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`Waveland' forever!
Ed Sherman's Sunday salute to Chicago's Waveland Golf Course on the occasion of its 75th birthday celebration next weekend notes that he will never refer to the beautiful little 9-hole course on Lake Michigan as "Sydney R. Marovitz Golf Course," the name the political insiders stuck on the course back in 1991.
I feel exactly the same, and when I first wrote on the topic in 1993 (see below, where I have also posted a current article from Chicagoland Golf magazine) I was deluged with supportive reponses: "No one calls it `Marovitz!'" was typical. "No one will ever call it `Marovitz.'"
But as "Waveland" partisans age and die, are golfers in the next generation adopting "Marovitz?"
Or has this Shermanesque defiance (see Ed's blog here) become a folk tradition, passed along to new residents and upstart golfers?
Marovitz Course? Never heard of it
By Eric Zorn, September 2, 1993
So far, newly installed Chicago Park District Supt. Forrest Claypool has proven adept at meaningful symbolic gestures -- at making those small changes in the status quo that suggest a new era within the traditionally shady and bloated park bureaucracy.
Giving over a Park District skybox at Soldier Field to disadvantaged kids was one example. Getting rid of his taxpayer-sponsored chauffeur was another.
But these were easy little salvos lobbed with little resistance from any quarter. The question now is whether Claypool and Park District Board Chairman John Rogers Jr., also new and also hailed as a reformer, will carry on to lead the way in a truly bold symbolic initiative:
Will they dare to un-rename Waveland Golf Course?
It's time. Two years ago, with little public support, the previous park administration voted to rededicate Waveland, a beautiful 9-hole golf course on the lakefront, for the late Sydney R. Marovitz.
The full name is probably not familiar. Sydney Marovitz was a commissioner - not even the chairman - on the Park District Board from 1974 to 1986 during the discredited reign of former Supt. Ed Kelly. He is said to have been a kind, compassionate and thoughtful man, though not one who left much of a mark on the parks.
The last name, however, may ring a bell. Sydney's brother, Abraham Lincoln Marovitz, is a senior federal judge from Chicago who has administered the mayoral oath of office to both Richard M. Daley (who installed Claypool and Rogers) and his father, Richard J. Daley. Sydney's son, William, was a veteran Democratic state senator from the North Side at the time the new name was approved.
The renaming of Waveland reeked of backroom politics, nods and winks, connections, deals and arrogance born of the disregard for the public will -- hallmarks of the old era.
Golfers were justifiably outraged. The name Waveland went back to the 1930s when the course was built, and it was particularly appropriate for the pastoral and challenging links right where the land meets the waves. Waveland. There are echoes of an amusement park in the name, a place for fun, a place for all people.
And an interesting thing has happened since. Chicago-area golfers, in an unorganized but widespread expression of civil disobedience, have refused to adopt the new name.
"No one uses it," said Henry Hauser, president of the Lincoln Park Golf Club, a group of amateurs that regularly plays the course. "I've never heard anyone say, 'We're going to play Marovitz.' It just doesn't fit."
"This is Waveland, that's it," said Esther Dunn, a golfer who was sitting with Hauser earlier this week at a table outside the course restaurant, which has kept the name Waveland Cafe.
Over by the first tee, Scott Stiller, 23, who never played the course until after it was rededicated, said he also only refers to it as Waveland.
"I don't even know who Sydney R. Marovitch is," he said, butchering the name slightly. "Was he a good golfer?"
"We'll always call it Waveland," said Glen Priester, 73, as he put his clubs back in the car over in the parking lot. "It's easier to spell and pronounce and remember."
Even cabdrivers haven't picked up on the name yet, according to Scott Bares, an employee of the course pro shop whose shirt bore the simple logo "Waveland." Bares said that every so often an out-of-towner or new golfer with no sense of history will use the pro shop pay phone to try to summon a cabbie to Marovitz Golf Course. "It never works," he said.
