Special tree at Shady Oaks

Greg Ohlendorf smacked a tee shot into the right rough on the first hole at Shady Oaks Country Club late
Tuesday afternoon.

Just a few feet to his left was a young tree, planted in honor of his parents, Louis and Norma. Louis was the veterinarian in Amboy, and he fixed up many a Weidman household cat over the years. Dr. Ohlendorf died last October.

Norma kept the Ohlendorf house, filled with six children, humming along. She died earlier Tuesday.

“This is the first time I’ve played this hole with both of my parents gone,” Greg said, while checking out the tree.

From a little more than 100 yards, Greg then knocked a wedge to within a foot of the cup for a tap-in birdie.

That’s the way this week’s Links With Locals began, as I teed it up with Ohlendorf and three other Shady Oaks regulars – Dave Kemp, Ed Dunn, and Jon Estrem.

I rode in the cart with Ohlendorf, and we enjoyed a trip down memory lane. We talked about how, as little kids, we’d catch a ride from somebody in Amboy and play Shady Oaks all day, walking 54, or maybe 63 holes, and then go home and play Wiffle ball until it got dark.

Greg noted he’d have $5 to spend for the whole day, and used $1.25 of it to buy a new Club Special golf ball and a fountain drink – a deal, since that combo should have cost $2. He sweet-talked whoever was working in the clubhouse to get the bargain.

I mentioned the only golf lesson I ever had, from former club member Orval Spurlin, was around the practice green at Shady Oaks.

“He charged 10 cents,” Greg noted.

Louis Ohlendorf, I learned, was one of the club members who helped Shady Oaks get started. In the early 1960s, he was on a piece of ground that now sits just to the right of the 11th fairway. There is a gully there, with a small stream.

He remarked to the land owner this land could make a fine golf course, and asked if he would be interested in selling it. The man was, and Shady Oaks was soon born, first as a six-hole course, and later, a nine-holer.

These days, I don’t get down to Shady Oaks as often as I’d like, but each time I do, it seems to grow up more and more. Where there were once saplings, there are now mighty oaks that gobble up shots that stray a bit offline.

There are beautiful fields of wildflowers and fescue grass on several holes – great to look at, but don’t hit a ball in there. If you do, just drop one out, because you’re not hitting it out of there.

For the 18 holes the five of us played, there were just a few forays into the long grass, a few more into the creek, and more than a few clanking off tree trunks and branches. It was all in the name of fun, however, and the
needling in the group didn't stop.

Greg and Ed have a standing bet when they play, and I took on Dave in a $2 Nassau. We were also a team for the Tuesday men’s league, so we had to hole everything outside of gimme range.

It was all great fun, and I learned a few tidbits about each of my playing partners.

Greg has been in the road construction
business for 35 years, and he currently works for Plote Construction in Elgin. It's a 90-mile commute, and it
cuts into his golfing schedule.

Dave has worked for Raynor Garage Doors for 34 years. We had some great battles on the course when both of us were Shady Oaks members, and they continued when he joined Dixon Country Club from 1997-2005, and I went off to Sunset in Mount Morris beginning in 1999.

That will continue this weekend, as we're paired together for the first round of the Rock River Classic on Saturday at Shady Oaks. Hopefully each of us will play better than we did at the Lincoln Highway in DeKalb, where neither of us had anything resembling our
A games.

Jon was a former neighbor of Dave’s in Eldena, and they had quite a welcome-to-the-neighborhood moment. Jon was hitting wedges in his yard when he shanked one, and it smacked a shed on Dave’s property.

Dave then popped his head out of the shed, and a friendship was soon forged.

“I was just glad to have a neighbor who played golf,” Dave said.

One other thing about Jon: he chips one-handed around the green. I had seen people do that in drills, but not actually put it into play on the course. He was pretty good at it, but I believe I’ll stick to the two-handed method.

Ed, a Shady Oaks member since 1970, was one of the adult golfers I used to tag along with growing up, and hanging out with him and his wife, Gail, was also great fun in the clubhouse. Ed was an insurance man, working for Country Companies for 37 years before retiring in 2012.

He now splits his time between Amboy, where he’s a neighbor of my brother, Dennis, and Buckeye, Arizona, where he goes for the winter. Either place, there’s a lot of golf involved.

As for the scores on Tuesday, Dave was the medalist with a 76, which edged me by two. Ed and Greg each had 83s, while Jon came in with 86.