Sugar Creek Golf Course Named Top 100 Facilities
Sugar Creek Golf Course was named a Top 100 Play Golf America facility in 2010. The PGA of America recognizes outstanding Play Golf America facilities around the country for their successful programs and for becoming leaders in growing the game of golf.
Sugar Creek Golf Course, a joint facility of the Elmhurst Park District and the village of Villa Park, was chosen as one of only three golf programs in Illinois to receive this recognition.
Sugar Creek offers golf instruction programs for all ages and skill levels, most notably the summer youth program, which reaches up to 400 participants. Their main focus is to develop programs introducing the game and developing players through a simplified learning process while making the game fun.
In 2023, Sugar Creek Golf Course's project to restore Sugar Creek won the Public Works Project of the Year for Environment Projects less than $5 million from the American Public Works Association Chicago Metro Chapter (Suburban Branch). In 2024, Elmhurst Park District and the Village of Villa Park were also pleased to receive the Jane Foulser Habitat Award from the DuPage Monarch Project in recognition of the restoration project.
Kevin Goss, Golf Course Superintendent at Sugar Creek Golf Course, was also awarded the Green Champion award from Villa Park's Environmental Concerns Commission for outstanding work on the Sugar Creek Restoration Project.
The project improved the eroding creek shoreline and dredged the pond, which had many decades of silt accumulation. Rusted steel retaining walls were replaced with more natural shoreline stone and vegetation/native grasses. The restored steam channel now has a deep pond area for golf course irrigation and wildlife habitat. Additional native plants, shrubs and trees were planted around the shoreline.