Event is a nod to club's survival
By Craig DeVrieze, Quad-City Times
Sunday, June 22, 2003

In a matter of eight months, Short Hills Country Club has gone from being on its last legs to hosting the first Short Hills Amateur Championship.

When the East Moline club becomes the first private Quad-Cities club to host a tournament on The First Tee of the Quad-Cities Amateur this weekend, it will help reaffirm a decision made by membership last fall to continue Short Hills’ 80-year history.

“Short Hills is alive and well,’’ crowed Todd Raufeisen, the past club president who navigated the club through last fall’s rocky times. “We have been there for 80 years, and we will be there for another 80.’’

In October members nixed a proposal to sell the club’s land and merge membership with the Tournament Players Club at Deere Run in nearby Silvis, Ill.

They opted instead to restructure club debt and accept an unspecified increase in fees while approving a plan to continue physical improvements to the clubhouse.

The members are awaiting a 3-to-5 year plan for additional improvements that could address, among other things, modifications to an aging clubhouse.

More than 125 members departed in the wake of that decision, but since January another half-dozen or more members have signed on. And current club president Larry Meeske said golf and dining-room revenues have increased at least 10 percent from a year ago.

“We are financially sound, and we are ahead of budget,’’ past president Raufeisen said.

This weekend’s Amateur will showcase a D.A. Weibring-revised layout first unveiled in May 2000 to the Q-C region’s premier amateur golfers.

It is the fifth of nine events in a summer-long First Tee points series that will award its winner a berth in September’s John Deere Classic PGA Tour event.

A total of 72 players, including 19 seniors, will compete beginning with a 1:30 p.m. shotgun start today. Tee times will start at 9 a.m. Sunday, with leaders heading out around noon.

Among the championship flight entries are Mike Jump, winner of the Muscatine (Iowa) Amateur and a co-champion at Palmer Hills in Bettendorf; Quad-Cities Amateur champion and two-time defending points series winner Brian Soucinek; and Tyler Swanson, the Iowa State University golfer who won last week’s Riverboat Days Amateur in Clinton, Iowa.

Country clubs in Muscatine and Clinton have hosted tournaments on the First Tee tour, and Short Hills is among four Quad-City clubs that have hosted rounds in the Tour’s year-end Iowa-vs.-Illinois Ryder Cup-style Hasley Cup team matches.

Short Hills, though, is the first entirely private Q-C course to host its own tournament on the tour.

“We are looking to support amateur golf within the community, and we believe this is a positive for Short Hills,’’ said Dave Pfister, the club’s head professional. “We are proud of the course changes, and not everybody gets an opportunity to play it.’’

First Tee leaderboard regular Chris Wilkins played the redone Short Hills in the 2001 Hasley Cup.

“I love it,’’ he said of Weibring’s redesign. “I can’t even remember the old layout. The backside has a lot of risk/reward to it, and you can make anything on the par 5s.

“I think the guys will just love it. Hopefully, it will be on our schedule long term.’’

Short Hills certainly plans to be around a while.

“We are in good shape,’’ said club president Meeske.

Craig DeVrieze can be contacted at (563) 333-2610 or cdevrieze@qctimes.com.