Will you consider this?

There's some beautiful, reclaimed land strip mines near Canton, Illinois, Cuba, to be exact.

193 acres in all.

It made for a lovely golf course but time took its toll and the course was in danger.

I'm Christine Zak-Edmonds and my guest today is the general manager of Wee-Ma-Tuk Hills Country Club.

(uplifting music) Generally, golfers can find places to hit the links.

The challenge was getting tougher in west-central Illinois but thanks to some friendly bankers and committed shareholders, Wee-Ma-Tuk Hills Country Club is making a strong come back.

Please welcome my guest, Mark Cornell General Manager of that country club.

Welcome, thanks for being with me today.

- Thank you very much for inviting me over.

- Well some people don't know the history of Wee-Ma-Tuk, or that it's even there.

Cuba, Illinois, that's by Canton.

- Yes it is, it's approximately halfway between Canton and Cuba on County Highway 5 commonly called the Canton/Cuba blacktop.

It was a strip mine back in the 30's, 40's, and 50's.

It was called Truax Trader Mine.

Mr. Truax wanted to be true to nature and as the mine expired its worth he wanted to restore it back to, as close to its natural look as he could.

But in doing so, he wanted to create a place of pleasure.

So he started with a golf course in 1965 and then he expanded it in later years to an 18 hole course and in doing so, he put roads throughout the property and he had it all platted and began selling lots.

There are over two dozen lakes out there with one large one, that's Lake Wee-Ma-Tuk, it's south, it's over 140 acres.

But there's plenty to do out there, whether you want to hike, whether you want to view nature, whether you want to boat or whether you want to golf.

- So Wee-Ma-Tuk is a legitimate Native American phrase?

- Yes it is.

I means land of blue skies, many lakes and hills.

Mrs. Truax came up with that and then she also named all of the roads in the subdivision out there and they're all named after Native Americans to honor their heritage.

- That's awesome.

Are people who live there, they know some of this history?

Or they just like being part of the club and the beauty of Wee-Ma-Tuk.

- A lot of them are just out there to be part of the beauty and the nature of it.

We've tried to spread the word about the history of it.

We've made up pamphlets that explain the meaning of it, we've sent out flyers.

And we're trying to spread the word so that everybody will learn about the history of Wee-Ma-Tuk.

- Well, and you're not only attracting from central Illinois, from what I understand, there's a lot of people coming from St. Louis area, Chicago area to buy some places and to have some recreational place to go.

- We do have a lot of people that are using them as weekend recreation homes in the summer time.

So they may come from Peoria, they may come from Chicago, they may come from St. Louis.

But they're all welcome and everybody seems to have a good time once they show up.

- So back to Wee-Ma-Tuk, it was really built in the 60's I believe, nine holes.

- [Mark] Yes it was.

- And then at some point, another nine holes were added and it was doing pretty well and people were buying the properties and maybe even living there year round.

But there were some problems that came up about when?

- They probably started in about 2017, 2018.

The owners at the time closed the kitchen and the club house so people weren't able to eat.

So attendance dwindled, membership dwindled.

And in 2019, they announced that they weren't even gonna open the course that year.

Well a group of concerned members and residents to the area approached them, called a big meeting and kinda talked the owners into opening up for one more season in 2019.

And they were able to do that but because of the lack of membership there wasn't money available, so there really were no fertilizer put down, no pesticide, insecticide or weed killer, so nature kinda took its course on the condition of the course.

- All right.

So you were one of the people that started the ball rolling, getting to that green right?

And you met with bankers and then other shareholders kinda came forward and you were able to rescue the place.

- Yeah, in March of 2019, because of the gloomy news that we received about the last year of the club a group of four individuals got together and started holding meetings in their living rooms wherever we could and we started recruiting shareholders.

And our goal was an X amount that we were gonna take to a bank and try and get a loan.

And we were having trouble securing that and then all of a sudden, three local banks approached us and said that they would fund our project with certain rules and regulations in there.

