Retrospect: Expanded golf course was ready to open

Thirty years ago this week, area golf enthusiasts had a new 18-hole course to play.

The June 26, 1991, edition of The Commercial Review featured a story about the expanded Wabash Valley Golf Club, which was set to open two days later.

The opening of the expanded club — it had 10 new holes — had been delayed by inclement weather, including floods and mud. There had also been a change in contractors and various other delays to the planned schedule.

“I’m going to play Friday, but really, I just want to be around to hear what people have to say,” said Wabash Valley president Alan Baumgartner. “I even want to hear the criticisms, because that’s how we’re going to know what we still have to work on.”

The $1 million project involved expanding what had been a nine-hole course to an 18-hole format that looped around Rainbow Lake.

Golf course architects Gary and Ron Kern designed the 10 new holes, working them around trees and the waters of the Limberlost swamp and Wabash River.

Construction had started in 1989, but heavy rains limited work on the new holes. Then a new contracting — Eichmiller Golf — took over the project.

Baumgartner admitted the process had its frustrations, but said he was happy to be preparing to see the first golfers tee off on the expanded course.

“There were times when we felt we were just about at the top of the mountain, and then there was a mudslide and we started sliding down,” he said. “We were washed out a few times, but we never quit.”

Also the golf course was taking shape, a new housing subdivision — Limberlost Trails — was also in process. At the time of the opening of the course, 20 lots had been sold.