The controversy surrounding the sale and the planned renovation of the Calumet Country Club has made one thing clear: golf courses are important to our community, even for non-golfers.
As emphasized several times during the Homewood Planning and Zoning Commission hearing, the Calumet Country Club represents a significant portion of the village’s open green spaces.
And it is one of the historic squares that has been part of the village for more than a century, part of the landscape that people grew up with or moved close to. Not only golfers are interested in the fate of the course or one of our courses.
Assuming the Calumet Country Club is converted into a warehouse complex as planned, this won’t be the first course we’ve lost. The Dixmoor Country Club only existed for about five years in the 1920s. It’s also not the first course to be critically endangered. By the time the current owner, Claude Gendreau, bought it, the Ravisloe Country Club was in danger of being used for another purpose.
These cases and the controversy over the fate of the Calumet Country Club got us thinking. Since the future of this degree is important to so many people, the future of our other degree programs is even more important.
We decided it would be a good time to check with the owners and players of these courses and see how things go.
Golf courses developed along and near the Illinois Central Line in the first quarter of the 20th century. They were once known as the Five Sisters – Calumet, Ravisloe, Idlewild, Flossmoor, and Olympia Fields.
For our State of Golf project, we spoke to the owners, managers and players of six golf courses, the Five Sisters and the only public golf course, the Coyote Run.
What we’ve learned so far is that each course has contributed in its own way to the history, culture, and economy of the community. Everyone has their own character, their own niche, their own story to tell.
To tell the history of golf in our region, we wanted to use a range of tools, from print to web, voice and video.
For the video core of the project, we work with Bionic Content under the direction of Marcellus Marsh from Flossmoor. Bionic Content has produced a number of video products for local businesses and organizations over the past few months, including the Chronicle’s Meet the Candidate interviews ahead of the spring elections.
However, the video production is a bit over the Chronicle’s usual budget, so we’re reaching out to the community for assistance in completing the project.
We believe the result will be a compelling story, and an important one for a community with a history and future associated with golf.
We’re soliciting donations for a GoFundMe campaign to raise $ 2,600 by September 10th.
Anyone who brings in $ 10 or more will be listed on the video’s community sponsors screen. The video will be posted on the Chronicle’s YouTube channel and shared as widely as possible.
We hope you consider adding your name to the list.