Whenever Craig Haltom gets involved with a golf course, great things happen. The Beloit Club in the beautiful Rock River town of Beloit, Wisconsin is a perfect example.

While Haltom’s building work at Sand Valley, and later his overhaul of The Club at Lac La Belle earned him notoriety, one of his first redesign projects tends to fly under the radar. One year prior to the opening of Sand Valley’s first course, the President of Oliphant Golf Management and Craig Haltom Golf Design did an impressive overhaul of The Beloit Club.

ABC Supply Co., Inc. Owner and Co-Founder Diane Hendricks bought the course in 2014 and invested heavily in Haltom’s architectural work. Hendricks, who helped fund the stunning revitalization of Beloit’s downtown area, gave the former Country Club of Beloit a modern vision.

Soon after the redesign, Beloit Club unveiled its reborn direction. Under its new moniker, the course became more welcoming to its community and beyond. The course also unveiled a gorgeous new clubhouse, which stands as one of the best 19th holes in the state, and added a year-round practice and teaching facility.

Hendricks’ efforts paid off handsomely in the form of a four-fold increase in membership and overall enjoyment. The renovation of The Beloit Club was so impressive that Golf Inc. magazine gave the course its first place honor as the most improved private club in America for 2016.

Overview

When Haltom was hired for the upgrade of Beloit Club, he went to work modernizing and improving the venerable course located on the north side of the city. Haltom removed at least 500 trees from the formerly cluttered 1909 Tom Bendelow layout. He also added 200 yards to increase the challenge and improved tee boxes and bunkers throughout.

Haltom retained the original Bendelow routing, but The Beloit Club now stretches to a championship 6,847 yards, playing as a par 72. Overall, the course now has much more variety in its holes and its greens.

While the overhaul dramatically improved the look and feel of Beloit Club, 10 years later the playing conditions only keep getting better. Director of Agronomy Brandon Nolan and his team have done an amazing job keeping the course in tip-top shape for its members and guests.

The Beloit Club

Location: Beloit, Wisconsin

Par 72; Tees: Black – 6847/73.1/132; Blue – 6416/71.2/128; White – 6106/69.8/124; Green – 5797/73.4/128; Red – 5160/69.9/122

Highlights and Favorite Holes

There are a bunch of great holes on the Beloit Club, but my favorites are the course’s collective group of par threes.

It was hard to pick the best of the short holes, but I loved the 155-yard 10th. It is the shortest of the par threes playing from tees by the clubhouse over a deep valley to a plateau green located on the other side. One deep bunker guards the short and right side of the putting surface. However, missing short or left is even more dead, with a collection area punishing any shots that end up there.

Next door to the 10th and playing in the other direction is the tough 16th. The tee for this 191-yard hole is located next to the eighth, and it plays gently uphill to a big green with lots of slope. This is a creative par three that allows tee shots to kick into the green from the front-right side.

The 164-yard seventh at The Beloit Club is a beautiful little hole, as well, playing slightly uphill over a shallow ravine. Your mid- to short-iron needs to find the steeply sloped green that is propped up and elevated. Five deep bunkers punish any misses short, right or left of the putting surface.

The weakest of The Beloit Club’s par three bunch is the beautiful third, a 182-yard hole located in the Northeast corner of the property. This hole plays over the course’s lone pond to a green guarded by the water on the left and a bunker to the right.

In addition to a great set of par threes, Beloit Club has two excellent par fives on the back side. The 560-yard 12th hole is a long challenge, played over a rough-filled chasm, to a wide fairway.

The hole then pinches in tightly for the second shot, and this makes the layup no picnic. If you lay back too far, trees from the left can block your long approach shot which is played into a green guarded by three bunkers.

Moving in the opposite direction, the 15th is a totally different hole that is almost 100 yards shorter. This 472-yard par five plays as a gentle dogleg right. A good drive sets up a chance to get home in two, but a little gully guards the front of the green. The target itself is small and protected on the left and right by deep traps.

