A labor of love.
Rod Loveless has a long history on Decatur Island. With help from Vic Hulteen and others he developed the Decatur Head community, starting in 1970, designing and building all the cabins. The project was not without drama. The family recalls that on Columbus Day 1970 the first trucks with building materials were ferried to the island. In a huge storm, one of these was nearly lost when a chain holding it down to the barge broke. The other held and the project moved ahead.
Fast forward to 2001, when Rod, with many other projects on the mainland and the island behind him, had completed his own cabin high on the eastern bluff. He was ready for a new challenge. A lover of golf, he decided that his family’s property, though mainly forested, would make a fine course. He acquired an additional piece of land and started work with saw, axe and backhoe, drawing friends and neighbors into the project when he could.
In a few years he had carved out a few fairways and laid out the greens. He even trenched in water to those greens—at this stage, these were really just more closely mowed areas of fairway. Those fairways, in turn, were roughly level, and beginning to be somewhat mowable, but with enormous numbers of rocks. In the early days, players were instructed to move at least ten rocks from every hole. That instruction remains on the scorecard to this day even though the fairways, after years of mowing and rock removal, are now resembling—well, golf fairways.
By 2004 the course was ready to host the first Rod Loveless Wide Open Golf Tournament. And since this is Decatur Island, the tourney certainly had to be followed by a party: an all-islanders-invited potluck. The combined event has become a much anticipated and loved annual island tradition, master-minded by another long-term resident, Randy Stricker.
Eventually the course had nine holes. And although it totals not much more than 1,000 yards, it presents an interesting challenge to even the finest golfers, with many tall trees lining the fairways, their branches inconveniently leaning into the path of a well-struck iron. The locals delight in the way the course is appreciated by those we call “real golfers”; and by the way it reminds them that though somewhat shorter than the mainland courses they may play, The Decatur Nine has many challenges and traps for the unwary.
Rod’s ambition was for an 18-hole course. He purchased land across the road to the west, and started work on the 10th and 18th fairways. These are works in progress but ill-health has kept Rod from the island for the last few years. In his absence the volunteer crew has continued to work on the fairways, greens and surrounds, with plans to continue to upgrade and enhance this wonderful community asset.
We are extraordinarily fortunate that the Loveless family has said that the community can continue to use the course as long as it is “properly and safely maintained and managed”. We are working hard to meet that generous and appropriate condition.