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MAY/JUNE 08
By Rick Pledl The color green has finally returned to the Wisconsin landscape after a way-too-long winter. The air is damp and blustery, but nevertheless warm. Red-breasted robins have returned from their haunts to the south, and their voices are heard among the twittering of a million other songbirds as they go about their springtime – for lack of a better word – work.
Yes, spring has officially sprung in Wisconsin. As our feathered friends get busy building nests and whatever else they do this time of year, springtime also means some specific things in the world of golf. While the building of new golf facilities has slowed in Wisconsin in recent years, change is inevitable. Following are several changes that have taken place on the state golf scene in the recent past or will in the near future:
An opening
Wild Rock GC is ready to roll. After the opening was put off a couple times due to heavy rainfall during the grow-in period, the championship course was scheduled to open on May 1. Designed by Dr. Mike Hurdzan and Dana Fry, Wild Rock is part of the sprawling Wilderness Resort complex in Wisconsin Dells. It essentially replaces the resort’s old Wilderness Woods course. (For more on Wild Rock GC, see the March/April issue of Wisconsin Golfer.)
An auction
Tuscumbia CC in Green Lake will be sold at auction on May 30. The course, which opened in 1896, is among Wisconsin’s oldest golf facilities and is one of the few courses in the state which dates to the 19th century.
In addition to its wooded, 18-hole golf course, the Tuscumbia property includes a clubhouse with full-service restaurant and a 10-unit condominium development called the Green Lake Lodge.
The sale is being handled by Inland Real Estate Auctions, Inc., headquartered in Oak Brook, Ill. Prospective buyers can get more information at (630) 990-5350 or www.inlandgroup.com.
Ownership issues
Some big changes have taken place at Antigo Bass Lake CC in Deerbrook of late, but those changes are aimed at maintaining the status quo. A consortium of club members purchased the popular golf club last summer in order to pay off approximately $1.5 million in debt.
The club, established in 1926, had always been member-owned but it needed a fresh start and some new capital, so an LLC was formed last summer and members were encouraged to invest in the club. More than 50 of them did, each putting up $10,000.
“We were choking on that debt,” said John Nussbaum, one of the leaders of the ownership group who lives in Appleton and has a second home on Bass Lake. “We felt we had to raise a million and a half bucks to get rid of the debt, and that’s exactly what we did. With the debt, (the club) was going nowhere.”
Thus, Antigo Bass Lake will embark on its first full season under new ownership in 2008. A nine-person board of members/owners now is overseeing the operation, led by Nussbaum, the chairman, and a new club manager has been hired.
The overriding goal of the new ownership group is to keep Antigo Bass Lake as it always has been, a wooded northern Wisconsin golf course in a beautiful lakeside setting. Developers also have been known to covet such locales, and the last thing the members wanted to see was the property sold off chunk by chunk to raise cash.
“One of the things that was important to us was that it remain an 18-hole golf course of the same quality it had been in the past,” Nussbaum said. “We just didn’t want it to fall into foreclosure and have it turn into (home) lots. Hopefully it was a good move, and I think it was.”
A final season
The on again, off again sale of Squires CC in Port Washington that played out over the last several months is finally and officially on again. In April, the Ozaukee Washington Land Trust agreed to purchase the facility after current owners Bruce and Bonnie Bloemer complete a final year operating the golf course in 2008.
The conservancy group, which plans to turn the property along Lake Michigan into a nature preserve, pursued the purchase of Squires CC at the end of last season, but over the winter a deal was struck between the Bloemers and a group of local investors. That deal fell apart in early April when the group’s financing didn’t come through, allowing Ozaukee Washington Land Trust to pursue the property once more.
So the Bloemers are embarking on a final season of golf course ownership before Squires CC officially disappears from the Wisconsin golf map. The course opened in 1927.
“For the next eight months, we’re a golf course,” Bloemer said in April. “We’ve sold memberships, and we’ve got group golf events booked. We’ve got league players that are counting on us being here. We’ve got a staff that’s expecting to be employed here. Our focus right now is to get the golf course open for the season.”
