Members, guests to hear golf course updates

McCOOK, Nebraska -- Heritage Hills Golf Course is rolling out the welcome mat Thursday, May 10, to invite community members to join them for a report on the course renovation project.

"We are proud of what is being accomplished and are looking forward to completion of the community-wide fundraising campaign," said Cal Siegfried, who will act as master of ceremonies for the program.

The Thursday gathering at the Heritage Hills Clubhouse will begin at 5:30 p.m. with a sampling of hors d'oeuvres prepared and served by the Heritage Hills Ladies Golf Association.

To give a hint of the changes that are coming, drawings and adapted photographs will be on exhibit, showing the design concepts of the architect, Kevin Atkinson of Evergreen, Colo.

Then, to bring members and guests up-to-date on Heritage Hills and the course redesign project, Siegfried will call upon Heritage Hills board members and volunteers.

Leeland Shiers, the president of the Heritage Hills Board of Directors, will welcome members and guests and introduce Bill Bieck, the course superintendent. Bieck, who has been communicating daily with the architect about the redesign, will share news about the suggested changes and display visual re-creations which depict selected layouts and landing areas.

Next up will be Don Moore, the Heritage Hills treasurer, who will give a five-year report on the golf course's income, expenses and depreciation. "Members and guests will be pleasantly surprised," Siegfried said. "Heritage Hills is on an upward path."

To bring the session to a close, Ron Friehe will give a fund-raising report and a five-person panel -- Shiers, Moore, Friehe, Bieck and the Heritage Hills pro, Ron Cash -- will field questions from the audience.

The extent of the golf course redesign will depend upon fundraising success. To date, more than $196,000 has been raised, with the Heritage Hills fundraisers hoping to reach the $265,000 mark before the project is completed.

"The project offers great potential in the effort to energize McCook," Friehe said. "We are at a turning point, much as McCook was back in 1980 when Heritage Hills was being built.

"The words of Allen Strunk, who was then editor and publisher of the McCook Daily Gazette, ring true today, just as they did then."

Strunk, a member of the Nebraska Newspaper Hall of Fame, declared in a Sept. 5, 1980, editorial that, "...In a 10 to 20 year period, it is highly likely McCookites will look at the 1980 high risk golf course project as one of the best things that happened to the overall growth of the community -- thanks to those who backed their talk with money.

"What Allen said still applies today," Friehe said. "Heritage Hills is at a turning point. We need an upgrade to keep our course among the best in the Heartland of America."