Tour Guide 2025: LIV Golf Chicago
After trips to the U.K., Spain, Mexico and South Korea, the LIV Golf Tour makes its fourth American stop in the Windy City. In 2025, Bolingbrook Golf Club will host LIV’s Chicago stop for the second consecutive year; Jon Rahm clinched the LIV Individual Championship on the 18th hole at Bolingbrook.
Bolingbrook, designed by architect Arthur Hills in collaboration with Steve Forrest, is a championship 18-hole golf course that Jeff Gerdes, superintendent, says blends strategic design with natural beauty. The course challenges golfers of all skill levels and features water hazards, diverse bunkers and elevation changes.
A golf lifer
KemperSports manages Bolingbrook alongside Gerdes — a University of Illinois graduate. Gerdes has been at Bolingbrook since the beginning, taking over as superintendent when Hills broke ground on the property in 2001.
Gerdes gained a love for the game while playing with his dad growing up and he says he simply enjoyed playing the game and being outside in nature. When he was getting into the agronomy side of golf, Mark Kowaliczko, superintendent at Joliet (Ill.) Country Club was his biggest influence and Gerdes says that he learned a lot from Kowaliczko when growing into the industry.
Host history
Gerdes and Bolingbrook are no strangers to making preparations for tournaments. In addition to the LIV Chicago events, Bolingbrook has also hosted a celebrity invitational and junior tours.
“I am just as excited as Mayor Mary Alexander-Basta and the village of Bolingbrook to welcome LIV back to the club. It was great to work with Matt Cielen, their lead agronomist, and the entire LIV team. It was a great experience,” Gerdes says.
Gerdes adds that the preparations for any tournament coming to Bolingbrook start the day they find out they will be hosting. For him, the essentials to hosting a tournament include lining up volunteers and extra equipment.
Gerdes adds that a tournament cannot be put on successfully without an extremely devoted team of volunteers. Gerdes credits KemperSports and local clubs for helping Bolingbrook recruit volunteers to help with the extra work around tournament time.
And it’s work that Gerdes definitely doesn’t want to go unnoticed. When the cameras start rolling, it can be easy for viewers to overlook the behind-the-scenes efforts that go into tournament preparations. Getting the best equipment and making the course look prestine takes time and Gerdes says he’s thankful for the help.
Bolingbrook also does its part in protecting the surrounding wildlife since it is recognized as a certified bird sanctuary through Audubon International and it manages bee hives on the property as a registered apiary with the state of Illinois.
Bolingbrook also maintains native fescue and natural prairie lands to offer safe havens for the local ecosystem. Gerdes says there is also a focus on fostering monarch butterflies with native milkweeds, which offers a spot for young caterpillars to grow.
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