The Country Club was in a good place as the 21st Century began.

 

That’s figuratively.

 

And literally.

 

As the City of Davenport’s population declined from 2000 through 2010, Scott County’s grew, as losses in the central city were offset by significant growth in the eastern portion of the county, the 2010 census results showed.

 

“A substantial share of the growth has flowed into a rectangular area between 53rd Street and Interstate 80 from about Eastern Avenue in Davenport all the way into LeClaire,” Ed Tibbetts wrote in the Quad-City Times. “Those areas added about 6,800 people between 2000 and 2010, by far the largest share of the 10,759 in population added.”

 

In 1924, Pleasant Valley Township and the City of LeClaire together were home to precisely one person shy of 2,000. A century later, they boasted a combined population of more than 45,000, almost a quarter of the total number of people living in Scott County.

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The Country Club was a club in the country no longer.

 

As Davenport Country Club prepares to celebrate its 100th birthday, one very large cake is going to be required.

 

Today, DCC is home to 318 equity members and seven national members, with 150 social and 55 clubhouse memberships on the books. Revenues approached $6.9 million in 2023.

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“That’s as high as we’ve ever been as far as total membership numbers,” said John Panek, who elevated to General Manager and Chief Operating Officer at the club in 2021. “I remember when it was a big deal when we got to 400 total members years ago and now we’ve broken 500 and gone beyond. That’s been a huge change in what we’ve been able to do, especially in the last couple of years. When you get to that many total members, boy, it gives you a lot of resources to do some pretty spectacular things.”

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From the spacious and accommodating clubhouse, to the strategic reclamation of Captain Alison’s classic course, to the visionary leadership of involved and invested members and an incredibly capable staff, the Country Club’s rising numbers can be credited to countless critical factors.

 

Even an unforeseeable worldwide pandemic played a part as DCC, like clubs across the country, saw a boost in numbers when the COVID-19 virus put a sudden stop to youth sports and indoor distractions, and transformed the golf course into a socially distant safe haven.

 

Yet, DCC’s growth has continued to accelerate since the global health crisis abated, and proximity to home in the still-growing eastern portion of Scott County is a very central reason why.

 

“A lot of the growth in the Quad Cities is right in our neck of the woods,” Panek said. “The Pleasant Valley School District has made a big impact on how many people are actually living around the club now. Most people join a club that’s within five miles of their home. And that’s what we’ve seen. We’ve seen more new home construction out here and there’s going to be even more. So I would anticipate continued growth in our area, which creates a potential for more members.”

 

The Family Factor

It is a bit ironic that the club whose early allure was its location far from city life’s daily demands now benefits from the growth of surrounding neighborhoods. Yet, it also stands to reason that the distant, but pleasant valley whose beauty caused poets to sing has become a popular place for today’s new home builders.

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Those newcomers to the eastern sector of Scott County also fit the profile of prospective DCC members — young families and rising business people, all with disposable income and most with a passion for golf and social activities.

 

Over the past quarter century, DCC has supplanted other local clubs as the club of choice for incoming Deere & Company senior executives, and that is largely because those newcomers have chosen to make their homes in Pleasant Valley Township.

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DCC’s lack of pretense and family-friendly environment is another reason a majority of those and other modern-day QC business leaders followed the lead of Sam Allen in calling the Country Club home.

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Prior to his ascension to president and CEO, Allen was one of the first two Deere senior execs who made their home in eastern Scott County. As an accomplished golfer, Allen was attracted to Captain Alison’s course. Later, he particularly enjoyed the club as a place where he could just be Sam as opposed to the high-powered leader of a Fortune 100 company.

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Bern Hofmann will forever remember the time he and a visiting cousin joined Allen on the first tee, and only after 18 holes and a few beers was work mentioned.

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“My cousin said, ‘Sam what do you?’ ‘Oh I’m the CEO at John Deere.’ My cousin’s was like, ‘Oh heck!’” Hofmann recalled. “Sam was just that kind of guy.”

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And DCC was — and is — just that kind of club.

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It’s the “Don’t let their noses turn up” difference Dave Smith encouraged Kevin Kwak to maintain on arrival, and the effortless absence of pretentiousness Divot Ekizian instantly recognized after being raised at high-end Chicagoland clubs.

