The entry sign was getting refreshed when we stopped by Big Sky.
BOZEMAN, Montana — Based on our driving the last two days Montana is the most beautiful state in the U.S. and its town of Bozeman merits a more long-term stay ASAP. We took a side trip there to check out Big Sky Resort, even though we were aware its golf course had closed for the season on Oct. 4.
We wanted to see Big Sky because it is Montana’s version of Michigan’s Boyne Resorts – long one of our favorite golf destinations. Big Sky’s welcome sign was getting a facelift when we arrived, the clubhouse was closed but the course looked great.
I guess I can’t identify with the snow-skiing set and I do accept that October weather in Montana is unpredictable. Still, it was difficult to find a beautiful course empty on a perfect day weather-wise in early October. Oh, well….
Anyway, though I consider myself well-travelled within the U.S. and Canada due to all the work-related trips I made over the years, this week has been in largely uncharted territory. Earlier we made our first visit to South Dakota. Now we’re in Montana for the first time and later today it’ll be our first time ever in Idaho. All very interesting.
Idaho’s famous Floating Green is like no other hole in golf.
COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho — The Floating Green is a gimmicky thing, but it brought the desired attention to Lake Coeur d’Alene Resort.
It was envisioned by Duane Hagadone in 1991, when the first ball was struck toward this movable putting surface. The 6,803-yard course was designed by Scott Miller but No. 14 is the hole that put the course on the global map.
The tee doesn’t move – there are five tee placements, allowing the hole to play anywhere from 95 to 218 yards –but the green does. It’s a man-made, 15,000-square foot island green that changes location. It gets further from the tee as the season goes on because the depth of the water changes. The “putter’’ boat takes golfers from the tee to the green and back. Wish I could have played this famous hole, but time constraints prevented that.
Still, checking it out was well worth the visit. Arguably the most unusual hole in all of golf will celebrate its 25th year in 2016 by getting a re-grassing. The course had its conditioning problems recently, with a staff member informing me that six of the greens were lost during the season. He said that No. 14 is likely the best on the course, but all 18 will be re-grassed shortly after the course is closed on Oct. 17 – two weeks earlier than usual.
It’s hard to look past the Floating Green – after all, the road leading past the gate house to the clubhouse is Floating Green Drive – but the course has more attractions than that. It has lake views on every hole and 1,500 wild flowers also spice up the viewing experience.
If you’re passionate about your golf, Nebraska’s Prairie Club is a perfect place for a get-away. VALENTINE, Neb. – The first thing you notice as you approach the Prairie Club in the sandhills of Nebraska is what’s not there.
You cruise through the “big’’ town of Valentine (population 2,830) and 17 miles later you see the first indication that a big-time golf resort is nearby. It’s just a small sign saying the entrance is a half-mile away.
Then you hit the entrance – just a small sign as well – and face a two-mile drive down a winding dirt road to the clubhouse that, most notably, takes you by some mean-looking cattle. Then the fun begins.
At the Prairie Club the accommodations are more than comfortable. The décor has a rustic elegance that includes leopard carpeting on the stairs. The food is good, the atmosphere memorable, the staff extremely friendly and helpful. But at the Prairie Club it’s all about golf . You can have your fun on its two 18-hole courses as well as its unique 10-hole Horse Course, a par-3 layout that has no tee markers.
An interesting place, this Prairie Club. There’s not many golf options around it, but plenty inside its ample borders. This place is pure golf, just what founder Paul Schock wanted when he got the place up and running on June 11, 2010. “Blowouts” give a different look to the bunkers at Prairie Club.
“We want our guests to have fun. That’s the object of our Horse Course,’’ said head professional Loudan Steffes. “It gives you as many options, and as many players in a group, as you like. And a round there doesn’t take four-five hours.’’
The Horse Course is unique. Gil Hanse, now famous as the designer of the Brazil course that will host next year’s first Olympics golf competition since 1904, created it. You play the Horse Course like you would play that popular game in backyard basketball, hence the name. The Horse Course spurs creativity as well as fun competition. Too bad more golf facilities don’t offer such a course. Golf, as played on the Horse Course, would bring more players into the game.
But I digress. The Prairie Club is a lot more than the Horse Course. The Dunes Course, designed by former British Open champion Tom Lehman with guidance from Chris Brand, is long – a par-73 that can play at over 8,000 yards from the very back tees. This is one of those courses where it’s imperative you play from the right set of tees. If you don’t you could well be in for a long day. Don’t get behind those fence posts in the Prairie Club bunkers. They’re nothing but trouble.