New owners
Twin Cities businessmen Doug Hoskin and David Westby plan to more aggressively market 12-year-old St. Croix National GC in Somerset after buying it March 31 from Wendell Pittenger Golf Operations. Hoskin and Westby, friends since high school, own a Minneapolis parking ramp together and have other, separate business interests, although not in golf. They have reduced greens fees, are offering $5 a round discounts to Polk and St. Croix county residents and plan to make year-round use of the course's 300-capacity event center.
“We’re hoping to expose the course to more people,” Hoskin said.
Hoskin and Westby bought the course after the Town of Somerset briefly considered buying it from WP Golf. WP Golf once owned the 36-hole Wild Ridge and Mill Run complex in Eau Claire and still owns four east-central Minnesota courses.
Changes are also on the horizon at Durand’s Rolling Greens GC in Durand. Curt Radle and Sharlene Dock, both natives of Pepin County, purchased the course in February after previous owner Chaz Bauer died. Radle and Dock plan to upgrade the driving range and have purchased an adjacent 60 acres for a possible expansion to 18 holes in three to five years.
Turf talk
The membership at Westmoor CC, a private club in Brookfield, has decided to bite the bullet and embark on a renovation project which will close the course for the 2008 season on Aug. 1. Golf course architect Bob Lohmann is overseeing the project, which is budgeted for more than $1.8 million.
There are four parts to the project, but the most important one is the fumigation and regrassing of all 18 greens. The bunkers around the greens on several holes will be rebuilt so they are flatter and feature grass facings to lend overall consistency to their look. A few fairway bunkers will be moved to better challenge today’s players. The project will kick off in spring with the installation of a new drainage system.
The project fits in with Westmoor’s goal for consistency on a course which has seen several renovations, including some by Lohmann. The club hopes to move back to the design first created by architectural giant William Langford in the 1920s.
The greens will be regrassed with A-Series bentgrass, which has the ability to overtake poa annua, a grass which has found a home on Westmoor’s putting surfaces over the decades. According to club manager Joe Coan, Westmoor’s greens had become susceptible to stress in hot and cold weather, but A-Series bentgrass has a reputation for producing consistent greens, and green speeds, all season long.
“We really researched this,” Coan said. “We went on some visits to clubs in Chicago and did our homework. Every one of the clubs who switched to the A-Series said they wished they had done this years ago.”
Once the project was explained in depth, Westmoor members voted to go forward, even though it means their golf course will be closed from Aug. 1, 2008 through June 1, 2009.
“It’s definitely not the most advantageous situation to be in when you are a country club,” said Coan of the closure. “I think it was painful, but the visionaries of the club really thought it was the right thing to do.”
Keeping current
In an effort to keep pace with the distances today’s players hit the ball, University Ridge GC in Verona has lengthened its back (Gold) tees in an effort to remain a viable college golf tournament facility. Most of the back tees at U-Ridge have been moved back, lengthening the course from 6,888 yards from the tips to just over 7,200 yards.
Additionally, a new, expanded practice range is slated to open sometime in July, as well as private practice facilities for players on the UW-Madison men’s and women’s varsity golf teams.
Clubhouse news
Trappers Turn GC in Wisconsin Dells undertook a $4 million clubhouse renovation project this offseason which essentially doubled the size of its structure. The results are expanded dining, veranda, bar and pro shop areas and a new emphasis on fine dining. The dining room now seats 250 guests, while the veranda overlooking the golf course has room for 70.
The clubhouse under construction at the Legend at Bergamont in Oregon may be open as soon as August. Originally expected to be completed in fall 2008, the 34,000-square-foot building will feature a 275-seat grand ballroom, a casual bar and grill, board room, golf shop and of course men’s and women’s locker rooms. Meanwhile the expansive pool, tennis and fitness complex at the Legend at Bergamont is scheduled for a Memorial Day weekend opening.
Orchards GC in Egg Harbor is also moving into a new clubhouse this spring, which course operators hope will bring things back to normal after the previous structure was destroyed by fire last Aug. 15. The new building will be about 2,000 square feet larger than the last one and will offer wireless Internet access, in addition to bar, restaurant and locker room facilities.
New Kastle
The golf course in Marion, on the northern fringe of Waupaca County, has changed its name. Kastle Greens GC is the new moniker for the daily fee golf course previously known as Perry’s Landing GC.
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