As Deerpath Golf Course celebrates its 90th anniversary this month, city officials are hopeful a proposed multimillion dollar renovation will reverse the tide and lead the course to self-sufficiency.
Since 2008, the number of rounds played at the Lake Forest course each year has been on the decline, according to city figures. There was, however, a slight uptick in 2015 with 29,408 rounds played. That was still a decrease from just over 35,000 rounds in 2008.
The course, which is owned by the city of Lake Forest, was making money until around 2007 or 2008, said City Manager Bob Kiely.
“During the Tiger Woods heyday, there were a lot of people playing golf,” Kiely said. “Starting in the late 1990s or early 2000s, the amount of play started to drop off.”
In 2011, the city began to subsidize Deerpath, contributing $22,000 that fiscal year, $38,000 in 2012, $78,000 in 2013, $96,000 in 2014 and $166,000 in 2015, according to city documents.
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The decrease in play at Deerpath Golf Course is exacerbated by the number of golf courses in the area, particularly other municipal courses like those in Lake Bluff, Deerfield and Highland Park, officials say.
“We estimate (we’d gain) up to 2,000 rounds if one of the Highland Park courses close,” said Ald. Tim Newman, who serves on the city’s Golf Advisory Committee. “That’s an important number for us. It might even make us profitable.”
Highland Park has discussed the possibility of ceasing golf operations at Highland Park Country Club and focusing renovation efforts on the Sunset Valley Golf Course.
The plan
To keep Deerpath attractive to golfers, the city hired Lohman Golf Design to study the course and propose improvements.
During a March 2016 public meeting, Lohman proposed up to $8.3 million in improvements, including better drainage to alleviate flooding, improved sand bunkers, hole reconfigurations and the addition of a comfort station to the north end of the course.
Some improvements, like underground parking and an expanded banquet facility, have since been dropped and the proposed cost decreased to $4.5 to $6 million, Newman said.
Newman has proposed the improvements be paid for partially with private donations, and partially by the city.
“We’ve done other large projects like that in town,” Newman said. “Forest Park was a public-private partnership.”
If approved by the council, the city would issue bonds that would then be paid back by golf revenue, Kiely said.
If it happens, it wouldn’t be the first time the city has supported Deerpath Golf Course. About 20 years ago the city issued bonds to pay for improvements to the course, Kiely said.
The history
Enthusiasm for golf in Lake Forest dates back to at least 1892, when a Charles Blair MacDonald seven-hole golf course that used tomato cans was built on the estate of Sen. Charles B. Farwell. The estate was bordered by Deerpath, Lake, Mayflower and Spring Lane.
“It was the site of the first golf course built anywhere west of the Hudson River,” said Laurie Stein, curator of the Lake Forest-Lake Bluff Historical Society and the author of a book on golf history. “It was the real birthplace of Western and Midwestern golf.”
By 1895, the Lake Forest Golf Club was formed on the site of the former Leander McCormick farm, although golfers could be distracted by trains or sheep on its borders. The Owentsia Club also started in 1895.
Residents of Lake Forest began clamoring for a municipal golf course around 1922, according to Stein’s research.
“It was an era where the general public had an increasing amount of disposable wealth and time for activities like golf,” Stein said. “More public courses were built, of which Deerpath was one.”
Other area golf courses began to pop up in the 1920s including Shoreacres, Knollwood and Mill Road Farm.
Deerpath Golf Course became a pet project of Mayor Henry Rumsey, who enjoyed projects that unified different sectors of town. Major donors of land included Albert B. Dick, who donated more than 65 acres, and John Griffith, who acquired then donated 44 lots in a proposed subdivision that was never built, according to Stein’s research.
The land was donated with the condition that it was to be used for recreational purposes only – except trap shooting – and if the property was ever used for anything else it would revert back to the donors. Alex Pirie, the golf professional at Old Elm Golf Club, worked with city engineer Neil Campbell to design and layout Deerpath Golf Course.
“Pirie was a pretty significant figure in golf in this area,” Stein said. “For a while, he was president of the PGA. He was buried in Lake Forest Cemetery.”
The south nine holes were constructed first. In October 1929, voters approved a referendum to expand the course to 18 holes, which took place in 1931.
The course was originally so barren of trees or foliage that it was informally referred to as “The Bumps,” although the Lake Forest Garden Club and other horticultural societies worked to change that. Later, during the Great Depression, crews from the Works Progress Administration planted trees and shrubs.
Local architects Stanley Anderson and James Ticknor designed the clubhouse, which was built at a cost of $12,000, according to reports from the time.
A group of local golfers meeting at the American Legion post decided to name it Deerpath Golf Course.
Historical sources vary, but the yearly membership fee was somewhere between $15 and $30.
Whatever the cost, the course was a hit locally.
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“Early on, Lake Forest businesses even closed at noon Wednesdays so some employees could get in a round of golf,” according Stein’s book, “Hole in One: The Lore and Lure of Golf.”
During the Great Depression and World War II, a number of golf courses in the Chicago area began to decline, according to the book.
There was evidently concern about Deerpath at the time, as an editorial in a November 1939 issue of the Lake Forester stated that “The Deerpath Golf Course has always operated at a loss.”
That same editorial also stated that “Other municipal golf courses have become practically self-supporting by inviting and urging out-of-town persons to use the facilities they offer. However, this plan presents two definite disadvantages: undesirables are brought in and the course is crowded.”
Deerpath survived. It went through redesigns in the 1970s and 1980s and a new clubhouse was later built.
An Open House to celebrate the 90th anniversary of Deerpath Golf Course and detail the proposed improvements will take place from 4 to 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 21 at the clubhouse, 500 West Deerpath.
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