Lots of effort is being exerted at Canal Shores Golf Course over the summer, but fortunately, it’s heavy machinery doing the work as an alternative of your 7 iron.

Construction is well underway for the nearly $6-million renovations on the 104-year-old golf course on the border of Wilmette and Evanston, and more details in regards to the improvements have come to light.

Todd Quinto was hired to design the renovations. Quinto Golf Designs has also worked on Traditions at Chevy Chase in Wheeling, Bridges of Poplar Creek in Hoffman Estates and White Eagle Golf Club in Naperville, amongst others.

Course leaders have touted the project’s give attention to youth golfers and development, and that goal will likely be served front and center. What were Holes 1 and a couple of have gotten a training ground featuring a 30,000-square-foot putting green and the course’s first hole.

The primary hole will end on a bigger and more interesting green, a course-wide hallmark of the renovations, according Chris Charnas, who’s vice chairman of golf on the course’s board of trustees.

A drone photo of the renovations at Canal Shores showing a hole with a big, moving green. | Photo by Patrick Hughes

One other major change includes three holes — 5-6-7 — with a view of the Baha’i Temple. One among the holes is a Par 3 putting hole — it’s all green. Charnas said internally, they’re calling the realm Baha’i Corner and are pondering the unique space could at times be rented out for small outings.

The course designers also added an additional hole, 17b, to the layout. The 100-yard hole stretches over a water feature.

Throughout the course buildout, Charnas said, employees have cleared out loads of buckthorn to clear up views and increase playability. The renovations have also cost the course loads of trees to extend sun exposure to the grass below. Among the trees removed were cottonwoods and silver maples alive for the higher a part of a century, drawing complaints from neighbors.

But Charnas said it needed to occur for the course to survive.

“We’d like to grow grass to maintain this place going,” he said.

Aeration and seeding is underway throughout the course and is even complete in some parts, and Charnas and company still hope that at the least some portion of the course will likely be playable by next summer.

“Sooner or later next summer we could have golfers out here,” he said. “Possibly it’s only 12 holes. It’s as much as Mother Nature.”

Inbuilt 1919, Canal Shores Golf Course straddles Evanston and Wilmette on 82 acres of land owned by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District along the waters of the North Shore Channel.

The course was originally named after Peter Jans, an Evanston man who believed in the necessity for cheaper and more accessible options to play the sport of golf. Jans’ sentiment continues to guide the long run of the course, officials have said in regards to the renovations.

The course is a nonprofit governed by the Evanston Wilmette Golf Course Association, which in January 2022 passed operations to KemperSports, a 44-year-old company that manages 120-plus recreation facilities, including The Glen Club and Deerpath Golf Course.

The golf association remains to be raising funds for the project through its Second Century fundraising campaign.

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