- Stipulations, right.

- And we were able to fulfill those.

So in late summer, early fall of 2019 we started negotiations with the owners who were gonna close the course on October the 15th, which the time came and went, the course closed and we continued negotiations throughout the winter and early spring.

And in February of 2020, we had a tentative agreement which allowed us on the property to start maintenance of the mowing equipment and the golf carts.

- [Christine] And the grass was pretty high at that point.

- Well, in February, March, it wasn't bad.

I mean, we were changing the oil in the gas carts, checking the batteries and the electric, sharpening the blades on the mowers.

First of April came around, of course we all know what happened in March.

- Right.

- We had COVID hit.

And all the restrictions were in place.

The banks were not gonna do any commercial loans because of, a commercial loan can't, relies on the public to come and visit them and spend money and if you're in quarantine you can't go out and spend money.

- Correct.

- So they postponed the closing.

So the first week of April, the owner said well, we're not closing, so you're not working on the equipment.

And we were just getting ready to start mowing grass.

- And that was in April?

- That was the very first of April.

- Oh boy, rainy season.

Okay.

- Yes, April showers.

(Christine chuckling) - And you saw plenty.

- So we saw plenty of it.

So we were biding our time and we were pretty down.

The news wasn't looking good but we continued to negotiate with the owners.

And the end of May, we finally reached another agreement.

Restrictions were easing as far as COVID was going.

So we selected a closing date, had it in writing from the banks and we were allowed back on the property March 29th of last year.

In eight weeks, if you don't mow grass it becomes three and four foot tall everywhere and that's what we were facing at the end of May.

So we brought out that equipment we had already maintained and we started mowing, and we mowed.

And shareholders were volunteering their personal lawnmowers and their personal time.

We had people taking weeks of vacation to come out and sit on a tractor, eight, 10 hours a day.

- [Christine] To help.

- At one point, we counted 20 mowers out on the golf course.

- That's incredible.

And this is 193 acres?

Is that what you said?

- Yes, but only about 110 of it is the golf course.

The rest of it isn't tillable land and woods, and ravines.

So we only had two mowers out there ourselves, all the rest of it was donated.

I think we mowed it probably eight times, we had hay rakes in there raking it up.

We had buckets on tractors scooping it up and hauling it off.

And we were able to open the course July 3rd of last summer.

- [Christine] That was a nice celebration.

- Yes it was, it made for a good fireworks show that weekend.

- There you go.

Well so it's such a feel-good story that you have the community, really, coming together.

The people who live around there to loan their equipment and their time.

And then how many shareholders did you end up with?

Did you say already?

- We ended up with 136 shareholders.

And you know, to recruit that many people we had to have a pretty good sales pitch.

And our lead sales pitch was three-fold.

We're the only golf course left in Fulton County which is one of the largest counties in the state.

There were 18 charities or organizations that use golfing outings as a major fundraiser.

- [Christine] Right.

- And there are two high schools that are using that as their home course for their golf team.

Being Canton and North Fulton.

So that gave us a lot of reason to really go out there and work to come with the shareholders.

- So that was basically an easy sell for you.

- Yes, we thought that was gonna make it an easy sell.

Just because of the amount of money, you know, over $60,000 are raised from those charities that go back into the community.

- Oh boy.

So each shareholder put in the same amount of money.

- Yes, we were asking for $5,000 a shareholder.

And we, some people couldn't afford that so we came up with a payment plan.

It was so much over so many years.

It could be two years, three years, five years or 10 years.

But you know, we're keeping track and the second installment's coming up here the first of June, which is when we started.

- [Christine] Okay.

- So it's kinda like a little shot in the arm to get that little extra cash once a year to help us with some causes that we're trying to work on on the golf course.

- [Christine] Like Christmas, it's kinda Christmas for you, all year round.

- Yes, Christmas in summer.

