New use for Bonnie Dundee Golf Course could be in plan

There could be a change of course at the Bonnie Dundee Golf Club in Carpentersville, and local residents could have a say in its replacement, Dundee Township Park District officials say.

But while park district board commissioners and staff have discussed potentially turning the golf course at routes 25 and 68 into a regional park since 2006, a new use for the site is not imminent, said Dundee Township Park District Executive Director Tom Mammoser.

"The reasoning is that the east side of the park district does not have a large park," Mammoser said. "But there are a number of alternate uses and we are going to take our time analyzing this."

Unlike the west side of the park district, which has large parks at Randall Oaks and at Huffman Park and Prairie Meadow Park in West Dundee, communities on the east side of the Fox River have one option: Kemper Park, a 12-acre park within the Silverstone subdivision in Carpentersville.

Access to the park is inconvenient, unlike to the west side parks that have access from arterial roads, Mamosser said.

A concept for the course discussed in 2006 included several activity areas, walking and bike paths, as well as a driving range and nine-hole golf course, said Mammoser, who reiterated that any talks are still "in very early preliminary stages."

The park district will consult a firm to conduct a survey this winter to gauge patron needs and interests. A question regarding the use of the golf course would likely be included, Mammoser said.

Mammoser said recent declines in the number of rounds played each season-an industrywide trend- have added to the township's struggle to cover its costs at the 105-acre course built in 1924.

From 2002 to 2006, Bonnie Dundee saw the number of rounds played drop from 31,257 to 27,994. And despite a slight increase in 2007 to 28,371 rounds, Mammoser said numbers from May 1 though June of this year are down about 20 percent compared to the same period last year.

Comparatively, Mammoser said figures from the park district's other golf course, Randall Oaks, have decreased about 5 percent.

"The golf industry has been rather flat for the last six or seven years and that has prompted the board to look into some other potential uses," Mammoser said. "We have seen greater declines at Bonnie Dundee and that has made it a challenge to cover our expenses."

Just as other industries are reeling from record fuel prices, so too is the golf industry, Park District Board President Frank Scarpelli said.

Scarpelli said courses need gasoline to power mowers that manicure greens and fertilizers feeding the fairways and landscaping are petroleum-based.

"The costs are going up faster than we can raise the cost of a round," Scarpelli said. "We can't keep up."