The Chicago District s embarrassment of riches keeps growing with every renovated, reconstructed and new member golf course.

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1 Makray Memorial GC debuts this June on Barrington acreage previously occupied by Thunderbird GC. By Len Ziehm The Chicago District s embarrassment of riches keeps growing with every renovated, reconstructed and new member golf course. 18 CHICAGO DISTRICT GOLFER

2 PHOTO COURTESY OF MAKRAY MEMORIAL GC WHAT SNEW The golf course building boom may have slowed in most regions of the country, but not in the Chicago District. At least not entirely. The District continues to have an embarrassment of riches, as far as golf courses are concerned and the existing courses are getting better. While the number of totally new courses is declining in this area, the transformation of older ones has stepped up considerably. Recent renovations now arriving at completion have resulted in dramatically enhanced layouts or the birth of virtually new courses on top of old ones. That s the latest trend, at least in Chicago. Moreover, since piecemeal improvements disrupt play and golfers slow down construction work, Chicago golf decision-makers are increasingly opting to shut down courses for a few months and get all the work done without contending with golfers. Last year generated three notable examples of that. Medinah Country Club changed 17 of the 18 holes on its famed Course No. 3 in preparation for the 2006 PGA Championship. On the public side, Woodstockbased architect Bob Lohmann so completely revised the historic Chevy Chase course in Wheeling that it merited a new name, The Legends of Chevy Chase. Another area architect, Rick Jacobson of Libertyville, took apart one of the two 18-holers at Indian Lakes Resort in Bloomingdale and created a more modern layout now dubbed Blackhawk Trace. Those courses all opened last season, and that trend will continue this year. One such project in particular stands out. GREAT EIGHT The CDGA enthusiastically welcomes eight new member clubs in Additions to the fold include the Tournament Players Club at Deere Run, the Quad Cities home course of the PGA Tour s John Deere Classic; Springfield s The Rail, a Robert Trent Jones, Sr. design that hosts the LPGA Tour every Labor Day weekend; and Point O Woods, the Benton Harbor, Mich. site of the Western Amateur Championship. PHOTO BY CHRIS SPARKS, GOLF ILLINOIS The Rail Golf Course, Springfield Highland Springs Golf Club Rock Island, Ill Hilldale Golf Club Hoffman Estates, Ill Oak Hills Country Club Palos Heights, Ill Point O Woods Golf & Country Club Benton Harbor, Mich Poplar Creek Country Club Hoffman Estates, Ill The Rail Golf Course Springfield, Ill Tournament Players Club at Deere Run Silvis, Ill University Golf Club University Park, Ill MAY/ JUNE

3 THE DEBUT OF MAKRAY MEMORIAL The Makray Memorial Golf Club will open in Barrington sometime this June. Any resemblance to Thunderbird, the 18- holer that previously occupied that property, will be purely coincidental. Paul Makray wasn t a high-profile figure in the Chicago golf community, but he was passionate about the game. After building a successful plastic-manufacturing plant in Norridge, Makray in 1962 purchased what was then Hillcrest Acres Country Club. It, along with the homes that surrounded the layout, had been built by Harry Howe. Howe opened the original course in When Makray took over, the course s name was changed to Thunderbird, and the sporty layout had functioned as a relaxing place for informal public play ever since. Makray family members have been active in its operation throughout, and now they ve turned the place into a memorial for the man who introduced them to its charms. Thunderbird closed on June 17, 2002 to allow architect Harry Vignocchi the chance to ply his art. He ll unveil a course that measures 7,015 yards from the back tees and plays to a par of 71. Other amenities include a short-game practice area and a new driving range and learning center, which will feature a teeing area of 60,000 square feet. The range is to measure 360 yards long and 110 yards wide. The back of the teeing area will feature a synthetic surface that will allow practice when the grass area isn t available. During construction, the moving of more than 2 million cubic yards of dirt took place. Hence, this course won t resemble any other in the Chicago area, and its trademarks will be big greens and deep bunkers. By the time construction of a new clubhouse is complete, the cost of the venture is projected to be between $15 and $20 million. Makray Memorial, of course, isn t the only emerging star in the constellation of courses that comprise the CDGA. Other dramatic developments are playing out this season. REMEMBERING DONALD ROSS Philadelphia-based Ron Prichard has become the architectural expert on courses designed by the renowned Donald Ross. The Scottish-born Ross was among the first great architects of American courses, and he was very active in the Chicago area. While his designs have withstood the tests of time, they ve also required restoration and updating and Prichard has been the main man to do that. Two years ago he restored the historic layout of Skokie Country Club, host of the 1922 U.S. Open. His work there encouraged other private clubs with Ross courses to bring him in to reclaim classic Ross design elements. Prichard has worked his magic on Lake Shore and Beverly, and his endeavors on one of the area s oldest courses Exmoor in Highland Park should be unveiled around May 1. The Exmoor project was six years in the planning stages. PHOTO COURTESY OF JACOBSON GOLF DESIGN 20 WWW. CDGA. ORG

