The Reemergence of Winnetka Golf Club

The year 2024 was marked by the reemergence of two notable events. The cicadas emerged from their 17-year slumber during the early portion of 2024’s summer. Then on Tuesday, August 13, the ‘new’ Winnetka Golf Club emerged from its hiatus to a most welcoming gathering of North Shore avid golfers. Fortunately for the anxious golfers, the Winnetka Golf Club hiatus was a bit more like 17 months, rather than 17 years.

On December 15, 2022, the Winnetka Park District Board of Commissioners selected KemperSports to manage the Winnetka Golf Club and oversee an extensive course renovation to the club’s public nine-hole and 18-hole courses.

Historical records may vary, but the accepted date of 1917 is given as the opening of Winnetka Golf Club. At that time cicadas were 5 years into another of their 17-year underground hideout cycles, and golf course architect William H. Langford turned 30 acres of flood-plain marshland into a 2,155-Yard nine-hole layout known as Winnetka Park Golf Course.

In 1922 the park district added nine more holes to complete the 18-hole layout. During the Great Depression of the 1930’s, Charles D. Wagstaff spearheaded a renovation project to the eighteen hole course and at the same time added a nine hole par-3 course. The eighteen hole course remained virtually unchanged until the 2022 renovation plans commenced.

Winnetka Golf Club

After more than eight decades of recurrent flooding issues, Libertyville-based golf course architect Rick Jacobson was hired to renovate Winnetka Golf Club with the primary objective aimed at alleviating flooding problems.

A characteristic of the pre-2022 layout of Winnetka Golf Club was one that featured flat-surfaced fairways which tended to capture and pool excess rainwater. The 2022 Jacobson redesign includes slightly pitched fairways with rolling surfaces allowing water movement toward drainage areas. Jacobson stated “From now on golfers can be confident that Winnetka Golf Club will be open and available for both recreational and competitive play even after heavy thunderstorms.”

In addition to overall improved drainage at both courses, further renovations in Jacobson’s plan included releveling and resurfacing greens, tees and fairways, and the remodeling of fairway and select greenside bunkers. For the first time continuous cart paths have been installed.

Both pre-renovation and post-renovation aerial photos of Winnetka Golf Club illustrate that water is a preeminent feature on the course. Previously small ponds affected play as ‘penalty areas’ on as many as fifteen of the eighteen holes. Currently a large sprawling pond beacons the eyesight from aircraft, clubhouse patrons, and golfers on the tenth, sixteenth, and eighteenth tees.

The pond was an idea introduced by Winnetka Park Commissioner Warren James. The water feature doubles as water storage while avoiding the use and expenses of underground retention. “Everyone is talking about Lake Warren James,” stated former Village Council Member Andy Cripe, “… Going underground for storage is extremely expensive, like millions of extra dollars expensive. Warren’s plan not only made it possible to have a new water feature, it opened up dollars that would have been spent putting water underground…”

“The Winnetka Golf Club has been a special part of the Winnetka community for more than a century, and we are proud to help Rick Jacobson lead the restoration of such a prized local asset right here in our backyard,” said KemperSports CEO Steve Skinner. “The golf course has great bones, and this renovation will take it to the next level.”

Statistics:
Black – 6517 yards; (M) 72.8 /133; par 71
Blue – 6278 yards; (M) 71.7 / 130; (W) 77.6 / 138; par 71
White – 5838 yards; (M) 69.4 / 124; (W) 75.2 / 133; par 71
Yellow – 5009 yards; (M) 65.7/114; (W) 70.6 / 123; par 71

Amenities:

The new Winnetka Golf Club features a full-flight driving range (260+ yards) with contoured and landscaped target greens, a 7,600 sq. ft. putting green (no chipping), another 1,900 sq. ft. putting green convenient to the #1 tee, a chipping and bunker practice green, and a short 9-hole par-3 course (1109 yards; 26.6 / 85; par 27).

Winnetka Golf Club Putting Green

The clubhouse contains a fully stocked pro shop and a restaurant / grill serving adult beverages. Pull carts as well as riding carts are available for the 18-hole course. Continuous, paved cart paths have been installed on the 18-hole course. The 9-hole course is walking only.

Analysis / Comments:

While being considered somewhat short by today’s standards, nevertheless, Winnetka Golf Club is truly a demanding, challenging, and difficult golf course. The greens are firm and fast. Ground level impediments to low scoring include numerous ponds, jagged edged bunkers, tree trunks, and tall native grass areas.

Above ground adversaries to low scoring are the tree limbs and branches, and the wind. The majority of Winnetka’s golf holes play in south-to-north or north-to-south directions; easterly winds off of Lake Michigan produce an abundance of cross-wind shots.

Two helpful aids to prepare golfers for the challenge of Winnetka GC, are the putting green, whose speed precisely mimics the speed of the on-course greens, and the driving range that hits in the same direction as does hole #1.

Confirmed by the ‘above par’ course ratings of Winnetka’s black tees (72.8) and blue tees (71.7), and its lofty slope ratings, these USGA numbers are a testament to the validation that Winnetka Golf Club is a ‘championship course’.

Conclusion:

Stepping into retirement, Rick Jacobson’s project to renovate Winnetka Golf Club was his last work as a golf course architect. In a similar vein to the teardowns and restorations of century-old residential properties in the Winnetka, Wilmette, and Kenilworth communities, Jacobson’s efforts at this 107-year-old golf facility did justice to the ambiance and history of this North Shore area, while at the same time bringing it to use as a 21st century entity. Well done, Rick!

Further information can be obtained at the WGC website.

Photos courtesy of KemperSports and Winnetka Golf Club.

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