Golf Inc - March/April 2009 - (Page 30) R EN O VA T I ON R U N N ER -U P : D A I LY FEE/ SEMI - PUBL I C C OUR SES F THE YEA R Cog Hill Golf & Country Club OWNER O 30 L E M O N T, I L L Frank Jemsek ARCHITECT Rees Jones, Inc. CONTRACTOR BE FOR E A FT E R • Wadsworth Golf Construction This legendary Jemsek family tribute to quality public golf, originally designed by Dick Wilson and opened in 1964, faced similar problems to those of TPC Las Colinas, with an even higher volume of play as a true daily fee venue. In addition to rebuilding all 18 greens and tee complexes, repositioning and rebuilding numerous bunkers and making infrastructure improvements to irrigation and cart path systems, the course needed to be toughened for the pros while keeping it playable for all skill levels of public players. While the renovation was completed in October, the course will not reopen until May of this year after the Chicago winter. Already, however, there has been increased demand for outings and tournament bookings in anticipation of the “new” Cog Hill. Additionally, the changes in greens conditioning and bunker drainage will allow an even higher volume of daily play than the busy course was previously able to sustain. BY THE NUMBERS What the judges said: “Great work – big bold bunkers, looks like lots of fun! I do believe they did position themselves to compete in their market or any market” – Joe Niebur “Although the completed work is excellent and I am sure that it improved the agronomic needs of the course, my concern is that with the complexity of the bunkers, additional cost in this area will be incurred, which is an issue more so with daily fee courses” – Tommy Sasser Year course first opened: 1964 Renovation timeline: September 2007October 2008 Budget: $5 million Line item: 18 rebuilt greens, 25 percent more cuppable areas Golf Inc. March/April 2009
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