4 WHAT SNEW (Above) Newly refurbished hole no. 12 at Highland Park s Exmoor CC, where architect Ron Prichard restored elements of the Donald Ross remodeling executed in (Opposite) Libertyville-based architect Rick Jacobson transformed Indian Lakes Resort s former West course into the new Blackhawk Trace layout. PHOTO BY DALE TAUBENSEE He put some bunkers back in, took some trees out, expanded some greens and widened some fairways to get back to the original design, Exmoor head professional Ron Romack explains. Prichard also lengthened the Exmoor layout, which was built in 1896 and remodeled by Ross in The building of eight new tees expands the course by about 300 yards. It ll now measure about 7,100 yards from the tips. A BUNKER STORY A Chicago District architect and past president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects, Marengo-based Bob Lohmann is the author of still another high-profile renovation, at venerable Midlothian Country Club. Extensive bunker work was one hallmark of this project. Lohmann s plan involved refurbishing all of Midlothian s 82 bunkers in the classic steep-faced, flat-bottomed style favored by membership. He also engineered the relocation of dozens of fairway bunkers that had been rendered meaningless hazards by decades of tree growth and equipment advances. Now, fairway bunkers have been reestablished away from the tree lines and closer to the fairway corridors in landing zones more consistent with today s increased driving lengths. An 1898 H.G. Tweedie design, Midlothian debuts its new bunkers and redesigned finishing hole this spring. MAY/ JUNE

5 WELCOME BACK Village Links of Glen Ellyn, perennially one of Chicago s busiest public layouts since its opening in 1967, will be available for play again on June 23. It s been renovated by Garrett Gill and Paul Miller, and Gill s involvement is especially meaningful since his late father, David Gill, did the original design for The Links. The revamped layout will play 200 yards longer from the back tees and 200 shorter from the front. The new course will be noticeably different in several respects, remarks general manager Matt Pekarek. The greens complexes will be the part most improved from the design standpoint. The greens will be much more varied in shape, and they ll be more interesting with their mounds and depressions. They ll be about 20 percent bigger in size and they ll be deeper. The biggest difference in playing the course will come in the short game. While The Links will be slow in opening, it ll be going full tilt once the first tee shot is struck. Just five days after seeing its first rounds, the renovated course will host the general qualifying round for the Western Open. The Links has hosted that qualifier since 1980 with the exception of 1986, when it hosted the Illinois Open instead, and last year, when construction forced a move to Bolingbrook Golf Club. 22 CHICAGO DISTRICT GOLFER