The length shouldn’t dissuade you, though. Neither should all the weird-shaped bunkers, some of which have “blowouts’’ in them and some of which feature what look like Pete Dye railroad ties placed in a much-less-random order. They’re more like fence posts.
“Those are posts, for aesthetic purposes, just to give a different look,’’ explained Steffes. “You don’t see them everywhere.’’
No, you don’t, and if you get behind one you’re dead.
The “blowouts,’’ native to the sandhills so prevalent in the area, are featured in the wide area of waste bunkers throughout the layout. You never know what you’re going to get when you go into those bunkers.
“The wind creates them, and they’re constantly changing over time as well,’’ said Steffes. “The wind changes the shape of the sand.’’ The entry sign is understated, but the 46 holes of golf behind it are big-time.
The other 18, called the Pines, is also a par-73 but much different than the Dunes. The Australian star, Graham Marsh, designed that 18, which is more playable for the average player and perhaps easier than the Dunes — even though the greens are more severe. Regardless of how you compare the courses, the views of the Snake River Canyon offered on the Pines are stunning from the Points of Solitude viewing spot behind the No. 16 green.
There’s one thing about the Prairie Club that’s historically amazing. It was built in just over five months. That seems astounding, given the time it takes to build or renovate courses everywhere else these days.
Prairie Club was spawned as the third big-time course in the sandhills. Shock had been a member of one, the 18-hole Sand Hills Country Club, designed by the noted design team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw. The other, Dismal River, has 36 holes. Both of those are private clubs while at Prairie Club play is about half and half between its members (about 400 of them) and the public.
The two private clubs had closed for the season by early October, when we visited Prairie Club. Nebraska has a surprisingly short golf season thanks to the unpredictability of fall weather. The sandhills area has been known to have snow in October, so the Prairie Club will close for golf on Oct. 18 and won’t re-open until next May 13. There will, however, be some winter activities there, primarily to accommodate hunters and weddings. This may not look like your usual halfway house, but it’s a nice feature on the Dunes course.
Golfers can seemingly see forever during a round at Nebraska’s Tatanka course. NIOBRARA, Neb. – Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen much anymore. New courses are rare, and most of those are created as renovations. They’re not really built from scratch; they’re built over existing golf courses.
It’s great that there are more renovations now than there were the last few, economically difficult, years. Some are good-looking courses, like Tom Doak’s creation of a new No. 1 Course at Medinah Country Club.
Tatanka Golf Club, is no renovation, though. It opened in mid-September after nearly three years in the construction process on land that had most recently been a homestead. Michigan architect Paul Albanese created a full-fledged, championship golf course — priced in the $5 million range – on fresh land in northeastern Nebraska, which is hardly a hotbed for golf courses.
What exists golf-wise in a 20-mile radius of Tatanka are only about five community-owned nine-hole courses. No disrespect intended, but Tatanka is certainly not one of those. Nos. 9 and 18 share the same huge green at Tatanka, which has two such striking double greens.
“It’s not just some little golf development, but a dramatic 18-hole championship course,’’ said Brian Bursheim, the facility’s general manager. “This will be something you can’t find for miles. You give people a real nice layout, and they will travel.’’
At least that’s what the Santee Sioux Nation is counting on when it decided to add a golf course to its Ohiya Casino and turn it into a resort on the outskirts of a town with just 375 residents.
Ohiya, which opened 17 years ago, is the oldest casino in Nebraska. It’s now in its third location and has an accompanying 48-room hotel. Though still small, it’s growing and the golf course figures to keep the momentum going among the residents of Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota and even Minnesota. They can all benefit from having a new upscale golf course nearby.
Albanese created the course on 300 acres, but there’s about 700 available around the casino. The course won’t hold its grand opening until next May, but golfers are already discovering the place. Several came three times from Omaha in the first month the course was open.
The layout has barely a flat spot. It’s surrounded by stunning, all-natural views and has some special touches. Albanese included two double-greens in his design (on holes 3 and 16 and No. 9 and 18). He also made it possible for buffalo to factor into the rounds played there. Tatanka is the Indian word for buffalo. At least three bodies are believed to be buried at this gravesite on Tatanka’s No. 3 fairway.
