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Heritage Hills gears up for modern golfer, equipment
McCOOK, Nebraska -- Within the next six months, highly skilled heavy equipment operators will spread across Heritage Hills on McCook's western edge, surgically shaving and shaping the championship golf course to better accommodate the golfers of the new millennium.
"It's hard to believe how much things have changed in golf during the past 31 years," said Bill Bieck, the only superintendent in the history of McCook's nationally recognized 18-hole golfing links course.
"The changes have been overwhelming. Because of bigger, lighter golf clubs, vastly superior golf balls and much improved course conditions, the golf ball is flying up to 30 yards farther than it did in 1981 when Heritage Hills opened," Bieck said.
The result? It's something that no one would have imagined happening as recently as 15 years ago. The scenic, Scottish style terrain of Heritage Hills is being reshaped and redesigned in a multi-dimensional effort to return the course to the challenging level it occupied when the course first opened.
More than $100,000 has already been pledged for the effort, with tens of thousands more expected to flow into the redesign coffers within the next 60 to 90 days. The money is needed because the golf redesign team is under a strict time line.
"If we're going to get the work done this year, we have to get started in the last part of July," Superintendent Bieck said.
The first essential step will be the removal of lots of topsoil, with earth-movers changing the course landing areas by shaving off some areas and setting the soil aside for moving later to more strategic places on the course.
"It's going to be a much more difficult task than it was building the course in the first place," Bieck said. There are three reasons for that. First, the redesign will have to be done while the course is open to play. Second, there will be a major re-placement of irrigation lines and equipment, leaving some areas high and dry while the work is being done. And, third, the changes will severely test the patience of Heritage Hills members and guests, forcing the golfers to stay away from the renovated, newly seeded areas until the surface reaches its full maturity.
So what's being done? And why?
The main thing is that the landing areas for the golfers' tee shots are being moved to different spots. In the old days -- way back in the exciting '80s -- top golfers were hitting tee balls 240 to 250 yards. Today, that's an average distance. In this modern, technologically advanced era, many good golfers are flying tee shots 270 to 275 yards, and some of the best hitters are slamming the ball 280 to 300 yards and more down the fairway.
The result? Heritage Hills, once regarded as a challenge for golfing Tigers, has slipped in difficulty to the place it is regarded as a pussy cat, with par 4 holes reachable with a driver and a wedge, and par 5 greens approachable in two shots with a driver and long iron.
That won't do. Something has to be done. After three or four years of talking about the problem, Heritage Hills' stockholders decided to take action at the December 2011 annual meeting.
Their directive was straight-forward and directly to the point: "Go out and raise as much money as you can. Then use whatever that amount is -- be it $50,000 or $250,000 -- to make whatever changes you can with that amount of money."
The committee took the assignment seriously. The group of guys, ranging in age from their 20s to their 70s, started pounding on doors and asking golf course supporters and McCook area business leaders to fork over $6,100 to $7,000 each for hole sponsorships. The strategy worked. More than $100,000 has been pledged, with much of that already in the bank.
And the campaign isn't complete. Between now and July 1, the committee members will keep trying to generate as much money as they can, selling hole sponsorships, stock in the Heritage Hills corporation, and anything else they can think of, including name placement on clubhouse plaques.
It's certain that changes in the course are going to take place. It's just a matter of how far the money will allow the course redesign committee to go.
The redesign project kicked into high gear in early April when the committee met with Kevin Atkinson of Evergreen, Colo. Kevin, who was a member of the state championship golf team at Omaha Westside in 1989, is an architect associated with Phelps-Atkinson Golf Course Design, the firm selected to design the course changes needed at Heritage Hills.
Atkinson, now in his 40s, played Heritage Hills often in his teen years. Then and now, the course's natural beauty fascinates him. "Heritage Hills' natural terrain and unique design make it special," he said. "Still, the course needs work. The biggest problem is the similar lengths of the holes, especially the par 4's. Just look at the front 9: There are five par 4's and their lengths, from the blue tees, are 340, 385, 370, 380 and 360 yards. For me, using the latest technology, that means a driver and a wedge on every hole. In short, there's not enough diversity. That's going to change ... which, to me, makes the redesign a very exciting process."
To get to this point, Bieck credits the course redesign committee with doing a whale of a job.
"The entire Golden Plains area needs to join in praising the work of the committee, which consists of Ron Friehe, Kirk Kilpatrick, Leeland Shiers, Nick Nothnagel, Don Moore, Perry Strombeck, Cal Siegfried, Jeff Shaddock, Clint Coleman and Dan Stramel. They've done a crackerjack job. Because of their efforts, McCook will once again have one of the finest golf courses in this part of the country," Bieck said.
That's abundant praise, but you don't have to take Bill Bieck's word for it. Scraping will start by late July and seeding will take place in mid-September. That leaves the rest of the fall, winter and spring for the course redesign to be chiseled out of the rolling hills and spacious valleys west of McCook.
It's going to be a pains-taking process, but if all goes as expected, Heritage Hills golfers will be playing on a revamped and revitalized course June 7-8-9, 2013, during the John Mullen Pro-Am golf tournament.
Back in 1984, Heritage Hills was named one of the Top 75 Public Golf Courses in America by Golf Digest magazine. No one knows if that will ever happen again. But we do know that a determined committee and a dedicated architect are doing their best to see that the course reaches its full potential as a tourist destination ... and as a challenging test for golfers from near and far, far away.