Dave Lockhart looked out at the Canal Shores golf course, and said “I grew up playing here. This is where I hit my first golf shot.”
Lockhart, who produces the Golf 360 television show on Marquee Sports, the Cubs network, was among dozens of golfers who attended the grand reopening of the Canal Shores Golf Course on Thursday afternoon.
Lockhart was about 12 years old when he first stepped onto the fairway.
A then-resident of Rogers Park, Lockhart was hooked by the game, and as he got further into golf, “I took the L here with my clubs,” he recalled.
The ability to reach a golf course via mass transit, a public course in an urban community, makes Canal Shores (now officially The Evans at Canal Shores — more on that later) unusual.
Credit: Jeff Hirsh
“It’s called ‘The Gem in Your Backyard,’” said Executive Director Bill Sullivan.
Bill Sullivan, Canal Shores executive director. Credit: Jeff Hirsh
Founded in 1919, the course was showing its age when it closed for a phased, $6 million privately funded renovation from 2023 through earlier this year.
Board president Matt Rooney said conditions were so run down that if “we didn’t do something this place would be gone.”
Canal Shores is now in the “FOREfront” of renovated golf courses. Credit: Jeff Hirsh
Canal Shores is now “night and day” compared to what it was.
“The course had no drainage” before the renovation, “the irrigation system didn’t work,” and the greens were too small, Rooney explained.
The grand reopening was supposed to happen this past June, soon after all the fix-up work was complete.
But, Sullivan said, it was “monsoon time” in Evanston then, so the celebration date was moved.
Golf course architect Todd Quitno said, “I love this course.”
Golf course architect Tood Quitno at Canal Shroes grand reopening. Credit: Jeff Hirsh
“There are a lot of things here that you don’t see anywhere else,” he pointed out, such as five roads that run through the 80-acre course.
No, he’s not pushing a baby carriage across the street. It’s his golf clubs. Credit: Jeff Hirsh
Two-thirds in Evanston, and one-third in Wilmette, the land is owned by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, which leases the property through the municipalities to the non-profit Canal Shores.
The course was renamed “The Evans at Canal Shores” once the renovation work was under way, to honor the legendary local golfer, Charles “Chick” Evans.
Evans won both the U.S. Open and the U.S. Amateur in the same year, 1916.
Credit: Jeff Hirsh
Evans used his personal money to fund scholarships for caddies whose families could not afford college.
From two students in 1930, the Evans Scholars program has helped thousands of young caddies since then.
The first Evans Scholars house, where scholarship winners can live while in college, was founded at Northwestern University.
Executive Director Sullivan was an Evans Scholar himself (Indiana University, 1979).
The renovated Canal Shores is helping to develop potential new Evans Scholars, with a caddy training program for kids ages 13-15.
The youngsters learn caddying at the Shores, graduate to carrying clubs for golfers while getting paid (and earning tips) via the sponsoring Western Golf Association, and depending on how their academic futures turn out, could become eligible for an Evans Scholarship.
Fourteen school kids took part in the program this past summer.
“None had ever experienced caddying,” Sullivan said.
“And only one or two had ever been on a golf course before.”
The normal 18-hole course even has an extra “19th hole” for the youth camp.
Canal Shores is home to nearly 200 species of birds, who stop by the course at some time or other during the year, hence the owl (perched on a golf club) as a symbol.
Credit: Jeff Hirsh
The “wise old owl” stands for academics (Evans Scholarships),Sullivan explained.
And the water design on the owl’s shirt is “the canal,” as in Canal Shores.
There was a previous golf course in the same place before Canal Shores was founded in 1919.
The leaders then split into two different groups, one staying in place and creating Canal Shores, the other moving west a few miles to acquire more land.
Which is why, to this day, the place established by those who left is called the Westmoreland Country Club.
Get it? “West” for “more” “land.”
Even the Canal Shores owl would have to admire the creativity.
But the owl would also point out that Canal Shores is not a country club.
“It’s the most public course you can find,” said Sullivan.
Credit: Jeff Hirsh
“It’s for the community.”
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