Sandtrappers Golf League - A Brief History
The league was launched in the spring of 1988 as a Catholic brotherhood organization to enjoy the fellowship of golfers. It was a close-knit group of men tied to a Knights of Columbus chapter and to each other. That first year, they scheduled 11 golf dates, five of them at PPD courses; they played Kellogg and Newman twice and Donovan and Madison once. The six out-of-town courses included: Snag Creek, Aledo (which had shamrock-shaped greens), Spring Creek, Pine Lakes, and Baker Park (Kewanee). They played about once every three weeks and mixed in a couple of fellowship dinners (including a corn boil) along the way. Initially, they met at the course and assigned foursomes there.
The league grew slowly, and they began a routine practice of playing a PPD course one week and an area course on the odd weeks. They ventured as far as Kewanee to play Kewanee Dunes, Baker Park, and Oak Run. They got better organized and assigned foursomes and tee times in advance. In 2003, the burden of manually organizing the group by a small number of directors became too time consuming, and they temporarily disbanded.
Working from the mailing list, one of the Directors, Jerry Hyland, with assistance from his son and daughter-in-law developed a web-based, computerized system to assign foursomes, record results, and allocate prizes. This greatly reduced the time and effort required to organize what had become weekly events over the course of a 22-week season. The league resumed its slow growth and by 2009 had grown to a rather robust 59 golfers on average, hitting a high of 72 one week.
Reflecting the general downward trend of golfing participation nationwide, the league began declining slightly, reaching an average weekly participation of 45, with a high of 52 in 2014. In 2015, after PPD had closed the Donavan course, and with several new league directors, new features were added. The schedule was extended to 25 events, with the first post-round luncheon at an out-of-town course (Kewanee Dunes). For the first time, seven of the events were modified shotgun starts.
The new Leadership Team continued to add more shotgun starts and post-round fellowship lunches, with good results. With the loss of Donovan and the disruption at Newman over a two-year period, more regional courses were added to the schedule. A pattern of alternately playing Peoria, then area, then regional courses up to a 75-minute drive of downtown Peoria was developed. By 2017, the only courses that were not modified shotgun starts were the PPD courses.
The league also shifted to a shamble-style format going to the best ball off the tee, then playing your own ball to the bottom of the hole. This proved hugely popular. A few other rules were used to reduce stress and keep the game fun for everyone. Whether a golfer was middle aged or in their 90’s, or whether they had a 1 or a 31 handicap, they could still have fun. Word was getting out, and the league was bucking the national trend and starting to grow again.
The league was then able to schedule all shotgun starts for 2018 with fellowship lunches, including the PPD courses, which were scheduled four times for the season. Three country club courses were added to the schedule for the first time, making this the most exciting schedule in the league’s 30-year history, with 24 of the best courses within about 60 miles of Peoria over an expanded 27 week schedule.
In June 2018, The Peoria Journal Star ran a terrific article (along with numerous photos) describing the Sandtrappers Golf League. As a result, over 30 new players joined that season. In 2018, the league averaged 76 players each week over the 26 events. There were 152 distinct players playing in 2018 compared to 102 the previous year; a 50% increase over the previous year. Sandtrappers saw an increase of 63% over the average of 46 at this time five years ago.
In 2019, the league continued to grow in membership with 182 distinct golfers playing at least once. There continued to be 27 events on the season’s calendar with five of them being at country clubs. In 2019, the league averaged 83 golfers per outing.
The year 2020 brought massive changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of the contagious nature of this disease, the Governor closed all golf courses in Illinois. This really impacted the league as the spring kick-off luncheon and first two events were completely cancelled. The third event at Pine Lakes was allowed to happen, but only 16 golfers were allowed, and they had to walk in pairs. The 4th and 5th events were also cancelled.
Things finally started to open up a bit in late May of that season as we played Metamora Fields and The Rail. Those courses only allowed tee times, instead of the preferred shotgun start, to which the league had become accustomed. Many of the membership were concerned with being around crowds, and as a result of the four cancellations, the 2020 season resulted in only 23 events being played, with a mere 125 distinct golfers.
There was one significant event that occurred in 2020, which has led to further changes being made to the schedule. Each year on the season-ending survey, there were a number of golfers who wished to add the El Paso Golf Club to the schedule. El Paso, however, had another league always booked for the league's customary Thursday play dates. They did offer to host the Sandtrappers on a Monday, so it was decided to give that a try. Sandtrappers had occasionally played on Mondays, but that had always been the result of a Thursday rainout.
For the last event of 2020, the league also added a Special Limited-club Event to honor the passing of 93-year-old John Sleevar. His daughter donated some of the memorial money that had been contributed in his name. She said that her father had such a great time with the Sandtrappers for many years, and she wanted us to distribute that money in fun events in his name. This was a big hit with the membership, and the tradition has continued. It is now done each year in memory of all the Sandtrappers who have passed in the past year.
Since the Monday El Paso event the year before had been a hit, the Leadership Team decided to add three Monday events to the 2021 schedule. With six rainouts during that wet season, there were many other Mondays that were used as makeup dates. The season was scheduled with 28 events, but only 27 events were played as there was a late-season rainout that was not rescheduled. Our numbers did increase over the COVID year with 160 distinct golfers playing, which came out to an average of 78 golfers per week.
Starting with the 2022 season, four Monday events have been scheduled each year. These extra events have generally been played on country club courses and have brought the total number of events to 29. The membership of the club has continued to grow with over 200 distinct golfers playing at least once in both 2023 and 2024. In 2023, the league a weekly average of 85 golfers; and in 2024, that increased to a weekly average of 93 golfers.
Information provided by Roger Bilsland, Ken Dawson, and Al Kuhlmann