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“My dad would always say, ‘I can’t believe you moved to Iowa’ and then, sure enough, as he met more people here at the club and experienced how nice and easy everyone was, his opinion changed,” she said.

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The old-boned playground made a convincing case as well.

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“I don’t know what makes this club unique,” Ekizian said. “I don’t know if it’s because you probably have to really appreciate golf to be out here. This course just kind of has a way of making you feel very grateful. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been playing with people and we’ll stand on 15 tee and see the clubhouse. Or look down 16 and say, ‘Can you believe we get to play this whenever we want?’ There’s just this gratitude that most members are impacted by. You really feel the beauty of the place.”

 

Friends and Family

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They say luck is the residue of design, and DCC’s 21st Century growth is proof of that.

 

The enhanced facilities and family-oriented programming that accompanied the new clubhouse in 2000 made the Country Club uniquely appealing to young families who subsequently built their homes in the affluent new neighborhoods of Pleasant Valley Township and LeClaire.

 

The swimming pool always has been a centerpiece of club membership, as evidenced by Nancy Von Maur’s childhood experiences and that fateful first poolside meeting of Dick and Mary Ann Schmidt. It remains a place where friendships are built today.

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The strength of the junior golf program has waxed and waned over the past century but it is certainly waxing now, under the direction of head professional Brian Delaney and a junior-friendly staff.

 

Current club President Adam Kunkel and particularly his Chicago area-bred bride, Kathryn, chose the Country Club as a place their children best could gain an early introduction to the game when they joined in 2014.

 

“We thought if we got a membership out here they would have an opportunity to play and learn the game and I would too,” Kathryn said. “Also, it was just hard to get into the public pool. So it was just nice to have a place with a pool small enough that I could keep my eye on them but not have to have them right next to me.”

 

Learning the game alongside her children reinforced for Kathryn the value of DCC’s junior program.

 

“We told our kids, ‘We don’t care about college scholarships, but you’ll thank us when you are our age and you’re not like me, trying to learn golf for the first time,’” she said.

 

It worked. Daughter Abby now is in high school, and when it came time to choose between playing soccer or golf at Pleasant Valley High School in the fall of 2023, Abby’s lessons — first from former assistants Ryan McClintock and Anna Cullinan, and more recently under the direction of Melanie Tomczuk — made the links the easy choice.

 

“She sees Mel and thinks Mel is cool and saw golf is cool,” Kathryn said.

 

Still a Welcoming Place for Women

 

Tomczuk’s influence is a beautiful reflection on that remarkable piece of DCC history where female golfers like Elsie Von Maur, Nel Staats, Jane Werner, and Nancy Bloch Weigle are as deeply ingrained in the character of the club as any male counterpart.

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Tomczuk works alongside head professional Delaney and accomplished teaching pro David Lawrence in DCC’s growing junior program. She also helms the “It’s OK League,” a program Panek introduced 13 years ago to encourage more women members to take up the game.

 

“We’ve created this effort to really get women and children involved because, at any club, the decision maker is not always the man of the house anymore,” Panek said. “It’s a family decision and you want to make sure you encapsulate every bit of the family you possibly can. So we’ve done a good job of that, especially in the last 20 years.

 

“That ‘It’s OK League’ has been huge. The first year I thought maybe we’ll get 20 ladies to sign up. We had like 60. I was like “Oh my God, what have I done? What have I created?’ We’ve had ebbs and flows to that but now Melanie and David Lawrence run that program and the ladies have a ball. And what it is about is making those ladies feel comfortable. Because they may not have ever picked up a club or played any golf. They don’t understand how to make a tee time. Where to drive a cart. They learn all that. It’s phenomenal.”

 

Golf is more than OK for Meagan McClimon. Like Ekizian, she played collegiately at St. Ambrose, and enjoys club competition well beyond the “It’s OK League.”

 

She is part of DCC’s still competitive Waterman Cup team, and especially enjoys DCC’s annual Solheim Cup competition, a two-day event that replicates the LPGA Tour’s U.S.-vs.-Europe team competition.

 

“That’s fun because you don’t get to pick your partner and you get to meet other women golfers,” she said. “Our women’s program here is really strong, and it’s growing pretty fast.”

 

Marie Hassel thinks the Country Club is more than OK, too.

