Golf Club promotes friendships

SUN CITY – Golf probably has attracted the largest number of people to move to Sun City, Huntley. And Whisper Creek Golf Course that winds through the community continues to be a big reason for the success of the Sun City Golf Club, and for the visibility and positive reputation of the development. 

This is according to Judy Champine, avid lifetime golfer and publicity director for the 400-member club, one of the community’s largest charter groups.

“The club and course are both multi-dimensional,” she said.  “Whisper Creek is more than just a nice, convenient place to play and enhance property values,” she said last week. “Our club’s purpose is to promote the social, instructional, and competitive aspects of the game of golf. No matter what our level of skill or experience, golf is a fun sport to play, generates friendships, improves your fitness and health, and is an outlet for your competitive instincts.”

“My husband and I moved here from Michigan, and we left our family and a lot of friends there,” she said. “We were checking out senior developments, and because we are golfers, we played the Whisper Creek course before we decided to come here. We liked it right away. Now, we have more friends than we had in Michigan, mostly because of golf. We combine dinners and dances and parties and receptions, with the sport, where golfers and their guests and friends can join together and socialize. Golfers are always great ‘socializers.’”

Because of the prominence of the Whisper Creek course in Sun City, the golf club was organized in the earliest days of the development, while homes were still being constructed at a rapid rate nearly a decade ago. The Club has grown so much in recent years, Champine said, that it has outgrown its own course. “We have two 18-hole women’s leagues, one 9-hole women’s league, and several men’s leagues. So we also use Pinecrest and Randall Oaks courses to play some of our in-house leagues,” she said. “The golf club is an umbrella organization for many leagues that conduct their own activities.”

Champine also touted Whisper Creek itself. “It is a challenging course that is not intimidating but not too easy. It is home to many junior-level golf tournaments every year, is a favorite course for many area golfers who are not SunCity residents, and it is considered attractive and challenging with its water hazards, sand traps, and prairie-style rough.”

The course was designed by the organization directed by former pro Billy Casper, who visited the course once shortly after it opened. Sun City residents and golf club activities get priority on fees and tee times. The club’s biggest event occurs each September, when the club conducts its annual tournament in which well over 100 players participate. The club also participated in a charity event in 2010, in which it joined with clubs in other Del Webb and senior communities in the Chicago area to sponsor a tournament in which more than $3,000 was raised and donated to a family with a medically needy child whose grandparents live in Sun City Huntley.

“We have a Kings and Queens mixed league that will start up soon on Sunday evenings,” Champine said. “We also have putting parties on the green, when the pro shop staff set up an obstacle course on the putting green and we invite non golfers to come and have fun with a putter. The club also awards $100 in cash to all members who hit a hole in one.  “We had three of those last year, I think,” Champine said. “Our club also is a great place to improve your skills.”

The club holds monthly meetings in Drendel Ballroom in the Prairie Lodge. On these occasions t guest speakers, some of them PGA touring or teaching professionals, discuss the rules and skills of golf and share their own experiences in the sport.”

The club charges $10 for an annual membership, and members pay additional fees to participate in league activities.

Golf at Whisper Creek – have fun, make friends, improve your game – no matter your handicap.

Maybe comedian Bill Dana once put it best when asked about his handicap in golf: “That I can’t play,” he said. But he reportedly did, often. 

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