Kokopelli Deal Closed This Morning

The Green Grass Group LLC closed on its long-suffering effort today to secure the Kokopelli golf course in Marion, one of the top-rated courses in the state.

Dutch Doelitzsch gave a Marion Chamber of Commerce a brief update at today's luncheon, telling the group the new ownership signed all the paperwork closing the deal this morning at 11:20 a.m. Yesterday they had met with club members and Kokopelli residents about their plans.

Kokopelli Golf Pro Jesse Barge outlined the new owners' plans for the course this afternoon. Changes will be made to the club house, grounds and some upcoming events.

Clubhouse

• The restaurant will re-open later this month under the name Koko's. After additional renovations are complete, the restaurant will be able to seat 300 for a wedding reception or other large gatherings.
• The pro shop will move to the lower level just inside the current lobby area. This will allow all of the golfing operations on one level while creating more space for the restaurant above. In order to do this the grand staircase will be removed and a new ceiling/floor installed to create more dining area above.
• The former pro shop area will become the new Koko's Sports Grill. The current bar which sits in the main dining space will be removed to the new sports grill.
• A new parking lot will be built on the north side of the club house at the same level as the restaurant.

Course and Grounds

• The remaining debris from last year's storms will be removed. Barge said last year they removed enough debris to make the course playable, but more needs to be done in order to help define the course in terms of margins and out-of-bounds.
• Champions Drive which now ends in the current club house parking lot will be extended south to Halfway Road which now ends at the north edge of Rent One Park. This will allow direct access to the clubhouse from area hotels and the interstate.
• A new 48-lot upscale housing development will be platted along the new extension which will also be calls Champions. These will be single-family homes and not condominiums. [Although he didn't mention it, many of these lots may face the lake that's on the north side of Rent One Park.]

In addition, Kokopelli will host the 2012 Men's Illinois State Amateur Championship in August of that year. Barge said it's the first time since 1995 that Southern Illinois has hosted the tournament when it was played at the Rend Lake Golf Course.

According to the Southern Illinoisan's early online coverage of this morning's news conference, roadwork will begin this fall.

...and will necessitate the shortening of Hole 15 by 78 to 150 yards and reducing par by a single stroke that will increase the course rating's difficulty.

For more on Barge, the Marion Daily did a nice profile on him in March.

Kokopelli Details to be Unveiled Tuesday

Now that Kokopelli has new local owners, area residents await details of their plans which will be announced Tuesday at a news conference in Marion.

The premier golf club has suffered from non-local ownership over the last few years and a year-long process to sell the course and restaurant held up by the federal government.

David Hays and Michael Koller, principal owners of Green Grass Group LLC, will let everyone know more in three days.

Already previous hints indicate more residential development. Other ideas over the years have included condos and some short-term tourism rentals on the golf course.

In April the owners let some of the details slip to the Southern.

Green Grass has big plans for the club's future, which include the development of a planned community, "The Club at Kokopelli," Green Grass Vice President Mike Koller said.

The community is planned for the area around what will be a new entrance to the club on Halfway Road. The road will tie the club from its current parking lot to Halfway Road near Rent One Park.

"This is going to be a long-term project. Our goal is to have up to 90 units," said Koller, who will be heading up the company's development plans.

The extension of Halfway Road north of Rent One Park up to the clubhouse. That was part of the original Hill development plan.

From a tourism standpoint, it would make the clubhouse and course much more accessible to travelers wanting to golf or sample the fine dining.

Hays also owns Mary's Restaurant and Bed and Breakfast in Herrin.

Green Grass Group LLC purchasd the course from Kokopelli Master Partners, a Florida consortium based in Gainesville. They had acquired it from Dutch native and Zimbabwe-national John Bredenkamp. The Times of Johannesburg, South Africa, has more on him.

Update on New Golf Trail Idea

Representatives from the proposed Abraham Lincoln Golf Trail met with pros from the top courses in Southern Illinois yesterday at Rend Lake. The goal was to brief them about the trail idea as well as to secure their buy-in with the program.

The Southern's Karen Binder has more...

"Northern Illinois goes to Alabama, Florida and South Carolina," Granberg said. "If this works we can expand this to become whatever we want it to become. We want to tie in with wine trail, state lodges, restaurants and everything else. This is about economic development."

...The idea is to make the Web site a virtual office for the trail, allowing golfers to make tee times, lodging reservations, learn about other area attractions, see course layouts, check out golf packages and even eye the weather forecast.

Todd Ely, a Springfield economic development consultant, said targeted marketing and advertising, such as billboards and article placement in golf publications, would drive golf traffic to the site.

From the site, "we want to cross-promote everyone," Ely added.

Check out the entire article on the Southern Illinoisan's website.

Presidential Golf Trail About to Debut?

We know Bill Clinton likes to golf. Forty years earlier it was Dwight Eisenhower's game that made the news, but I admit I really hadn't thought about the combination of Abraham Lincoln and golf before yesterday when a reporter called me about it.

Turns out this was a case where the reporter knew more than I did. Apparently state Rep. Kurt Granberg, D-Centralia, has this idea of a seven-course Abraham Lincoln Golf Trail to be modeled and advertised much like the Trent Jones Golf Trail in Alabama, which is to golf trails like the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail is to wine trails.

Tessa Culli wrote about it last month in the Mount Vernon Register-News and I missed it.

MT. VERNON — A proposed Southern Illinois golf trail which includes the Rend Lake Golf Course is just the beginning of a bigger plan, according to state Rep. Kurt Granberg.

“It’s hard to market just one course,” Granberg said. “If you want to attract a lot of people, start in the Metro East area, go downstate, hit lodges where you can utilize state lodges and parks. The golf trail is part of a large economic development blueprint for the region. The golf trail is just one part.”

Besides Rend Lake the article notes he is also including Kokopelli Golf Club here in Marion and Stone Creek Golf Club in Makanda definitely in the plan and "would like to add the Gambit Golf Club in Vienna.

In addition to the local golf clubs there are two to four more in the MetroEast and along the I-64 corridor.

There's a meeting next week where Granberg is expected to unveil more details to the golf courses.

What's not known at this time is how this will impact the Southern Illinois Golf Trail.

Gambit Owners Propose Expansion

The owners of the Gambit golf course in Vienna are looking to the state for help in expanding their property.

Owner Bruce Monzulla wants to build a gated residential community and a 90-room motel on the property to go along with the course and the restaurant already there.

The catch is he would like to acquire a 115-acre tract along I-24 that the Department of Natural Resources owns.

Check out the Southern for the rest of the story.

Golf Association Goes Online

The Southern Illinois Golf Association's new website just went online. Find it at www.sigagolf.org.

I attended their annual meeting two weeks ago. They're working on some exciting projects that would not only enhance the bottom line of the courses themselves, but tourism in general for the area.

The association has been serving its members here in Southern Illinois since 1924.