The culmination of years of work will be on display as the Lonnie Poole Golf Course opens up to the public next week. The course will offer beautiful views of downtown Raleigh’s skyline while preserving an element of nature that the creeping growth of classrooms threatens.

It’s the perfect example of the campus community coming together to build something that’s truly beneficial to the school.

Two graduates — who have become the top golf course architects in Arnold Palmer’s development company — designed the course, which will be an undeniably important lab for the Professional Golf Management and Turf Grass Management programs.

Both programs, ironically, are nationally regarded but have never had an 18-hole course with which to refine their skills.

Our golf program, which features NCAA men’s individual champion Matt Hill, will finally have a home course to practice on and recruit players to continue upon his individual success.

Even more fulfilling is the way that the campus community has rallied around this golf course as individual colleges, fraternities and alumni have poured money into the development to ensure its excellence. The private partnerships also serve as a hedge against complaints about a golf course being built on University property.

The intangible benefits are infinite as well. Think of how much more attractive it will be to host a conference on campus with a world-class golf course down the road.

Think of all the alumni who will stay around campus an extra day after a football game to catch up with friends while playing golf. The course will serve as another mechanism to reconnect people to the University in a social way beyond tailgating and basketball.

The course is a good project that should be used as a model for future developments. This is the sort of endeavor that provides tangible and intangible benefits to the University.

It should also serve as a stark reminder to the administration that its choices have the ability to build the University community as much as those actions can tear it down.

This should be a rallying point for the campus community to come together and look for new projects and partnerships that serve the students, academic programs, alumni and all those connected with the University.

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