HARD ROCK INSPIRATION • VIDEO: WELCOMING WOMEN • GRAA AWARDS 2013

New PracticePalace‘Performance Center’at Mistwood a Hit

New PracticePalace‘Performance Center’at Mistwood a Hit

Also in this issue:• Quick Golf at Princeville• Instruction’s Economic Impact• Club and University Partner Up• Carl’s Golfland: Updated Classic

Also in this issue:• Quick Golf at Princeville• Instruction’s Economic Impact• Club and University Partner Up• Carl’s Golfland: Updated Classic

Golf RangeVolume 21, No. 7M A G A Z I N E July 2013

P R A C T I C E • T E A C H I N G • F I T T I N G • M A R K E T I N G

Golf Range

R E N O V A T I O N S

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At Mistwood, Clear Intentions to Build Revenue on the RangeAmong Chicagoland golf operators, nobody has invested more boldly of late than Jim McWethy. His new Performance Center at public-access Mistwood Golf Club is earning raves all around. BY LEN ZIEHM

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Choosing a “Scottish farmhouse” theme,the architect who designed Mistwood’sPerformance Center included everypossible game-improvement amenityplus a luxurious halfway house.

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In between those projects McWethypurchased the Ditka Dome (namedafter Mike Ditka, former coach of theChicago Bears) in nearby Boling-brook. He used his Mistwood staff tohelp in its remodeling, and it has re-opened as a much updated indoor golffacility with the flexibility to offerother attractions as well. The dome,renamed McQ’s, is a relatively minorproject compared to what was done atMistwood. That project represents byfar the boldest move among Chicagogolf operators in a declining economy.

“There were times we weren’t sureabout it,’’ admits McWethy, “but wethink it’ll be a success. We took a big step and created something way different from what the competition isdoing. We have something nobodyelse has.’’

The original course, a Hearn designthat opened in 1999, was always con-sidered one of Chicago’s best and hasbeen the longtime home of the IllinoisWomen’s Open. McWethy became itssole owner in 2004. “We started fixingthings,’’ he said. “It started dawning

on me what a wonderful layout we had,but things didn’t move very fast until2010. It’s been a long, expensive pro cess,” he says. “We hope we’reright. Our goal is to make this one ofthe finest public golf facilities in theChicago area.’’

That goal has already been accom-plished. The new course is better thanthe old one and has a new trademark –20 sod-wall bunkers. Only one otherChicago layout has such striking bunker-ing. Attractive bridges, adorned withLannon stone, have also enhanced theoverall appearance of the now 7,040-yard par-72 layout. McWethy closedMistwood early the last two years andopened a bit later than most of theother Chicago public courses thisspring. The August closings in 2011and 2012 enabled Hearn to more easily

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Best in class: Mistwood’s version of thecovered hitting bay.

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J im McWethy won’t give out the financial particulars on his

various golf ventures, but it’s no secret that the owner of Mist-

wood Golf Club in Romeoville, Ill., has spent big-time lately.

Within the last three years he commissioned Michigan architect

Ray Hearn to renovate his already well-respected 18-hole course,

then he added a spectacular new Performance Center to the public

18-holer. It opened this spring to rave reviews.

put the finishing touches on his elabo-rate renovation. The slightly delayedopening this weather-hamperedspring was done for the same reason.

“Some areas held a little more waterthan we wanted,’’ says director of golfDan Phillips. “We did some drainagework and some irrigation. We wantedto make sure everything was perfect.’’

Now it is. The new layout openedwith greens fees of $70 on weekdaysand $90 on weekends (seniors and jun-iors pay $46 and $56 respectively).Not only is the course ready for a bigseason, but the long-awaited 5,000square-foot Performance Center hasbecome the talk of the Chicago golfscene. It is truly spectacular and hasadded a new dimension to what golferscan do when they visit Mistwood. “Weexpect to be open throughout the win-ter for instruction, club fitting, hittingballs and just socializing,’’ saysMcWethy. “It’s a neat spot. To a small

extent we’re competing with McQ’s,but there should be enough peoplewho would prefer this. We can satisfypeople either way.’’

