Time to tee it up: Newton's nine-hole course opens Monday

By Steve Clark, Herald Times Reporter

NEWTON — Ray Kinsella tore up a cornfield in the movie "Field of Dreams" so that the ghost of "Shoeless" Joe Jackson would have the chance to play again.

When Jerry Stecker saw the cornfields out his office window to the east of Stecker Machine, it wasn't a magical baseball diamond that came into view.

But now that he has built CNC Links, a nine-hole, par-30 golf course complete with a showcase clubhouse, he hopes people will come.

"I like the looks of it. It's exciting," Stecker said Friday afternoon as the final preparations were being made for the course and the clubhouse's opening on Monday. "There was a restaurant that closed around here and it kind of left a hole in this area. There were a lot of people who hoped that another one would open up.
Hopefully that will bring a lot of people in."

The golf course has been finished for a couple of months, and according to course superintendent Wayne Brandt, just needs the pins put into the greens to be ready.

"The course is very nice, it's ready to be played," Brandt said. "We've just been fertilizing, cutting grass and filling in some of the spots we lost over the winter. We were top-dressing the greens to make them nice and smooth and just waiting to get going."

The heart of the golf course is a large pond that will come into play on a handful of holes, most notably No. 9.
On that hole, golfers will have to cross a bridge to an island tee and clear a wide portion of the water hazard to get the ball into the fairway.

"The island is very special. I don't think many places in the state have a situation like that," Brandt said.
And the hole already has claimed its first victim.

"The first time I played it, the ball went right in (the water)," said Stecker, who has played the course twice this summer. "Originally, I was just going to dig a lake or two … (on his land). We just got carried away and it turned into a golf course."

The course originally was slated to be for business purposes only, but it later was decided to open it up to the public and build a clubhouse with a full restaurant and bar.

The final touches were being put on the clubhouse Friday. It will open at 7 a.m. every day and has a menu with everything from appetizers and sandwiches, to a full selection of dinner entrees.

"I think we have an excellent menu. We have sandwiches geared for golfers and then at 5 p.m. we'll do a dinner menu, with a soup and salad bar," said Ruth Hanson, clubhouse manager. "It's so exciting and I think it's going to be so right for this community."

The clubhouse restaurant has a capacity of 120 and also has a small room off the main dining area that will be used for meetings and small parties. There also will be a small pro shop inside the clubhouse that will offer a selection of CNC Links logo items.

However, Hanson believes one of the best aspects of the clubhouse is that it will be open year-round.

"Just because it's a golf course, people sometimes are under the impression that it's closed for the winter.
We're going to stay open," Hanson said. "Even if the golf course is closed, we're not."

Hanson and Stecker said there are no immediate plans for a grand opening event, however, neither would rule out the possibility of that happening.

"We're just going to see what happens for the first month or so and then maybe we will have a grand opening. I'm just not sure," Stecker said. "I would just like to see what it's like and what's going to happen and just make sure everything's running right."

But there's no doubt, everything is set for Monday.

"I don't know what to expect. I'm sure there will be some curiosity-seekers early on, but I think business will be (steady)," Hanson said. "It was very hard to get to this point, but it is totally ready to go."

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