White Eagle Golf Club Has Big Plans for 2022

White Eagle Golf Club in Naperville has big plans for the future, including $12.5 million in improvements over the remainder of the decade. Much of that investment will go towards making White Eagle Golf Club more of a year-round facility, including an improved and expanded clubhouse.

The club will host some of the top college golfers in the country April 29th through May 1st at the 2022 Mid-American Conference Golf Championship. The event will be hosted by Northern Illinois University.

“White Eagle is thrilled to have been selected to host the MAC Men’s Golf Championship in 2022,” said Curtis Malm, General Manager of White Eagle Golf Club. “Northern Illinois University approached White Eagle in the spring and without hesitation, the Membership was thrilled to have some of the nation’s best college golfers test their skills on our golf course. The Membership at White Eagle prides themselves on being a major part of the local community and hosting the MAC will be another feather in our cap as we continue to be at the forefront of giving back to wonderful organizations such as the MAC. We wish all the teams of the MAC great success this college season and are looking forward to seeing you all in the spring of 2022 at White Eagle Golf Club.”

In addition, White Eagle will also host the 2022 Illinois Open Championship August 2-4. The state championship of golf is a 54-hole championship over three days to determine the finest player in the state of Illinois. Tee-K Kelly from Wheaton won the 2021 Illinois Open Championship at Stonebridge Country Club. Kelly, who led at the end of all three rounds, posted a final round 4-under-par 68 for a tournament total 17-under-par 199. Kelly tied the Illinois Open 54-hole score to par (Carlos Sainz, Jr. 2016), and recorded the second-lowest Illinois Open 54-hole score (David Cooke, 2015).

In 2019, Marengo-based Lohmann Quitno Golf Course Architects completed a bunker renovation on 27 holes at White Eagle Golf Club. Prior to the renovation, the bunkers were cumbersome for staff to maintain and had been contaminated with years of washouts and storm damage.

Between May and October 2019, Quitno oversaw a renovation that reduced the bunker areas over 27 holes by more than half to less than 80,000 square feet, and equipped them with Better Billy Bunker liner and Pro/Angle sand. “The club wanted a clean-edged, high-flash look of the bunkering,” said Todd Quitno. “Bunkers were cut in immediately off the edge of the green collars and fairway edges. We added rolling contours within the bunker bottoms and faces to give them a little character and to provide some distinct shadowing when sun angles are right.”

In areas where bunkers were removed, bentgrass was added to expand fairway landing areas and create roll-off and roll-on features around greens. “We allocated a lot of maintenance labor that was previously used on bunkers to attend to the extended bentgrass areas that were developed around greens and along bunker edges,” said Quitno.

Originally designed by the Arnold Palmer Design Group, White Eagle Golf Club features three nine-hole courses. Holes 1 through 9 are referred to as the Red Course and holes 10 through 18 are the White Course. Holes 19 through 27 were developed at a later date and are referred to as the Blue Course.