Consultant: Spruce up Brae Loch Golf Club

If Lake County Forest Preserve District officials want a long-term future for the Brae Loch Golf Club, they should spruce up the layout and launch a marketing campaign to attract new golfers, a consultant said Thursday.

"I think a lot of people have forgotten it's there, to be honest," Christopher Brewer, a consultant with AECOM, told the forest board's finance committee.

Officials also must contend with an Illinois Department of Transportation construction project on Route 45 that likely will make getting to the Grayslake club difficult during the entire 2010 and 2011 golf seasons, district Executive Director Tom Hahn said.

District leaders already plan to reduce weekday play during the project. Informing the public the club is open when the work is done will be key, Brewer said.

"Do you spend $40,000 on a marketing campaign to tell people it's reopened?" Brewer asked.

Brae Loch is one of three golf clubs owned and operated by the forest district. The others are Countryside near Mundelein and Thunderhawk near Beach Park.

Officials have been talking since 2006 about what, if anything, can be done to boost activity at Brae Loch's 18-hole course. Rounds have been dropping for years, reflecting a much-publicized national drop in play.

Finance committee members Anne Flanigan Bassi and Ann Maine said the district should use student rates or other promotions to try to attract students from neighboring College of Lake County to play the course.

But a public-relations push won't be enough, Brewer said. Although greens fees are lower at Brae Loch than at the district's other two clubs, the course and its clubhouse need to be improved, he said.

"It's a tired golf course," Brewer said. "People are sort of getting what they're paying for."

Sprucing up the tee boxes and sand traps could help, he said. Realigning the course to extend the time it takes to play a round could, too.

"People will driver further if (the course) is longer," he said.

But as forest board President Bonnie Thomson Carter pointed out, "that's a lot of money."

The committee made no decisions about Brae Loch on Thursday. Board members and staffers will study Brewer's recommendations for the next few months and develop options for Brae Loch, Hahn said.