Scherwood Golf

Origins

What began as a plan for a simple par-3 course grew, before a single hole was built, into a full 18-hole regulation layout — and that expansion set the pattern for everything that followed at Scherwood.

Bill Christenson founded the course as an extension of the Scherwood Club, a private outdoor-pool and social club he had started in downtown Schererville in the late 1950s. Once the plans grew beyond the original par-3 concept, he retained Ted Locke, an architect from Bettendorf, Iowa, to design the expanded course, and construction began in 1966 on 165 acres. The course opened on September 4, 1967, with an inaugural round played by club partner Gene Pettit, employee Malcolm Benjamin, Hammond Times sportswriter John Whitaker, and course superintendent Marvin Hanson.

Development

In 1979, ownership passed to Marvin Hanson — the same superintendent who had played in that first round twelve years earlier — and his wife Eileen, who still own and operate Scherwood today. A second nine, a par-3 executive course, was added later on 20 acres that had originally been an archery field and playground, and a modern practice facility followed in 1998.