The Last Hurrah is a 1956 novel written by Edwin O’Connor; with popular reviews, and an inclusion by the Book-of-the-Month Club, this work occupied a spot on the New York Times Best Seller list for twenty weeks that year. Two years later, in 1958, the movie adaptation of The Last Hurrah starring Spencer Tracy was a modest Hollywood box office success.
As an unrelated event, just a few years after The Last Hurrah premiered on the silver screen, the Village Green Golf Course premiered in Mundelein in 1962. For over six decades Village Green has been a staple for value-conscious linksters in Lake County, but the Village Green track will soon experience its own last hurrah closing forever on or before September 15.
Loved by many golfers, but disliked by others — those who were victims of near-misses or contact with errant golf balls — this parkland-style layout was designed by Ray Didier, who had been the former superintendent of Tam O’Shanter Country Club during its tournament-hosting heydays. (Editor’s note: Geoffrey S. Cornish and Ronald E. Whitten credit William B. Langford as Village Green’s architect in their book The Golf Course).
Village Green in Mundelein
Playing just over 6000 yards, this 18-hole, par-70, back-and-forth layout featured a handful a strategically placed bunkers, two formidable water hazards and one drainage creek. Red tees played to a distance of 5693 yards, while the white tee distance measured 6018 yards. Hardwood trees and / or evergreen trees acted as separation between parallel fairways.
Originally privately owned and operated, ownership changed hands when the Mundelein School District, believing it might need space for a new school, bought the land in 2004 for $8.4 million. But the anticipated enrollment boom never happened, and the land has remained a golf course ever since.
With an uncertain up-in-the-air future, plagued with rejected rezoning plans and abandoned redevelopment proposals, Village Green Golf Course has been operated by GolfVisions Management, Inc., since 2008. GolfVisions even headquartered its operations in the Village Green clubhouse, until now.
Calling out to its long time patrons, nostalgic golfers, or just the public in general, Village Green has announced holding its “Farewell Scramble” on Saturday, August 23.
With its last ride, last rodeo, last hurrah quickly approaching in September, Village Green GC will now join Indian Valley and Four Winds as golf facilities brandishing the 60060 zip code that have closed in the past 3 decades.
