ROCKFORD, Ill. — Golf wasn’t dying five years ago around this mid-sized Illinois city that sits about 90 minutes west of Chicago. But it was retreating fast.
“2019 was the worst year we ever had,” said Jeff Hartman, the head golf pro and general manager of Park Hills, a 36-hole municipal facility in nearby Freeport.
Golf had been in a steady and somewhat severe 10-year decline across the nation. Courses were hurting after a flurry of golf facilities had been built in the early 1990s to take advantage of the extra focus Tiger Woods brought to golf. Rockford-area 18-hole public courses almost doubled after courses such as Aldeen, PrairieView, Timber Pointe, Swanhills, Wolf Hollow and Westlake Village opened.
“We over-expanded in the industry as a result of the Tiger Boom,” said Rich Rosenstiel, who manages the three Winnebago County Forest Preserve courses. “Too many golf courses were built with the anticipation that they would all be filled. I don’t think we were ever really in danger of not having golf, but there were conversations about how to streamline things.”
The Rockford Park District streamlined by closing Elliot, one of its four 18-hole courses, after 53 years in 2021. Westlake Village closed. Bel-Mar Country Club in Belvidere shut down. Alpine Hills, a deluxe par-3 track, closed.
But COVID brought people back to the golf course. And area courses are keeping them back. Even with all of the rain this year, courses all around the area say rounds are up anywhere from 10 to 15 percent from a year ago. And that’s on top of increases that began with COVID in 2020, when golf was one of the few recreational sports that people were told they could play.
An increase upon an increase upon an increase means, for instance, that Winnebago County courses Macktown, Ledges and Atwood have climbed from 56,600 total rounds in 2018 to 76,250 last year. And they are up an additional 12,500 rounds from this point last year.
“The golf courses are busier than I’ve seen them in decades,” Rosenstiel said.
(Photo: Catie Vernon / Rockford Park District)
“When the weather is nice,” Swanhills superintendent Sue Spahr said, “my goodness, they come out.”
Part of that is because people who have not golfed before have started to play.
“That’s one of the greatest things,” Spahr said. “We’re seeing a lot of young people now, people in their late teens and 20s that we hadn’t seen in years.”
The other part is that the Park District, Forest Preserve and other local courses have kept prices virtually the same as five years ago and have done great jobs of welcoming these new golfers and making sure they return.
“The whole industry was asking: How sustainable is this?” said J.J. Maville, the general manager of Timber Pointe in Belvidere. “After the Tiger Woods boom, we had all these new players and the industry wasn’t prepared to take advantage of it. We can maintain new players better than we did 30 years ago by getting them instruction so they can find enjoyment in the game much sooner.”
Two nationwide programs are Get Golf Ready, where you get five lessons for $99. Another is the PGA Junior League.
“That has been wildly successful,” Maville said. “It’s a team baseball concept melded into golf. Kids are on two-person teams, play an alternate-shot format and wear jerseys with their name and number on it. That has really taken off and gotten more kids interested in golf.”
Other signs of a golf decline had been the cancellation of the Ballard tournament in Rockford, discontinuing the Junior Classic tournament and last year turning the once super-popular Senior Classic tournament from a 36-hole competition into an 18-hole two-man event. Well, the Park District revived the Ballard three years ago, brought back the Junior Classic tournament this year and also reverted back to the two-round Senior formula this year. It also added a new tournament, the McWilliams/Johnson Open, a two-man scramble that honored a pair of late Park District golf teachers who won a combined nine Men’s City titles. That tournament sold out, with 84 players quickly signing up.
“We had people in their 70s and 80s playing and some of their grandkids in grade school and middle school and every age in between,” said David Spencer, the Park District’s operations director. “We are bringing some stuff back that we started shelving because of growth. And we are going to continue to bring them back if we see the interest.
“All our programs to grow golf have been successful,” Spencer added. “Our Sunday Fun Day (where golf for families and beginners is just $5) used to be the slowest time at Sinnissippi. Now it’s one of the busiest. We’re seeing grandpas with their grandkids and all sorts of families playing together. All our lessons are busy. Our Tiger Cub event (an adult is paired with a junior player aged 5 to 17) fills up every year. All of that is helping solidify our base.”
The days are over when golf courses just open their doors and wait for customers to drive up. Freeport has drawn a lot of golfers by offering special rates online at GroupGolfer.com and golfmoose.com. “They have helped us get a noticeable increase in out-of-town golfers,” Hartman said.
Course officials are also on the lookout for inexperienced golfers who might need a little help in truly catching the golf bug.
“If they are not a familiar face or look like they have hand-me-down clubs, you have to ask if they are new to golf or have been here before,” Timber Pointe’s Maville said. “You try to engage them more. Then get them into a program.”
And then keep them coming back.
“I don’t see a decline any time soon,” the Park District’s Spencer said. “We have a really good feeder system going throughout the entire country.”