Canal Shores Progress Update
Volume 12
June 21, 2024
Greetings – I am Chris Charnas, Vice President/Golf at Canal Shores, and this is your update on the progress of the Canal Shores golf course renovation project. While the course is still closed we have been busy the last few months growing in the grass and a number of other smaller projects. This newsletter will highlight some of those projects and update you as to when the course should be opening along with a major announcement regarding the name and logo.
To keep you excited for the 2024 golf season here is a video showing every hole from 1-18.
First off, the question everyone is asking is “When is the course going to open for play”. Based on some of the uninvited guests who have been out on the course lately, some people think we are already open. However we are not open yet, based on the current turf conditions and anticipated weather over the next 40 days we are hoping to open 11 holes on August 1. We are seeing much better turf conditions on the 11 holes North of Central and those holes are getting closer to being playable. The 6 holes south of Lincoln germinated last month and they might not be ready for golfers until October at the earliest.
We are in the process of a minor renovation of the clubhouse bathrooms and the veranda outside the front doors. While this hasn’t been a major project we hope that a little paint and flooring will help the first impression when we do open our doors to customers. With the changes to the layout we are also upgrading and adding fences to a number of holes; behind #8 green behind #9 green, adjacent to #4 tee, next to #13 green, behind 17b green.
The photo above is of the new 17b with the wetland in the front. 65 yards of fun.
The Big News that we announced this week is:
As we enter our 2nd Century and to honor Chick Evans and our major donor The Western Golf Association, we are pleased to announce that we are renaming the golf course The Evans Course at Canal Shores.
The new name represents a deep connection to the namesake of the Evans Scholars Foundation, Chick Evans, who attended high school in Evanston and became one of the greatest amateur golfers of all time. Instead of turning professional, Evans worked with the Western Golf Association to use the earnings from his golf career to establish the Evans Scholars Foundation in 1930. To date, the Foundation has awarded full tuition and college scholarships to more than 13,000 youth caddies, including the 1,130 Evans Scholars enrolled in 24 leading universities nationwide this year. The Evans at Canal Shores is located less than a mile from the first Evans Scholarship House, established in 1940 on the campus of Northwestern University.
It’s going to take some time for everyone to get used to The Evans – and we know some people will still call it Canal Shores (some people still call it Peter Jans!) But we could not be more excited to share our new course and our new name with the public.
With a new name comes a new logo and we are excited to show you our new logo.
The golf course logo is the graphical representation of an owl perched on top of a golf club. The logo represents the course’s commitment to being a good steward to all inhabitants in the community and represents its mission of educating the community’s youth through golf. Our GM, Tom Grey, and Kemper Sports are busy getting ready to stock the pro shop with new merchandise including some fun tshirts, hats, and putter covers from our first Corporate Sponsor – Swag Golf.
This photo is of the Biarritz green on the 11th hole. You don’t want to be up front if the pin is in the back.
Please let me know if you have any questions on the project or would like a tour. A huge thank you to all that have donated to the Canal Shores 2nd Century project. If you have already donated and want a tour bring your putter, we might be able to test out the new #7. We have currently raised $5.8 Million of our $5.9 Million goal. So we are only $100,000 short of our original goal!!! If you have not yet donated and are interested, you can email me to set up a meeting or you can access our donate page on our website.
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We still have a number of naming rights available and would love to have one big donor get us over the top.
August 1 will be here soon and we cannot wait to open up The Evans Course to you.
Best Wishes and Happy Summer,
Chris
*** Photo Credits to Patrick Hughes, Jr.
THE EVANS COURSE at CANAL SHORES
PRESERVING A CHERISHED COURSE
PROVIDING A PATH FOR LOCAL KIDS
