Congratulations to all, but especially to Ray Hearn. This renovation of a hidden gem of a golf course should really put him on the gca map. It is an audacious piece of work, to say the least. In my mind, it is the most eye-popping, before-and-after restoration I've ever seen. Flossmoor exemplifies the "great bones" reference to old golf courses that have sort of lost their way, whether casually through a maintenance meld that dumbs down the golf course, thoughtless bunker work or the all-too-present overplanting of trees. Flossmoor suffered for decades (not that a lot of us thought about it, Bunky) because of the tree and bunker issue.
The Flossmoor success story, like many others, is also a tribute to the dogged work of a Grounds Chairman (Mark Egge) who educated himself (largely through the generous Brad Klein) and then passed it on to the membership in a time consuming fashion. It is also largely attributable to a Grounds Superintendent, Bob Lively, who is nothing short of spectacular. The greens at Flossmoor are unique in the Chicago district, full of internal contour with beguiling and deceptive side to side slope, but before Bob took the job, the greens only ran around 8 on the Stimpmeter on a regular basis. It is the stuff of Flossmoor lore that Lively got the job for his answer to the question asking about his philosophy on greens management. He reportedly said, "I don't even like the word, 'green'. They can be any color they need to be as long as they are fast and firm." THAT is my kind of super.
The third guy who deserves praise has already gotten plenty of it, but here's another shout-out to Greg Ohlendorf who used his considerable social skills to put everybody together. This is a great day in the South Suburbs of Chicagoland. I'm bringing a bottle or two to Flossmoor tomorrow, which we'll drink after sending a dozen or so caddies to college on a Chick Evans Scholarship. It was 100 years ago, after all, that Chick Evans won his first tournament. At Flossmoor, no less.
What goes around, comes around.