CLEVELAND, Ohio — Thanks to a survey commissioned by Golf Digest, the rest of the country is about to learn what golfers in Cleveland have known all along.

We live in a great place for public golf.

In the survey of America’s 50 most populous cities, Cleveland and Portland, Ore., tied as the 10th-best places in the country for public golf, in front of Phoenix, San Diego, Chicago and near-by Columbus. The article, which will appear in the October issue of the magazine, is written by Peter Finch, senior editor for special projects.

“Our coverage of golf courses often focuses on destinations — places you might take a family vacation or a buddies trip,” Finch writes. “This month we turned our attention to the courses in our readers’ backyards: Which American cities, we wondered, offer the best all-around golf environments for their residents?”

The magazine hired a company called Longitudes Group, a business management consulting firm in Portland, to collect and analyze data on five criteria:

1. Climate (average temperature and rainfall, number of playable days);

2. Cost of public golf (average greens fee in high and low seasons);

3. Amount of public courses;

4. Quality of public courses (based on the magazine’s list of Best Places to Play reader rankings); and

5. Accessibility (number of active golfers versus the number of courses).

Each city was ranked in each category. The lower the ranking, the higher the finish in the overall ranking. Cleveland ranks 34th in climate (there’s a real shocker), 12th in cost, 20th in amount of public courses, 15th in quality of public courses and 31st in accessibility. The results drew opposite reactions from two of the area’s experts on the game. Dominic Antenucci, executive director of the Northern Ohio PGA, said the region remained underappreciated. Scotte Rorabaugh, executive director of the Northern Ohio Golf Association, said he was not surprised Cleveland fared as well as it did.

“Given the number of outstanding public facilities we have in the area, and the affordability of those facilities, I’m surprised we’re not ranked higher,” said Antenucci. “Other than the climate, I would rank our area higher. In the last five years we have had seven private clubs turn into public facilities. That means public players are getting the private club experience and very reasonable rates.”

Cleveland obviously takes a hit in the climate ranking. What could be debated is the quality of public courses. Accessibility? All that proves is that Cleveland has an abundance of people playing golf in relation to the number of places to play. That’s kind of a positive negative. In a brief telephone interview, Finch said he felt it was a positive.

Rorabaugh, whose organization is a regional arm of the United States Golf Association and governs amateur golf in Northeast Ohio, felt the ranking is accurate.

“I am not surprised at all,” Rorabaugh said. “As far as cost, Cleveland is one of the cost versus quality places in the country. You can play some very, very good golf courses for anywhere between $35 and $50. You would pay twice that in other parts of the country. We obviously are not going to rank high in the climate category.”

Into the halls: Two members of the Mozingo family of Akron will be inducted into separate halls of fame in the span of 37 days.

Former Cuyahoga Falls golf and volleyball coach Mary Mozingo will be inducted into the Baldwin-Wallace Hall of Fame on Oct. 15 after watching her daughter, Cari Mozingo Hetler, a former two-time Plain Dealer All-Star golfer, enter the Coventry High hall on Friday.

Mary Mozingo was a pioneer in women’s collegiate sports, competing before the creation of Title IX while attending BW from 1968-1972. She earned four letters in volleyball and represented the college in golf at the AIAW (Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women) regional tournament at Ohio State and AIAW nationals in Atlanta, Ga. She went on to coach and teach health and physical education in the Cuyahoga Falls system for 32 years. She initiated the first 18-hole tournament for girls in the area and was the 1995 Metropolitan League boys golf coach of the year in 1995.

Cari Mozingo Hetler earned 10 letters in basketball, volleyball and golf at Coventry and was named to The Plain Dealer all-star girls golf team in 1998 and 1999. She finished fifth in the state in 1999 and was named all-Ohio. She went on to play four years at Ohio University and competes at the local, state, and national level, qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Amateur in 2003. She followed in her mother’s footsteps and is a teacher in the Lake school district.

On Twitter: @TimRogersPD