Boughton Ridge Golf Course to get Facelift

The Boughton Ridge Golf Course is scheduled to receive a much-needed facelift this fall.

The Bolingbrook Park District Board of Commissioners gave the 45-acre course a green light to find and fix a laundry list of shortfalls that park district officials and golfers alike have noticed with the course this summer.

All of the work will be done in-house and completed by the end of November.

The price tag for the project has yet to be determined, said Ron Oestreich, the park district's superintendent of revenue facilities, but crews will begin assessing the course as soon as possible.

But bottom line, the park district is doing all it can to get the course back into playing shape, as nearly every aspect of the course will be affected.

Tee boxes, greens, fairways, sand traps, cart paths and roughs will all benefit from the makeover.

Tee boxes and greens, which have suffered divots and dead spots, will be mostly reseeded or sodded. Same for the fairways.

The sand traps, which have succumbed to frequent flooding, will be improved with new drainage systems.

And the cart paths will be widened and receive a fresh coat of asphalt.

"We were disappointed in the conditions (of the course) this year," said Ron Oestreich, the park district's superintendent of revenue facilities. "And a lot of that had to do with weather—rain and humid days will kill a golf course. But a golf course requires a lot more care than your own lawn and we were unhappy with the course this year. And we heard a lot of customers with that opinion, too, and we agree with them.

"We are now taking steps to approve the conditions in-house … and hope to open next spring in tip-top shape," he said.

The board also took steps to ensure the course's long-term maintenance needs by cutting ties with long-time maintenance contractor TLC Group Limited, Inc., which has held the job for more than 20 years.

Board Vice-President Al Traczek said the board has been displeased with TLC's failure to conform to the course's needs and lack of communication.

Instead, the board opted to award a three-year, $474,464 maintenance contract to Drendel Property Management Inc., which originally bid nearly $25,000 higher than TLC for the project but will save the district more than $8,000 in 2011 course maintenances.