- So okay, what other responsibilities do the shareholders have other than obviously making their payments and maybe they lend some mowers to you or whatever else.

And these aren't just all farm people, these are professional people too.

- They're professional people.

We have doctors, lawyers, we have hair dressers.

We have people that work on our golf course that are share holders.

If you're fully paid up to your $5,000 you're qualified to run for the Board of Directors and you're qualified to vote for any items that come up in front of the board or for the Board of Directors as they choose to run.

- So how many Board of Directors do you have?

How many members?

- We have a board of seven people.

We have two members that were on three year terms, two members on two year terms and then three that were on a one year term.

- [Christine] So staggered.

- Yes, so that you're not turning over the entire board all at once and there's some continuity.

- Right, well what are some of the things that you have to act on?

I mean, in the beginning it's obvious what you had to act on, find the course.

- Yeah.

(chuckles) Each board member is on a different committee that we have.

We have seven committees out there, whether it's advertising, membership, social, golf, we have buildings and grounds and we have a fishing committee 'cause of all the lakes out there.

- [Christine] Mhmm, do you stock the lakes?

- We started last fall with two of our lakes.

We shocked them and then we stocked them with 250 fish a piece.

- [Christine] What kind of fish?

- We've put in bass, blue gill, croppy and some larger game fish.

- All right good.

So, all of this came about just in the last couple of years and you retired from your job of how many years?

- I was with the Ameren for 37 1/2 years and I retired in February of last year.

- To do this, or just sort of happened?

- It just sort of happened.

I took up the cause once we got rolling last year and I had worked at a golf course in college so I kind had an idea how to do that.

I've helped organize one of those golf charities out there for 26 years.

So I know about running the golf outings.

And we have our president of the board who had been in the restaurant/bar business for almost 30 years.

We have a major shareholder who has a restaurant and he's been in that business over 30 years so we've got plenty of people to pick their brain and ask for help.

- With that kind of experience, yeah, exactly.

So you, what's the most difficult thing that you encounter every day?

You have a grounds keeper though, that's not you?

- No, we do have a superintendent.

He has his own staff under him.

And the board gives him a budget and he adheres to it.

And then if he sees something extraordinary that he needs he approaches the board, they have a meeting and they make a recommendation to him.

And he goes from there.

But my most difficult problem is I know what I need to do every day, but it's- - Finding the time to do it.

- Yeah, because I'll be in the middle of something and I'll have a member come in with a problem.

Or I'll have a board member that will come in and want me to handle this for them and so I'll get side tracked.

Okay, now, where did I leave off?

You know, so there's times where I meet myself coming and going in there and I do need some time away so I can do stuff around my own house once in a while.

- [Christine] There you go.

- But I do spend quite a few hours up there helping out.

- Every day.

And well, from what I saw from some of the pictures I believe that Erin sent to me, the food looks good.

What kind of things are in the restaurant?

- We recently expanded our kitchen hours.

We're open every day at 11 now for lunch.

And it is our sandwich and appetizer salad menu only.

We have hamburgers that are pattied up locally right there.

We have 1/3 pounders and 1/2 pounders.

We have our own homemade tenderloins that we cut, pound out, and bread ourselves.

- Four buns, I saw.

- They come in a 12 inch pizza box.

(Christine laughing) - That's crazy.

- So it tells you how big they end up.

We have a deep fried filet of chicken, we have grilled chicken, we have marinated chicken breast that we grill.

We have a Philly cheese steak.

Sometimes people think we have way too many but we do, I mean, we sell a lot of everything in there so far.

And then we have a chef salad, grilled chicken salad, a taco salad, and a regular side salad with that.

- And that's every day they have that choice?

- That's everyday we have that choice.

And then Monday through Friday beginning at 4 p.m. We have our own homemade pizzas.

We have a thin crust, a pan crust and a stuffed crust, which is kinda modeled after the Chicago deep dish style.

- Right, right.

You think this guy likes what he does?