The solution here is obvious and would meet with little if any popular resistance. But Claypool said Wednesday that he had a number of more important issues to deal with than un-renaming Waveland and was not inclined to waste time on it. Rogers said, "There might be some merit in the idea, but you have to set priorities and this is not high on my list."
Eventually, of course, unless Claypool or Rogers discover a sudden urge to take on the powerful forces that obviously favored the rededication in 1991, future generations of golfers will begin saying "Marovitz," and the Waveland partisans will seem as peculiar as the people on the Northwest Side who still, more than 40 years later, call Pulaski Road "Crawford Avenue."
But that doesn't mean the change will have been right. It will only mean that symbolism still cut both ways in the Park District in the 1990s.
Sydney R. Marovitz Golf Course Historical Notes
By Phil Kosin, Chicagoland Golf Magazine – Mid May 2007 (reprinted by permission)
Opened June 15, 1932, under the name "Waveland Golf Course."
• Illinois governor Louis T. Emmerson had the honor of driving the first ball. Also present at the opening were legendary amateur champion Chick Evans and Chicago Park District commissioners Thomas W. Gilmore and George W. Blomgren.
• Green fees opening day were 25 cents to play all day, a true "daily fee" course.
• Golf course architect Edward B. Dearie Jr. designed Waveland. The original design called for 18 holes, but due to budget constraints it never got past half-done.
• The land for the course was bought from the city. Built on fill, the course took more than two years to build at a cost of over $2 million.
• In 1932, course policy stated that beginners were not allowed to play because they slowed the course down and ruined the fairways and greens. Due to the cry of "Foul!" by many disgruntled taxpaying golfers, the policy was rescinded and since then, golfers of all levels have been enjoying play along scenic Lake Michigan. As a result of its primo location, it is affectionately known as "the poor man's Pebble Beach". The third option for taking a drop after hitting a ball into the World's Largest Lateral Hazard (Rule 26-1c(ii)) is dropping at a point on the opposite margin of the water hazard equidistant from the hole. Which means you can take a drop in New Buffalo, Michigan if you don't hold up play.
• Marovitz GC has always been one of the busiest courses in the Chicagoland area. In the 1930s, due to its popularity, ping-pong tables and horseshoe pits were constructed for golfers waiting to tee off.
• Since 1932, Marovitz GC has been home to the Midwest Amateur Tournament, one of the most popular amateur events in the Chicago area.
• The Clock Tower and refreshment stand were constructed in 1931. The English Gothic style was designed by Edwin H. Clark; the carillon was restored to working order a few years ago.
• Many major league baseball players passing through Chicago played Waveland GC in the days when most visiting teams stayed at the nearby Belden Stratford Hotel. Old-timers claim many of those rounds were played free – at night. Often, the post-sunset golf sortie was part of the rookie ballplayer hazing ceremony involving orange paint and the nether region of General Phil Sheridan's horse, a statue at Sheridan Road and Belmont Avenue.
• In June 1991, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley re-named Waveland "Sydney R. Marovitz Golf Course." Marovitz was a nondescript appointee to the CPD board from 1974-1986. However, diehard players who saw the change as pure political cronyism have staunchly refused to adopt the new formal name and continue to use "Waveland". In fact, I've never heard a golfer say "I'm going to play Marovitz." Same with George Dunne National (aka Forest Preserve National).
• In 1993, the CPD privatized the management of its six golf courses and two driving ranges. KemperGolf Management (KemperSports) has been managing all of the CPD golf facilities since 1993 and is responsible for the courses finally turning a profit for the taxpayers after they had been a huge financial drain for years. The transformation of all of the courses from their goat-ranch appearance to today's well-maintained condition has been nothing short of miraculous; the first relics of the old era to go were the obnoxious asphalt tee boxes.
• In 2003, Marovitz GC was certified by Audubon International as a Cooperative Sanctuary for golf. Audubon International provides information to help golf courses with: Environmental Planning; Wildlife and Habitat Management; Chemical Use Reduction and Safety; Water Conservation; Water Quality Management; and Outreach and Education. By completing projects in each of these components of the program, the golf course member receives national recognition as a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary.
