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.
Players warm up on the putting green at Ingersoll before the inaugural McWilliams/Johnson Open on July 13, 2024 in Rockford, Ill.
(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…
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