You think he's so proud of Wee-Ma-Tuk Hills Country Club?

- We've, in the last nine months we've come a long way and we have to tell ourselves every day that it's baby steps.

We can't hit a home run with everything we do out there.

It has to be baby steps because you know, it took even God seven days to create the world, so, you know, we're nowhere near him.

- Good way to look at it.

- So it's gonna take us several years to get it where we want to go.

- To establish it, yeah.

So how busy is the course on any given day now that the season, well some of the weather has cooperated this year?

- Well, last fall, once we got going with it and our greens keeper was able to put his chemicals down and get rid of all the weeds that were on our greens we were left with mostly dirt.

- [Christine] Oh boy.

- So he had to basically start from scratch and reseed everything last fall.

We had 18 volunteers step up and purchase thermal blankets to cover our greens which extended the growing season in the fall and then moved it forward in the spring.

So when we uncovered them in April we had, all of our greens were at least 75% covered.

- Really?

- And with the rain and the sunshine this spring, they're slowly filling in.

And on April 12th, I believe we started playing our greens again.

So as word's getting out our public play, which we are open to the public too you don't have to be a member.

Last Friday, we had 47 non-members come out and play and last Saturday, because of the nice weather and everything we only had 34 non-public members come out and play.

So the public is finding out about us and starting to show up.

- Well and that's good to know because a lot of times, if it says country club they think that it's exclusive to members only.

- Yes, and the general public can come into our club house and dine at any time they want.

They don't have to be a member either.

We're welcoming everybody, hopefully they'll have a good experience and they'll want to jump on the bandwagon and become a member.

Or maybe even a shareholder because we do have shares open for sale.

- Okay.

So you want to expand from 136?

You don't have a problem with that?

- No, we do not have a problem.

That just gives us a little more ammo to use out there on the golf course.

- Right, now I know that some of the shareholders, my friend, how I found out about all this, Jenny Beal, I know that she has helped to beautify one of the holes.

- Yes, we've had multiple families volunteer and they have taken ownership of the tee box area and have planted flowers and different plants and everything.

And very soon, based on the people that bought our thermal blankets we're gonna be honoring them because they were spending thousands of dollars on those blankets, so they're gonna get a plaque in their name, out on the golf course.

And then we also honor those that are doing the flower beds by mentioning them in our newsletter at least once a year.

- Right, and they can do any design they want?

Or does that have to go before the board to make sure that everything's kind of coordinated?

- Nope, variety is a nice thing to have.

So they're able to do it how they want.

I mean, we have some that have decorated with roses, some have done with perennials, and others like to put out new things every year.

- The annuals, yeah, exactly.

Which is a lot of work.

- Yes it is, and we do have, around our first tee we do have a Wee-Ma-Tuk Gardening Group that has several master gardeners in it and they have taken up the area around the club house and the first tee box.

- Really, so it really is...

It's a nice course.

Especially for people want to get in a quick round.

It's not overwhelming.

- No.

- But it is, it's doable.

- It's very doable.

If you come out there as a foursome and you take a golf cart there's really no reason that you shouldn't be able to play in four hours.

Those that are familiar with the course and that are above average golfers will play in less than 3 1/2 hours.

- Mhmm, and you're inviting everybody then to come out and take a look.

- Yes we are.

We have 11 outings scheduled already for this summer and then we have multiple outings that we plan for our members.

But the public is also invited to play in those if they want to.

And all of that can be found on our website which is wmthcc.com.

- Okay.

- And if they have any questions, they can email me at wmthcc@gmail.com.

- Okay.

- Or call me.

- There you go.

- At 309-789-8113.

- See, you're so accessible.

What's been the biggest challenge for you since you've taken over this general manager role?

Have you had anything that made you kick back and say oh boy, what did I get myself into?

- There have been, the hardest thing was trying to figure out which vendors offered what products.

And what days do they deliver on and do they deliver weekly or is it every other week?

- To coordinate all that.

