The most interesting view of Chicago isn’t from the Sears Tower’s 103rd floor observation deck. Actually, it’s 103 floors below, on the rye grass fairways of Sydney Marovitz, the nine-hole, 3,240-yard course off Lake Shore Drive. From here you can see Lake Michigan, and up ahead looms Chi-town’s skyline, where the massive skyscrapers are positioned like pieces on a chessboard — you can almost imagine the Aon Center and John Hancock Center cornering the Sears Tower into check mate. The course is an anomaly: a mix of city and suburb, a verdant expanse in the middle of America’s third most populated metropolis. Lucky for Great Lakes golfers, it’s one of six public courses under the jurisdiction of the Chicago Park District. And it’s not only thriving, but improving with each passing year.

For the past 14 years the Chicago Park District, a network of 550 parks equaling more than 7,000 acres (that’s eight times the size of Manhattan’s Central Park), has made its golf courses a main priority in its ongoing capitol improvement campaign. Owned by the city until 1993, Mayor Richard Daley decided to have the courses privatized in an effort to not only improve the experience, but community outreach as well. The mission: to sell golf as a viable pastime to locals and urban youth. Since 1993, the city has allocated more than $7 million to course renovation: installing irrigation, replacing driving range netting, upgrading tee boxes, building clubhouses and more.

Today, the Chicago Park District offers six golf courses (five nine-hole, and one 18-hole), as well as three driving ranges, two miniature golf courses and three new learning centers. The courses are open year round, fees are cheap (lingering around $15), and everyone is invited. On the Chicago Park District golf website, the course dress code keeps things simple: “Shirt required.”

“Before we took over, the courses were losing close to $1 million a year,” says Steve Skinner, president and COO of KemperSports, the golf course management firm that took over the CPD golf facilities in 1993. “We’ve turned that negative into a positive. Now the courses generate close to $1 million a year. We’ve made golf affordable and accessible. Everyone from CEOs to construction workers play here.”

This success is even more impressive when you consider the timeframe. Renovations on the CPD courses began during the Great Lakes golf course boom. More than 150 courses have been built in Chicago over the past 15 years. And then here are these old public courses, not set in scenic Kildeer or Lake Forest but in the urban core.

Then there’s the fact that golf is just one of the gazillion activities offered by the Chicago Park District. Those 7,000 acres include 100 public pools, boating and sailing facilities (Chicago has the largest recreational harbor system in the country), fishing for perch and smelt in Lake Michigan, beaches open from Memorial Day to Labor Day, 18 miles of paved paths for cyclists, joggers and rollerbladers, and two 20,000-square-foot skateboarding parks. In the face of all this, the CPD golf courses are flourishing. With the residential trend of people returning to metropolitan living, “city golf” has become a viable pastime.

To get to the root of this story, you have to fire up the flux capacitor and head back to 1869. It’s only four years after Appomattox, and Chicago begins plans for a massive park system. But the city’s reputation as a verdant metropolis predates those initial park plans by several decades. In 1837, when Chicago was founded, it adopted the motto “urbs in horto,” meaning “the city set in a garden.”
After the completion of Chicago’s first park, Dearborn Park, the CPD grew into the greatest park system in the world. It’s even inspired its own book: Chicago’s Parks: A Photographic History highlights park landmarks both demolished and still standing, many of which were designed by famed Chicago architect William Le Baron Jenney, the man who counted Louis Sullivan as a protégé.

The first golf course showed up 108 years ago. Jackson Park opened in 1899 on landfill from the World’s Fair and was the first public course in the Midwest. With the economy booming, and golf acting as official sport of the city’s haves, more courses were added: Marquette Park, Douglas Park, South Shore, Columbus Park, Robert Black and Sydney R. Marovitz. The youngest course is 50 years old. But years passed, economic conditions changed, public interests shifted, facilities deteriorated, and all of the sudden you’re looking at a nine-hole course that is 2,700 yards of valuable but underused city real estate.

By 1993, Mayor Daley knew it was time for a professional golf outfit to take over management duties. He sent out a national RFP, opening up the competition to any qualified firm. Enter KemperSports. One of the world’s leading golf management and development companies, KemperSports has 3,000 employees to oversee its 70 clients, among them championship courses like Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, Bolingbrook Golf Club, The Glen Club, Desert Willow Golf Resort, The Wilderness at Fortune Bay and Harding Park Golf Course. “We won that bid based on experience,” says Skinner. It didn’t hurt that KemperSports’ headquarters was 20 miles from the city.
It’s important to note that the CPD’s deteriorating golf courses weren’t sticking out like sore thumbs. The aging park system has needs everywhere. Proof of this can be found in Chicago Park District Capitol Improvement Plan Overview for 2007 through 2011. According to the report, total park funding for 2007 is $62.7 million. However, the list of past, recently completed and ongoing projects is staggering. The report’s project list is 16 pages long, in 8-point font. It includes artificial turf for the many athletic fields, planting perennials in the countless gardens, a water slide in Palmer Park, fixing the roof at Austin Town Hall, washroom repairs, fixing signage, repaving sidewalks, rehabbing elevators, installing bleachers and backdrops for the baseball fields, and the construction and improvement of 66 playgrounds.

The golf courses were among the oldest items on the to-do list, and were in most need of attention. Under Skinner’s direction, the courses were examined, evaluated and refurbished. One of the major undertakings was removing the cement tees and replacing them with grass. KemperSports also installed new irrigation systems at Jackson Park and South Shore, which eliminated the need to drag hoses across the course. Other projects included constructing a two-tiered driving range at Diversey, rebuilding greens at Jackson Park, renovating bunkers and reseeding the fairways at all the courses. KemperSports also hired experts in golf course management, something the courses lacked for the past century.

After 14 years and $7 million, the work continues. “A golf course is a living, breathing thing,” explains Skinner. “There is constantly a need for upgrades and improvements.” As for KemperSports’ contract with the city, Skinner says, “That contract has been renewed.”

One of the biggest success stories for the Chicago Park District is what these renovated facilities have inspired. With the help of Mayor Daley and KemperSports, the CPD is now a major supporter of First Tee, a non-profit organization focused on introducing the game of golf and its values to inner city youth. As part of the course upgrades, KemperSports built First Tee facilities at three CPD courses: Marquette Park, Douglas Park and South Shore. They include three-hole golf courses, artificial turf hitting stations, mini-golf courses, and driving ranges. Thanks to these facilities, First Tee of Chicago had its first participant, high school senior Adam Addams, in the 2006 Wal-Mart First Tee Open at Pebble Beach. It was the first time a Chicago youth qualified for the event.

“The bigger mission here is getting more people to play the game,” says Skinner. “We’ve got courses to get novices excited. To be playing golf in downtown Chicago is pretty unique.” He’s got a point. After all, what better golf story is there than hooking one into the Sears Tower?

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