First Tee is a joint movement by the major golf associations to grow the game. Nobody, though, ever imagined that the game could grow in a slag heap.
Yet that is exactly what is taking place in Hammond. A golf course is sprouting on the worst piece of property imaginable. And it is being built for junior players in an area where golf was just a rumor.
The site, just off the Skyway at 129th Street and Calumet Avenue, never figured to be anything more than an urban eyesore. The area is filled with slag, a perfectly unromantic term to describe the steelmaking industry byproduct that was dumped here for more than 30 years beginning in the 1940s.
Environmentalists weren’t out in full force back then, so the dumping left 15- to 20-foot mounds of material that was harder than concrete. Not exactly your basic foundation for a golf course.
But you can do wonderful things with bulldozers and a little imagination. Instead of digging through the sometimes impenetrable slag, they are building around and on top of it.
The result will be the Hammond Youth Golf Course and driving range, set to open this fall. Hundreds of kids will be learning the game on a tract of land that nature had forgot.
Flanked by an oil refinery and other industries, a golf course looks as out of place here as a slag heap would in Beverly Hills. But that’s exactly the point of First Tee, an initiative to make the game accessible to urban kids who didn’t grow up in the suburbs or at country clubs.
Started just after the Tiger Woods boom in the fall of 1997, First Tee, a $50 million, 10-year project, now has 70 facilities nationally in some stage of development. The Hammond course, a nine-hole, 1,450-yard layout, is being used as a model where the program is working at its best.
It fulfills its two basic missions: It gives kids a place to play, and a onetime eyesore will be transformed into a handsome plot of ground. It’s golf’s equivalent of turning a frog into a prince.
“This is one of the projects that had momentum from the advent of First Tee,” said Todd Leweke, the director of the program. “It’s being held up as an example of what we can do relative to the environment, and the potential impact it has on the community’s self-esteem.”
First Tee got the funding rolling with a $100,000 donation. The United States Golf Association also believed so strongly in the project that it kicked in an additional $75,000.
The community quickly followed suit to generate the $2.5 million needed to get the golf balls flying.
“This is a dream we have had around for a long time,” said Hammond Mayor Duane Dedelow. “We’ve always wanted to take that eyesore and turn it into a thing of beauty and something the public can use.”
Hammond had talked about building a golf course on the land for years. But many of the architects thought it could be done only by digging out all the slag, which would be cost-prohibitive.
Much has changed in golf course design technology in recent years. Many facilities are being built on top of land that once was thought to be impossible to house a golf course. The Hammond facility, which is being done by Howard Design out of Austin, Texas, presented unique challenges.
Sam Senn, the project coordinator, points to what will be the eighth tee. It is elevated, more from necessity than design.
“The reason it’s built so high is that we couldn’t dig into the slag, so we built around it,” Senn said. “We decided to work with what we had.”
And that wasn’t much. The property had become a dumping ground. When construction began, workers found hundreds of old tires. Just off the ninth tee lies the remnants of a conveyor belt. A rusted-out car is waiting to be removed.
The only people who used the place for entertainment were dirt bikers, who will have to find another spot.
“I imagine the dirt bike population is upset,” Senn said.
Perhaps some of those dirt bikers will turn to golf. The majority of kids in the area never have been exposed to the game.
Initially, there has been some hesitation by parents, who are concerned the game will be too expensive. But First Tee has that handled. Clubs will be available through donations, and greens fees will be modest.
“Golf is perceived as an upper-income sport, but it doesn’t have to be that way,” said Joseph Alamillo, who is coordinating programs for the various youth organizations for the course. “I believe in the First Tee philosophy of bringing the game to the kids. I’m a golfer and I grew up in an urban area. I know the great opportunities it has given me.”
At the groundbreaking ceremonies, a young woman named Ashley spoke of a couple of friends who had been murdered. She said if a facility like this had been in place, perhaps things would have been different.
Golf certainly doesn’t have all the answers, but every little bit helps.
“The more kids are involved in golf, the less likely they’re involved in something they shouldn’t be doing,” said First Tee’s Mark Lowry, who coordinates the program’s work in the Midwest.
Naturally, Hammond is giddy about this project. There are plans in the works to build an 18-hole course on adjoining land, along with paths for walkers and bikers.
Where once there had been slag and dirt bikes, there will be nature and golf. And kids.
“This is a win-win situation,” Dedelow said. “This is a win for golf by exposing more kids to the game. It’s a big, big benefit to the community. We’re turning an eyesore into something special.”