The buffalo are fenced in, but clearly evident – especially off the 13th hole. Given the mood of the herd, buffalo can get as close to 10-15 yards of the golfers.
“Nothing is forced,’’ said Albanese. “Nature has been respected in the design process, which is very important to the Sioux and appreciated.’’
For example, the land for the course was purchased from a family that had a burial ground on it. The family wanted the burial ground, which includes at least three bodies, to remain and it’s prominently marked in the fairway leading to the No. 3 green.
Bursheim was hired after the course construction had begun. He had been a head professional for five years at the Sundance public course in Buckeye, Ariz., a suburb of Phoenix. Bursheim was anxious to return to his family roots in South Dakota and took the job without seeing the property.
He believes Tatanka will stand on its own, independent of the casino, in due time. Initially he envisions greens fees no higher than $75 at prime time. Tatanka’s on-course decor has a wood-themed look.
“The one thing that’s different about our course compared to others in the area is that the others are either links-style or tree-lined,’’ he said. “We are a little of both, and there are undulations on every hole.’’
Some of those undulations are extreme, suggesting that Tatanka will never lend itself to being a walking course. That’s no problem for a resort facility anyway. The fairways, though, are very generous and there’s plenty of length available. The course measures 7,450 yards from the tips with a rating of 75.7 and slope of 134 but it can play as short as 4,784 yards. The are six sets of tee placements.
Tatanka won’t be in full operation until the spring of 2016. Bursheim has installed three simulators to stir golf interest among casino visitors during the winter months. When the course opens in the spring it’ll likely have GPS on the carts and the look will be a bit different than it is this fall. It’ll have new, wooden flagsticks, a general wood theme in its on-course atmosphere and full valet service will be available.
Albanese had specific ideas on how the course should look. It’s reflected even in the Indian lore included on the scorecard.
“Paul’s idea was to have it look like just-planted grass,’’ said Bursheim. “He didn’t move much dirt. He wanted to keep it as natural as possible for the golfers – like they were just out on a nature walk.’’
Buffalo are part of the scenery at Tatanka, and they can get much closer to the course than this.
With the golf season in the Midwest winding down, it’s a good time to check out what’s been happening at golf’s best travel destinations – and there’s been plenty. Our first golf/travel notebook of the fall begins at one of America’s most famous courses.
The famed Harbour Town course at Sea Pines Resort in Hilton Head, S.C., re-opened this week after undergoing major renovation work that included the installation of a new irrigation system.
Harbour Town, a joint design effort by Pete Dye and Jack Nicklaus, closed in May after last year’s PGA Tour stop, the RBC Heritage Classic. All the greens were also resurfaced while the course was closed.
Keiser abandons Bandon Links project
The makings of a scenic course at Bandon Links were evident even with the work not far along.Seven years ago Michael Keiser hired architect Gil Hanse to plan a destination golf course near his Bandon Dunes Resort in Oregon. This week Keiser, citing issues with the Bureau of Land Management and disappointing results in recent well testing, announced he was abandoning the project.
“Termination of the Bandon Links project will have no effect on anything having to do with the Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, where the public will continue to experience the first-class golf experiences which they have come to expect there,’’ said Keiser.
He also said he would seek another site where a project similar to Bandon Links “would be viable.’’
Kemper to manage Desert Rose
Chicago-based KemperSports has been selected to manage Desert Rose, a Las Vegas public course that has been closed for more than two years. When it re-opens sometime this fall it will have a new, still undisclosed, name.
Desert Rose was designed by Joe Lee and Dick Wilson – the architects who designed Cog Hill’s Dubsdread course that hosted Chicago’s PGA Tour stop for 20 years. Desert Rose opened in 1964 and was completely re-designed by Randy Heckenkemper during its closing.
Heckenkemper’s most recent design work includes the Champions Course at TPC Scottsdale and he also worked with Phil Mickelson on McDowell Mountain.
Salamander connects with Virginia course
PGA Tour players will find a different Copperhead course when they return for the Valspar Championship in 2016.Salamander Hotels and Resorts, which has 10 courses spanning Virginia and Florida, has added its Salamander Resort & Spa in Middleburg, Va. The facility will enable its guests to play at Creighton Farms, a nearby Jack Nicklaus design.
The Copperhead course at Salamander’s Innisbrook Resort in Florida is scheduled to re-open in November after a six-month restorative enhancement. It was the site of Jordan Spieth’s first victory of his storybook 2015 season in the Valspar Championship.
