Kankakee Elks Golf Club is located about 65 miles south of Chicago. The course opened in 1936 and was the only new course designed by Langford and Moreau during the 1930's and their first 18 hole course to open since Lawsonia opened in 1930. It preceded their highly regarded work at Skokie CC by two years. On the wall of the clubhouse there is a handwritten list of scores from a tournament at the course which dates to 1936. The course has been home to LPGA Futures Tour Tournaments the last three years.
Today the course plays to 6,430 yards and a par of 71. Seventeen of the holes are original with only one, the par 3 fifth having been changed. Based on the 1938 aerial it does not appear the course was built with sand in the bunkers. We will have to take Ralph's advice to take a soil probe out there to be sure.
However even without sand the characteristic Langford Moreau fairway bunkers are in ample display and the seventeen original greens are in very good condition and in most cases do not look like they are significantly smaller than the green pads on which they sit. Unfortunately due to an aggressive tree program many of the fairway bunkers are now located in the forest.
At 6,430 yards the course plays somewhat short by today’s standards. Like many Langford Moreau courses there are a couple of half par short par 4's, a terrific set of par 3's and a couple of long par 4's. Rather than a hole by hole description I will attempt to highlight the better holes and point out some of the problem areas.
First the layout. The first aerial is from 1938 or 1939 and shows the hole numbers next to the greens. The fairways are hard to see which is probably due to a lack of irrigation. There is clearly no sand in the bunkers. The second aerial shows the course today. The sand that can be seen looks like it has been placed in fairly new bunkers that are not typical of Langford Moreau.
1939
Today
Here are a few of the highlights.
The first really strong hole is the slight dogleg left 440 yard par 4 third. This difficult 4.5 par hole is bookended by two very short par 4's, the 263 yard second and 329 yard fourth. A highlight of the third is a green set into a small hillside with a beautifully built mound on the right side about 30-40 yards short of the green that can be used to sling a right to left long iron or hybrid toward the green.
The next hole of note is the 561 par 5 sixth hole. An elegant hole that flows from an elevated tee between a pre-existing grove of trees on the left and new trees on the right that have partly obscured fairway bunkers on that side. The third shot is to a nicely elevated built up green that would look wonderful flanked by deep sand bunkers. This green is similar to the green at the end of the same length par 5 fourth hole at Spring Valley.
From the tee
A little farther up
The 3rd shot
The fifth is followed by a wonderful mid-length par 3 of 169 yards that played 177 with the tees set back. The green is steeply sloped from right to left; missing right as I found out is a problem as it was almost impossible to keep the ball on the green due to the severe slope.
The eighth is a nice 380 yard dogleg right to green up on a hill in a grove of trees that where there when the course was built. A nice hole today but imagine what it will be like in twenty years when those new trees on the right of the second picture mature.
Note the newly planted trees along the right side of the fairway.
After the turn, the next hole to really stand out is the short 140 yard par 3 twelfth. There is a mound in front which hides the front of the green and some dead ground short. The green itself is smaller than the typically large Langford Moreau green and has some wonderful internal undulations. This is probably the best small L/M green I have seen. A fantastic hole.
The thirteenth is a 363 yard par 4 with a nicely shaped and undulated green. The pin was tucked to the left.
After a 545 yard par 5 you are met with the gargantuan uphill 198 yard fifteenth. Gargantuan because of the super engineered green site which is built into a 50 foot high hillside. Gargantuan because of the massive green with slopes all over the place. Despite the massive size of the green this was the one green that looked like it may actually have been bigger in its original form. Unfortunately this photo does not really do it justice and I didn’t get a shot of the green. Another great par 3.
Tommorow I will feature some of the other holes and the tree planting program.
Enjoy.