Lake Creek Celebrates a Golden Anniversary

BVU Lake Creek turns back the clock, offering green fees at 1972 prices on Friday to start a 50-year celebration, the culmination of a golf course and residential community dream.

An idea that began as just that – an idea – comes full circle this weekend as the Buena Vista University Golf Course at Lake Creek celebrates its 50th anniversary.

To mark the occasion, golf is offered at 1972 green fees ($5.50) on Friday with a cookout to follow. A four-person best shot golf outing takes place at 10 a.m. Saturday, giving way to a Founders Day dinner and toast that evening in a Lake Creek clubhouse setting that looks at the top of its game thanks to volunteers who worked throughout the winter and spring to paint, hang new lighting, improve wall space, the bar, and more.

“What our dedicated members did throughout the past several months serves as a bit of a parallel to the men and women who worked so hard a half-century ago in seeing this golf course, clubhouse, and residential community through to fruition,” says Mike Wilson, BVU Lake Creek Board President and a member of the golf course since 1985. “It’s stunning to look out over the landscape here now while trying envision just what, exactly, our founders tasked themselves with in getting this off the ground.”

“BVU Lake Creek and its people are real assets for us when we visit with prospective employees about the quality of life they can expect to enjoy when they join the team at BVU.”

President Brian Lenzmeier

Dr. Charles Slagle, a longtime BVU chemistry professor, worked with Richard Gaffney in preserving the history of Lake Creek in “Lake Creek: The Impossible Dream,” a book they published in 1992 to celebrate a place where the foursome of founders Paul Dlugosch, Joe McCormick, W.B. “Bud” Bauer, and Wendell Pendleton played the first round of golf at the site on June 17, 1972. That round of golf, a one-giant-leap moment for Lake Creek, signaled a reality for a Storm Lake quality-of-life amenity that had been solely an idea for years.

The genesis for Lake Creek can be traced to a soundly defeated 1970 bond issue to expand Storm Lake Municipal Golf Course from nine holes to 18. Mere weeks after the defeat, nine local golfers incorporated a nonprofit whose mission was to act on dreams for an 18-hole course serving Storm Lake. The nine leaders included: Pendleton, Dlugosch, Bauer, McCormick, Omer Roth, Stan Haahr, James Haahr, E.M. Bodaken, and Norm Berg.

“Storm Lake had a municipal golf course (a nine-hole course now called Sunrise Pointe), and it was heavily used,” says Steve Berg, one of several members who has enjoyed Lake Creek membership each of the past 50 years. Steve and wife, Pam Berg, join Dick and June Mooney, Dr. Stanley and Stephanie Quick, Doug and Sharon Heppner, Claire and Carol Thompson, and Dick and Pat Johnson as residents who have enjoyed continuous membership throughout the life of Lake Creek.

Berg, incidentally, was a high school junior who had helped lay sod as the course took shape, fashioned the first even-par round at Lake Creek, touring the opening nine holes in 36 strokes on June 19, 1972. “It was a special day,” he remembered. “I had a tournament in Cherokee and came back home later in the day and Lake Creek had just opened. I was in awe of that place.”

Backers contended a half-century ago that having a championship course was important for a community to be seen as a regional leader in Northwest Iowa. Not only would an 18-hole golf course provide local and area residents a place to enjoy socializing while participating in a sport growing in popularity, Lake Creek would also serve as a recruiting tool for employers seeking to land top talent to build their businesses, organizations, and this community.

After examining a number of possible locations around The City Beautiful, organizers landed on a 151-acre tract two miles west of the city limits on the north side of Highway 7, referred to as the Poller gravel pit farm. Two years of work would ensue to get the course in working order for that first foursome 50 years ago this weekend.

Homer Fieldhouse designed the course while Robert Petrucka served as construction manager. Petrucka worked until the fall of 1971 when Dave Schurman replaced him. Schurman would remain as course superintendent for 18 years. Steve Elliott then worked as superintendent for six years. Since 1996, Bob Leinbaugh has nurtured the course whose signature greens are said to be among the best in the state.

For years, the state’s top amateur players have visited BVU Lake Creek for The Lake Creek Amateur. Lon Nielsen, of Belle Plaine, won the event in 1975, just the third Amateur classic. Nielsen went on to earn his PGA card and enjoyed victories on the Senior PGA Tour. Aaron Clausen, of Storm Lake, shot a three-under-par score three weeks ago to become the first local golfer to win the title.

Beyond The Amateur, Lake Creek has hosted the Double-I Bash each September in advance of the Iowa vs. Iowa State football game. Past Double-I Bash events have attracted more than 300 golfers from across Iowa.

Storm Lake United held its annual tournament at BVU Lake Creek on June 3. Buena Vista Regional Medical Center followed with its annual golf outing on June 8. Tyson hosted a get-together on Saturday. Among those events were weekly men’s leagues, women’s league, couples’ league, and a growing junior golf program. The course also plays host to prep teams from Storm Lake and St. Mary’s high schools and the men’s and women’s golf teams from Buena Vista University.

BVU joined Lake Creek as a partner in 2019, a relationship that benefits both organizations as full-time employees Joe Powell and Cory Grover oversee operations at the golf course while also directing the golf teams at BVU. Powell and Grover have also hosted several interns from BVU’s business, marketing, and accounting programs, working with students to prepare them for their career intentions.

“We’re grateful to have a partner in Lake Creek, a relationship that has benefitted our students and will continue to do so,” says BVU President Brian Lenzmeier. “The course and its members and staff continue to welcome people to Storm Lake. BVU Lake Creek and its people are real assets for us when we visit with prospective employees about the quality of life they can expect to enjoy when they join the team at BVU.”

In November, the Iowa Golf Association recognized the programming and momentum at BVU Lake Creek and bestowed on it the honor of Iowa’s 18-hole Golf Course of the Year award for 2021, an honor well-timed in advance of a busy 50th anniversary season, one highlighted with events this weekend planned by a volunteer committee headed by Katelyn Adams and Jacquie Drey, who happens to be a granddaughter of “Bud” and Pat Bauer, founding members. The children of both Adams and Drey represent the fourth generation of their families to be involved at the course.

“I remember my grandparents and how they and their friends would host friends and guests at events at Lake Creek,” Drey remembers. “They were so proud to have a place where people could compete, socialize, and enjoy one of the best sites Storm Lake could offer. The course has been a part of our lives since its inception.”

The tax rolls may further illustrate the idea’s impact. A tract that featured just one residence 50 years ago now boasts of 53 single-family dwellings, four apartment complex sites, and nearly two dozen condominiums. Houses that line the fairways have recently sold for more than $400,000 and $350,000. Total assessed valuation at the site comes to $19.7 million.

“The impact Lake Creek has had across the community is significant,” Wilson says. “The people living at BVU Lake Creek populate our schools, buy goods and services at our local businesses. Residents here have helped build successful businesses and organizations throughout Storm Lake. It is tough to imagine our community without the contributions of this site, a dream that became a reality because of the commitment shown by local visionaries who could picture a thriving community here and kept working at it, refusing to take ‘no’ for an answer.”

Tags: