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History
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During the early 1900's a group of men interested in golf and other
sports leased some land along the east bank of the Fox River approximately
one mile north of the city limits. There they built a pasture-like
golf course and identified themselves as the Aurora Country Club.
These men enjoyed not only playing golf there but shooting as well.
The facilities were very rudimentary but sufficient for their immediate
needs and desires. This initial effort soon attracted a fairly large
group of substantial business-sportsmen and, by 1914; they chartered
the Aurora Country Club.
The original Aurora Country Club property consisted of the purchase
of the 120-acre Minard Farm for $10,500 and the leasing of the 40
acres from El Louise Schoeberlein. The Schoeberlein property was
later purchased in 1925. The farm was one mile southwest of the
(then) city limits.
This farm consisted of gently rolling countryside with many beautiful
trees as well as an orchard, and also had a very substantial stone
farmhouse that was immediately remodeled to become the first clubhouse.
There were also sturdy barns in the property to serve as greens
keeping machinery sheds. The original tract was 160 acres, but after
deleting the right-of-ways of the two railroads that run along the
south border, about 139 acres were left for course development.
The golf course design was to make use of all trees and natural
attributes and not have any immediately adjacent fairways. While
the course was rather short, 6569 yards from the Championship Tees,
it was liberally sprinkled with sand traps, and, besides the original
trees, hundreds were set out during the early years by these farsighted
men.
There are attributes that make the Aurora Country Club unique. This
club was founded by men of self-contained, very successful, small
industrial city, as opposed to the more conventional suburban bedroom
communities that comprise a large proportion of the Chicago District
Golf Association clubs. This, no doubt, was responsible for two
resulting factors:
Because founders were Aurora's leading businessmen, there was no
doubt of a major commitment to maintaining the club as a premier
private facility in the city. In fact, executives at the major local
businesses were often, as part of their work responsibilities, required
to act as President of the club for a period. Second, because the
people of Aurora worked and socialized together on a regular basis
there was neither need nor desire to develop another competing country
club. This is in the direct contrast to what has occurred in many
of the Chicago commuter communities.
The Aurora Country Club progressed along the usual lines, adding
a swimming pool around 1924, and with continual refinements to the
golf course. Trapshooting was very important and, in the twenties,
the early installation was moved from an isolated spot on the golf
course to an area rather near the main clubhouse adjacent to the
practice green (now the chipping green). This sport was later abandoned
when the club property was annexed to the city in order to get improved
fire protection.
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