The Homewood-Flossmoor community is blessed with an abundance of golf courses, something we might sometimes take for granted since most of them have been here for more than a century.
But in 2019, a developer proposed replacing historic Calumet Country Club with a fulfillment center. The project has not yet started, but the idea that 160 acres of greenspace could be replaced by warehouses and an increase in truck traffic sparked strong opposition among Homewood residents, village officials and people from neighboring towns.
That response was the catalyst for this project. People in our community, whether they golf or not, demonstrated that they care about our golf courses. We saw it as our job, as the local newspaper, to check the pulse of golf in our area, to see how they are doing, see how they are changing and see what the future might hold.
The result is the State of Golf in the Chicago Southland, a web documentary about the recreational and environmental treasures in our midst.
Thank you to our sponsors, the Homewood Rotary Club, the village of Flossmoor and nearly 30 community members who pitched in to help make this project possible. Special thanks to our partner, Marcellus Marsh of Bionic Content.