Another Salamander Florida resort, Reunion in Orlando, has begun work on a new clubhouse at its Nicklaus Course. Reunion is the only resort with signature designs by Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Arnold Palmer and it also houses the Annika Academy, the creation of LPGA legend Annika Sorenstam.
New course in Nebraska
The Tatanka Golf Club has been added to the Ohiya Casino Resort of the Santee Sioux Nation in Niobrara, Nebraska. The course, a Paul Albanese design, opened in September.
Wild Dunes’ Links Course will re-open soon
Tom Fazio’s first-ever solo design was the Links Course at Wild Dunes Resort in Charleston, S.C. It’ll re-open in late October after getting a new irrigation system, concrete cart paths, a renovated halfway house, a 4,500-square foot putting green and new views of the Atlantic Ocean on holes 16-18.
New look for California’s Quail Lodge
Fresh bunkering at No. 10 has spruced up the Quail Lodge course in California.Todd Eckenrode, a California-based architect, removed several lakes and introduced deep grass swales in his effort to freshen up Quail Lodge & Golf Club in Irvine, Calif. Swales are prominent on holes 1, 2, 14, 16 and 17, the last of which is now the course’s feature hole.
Ivanhoe Club will host the Rust-Oleum Championship — a full field event on the PGA Tour’s satellite circuit – from June 6-12 in 2016. The event was played at Lakewood Country Club’s West course in suburban Cleveland the last two years.
Shane Bertsch was the champion of last year’s Rust-Oleum Championship, which offered a $600,000 prize fund and paid $108,000 to the champion. Next year’s event will have the full 156-player field and be contested over 72 holes. The prize fund hasn’t been announced.
The Web.com Tour has been a developmental circuit for the PGA Tour since its founding in 1990. It was initially called the Ben Hogan Tour and later was known via its Nike, Buy.com and Nationwide sponsorships.
The circuit had an annual stop in the Chicago area from 2002 to 2008, the tournament being known as the LaSalle Bank Open from 2002 to 2007 and the Bank of America Open in 2008.
Kemper Lakes, in Kildeer, hosted the first of those tournaments with Marco Dawson winning the title in 2002. Then the event moved to The Glen Club, in Glenview. The champions there were Andre Stolz, Brendan Jones, Chris Couch, Jason Dufner, John Riegger and Kris Blanks. Dufner went on to win a major title, the PGA Championship in 2013.
Ivanhoe was a logical new location for the Rust-Oleum Championship since its chief executive officer, Tom Reed, is a member of the club. Rust-Oleum took over sponsorship of the tournament last year after it was played as the Cleveland Open in 2014.
The Web.com Tour had a long history in Cleveland. The circuit’s Greater Cleveland Open ran from 1990-2001 and the Legend Financial Group Classic was played there from 2005-07.
During its run in Cleveland the tourney was notable for two developments. In 2007 it was the site of Jason Day’s first professional victory when the Australian was just 18 years old. Day blossomed this year, when he won the PGA Championship in August and last month’s BMW Championship at Conway Farms in Lake Forest — a victory that catapulted him to No. 1 in the World Golf Rankings.
The 2014 event in Cleveland also was notable, in that it produced the longest playoff in Web.com Tour history – 11 holes — before Steven Aker won the title.
With the exception of the Presidents Cup team event, coming up in Korea in two weeks, the PGA Tour’s 2014-15 season is over. Jordan Spieth’s win in the FedEx Cup playoffs on Sunday brought it to a dramatic conclusion.
In the Chicago area, though, there’s still a few events on the October calendar including two that carry fancy titles. The U.S. FootGolf National Championship will be held on Saturday (OCT 3) at the Chicago Park District’s Sydney Marovitz course and the Speedgolf World Championship is Oct. 19-20 at The Glen Club in Glenview.
FootGolf, a combination of soccer and golf, has made inroads at courses nation-wide, with the American FootGolf League reporting that it has accredited 440 golf facilities. In FootGolf a soccer ball is kicked into a 21-inch cup. The 36-hole stroke play event at Marovitz is a qualifier for the World FootGolf Championship Jan. 6-10 in Argentina.
Bill Rehanek, senior vice president of Billy Casper Golf – manager of several Chicago courses – claims the sport “is attracting new generations of golfers and non-golfers to courses coast to coast.’’