- Yes.

- Right, okay.

- And then you have to put that on a calendar somewhere so that you have to order a day in advance.

So you have to, by 4:00 or 4:30 depending on which vendor it is.

And currently, I think we're using, I personally, for the bar area in the club house I'm using six vendors and our kitchen's using two right now.

But for our sandwiches and stuff we're using local grocery stores so that we have fresh vegetables to offer on our sandwiches and salads.

- You know, it's so community, it's tight knit and that's what I think makes it so fun, that you've actually done this in this day and age.

- Yeah, there's times where there are a few of us particularly me, I'll get frustrated and I'll start to lose my temper.

And you know, we'll walk away.

But 20 minutes later, we're sitting down and we're having a cold beer over it and talking it out.

- Right.

- Like adults.

So you know, we, 15 minutes, the kid stuff's over with and then the adults sit down and talk it out like we should.

- You can have your little hissy fit and get down to business then.

- Yup, and my hissy fits are slowly slowing down from 10 or 12 a day to maybe four or five a week.

(chuckles) - So you know, that's all good.

There's improvement all the way around.

But you're happy that you have taken over this role even though there are some little challenges, some little hurdles, because this is not something you used to do at Ameren.

So this is a whole new thing for you, you like to play golf but you didn't ever have to manage golf.

- Right.

- Just outings.

- Yup, I just did one outing a summer.

And now I'm doing 11 different fundraising outings and we try to do as much as we can to take the pressure off of them because most people that are doing these are not golfers.

They're just in it for the cause.

- To raise the money, right.

- And you know, we have it anywhere from the Chamber of Commerce to the Special Olympics coming out there.

So if you've ever taken part in any Special Olympics.

- It's special, it really is.

- It's very special.

I'm almost tearing up right now just thinking about my past experiences of working some of the events.

- And to see them excel.

- Yes.

- They're so proud of themselves.

- Yes they are.

- Exactly, exactly.

Well, what challenges do you think, other than trying to plan another you know, 11 outings this summer, what challenges, we have a couple minutes left, what challenges lie ahead?

- I think recruiting a few more members.

We're closing in on 190 for this summer.

Our goal was 200 but our, you know, over the horizon is to get it up around 240.

But I'm shooting for 200, so as the greens get better, people are coming out, I think we might get there here in the next several weeks 'cause we have our first outing coming up, May 21st.

So those people will come out and see it and hopefully that will get them excited about the game of golf and get them out there and playing and joining the Wee-Ma-Tuk family.

- All right, and you're a golfer.

- [Mark] I'm a golfer.

I'm a single digit handicap at Wee-Ma-Tuk that I play all the time.

I've only been able to play twice this year so far.

- Darn!

You've got to spend more time there.

- Well, I'm retired but I do have a 6th grader that has a life and is a tumbling tornado.

Qualified for the nationals, so we practice that twice a week.

- Congratulations.

- She ran junior high track from the 7th grade team this spring.

So we had track practice and track meets and she also plays softball.

So we have practices going on right now and then ball games getting ready to start.

- Well you know, softball and golf are just a little bit different.

Are you gonna get her into golf?

- Yes, when she picked up a bat the first time, she grabbed it as a left hander.

I batted left handed myself.

But we both golf right handed so the swings don't get confused.

- Good, that's good.

Well I would like to thank you very much for filling us in and letting us know the history of Wee-Ma-Tuk and the successes of Wee-Ma-Tuk.

And I wish you all the best.

And I'm gonna have to come out there and check it out again.

- Yeah, you'll have to come out and try one of our famous tenderloins.

- I don't know about that, I'd have to bring the whole family.

- Or you'll have lunch and dinner for the next day too.

- For the next week.

All right, thank you Mark Cornell, the general manager of Wee-Ma-Tuk Hills Country Club.

And I'd like to thank you for joining us and we'll see you.

Enjoy.

(uplifting music) What a great story.

(uplifting music)