New-&-Improved Cool Springs Golf Complex Opens

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- For 45 years, Cool Springs Golf Complex had been a staple in the South Hills, but the facility fell into disrepair before a fire destroyed a building in September. Thursday, a brand new Cool Springs opened for business.

Although people in the South Hills know the old Cool Springs Golf Complex, they don't know anything quite like this version of Cool Springs.

"We wanted to create something that people have never seen before, almost the Augusta [National Golf Club] for a sports practice facility," new owner Brian Shanahan said.

The last time we saw Cool Springs was after a September fire destroyed the Bethel Park golf facility. But, Shanahan bought the property at a sheriff's sale last fall and rebuilt.

"Besides Kennywood, I don't know of a better brand in the South Hills of Pittsburgh," he said. "There's so many generational people, four generations of people who have been coming here for 45 years."

Yet, this is a whole new ballgame. A double-decker driving range to artificial turf greens, complete with a water feature. A new short-game practice facility, and miniature golf course -- not to mention a Pro Shop and indoor golf simulators for the PGA pro to fit clubs. It's quite a facility to work on your game.

"It gives you something to shoot at for one thing," Jack Stanizzo, of Brookline said. "It gives you a specific target -- whether you hit it or not is a different story."

Which is exactly why they have the pro inside.

And it's not just golf. Phase two is a 172,000-square-foot indoor sports complex, bigger than the Steelers' South Side training facility.

Shanahan says not only will it have an indoor football field, but an "NBA basketball court, NCAA basketball court, volleyball, basketball, lacrosse, soccer, football. And then we have partnered with the Pittsburgh Penguins to do dek hockey outside, and then we are going to cover that as well, so that's year-round."

Safe to say, Cool Springs is back as a South Hills staple.

"They have covered all the bases," Bethel Park City Council Peesident Tim Moury said. "It's adjacent to one of our parks, Millennium Park, so it really fits the whole area of really enhancing the recreation, not just for Bethel Park, but for the South Hills and all of Pittsburgh."

They are already hard at work moving lots of dirt and getting set for construction of the indoor facility. That project, when it's all done, should be finished sometime in 2015.

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