While FootGolf isn’t really golf, SpeedGolf definitely is. Its defending world champion is Eri Crum, who was one of Tiger Woods’ college teammates at Stanford in the 1990s. In Speedgolf you’re judged on both your score and pace around the course.
“It’s an awesome sport, but it needs help to grow,’’ said Crum before giving a recent demonstration over the last three holes at The Glen. He cruised through No. 16, a par-4, in 1:49 and made par, got through No. 17, a par-3, in 62 seconds and made bogey and then made birdie on No. 18 — a par-5 – while getting from tee to green in 2:08.
After his Stanford days Crum became a physical therapist and chiropractor. He got serious about golf again after learning about Speedgolf.
“It’s been a wonderful outlet to get my golf game back,’’ he said. “Efficiency is so important.’’
Players must avoid unnecessary delays to be successful at Speedgolf. One of Crum’s top rivals putts one-handed and doesn’t drop his golf bag. None of the players stop to check yardages. Golf bags are made as light as possible with most players using six clubs or less.
There are some rule variations. The pin remains in the cup in Speedgolf and there’s no loss of distance for a lost ball. Players go off alone in roughly six-minute intervals.
“We’re not suggesting it replaces regular golf,’’ said Tim Scott, president of Speedgolf International. “But Speedgolf promotes creativity and fitness. It’s growing.’’
The Speedgolf world record was posted by Christopher Smith, a teaching pro from Oregon, while playing in a competition at another Chicago Park District course, Jackson Park, in 2005. Smith got around Jackson Park in 65 strokes and 44 minutes. Combining the score and time, Smith’s record is 109. Crum’s winning total last year at Bandon, Ore., over 18 holes was 121 – a score of 76 in 45 minutes.
The elite division at The Glen will have about 30 competitors, including some from Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, the United Kingdom and Canada. A $40,000 prize fund will be on the line in the elite division. An amateur division with age group competition will also be offered at The Glen. Entry fee is $150.
Good local showings in USGA championships
Three Illinois players survived stroke play qualifying and first-round matches in this week’s U.S. Golf Association national championships. Curtis Skinner of Lake Bluff and Dave Ryan of Taylorville advanced in the U.S. Senior Amateur at Hidden Creek in New Jersey while Palatine’s Jean Cheszek moved ahead in the U.S. Women’s Senior Amateur at Hillwood in Tennessee.
Vince Antoniou, of North Barrington, survived stroke play at Hidden Creek before losing to Ryan in their first-round match. Ryan became the first three-time winner of the Illinois Senior Amateur title earlier this month.
Here and there
The last of the four major championships for Illinois PGA members – the IPGA Players Championship – will be played Monday and Tuesday (OCT 5-6) on the North Course at Eagle Ridge Resort in Galena.
Only an Oct. 13 qualifying session for the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship remains on the Chicago District Golf Assn. schedule. It’ll be played at The Glen Club.
The Addison Senior Open is on tap at the Links & Tees facility on Sunday (OCT 4) and Nickol Knoll, in Arlington Heights, will host a senior fall scramble next Wednesday (OCT 7).
Little City, in Palatine, has announced that it will open a golf academy for adults with developmental intellectual disabilities in mid-October.
The new range at Conway Farms offers all sorts of practice options. (Photo by Charles Cherney)PGA Tour players see a lot of golf courses and, somewhat amazingly, they remember – at least in general terms – what most of them look like.
That wasn’t quite the case when the top 70 players in the FedEx Cup Playoffs gathered at Conway Farms in Lake Forest in September for the BMW Championship. Conway Farms was the site of the tournament just two years before, but even a star the magnitude of Rory McIlroy had to admit “it’s much different than how I remembered it.’’
Conway’s membership closed the course in mid-April of 2014 and closed its practice range three months later. Both re-opened in late May of this year, and the BMW Championship was somewhat of a coming-out party for the club to show what had been done since it had last been opened to the public in 2013.
There was some work done on the course, and the pro shop and caddie house also were upgraded. What made the place look so much different, though, was what was done on the practice facilities. Players noticed it right away and spectators who had attended in 2013 were stunned immediately upon entering the gates.
“It’s a beautiful place,’’ said Jordan Spieth. “We like coming here. It’s top-notch.’’
Phil Mickelson called the setup “wonderful.’’ Zac Blair, one of the youngest qualifiers for the tournament, was even more descriptive.