Initially the Performance Centerhas doubled as a halfway house. It’s notyour average halfway house, though.It has a full-service bar and snack shopalong with eight flat screen televisions.

“We can put on anything we want,’’

says Phillips. “No one has done thisbefore.’’ The finished product, de -signed by Elmhurst architect DanielWohlfeil, has 11 heated hitting stations for all-seasons practice, twoteaching bays with state-of-the-arttechnology, a putting lab, a club repairroom and a turf room for privateevents. Wohlfeil’s design goal was tocreate “a unique experience, an imagethat is memorable and lasting.’’ He didthat by creating the look of two Scot-tish farm houses.

Golfers can do a lot of things in thePerformance Center. Upscale diningis one option, and the bar area is friend-ly and welcoming. Sophisticatedequipment and a quality teaching staff,increased notably by the hiring of Illi-nois PGA Teacher of the Year JohnPlatt, can help players improve theirgames and find clubs and balls that arebest suited for them.

“What’s really new to the operation

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“We’ll be open allwinter for practice,instruction, club-fitting and socializing.”—Jim McWethy

John Platt, an Illinois PGA Teacher of the Year honoree, checks a student’s grip at the top.

is, we can do all custom club fitting,’’ saysPhillips. “We can put any head from anyclubmaker into any shaft.’’ There areseparate areas for club fitting and clubrepair. Club fitting op tions includeFujikawa shafts. Mist wood is one ofthat company’s few dealers. Fujikawaproduces some of the most popularshafts for tour players and doesn’t sellto traditional consumers. Over 50 gripoptions are also available.

“Overall we’re utilizing state of theart technology,’’ says Mike Baldwin,director of the Performance Center.TrackMan ball flight analysis, SAMPutt Lab and Quintic ball position put-ting analysis are invaluable tools inboth teaching and clubfitting. All of itis portable, so it can be used on a strict-ly outdoor range as well as when play-ers are hitting from indoors tooutdoors. The range itself is over 300yards in depth, and it was also part ofHearn’s remodeling effort. “It’s reallycontoured now,’’ says Phillips. “It looks

a lot like the golf course, with somehills, some bunkers. When you hit intothe practice greens it feels like you’reon the course.’’

While indoor space is available incase of inclement weather (mats infront of the Performance Centre arealso an option), the outdoor range is asspacious as it needs to be for big eventslike the American Junior Golf Associ-ation’s Midwest Players Champi-onship, conducted in June, and theIllinois Women’s Open, which returnsJuly 31–Aug. 2.

“Thirty-two spaces are available allthe time,’’ says Phillips, “but we canhave as many as we need to. We can geteverybody on the range before our out-ings.’’ In addition to Platt and Baldwin,the teaching staff includes Phillips,head professional Visanu Tongwarinand Chris Ioriatti. All are Mistwoodveteran instructors.

“As a whole, our goal is to offer acomplete performance experience,’’

says Baldwin. “We can work on everyas pect of your game. We can make anytweak from the club performance sideand the player performance side. Wetry to create an overall experience thatis memorable, makes you better andtouches every level of performancethere is, and we want to have some fundoing it.’’ The size of the parking lotwas also doubled in size, to accommo-date 240 cars, and the last phase of theimprovement process – the buildingof a new clubhouse – is in the planningstages. Work won’t begin immediately.

“We’re putting more lipstick on theold clubhouse,’’ says McWethy. Awoman’s locker room has been created(minus a shower). That improvementwill have to be it for this season, butdon’t expect the building of a new club-house to be very far down the road.Mistwood has been on the cuttingedge of all things golf in the Chicagomarketplace for the last few years – itlooks to stay that way. ■

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Data points from a Trackman session give Mike Baldwin the makings of a complete diagnosis and action plan.