s evolution, Stonewater Golf Course is becoming woven into the fabric of the community, which may be exactly the strategy needed to help golf courses weather whatever may lie ahead.

Linda Parker