Business strong at Metamora Fields
July 18, 2012
After opening in December 2010, business has been going great at Metamora Fields.
“It’s been great,” director of operations Matt Rogers said. “We’ve had a lot of support from the town of Metamora. We had a lot of help from the town board. The golf course, with it being our first full season, we’ve got a lot of play. We’re happy with it.”
While the clubhouse opened in 2010, the golf course, designed by D.A. Weibring and Steve Wolfard, didn’t open until July 2011.
The 18-hole course gets several outings during the week, with a lot of long-distance visitors on the weekend.
“We’ve been drawing crowds and golfers out of Chicago who say it’s cheaper to drive from Chicago and pay the gas and pay our daily fee than it is to play their courses up there, and it’s a course that’s in better shape,” Rogers said. “We have a lot of people coming in from Chicago now, and hopefully we can get into more of that crowd from up there.”
Inside the clubhouse, Rogers said that Lisa Miller, director of events, and Shay McCayitt, events manager, have done an “unbelievable job” booking the ballroom for most of the year.
“Now until November 24, every single Saturday is booked in our large ballroom upstairs. We have 42 wedding receptions this year and we have 23 wedding receptions already booked for 2013,” he said. “A majority of our business comes from word of mouth in the banquet world. I’m looking forward to another full season. We also have 10 plus actual ceremonies that take place on our ceremony lawn. It has a great backdrop of the golf course.”
Also available for the community inside is a restaurant opened daily.
“Our dinner service has been doing great,” Rogers said. “Last night (July 11) we fed over 150 people at our chicken night. It’s our most popular night. We’d love to keep having people come out for dinner.
“We also have lunch, but we have a new patio grill menu that features stuff straight off of the grill from outside.”
Looking towards the future
While no changes are planned for the clubhouse or golf course, some addition still needs to be made to the residential area that is surrounded by the course.
“The housing market’s still been a little slow, but there’s a few houses that are starting to pop up,” Rogers said.
The other big addition Rogers would like to see would be to bring a big name golf tour to the area.
“It’d be great,” he said. “I think the capabilities of Metamora, without having the hotels, is probably Nationwide or a Champions Tour event. Our course is real similar to Deer Run, which is another course that was designed by D.A. Weibring and Steve Wolfard. They’ve got the John Deere Classic up there getting ready to go.”
He added that the largest outing the course currently has is the Happy Shooter Classic on Aug. 24.
“It has two shotguns and upwards of near 200 players,” Rogers said. “It’s to benefit Easter Seals. There are still spots available if anyone is looking to play in it.”