Mistwood Golf Club Re-Opens Following Renovation

Mistwood Golf Club re-opened following a multi-million dollar renovation of the course and the construction of a state-of-the-art Performance Center.  

The long-time home of the prestigious Illinois Women’s Open golf tournament, Mistwood closed early the last two years, enabling Michigan based golf course architect Ray Hearn, the course's original designer, to complete his renovation work and make strategic improvements to the course.   

The major improvements involved performing renovation work on each of Mistwood’s 18-holes in terms of shot value and strategy.

The most noticeable was at the par-5 third hole where the green has been relocated to create space for a future clubhouse, and a double fairway added creating an exciting risk-reward opportunity. The creek that used to be in front of the green is now behind it—and it has been expanded into a pond that guards the entire right side of the hole and three sides of the green. 

In addition, beautiful Lannon stone walls were added along holes No. 3, 7, 8, 9 14, 15, and 16 providing stunning visuals for golfers to experience. Other improvements included repositioning tee boxes and bunkers, adding new high quality bunker sand, lengthening the course to 7,040 yards, and adding fescue grasses throughout the course. 

Mistwood’s renovation also included the addition of 20 stacked sod-wall bunkers. These unique and impressive bunkers are not seen in traditional American golf, but they are a trademark hazard for courses in Scotland and Ireland--and now Mistwood. 

“I couldn’t be happier with how everything has come together on this project and believe we now have one of the top and most unique golf experiences in the Chicago area,” said owner Jim McWethy.

“The work that Ray did incorporating the sod bunkers and the improvements he made to each hole are spectacular.” 

The Mistwood Performance Center includes 11 climate controlled stations, two indoor heated bays for year-round practice, and 32 outdoor stations, along with a custom club-fitting room, putting room, and a repair and club-building center. There are also high-tech teaching aids like TrackMan ball flight analysis, SAM Putt Lab and Quintic ball motion putting analysis, and a re-designed driving range makes the Mistwood Performance Center one of the leading game improvement facilities in the country. 

“A lot of thought has gone into this project, and the architect (Elmhurst-based Daniel Wohlfeil Design) hit a home run. We now have a year-around facility and can host any type of event we want,” said Phillips. 

Mistwood is no stranger to hosting big golf tournaments, major corporate events and large golf outings. It is already home to the Illinois Women’s Open (July 31-Aug 2), and the American Junior Golf Association’s Midwest Players Championship just concluded this week. The AJGA signed on to host the event at Mistwood through 2016. 

"A big part of this renovation was due to my love of the game,” McWethy admitted. “By expanding, we did run counter to the rest of the golf world, but I feel it was worth it in order to position Mistwood among the very best golf experiences in the country. If you have an exceptional product, market it well, and take great care of your customers, -- even in this market -- you can be successful and we are doing that at Mistwood.” 

For more information, visit www.mistwoodgc.com. 

Editor's note: This article was submitted by Fusion Media Strategies.