In 1974, Ken Killian and Dick Nugent were a couple of local golf course architects who thought they were getting their big break by working on Medinah Country Club`s No. 3 course for the 1975 U.S. Open.
Little did they realize the Medinah job, which was making some minor adjustments to the famed course, would lead to designing a course that would play host to a major championship.
Working for Medinah and the United States Golf Association was a coup for the pair, who had known each other since their days at the University of Illinois. While on the job at Medinah, they heard Kemper Group might be thinking about building a golf course at its new headquarters in Hawthorn Woods. Two years later, they started moving dirt at Kemper Lakes.
”Killian and Nugent had a good reputation,” said James S. Kemper Jr., then chairman of Kemper Group and the man behind Kemper Lakes. ”They had a good deal of success with this type of terrain and dealing with land in the Midwest.”
Both architects went to Illinois but took up different disciplines. Killian, 58, got his degree in landscape management, while Nugent, 57, was in construction. Nugent, a Highland Park native, worked in construction in California after graduation and spent a couple of years in the Army. Killian joined Chicago-area golf architect Robert Bruce Harris in 1955 and three years later Nugent joined the firm.
”I think we can both attribute any success we`ve had to Robert Bruce Harris,” said Killian, who served as president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects in 1987. ”He taught us a lot.”
In 1965, Killian and Nugent formed their own firm. They designed some excellent courses in the Midwest, including Tuckaway Country Club in Franklin, Wis., home of the Greater Milwaukee Open; Sand Creek Club in Chesterton, Ind.; Forest Preserve National in Oak Forest; and, of course, Kemper Lakes.
Six years ago, they made an amicable split. Killian now heads Killian Design in Palatine, while Nugent`s Dick Nugent Associates is located just off the fifth fairway at Kemper Lakes.
”We had saved up enough money to go on our own,” Killian said. ”It was by mutual agreement. We`re still close, almost like brothers. We sort of grew up together in this business.”
Killian and Nugent`s Kemper Lakes story is a series of strokes of good fortune combined with talent. Kemper Group had its offices scattered throughout the Loop in 1964 when real estate manager John Miln found the site for its headquarters. By 1966 Kemper Group had acquired 540 acres with one high area that would be used for the company headquarters. Much of the remaining land was swamp. The Illinois Department of Conservation recommended Kemper Group dredge the swamps and allow them to fill with rain water. The result was Kemper Lakes.
”When we did that, we had 150 acres of beautiful lakes,” Kemper said.
”The question was, what do we do? Do we do a development? The zoning was too restrictive, so we said, `Let`s do a golf course.` It was an accident. I had never thought about a golf course. I`d like to say I had that much foresight, but I can`t.”
Killian and Nugent found a beautiful piece of raw land that contained lakes, woods and marshland. Part of it, near the fifth hole, had been grassed but most of it was virgin territory that hadn`t seen a seed of bent grass.
The lakes were the most outstanding feature and would not be wasted, as anyone who has played Kemper Lakes can attest. There were some adjustments to be made, but much of the water that can be seen today was there when the first spade of dirt was turned. Jack Tuthill, former PGA Tour tournament director, lent his expertise to the project as a consultant.
”We worked around the lakes,” said Nugent. ”There was a lot of work to do. I`d like to say it was genius, but we worked hard at it. If you work hard, you can get it done.”
Kemper Lakes` front nine was completed in 1977 and opened the following year. The back nine was completed and opened in 1979. Three years later, the course was rated in Golf Digest`s top 100. Three years after that, the PGA of America awarded the 1989 PGA Championship to Kemper Lakes.
”We always thought this could be a great golf course,” Killian said.
”We always had something like a major in the backs of our minds with Jim Kemper being involved. We knew he wanted something done well if it was going to be done at all.”
The 18-hole course was designed to be played as an 18-hole course, not two separate nines. If you start on the back nine instead of the front, you are liable to be in big trouble before you get warmed up. The course was created with the idea that the first few holes give the golfer time to warm up for the task that lies ahead on the back nine.
”We wanted the course to progress so the holes would get tougher and tougher,” said Killian. ”Once you get to the fifth hole, from there on you`ve got problems. That was our intent.”
The back nine is clearly the stronger nine, right from the start. The 10th hole, a 453-yard par 4, features marshland on the left that resembles what much of the land looked like when Killian and Nugent found it. From there, the next two holes go through a grove of oaks on the par-5 11th and par-4 12th. The par-3 13th and par-4 14th, which have been revamped for the tournament, lead to the four strong finishing holes. The 15th is a 557-yard par 5; the 16th is a 469-yard par 4 guarded by water; the 17th is the 172-yard, par-3 trademark hole; and the 18th is the controversial 433-yard par 4. Most people point toward the final four holes as being the key holes, but Nugent doesn`t see it that way. He thinks the middle holes will likely tell the story.
”If you mess up in the middle, the opportunites to make up become less and less,” he said. ”Once you start falling behind and start to gamble, you`ve got the toughest holes to play. That`s why I think someone like Curtis Strange, who plays real steady, will do well here in the PGA.”
The course is designed for the prevailing southwest wind. The longer par 4s like the 448-yard ninth and the 16th were designed to play downwind. The first two holes, though short, are typically played into the wind. The fabled 17th is usually played with the wind blowing the ball away from the green and into the water. Playing with a northeast wind makes it a different golf course.
”When the wind switches around from the north, it creates problems,”
Nugent said. ”The 11th hole played straight up, for instance, is not that bad. With a north wind, there is potential for disaster.”
Kemper Lakes has never really been tested in tournament conditions. The Illinois PGA Championship has been played there since the course opened but not from the championship tees which will measure 7,197 yards. The course record from the championship tees is a relatively high 3-under-par 69 set by Larry Nelson in the 1988 Grand Slam of Golf. The PGA of America doesn`t trick up its golf courses. They let the players play the course as they find it. This week the rough, which had been hindered by an early dry spell this summer, is up and the greens are expected to be fast.
Killian and Nugent have been waiting for this week ever since the announcement that their course would play host to a major championship. It will probably be one of the highlights of their careers. Just like everyone else, they are curious to see how the course holds up under the play of the best golfers in the world.
”I want to see the course played with enough of a challenge that the best player wins,” Nugent said. ”Whether he shoots 63 every day, if the course is such that`s what it takes to do, that`s what I`d like to see. In a major championship you want the best players to come forward and win. As far as a score, I think that their abilities are so superior that they could shoot lights out anywhere. The trick of it is, you have to do it four days in a row.”