6 Kemper Lakes GC remains open for public play during its transition to private club. Here, the approach and green of no. 11, a 534-yard par 5; the 12th fairway is visible at right. PHOTO BY MIKE KLEMME GOING PRIVATE For 25 years, Kemper Lakes Golf Club has been recognized as one of the finest pure golf facilities in the country. Kemper Lakes has played host to some of the greatest players in the world as the site of dozens of elite golf events, including the 1989 PGA Championship won by Payne Stewart, six Senior PGA Tour events and most recently, the inaugural LaSalle Bank Open. In an unprecedented move for the Chicago area, Kemper Lakes is in the process of converting from a nationally ranked public golf course into a fully private golf club. Never before in the District has a golf course as acclaimed as Kemper Lakes made such a switch. Currently ranked #27 on Golf Digest s list of America s 100 Greatest Public Golf Courses, Kemper Lakes will limit golf membership to 300. Within the first few months of its membership offering, Kemper Lakes had already issued its first 75 founding memberships. The course remains open to the public during its transition to a private club, so District golfers longing to take a shot at this legendary layout might consider teeing it up this season. COMING IN 2005 At some point during this golf season, we ll hear more about spectacular plans for 2005, including two new courses under construction this year that should open the following season. Cherry Hills, a public course that opened in Flossmoor in the 1920s, has been taken over by the Homewood-Flossmoor Park District. Now closed for construction, it will open in 2005 as Coyote Run, an upscale public layout designed by Batavia-based architect Greg Martin. Work began last September with the moving of some earth and MAY/ JUNE

7 WHAT SNEW trees and the digging of ponds. Seeding is planned for August. What s perhaps most intriguing about this one is that golf course superintendent Dave Ward left Olympia Fields incurring a pay cut, no less to take a similar job with the public facility that is five or six blocks from where he grew up. Superintendents don t generally leave high-profile clubs, especially an Olympia Fields, site of last year s U.S. Open. But Ward craved a new challenge. It was probably time for a change, Ward comments. After the (1997) U.S. Senior Open and the U.S. Open, I was burned out. Those were wonderful experiences, but I didn t have too much of a life the last 10 years. Cherry Hills had been closed for two years prior to the inception of the rebuilding effort. Greg Meyer, director of the Homewood-Flossmoor Park District, says the facility was purchased for $8 million and the renovation will cost another $3.5 million. The new course will have bentgrass fairways, tees and greens and five lakes. KemperSports Management is also launching an exciting new project, Hawthorn Woods Country Club in north suburban Hawthorn Woods. It will have an Arnold Palmer Signature-designed course, a 20,000-square-foot clubhouse, state-of-the-art fitness center, swimming pool, tennis courts, fine dining and other world-class amenities. The private facility will be part of a 60-home development on 674 acres of wooded landscape. NINE AT A TIME Architect Jacobson is halfway through the renovation at 36-hole Indian Lakes Resort in Bloomingdale. His Blackhawk Trace course, which had been Indian Lakes West layout, opened last fall and will host a new event May 6-9 when the National Golf Association Hooters Tour will make its Chicago debut there. It s the third-largest men s tour in the country, behind the PGA and Nationwide circuits. Now Jacobson will begin work on the East course. He plans to incorporate Donald Ross-style bunkers in that one. As was the case on the West, Jacobson will work on nine holes at a time so that the resort will always have 27 holes available for play. While doing that, he ll take a similar approach to renovating the 18-hole course at Sportsman s Country Club for the Northbrook Park District. With Sportsman s nine-hole course in the mix, some configuration of 18 holes will be open for play at all times during the project, which should conclude in time for the 2007 season. The biggest task on Sportsman s original 18 will be renovating the bunkers, which were designed in 1930 by Edward B. Dearie, an associate of Ross and noted greenkeeper at several Chicago clubs. Not only that, but Jacobson was also retained by Sunset Ridge Country Club in Northfield to create and implement a renovation plan. It will begin this summer, and the course will be closed until the spring of Len Ziehm covers the local golf scene for the Chicago Sun-Times. 24 WWW. CDGA. ORG