“It has the best short-game place I’ve ever seen,’’ said Blair. “No wonder Luke Donald is the best short game player in the world.’’
Donald, who didn’t qualify for this year’s BMW Championship, is a former world No. 1 as well as a Conway member. He gave considerable input to director of golf Jeff Mory and architect Dennis Wise during the building process.
“Luke had a lot to do with it,’’ said Mory. “He was super-interested in the driving range but intimately interested in what the short game area should be.’’
“Luke has a very keen eye,’’ added Wise, who was the on-course architect for designer Tom Fazio when the private facility was built in time for a 1991 opening. “He’s a tremendous artist. He can see it in the dirt. He had some great impact.’’ Conway Farms’ new putting green is much larger with more undulations.
Conway, which will also host the BMW Championship in 2017, was in need of some upgrades after the 2013 tournament. The course was re-grassed and cart paths were expanded on the walking-only course just to facilitate spectator traffic during the tournament. Spectator viewing was also improved, and Wise added new tees on nine holes, tweaked some bunkers and made some strategic changes to the short par-4 15th hole.
More eye-catching, though, was what he did to the practice facilities. The practice tee was enlarged by almost 50 percent, from 40,000 square feet to 75,000. That enlargement necessitated the building of a new putting green, one that was also notably bigger than the old one. Dennis Wise (left), Jeff Mory (blue shirt) and Luke Donald (white shirt) were in the forefront in the creation of Conway Farms’ elaborate new practice facilities.
“We wanted one with enough size for an event like (the BMW Championship),’’ said Mory. “We went from 6,500 square feet to one that’s over 10,000. Now we have a very large putting green.’’
The larger range also necessitated the building of a new short game area. It was also enlarged by a lot, to include two bent practice greens that total 15,000 square feet plus another half acre of practice area space.
Mory said that disclosing cost figures “wasn’t appropriate’’ but admitted the project was “expensive’’ and that the practice range work was “the most substantial cost we incurred’’ on projects directly involving golfers.
Also benefitting was the Western Golf Assn., which stages the BMW Championship as a fundraiser for its Evans Scholars Foundation. The organization now has a more attractive venue for the biggest of the four tournaments it conducts annually.
“The driving range was expansive, and it allowed for a whole new entry process,’’ said Mory. “For people coming in for the tournament, they would have this mind-blowing experience.’’
Mory stressed, though, that the expanded practice facility wasn’t created to please the touring pros.
“Not at all,’’ he said. “Certainly having events (like the BMW Championship) is now part of our culture and we want to make all decisions for all the things that we are. But our primary goal was for Joe Club Member.’’
Conway has some serious players in its membership. At any one time it’ll have between 150 and 175 with single digit handicap indexes — one of the very highest percentage of members in the sprawling Chicago District Golf Assn.
“These guys and gals are passionate, and we have others who want to get better,’’ said Mory. “While the project was expensive, it was valuable for the day-to-day enjoyment for what our members are. So many clubs in Chicago don’t have the land or the opportunity to do what we did. This was a reinvestment in things that are great for our club.’’
Again, the money wasn’t spent to make things better for an occasional big tournament. Conway had its share of those even before it landed the BMW Championship. Its 209 acres was the site of a flood of major amateur competitions from 1998 through 2012, the biggest being the 1997 men’s NCAA Division I Championship, the 2009 Western Amateur and the 2012 U.S. Mid-Amateur. Getting a PGA Tour event, though, required more from the club than those events did.
“We didn’t expand the range just so Dustin Johnson could hit drivers,’’ said Mory. “We’ll start a week at 325 yards to our 10-foot high fence at the back of our range, but we can go back to 340 or 350. Most courses that don’t host tour events don’t have that kind of space. For our members now we can move the practice area around and they’ll always have good grass to hit off of.’’
Wise, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., worked for the late Larry Packard in the Chicago area from 1979 to1985 before joining Fazio. He started his own business, Dennis Wise Golf Course Design, in 2012.
In his just-completed project he had to accommodate the needs of members, tour players and the Conway teaching staff – one that features Mory and included the renowned Dr. Jim Suttie during the last summer months – and still develop a facility that was aesthetically pleasing. He apparently succeeded on all counts.
“It looks like the rest of the place. It doesn’t feel like an add-on. It looks like it should be here. It feels right,’’ said Mory.
“I’m a teacher,’’ he said, “so from our standpoint this is an amazing laboratory, an incredible place to teach, practice and work.’’