 

“My wife plays more than I do, which is great,” said Jeff Hassel, who was a member before he and Marie married. “She said ‘That’s your place. I’m never going to go out there and become part of that.’ And now she’s more part of it than I am. If I walked home today and said, ‘We’re going to leave Davenport Country Club,’ she’d look at me and say ‘Well, you can stop buying Hawkeye tickets and other stuff before we leave DCC.’ That’s a true story. She likes golf more than I do.”

 

The welcoming atmosphere women and children have long felt at DCC has a face in Tomczuk today.

 

“Having a female assistant pro has been great for the women adult golfers,” noted Tim McClimon, who joined the club with Meagan and their young family in 2018. “But all three of our children are girls and to have a female role model as a golf professional is awesome. The instruction is there but more importantly, she keeps it fun. She keeps them interested. I think that’s 80 to 90 percent of the battle. To keep them coming back.”

 

 

Juniors Thrive Here

 

As previously noted, golf memberships at clubs across the country grew during the COVID-19 pandemic thanks in very large part to the year-long shutdown of youth sports. That was ironic, because the rapid growth of travel sports was a key cause for a precipitous decline in U.S. golf club memberships in the decades prior.

 

Now, head pro and fellow dad Delaney said young parents have discovered golf provides a balance to the bustle of busy schedules, and an opportunity to spend time with their children in ways more meaningful than watching from a soccer sideline.

 

For DCC, meanwhile, those soccer sidelines actually have contributed to membership growth.

 

“If you’ve got a team where parents are spending time talking on the sideline, there are three or four members talking about being out here,” Adam Kunkel said. “It’s just that word of mouth that grows it.”

 

It helps that Panek, Delaney and their staff of enthusiastic young golf professionals have given parents plenty about which to talk. That includes setting up Red Zone tees in the fairways, and encouraging children of various ages and skill levels to play alongside their parents during hours when traffic on the course is slow.

 

“We want to get them playing together, make it more fun for the family,” said Delaney, a native Quad Citian who left TPC Deere Run to become DCC head professional when Panek elevated to Director of Golf. “We don’t shut the golf course down. We just put out different tee markers based on what skill level the children are.

 

“Sunday afternoon is a big time for families. That’s the biggest difference we’ve seen. Sunday afternoons used to be deader than a door nail. Now, it’s just family after family after family after family.”

 

Yet, as it has from the time Pete Pelcher honed the swings of future champions like Dick Smith, Pat Stopulos, Mike Rock, and Joe Kehoe, it is the Country Club’s commitment to junior golf that truly is growing the game.

 

Under the direction of Delaney, Tomczuk and Lawrence, DCC’s junior golf programs are thriving.

 

Since 2020, participation in various programs for kids ages 4 to 19 have literally doubled, with 120 young members taking part in 2023. Delaney anticipates additional growth in 2024, and he attributes the momentum to Tomczuk and Lawrence.

 

“Just having those two energetic young people, it snowballs and builds on itself,” he said. “We’re offering more junior golf programs, more levels, more diversity, just to make sure we’re targeting different levels of golfers, different ages. It’s not a one-size-fits-all type of program.”

 

DCC’s junior program has sent countless young members on to college careers, including Jack Dumas. The No. 2 player at Drake this past year, Dumas won the club championship and advanced to the sectional round of United States Open qualifying in the summer of ’23.

 

He was also one of 40 elite young golfers who participated in DCC’s Red Zone program, which prepares serious young players ages 9 and up for high school and college golf, as well as regional, statewide and national competitions.

 

“I don’t know how that number compares to other clubs, but that is a product of the last four years,” Delaney said. “Some of those kids just started playing golf with us in 2020 and have gotten the bug to progress.”

 

Far less serious is the Golf and Fishing Camp, which literally “baits” youngsters into taking up the game.

 

The multiple levels of junior instruction grow the game and keep the Country Club growing as well.

 

“We will continue to commit to junior golf and growing our family golf programs,” Delaney said. “Our added programs are getting families out, not just the juniors, not just the ladies, but the dads, too. We are incentivizing them to play as a family.

 

“We will continue to commit resources and add staff if we need to in order to accommodate more junior golf. That’s the lifeblood of your club. That’s how you maintain growth, and retain membership."