...and people were outraged when they re-named Cook County Hospital 'Stroger Hospital'. See all the trouble precedent sets in Chicago? 'You did it for them, now you have to allow these other guys to do it too, otherwise you are playing favorites'
Once someone gets the ball rolling in Chicago, next thing you know, it is at the bottom of a greased, bastardized, 28,000 ft slope. And at the bottom, no one can tell right from wrong any more.
The street at 4000 W will always be Crawford to me.
ZORN REPLY -- THere is a long and fascinating history of the Crawford ===> Pulaski switch. The thing I have never been able to figure out is, why didn't they re-name California for Pulaski.. There was a Crawford family and Crawford was a figure of some local importance. A number of other streets aren't named for anyone and would have been just as prominent, just as logical.
See you at Comiskey Park, Stosh.
Posted by: Stosh | Monday, May 14, 2007 at 01:48 PM
Cook County Hospital Forever.
Why should it be called Stroger? When Stroger was sick, he wouldn't even go there.
Posted by: S. Sherman | Monday, May 14, 2007 at 01:54 PM
I'm not even a golfer or a big football fan, but some things just aren't right. To me it's Waveland. And Dyche Stadium.
Posted by: Rich S | Monday, May 14, 2007 at 02:06 PM
It should be illegal to rename a park. Build a new park and call it Marovitz.
Just because a park name is old and no one alive remembers who it is named after shouldn't give the politicians free reign to change the name.
What's next, renaming Grant Park after Burt Natarus?
Posted by: Jack O'B | Monday, May 14, 2007 at 03:01 PM
Jack! Shh! Don't give them ideas!
Fred Hampton memorial cart path
Posted by: bob | Monday, May 14, 2007 at 04:12 PM
The name "Marovitz" should go immediately. Along with it, why not clip the name "George Dunne" from the 18-hole course in Oak Forest -- the guy was fingered for trading county jobs for sex, wasn't he? He should be forgotten, not honored. And what was Sid Marovitz's legacy to the county board? Perfect attendance? Good posture at board meetings?
Bring back officially the names Waveland GC and Forest Preserve National! Puleeze.... and no more taxpayer-owned golf courses renamed after politicians, er.... "public servants". Instead, put their names on sanitary landfills, auto pounds or sewage treatment plants.
Phil Kosin
Chicagoland Golf
Posted by: Phil Kosin | Monday, May 14, 2007 at 06:24 PM
Waveland carries much more cache than Marovitz. After all, it's the street homeruns at Wrigley Field fly on to when they leave the park over the left field wall. Now if they wanted to call the golf course "Hefner," that would be stiff competition.
Posted by: Barnaby | Tuesday, May 15, 2007 at 09:43 AM
Eric -- not sure if you're aware, but the golf course itself sells "Waveland Golf Course" caps. .
Posted by: John | Tuesday, May 15, 2007 at 10:56 AM
Take heart Eric! I am a 25 year old golfer who is relatively new to Chicago (2 years) and I have always referred to it as the Waveland Course. I play it fairly regularly actually. Although lately the talent level out there has sunk to abysmal lows that slow the game down far too much. That old "talented golfers only" rule would be amazing! Maybe we could develop some sort of competency test in golfing skill that would result in a license to golf.
Posted by: Devin | Tuesday, May 15, 2007 at 11:52 AM
A license to golf. Now there's a novel idea. It could be set up kind of like a FOID card. Then we could argue about golf clubs getting into the wrong hands.
Posted by: Jack O'B | Tuesday, May 15, 2007 at 12:10 PM
Clearly, the People have spoken about golf, and it's Waveland. As for the hospital, keep calling it "County" if you want, but I prefer the impish-smirk tweak to Cook County corruption from calling it "Strokeout".
Posted by: Jason | Thursday, May 17, 2007 at 12:28 PM