“In those three acres we didn’t leave anything on the table, and the players echoed that,’’ said Wise, after spending a week around the club while the PGA Tour stars were in town. “The tour players loved it, and the members absolutely loved it.’’
Theirs is a success story unlike most others in the world of golf.
For starters, the Aurora-based Nadler clan has the longevity factor going. Nadler Golf Cars has been in business over 50 years and is still going strong. Through it all, it’s remained a family business that is now a third-generation operation servicing nearly half of the roughly 400 courses in the Chicago area.
The company leases about 6,00 golf cars and provides the maintenance on them summer and winter. And, just as important, the company gives back to the game. That was underscored this year when Nadler Golf Cars was declared the longest running continuing sponsorship for the Illinois PGA’s Pro Presidents outing, which is approaching its 40th year.
Nadler Golf Cars also has been the title sponsor of the Illinois PGA Championship for over 10 years and recently signed up for another three-year extension. The sponsorship run is also in the 40-year vicinity with the Midwest Golf Course Superintendents Assn. and the First Tee of Aurora’s headquarters is named the Nadler Golf House of Learning.
“We want to be visible to all our customers in the area,’’ said Eric Nadler, the company president since 2013 when he replaced his father, Dave. “It’s very important to our family to give back to those guys. Without them we wouldn’t have our business.’’
The Nadlers’ story, though, goes way beyond the giving back policy. It’s one well worth telling just from the historical perspective. In 1963 Bill and Bea Nadler – parents to Dave and grandparents to Eric — were operating a Harley-Davidson motorcycle shop in Elgin. They entered the golf industry when Harley-Davidson came out with one of the first golf cars.
“We’re very fortunate for the vision my grandfather had, both for our family and for golf in Chicago,’’ said Eric. “He put golf cars in as a sideline, and my grandmother said he was crazy. She had a lot of reservations. She believed people walked in golf.’’
Most did, of course, but Bill Nadler was able to lease four or five cars to the Fox Valley Golf Club, which is now owned by the city of Aurora, and he started pounding on the doors of other courses. When the motorcycle industry started experiencing tough economic times Nadler opted to focus strictly on golf cars.
“Some thought he was crazy again,’’ Eric admitted.
But he wasn’t, as it turned out.
Dave Nadler entered the business when he was 11, basically on the maintenance end, to support his father and the then one other employee the company had. Times were as tough for golf cars as they were for motorcycles then.
“When (Bill Nadler) got his first demo he decided to stop by a golf course, and he went to Bonnie Dundee (the longstanding public course in Algonquin),’’ said Dave. “The owner told him `everybody at my course walks.’’’
That was that, for a few months, but before the year was out Bill Nadler was called back to that club because the owner had a change of heart. Others course operators were also willing to try the power cars, and a thriving business was born.
“He was in the right place at the right time,’’ Dave said of his father. Dave became a full-time employee after finishing college in 1974 and joined forces with his brother Keith and sister Karen (now Karen Baumgartner) to buy out their father in 1981.
They were the officers when Eric, Dave’s son, and Matt Baumgartner, Karen’s offspring, got involved.
“I started as an 8-year old washing golf cars,’’ said Eric. “I found out early on about manual labor. I found out what the real world was all about.’’
He later spent summers working in the parts and service departments during his high school years.
“In high school my father and uncle were harder on me than the rest of the employees, and before I was to go to college my dad sat me down and gave me an opportunity (to work towards taking over the company),’’ said Eric. “I didn’t want to do it.’’
In stepped grandfather Bill again. They had a talk on a vacation in Wisconsin, and Eric changed his mind. He worked for the company for 17 years before he and Matt took over ownership of Nadler Golf Cars on Jan. 1, 2013. The company has tripled in size over the last 10 years.
Keith Nadler retired from the company in 1997 and Dave in 2013. Bill Nadler passed away on March 7, 2013, at the age of 94. Karen Baumgartner remains active, and the operation has grown to 18 full-time employees – some of whom were hired over 40 years ago by grandfather Bill. Another four are generally brought in to help with seasonal projects.
The Illinois PGA has long benefitted from its connection with three generations of Nadlers. Michael Miller, who left the IPGA this year after 23 years serving as tournament director and then executive director, said the section “wouldn’t be where we are without the Nadler family. They have been such a vital part of what the Illinois PGA has done.’’
In addition to the event sponsorships Dave Nadler served on the IPGA Foundation board that launched a $2 million program in the late 1990s that benefits Maryville Academy and the First Tee programs, among others. The Nadlers were among the initial donors.
Carrie Williams, who took over as Miller’s replacement in August after serving as executive director of the Illinois Junior Golf Assn., was well aware of the good things done by the Nadlers from an earlier working stint with the IPGA.
“The support that Nadler Golf and the Nadler family have provided the Illinois Section throughout their decades of sponsorship is unparalleled,’’ she said. “Not only is their financial support of the Section and its PGA professionals integral in continuing to elevate major events like the Section Championship and Pro-President, the unique evolution of our relationship across multiple generations of the Nadler family sets Nadler Golf apart as both the longest-standing Section sponsor – and the most generous.’’
The Tour Championship, which tees off on Thursday at East Lake in Atlanta, brings an end to the PGA Tour’s 2014-15 season and Zach Johnson is in an interesting position.
Only 30 players qualified for the 72-hole event that has an $8.25 prize fund and offers an additional $10 million bonus to the winner of the four-event FedEx Cup Playoffs. The winner of the bonus won’t necessarily be the same player who wins The Tour Championship. That’s where Johnson, the reigning British Open champion, figures in.
The FedEx Playoffs began in 2007 to provide the PGA Tour with a much-needed climax to its season. The point system remains confusing, however. The ranking points accumulated in the previous tournaments are reset to create more suspense for the last event.
One thing is certain: if any of the top five in the standings wins at East Lake, that player also wins the $10 million. Johnson is No. 6.
That’s not a bad position to be in. The top five are Jason Day, who won the BMW Championship at Conway Farms in Lake Forest on Sunday; Jordan Spieth, who won the Masters and U.S. Open in the first half of the season but hasn’t been as sharp lately; Rickie Fowler, winner of the Deutsche Bank Champion in the Playoffs; Henrik Stenson, winner of the FedEx Cup in 2013; and Bubba Watson.
There’s no guarantee that Sunday’s winner will come from that group, though Day is red hot. He’s won four of his last six starts and became the world’s No. 1-ranked player with his win at Conway Farms.
Johnson, meanwhile, isn’t one of the game’s much-publicized young guns – a group of twenty-somethings that includes Day, Spieth, Fowler and Rory McIlroy, most recent of the previous No. 1s. But, at 39, Johnson’s no slouch. The Iowa-based veteran is the reigning British Open champion. He also includes the 2007 Masters and Illinois’ two PGA Tour events — the 2012 John Deere Classic and the first BMW Championship at Conway two years ago – among his 12 PGA Tour victories.
Most important, he’s playing good, too. Johnson finished his last round at Conway Farms with five birdies and shot 64, the day’s lowest score. That boosted him from No. 7 to No. 6 in the FedEx standings. While he would have liked to crack the top five, Johnson has the best shot at golf’s biggest paycheck if none of the top five win at East Lake.
“I’ll take it,’’ said Johnson. “I was very frustrated (last week) because I felt like I was in a place to do some work. I figured something out with my ball-striking going into the last nine. You can just chalk up that last five holes to patience.’’
The struggle to find his swing, though, took a toll on Johnson.
“I’m spent. I’m done. I’m ready for a break more mentally than I am physically,’’ said Johnson. “Physically I’m fine. That’s why I work out. That’s why I’ve got a team of guys to get me motivated and ready to play.’’
Though he admits “mental fatigue is there,’’ Johnson’s not about to skip a chance to win $10 million. He can do it by winning at East Lake and have Day finishing no better than a tie for second. Even if he doesn’t win the tournament Johnson would have a mathematical chance of claiming the bonus by finishing second, depending on how the players ranked about him fare.
Here and there
Illinois senior Thomas Detry tied the Olympia Fields North course record with a 7-under-par 63 in the Fighting Illini Invitational, but the Illini settled for a fifth-place finish behind champion Florida State. Detry, who finished second individually in the 54-hole competition, matched a score posted by Rickie Fowler in 2007.
Dave Ryan of Taylorville became the first three-time winner of the Illinois Senior Amateur with a five-stroke win at Ravisloe, in Homewood, and Gary March took the Illinois Senior Open at McHenry Country Club.
The Illinois Super Senior Open begins its 36-hole run on Tuesday at Pine Meadow in Mundelein.