The 477-yard par five second hole at Beloit Club is five yards longer than 15th, but plays much wider. This hole offers a great chance to kickstart your round, but there is just enough trouble along the way to cause some slip-ups, especially once you reach its undulating green.

The 574-yard eighth hole at The Beloit Club is 97 yards longer than the second and offers the opportunity for a heroic drive. A long hitter must play across the corner of the dogleg if they want to hit their driver.

A powerful poke cuts some of the distance off the hole, but trouble lurks if this shot is offline. The approach plays through a narrow chute to a green guarded on the right.

The back nine is filled with strong holes, but two back-to-back par fours, the 13th & 14th, finish off a tough four-hole stretch that you’ll need to survive. The 444-yard 13th heads due south, finishing at a spacious green guarded by large bunkers and a beautiful ravine behind.

Meanwhile, the north-heading 441-yard 14th has a green that is guarded by a deep trap and that same pond from in front of the third. Much like its predecessor, the 13th, this hole plays long, tough and straight away.

The first and sixth holes are good scoring opportunities on the front nine. The 402-yard opening hole is a good starter, playing along the western edge of the property near the Rock River. This gentle dogleg right finishes in a beautiful setting, ringed by trees left and long. The angled putting surface is guarded on each side by punishing bunkers. Trying to approach this narrow green from the rough is no cake walk.

The 365-yard sixth hole plays shorter, and with a good drive it requires just a short-iron approach shot. There are bunkers on the short-right and left sides of the green. An encroaching tree in the front-left corner can block out an approach shot coming in from that side.

While I made a mess of it when I played the hole, the 330-yard 17th plays as the easiest at The Beloit Club. Downwind, the par four is potentially drivable, but a deep bunker about 80 yards out suggests a layup as the preferred option. The large green packs plenty of punch thanks to its severe slopes.

The Lowlights

Overall, The Beloit Club is a strong course that packs a lot into its 6,847-yard layout. The big criticism of it is that it plays back and forth with many parallel holes – a typical feature of a Tom Bendelow-designed layout. The game has changed a lot in the 116 years since the course first opened.

The only holes at Beloit Club that don’t play in a north/south direction are 2, 3, 10, 11 and 16. Some of the playing corridors are a little tight between the holes and in a few cases it’s easy to end up in another fairway with an offline drive. You can definitely feel a little pinched if you aren’t hitting the ball well off the tee.

Personally, I like the compact nature of The Beloit Club, which makes the course easy to walk. I also tend to drive the ball pretty straight, so I loved the challenge of trying to split its fairways off the tee. Typical of a classic country club, deep rough and trees punish offline drives.

The notable exception for the tight fairways at Beloit Club are the sister ninth and 18th holes. The finishers play right next to each other in a southerly direction and have the only shared fairway corridor on the course.

While these are two of the property’s easiest holes, both end with a magnificent crescendo. The ninth and 18th greens sit out in front of The Beloit Club’s majestic clubhouse with only the spacious putting green in between.

The 405-yard ninth is the tougher of the two closing holes, playing to the left side of a massive shared fairway trap. An ideal drive skirts this bunker and will leave a short- or mid-iron into a placid green.

The 397-yard 18th is the easier of the pair, playing to the right of the shared bunker. With a good drive, just a short iron is needed to get home.

The approach to the 18th is played over a little valley to a classic Craig Haltom extended green. Check your yardage closely as there is a huge difference between a front and back flag.

During my round at The Beloit Club, I played awful on the front nine but started to find my game after a good tee shot on the seventh. I finally made a birdie on 15 and enjoyed an excellent closing stretch, culminating in one of my best shots of the year on 18.

My 8-iron approach to 18 bounced just short of the hole, lipped around the edge and finished about a foot away. My kick-in closing birdie is one I’ll never forget.

Final Thoughts

The Beloit Club features a kind of private club experience I really enjoy. The course itself is first class and kept in terrific shape by Nolan and his team.

Beloit Club would be a wonderful place to tee it up every day during the summer months, and the club certainly caters well to its members. However, I found it very welcoming to golfers who prefer walking and to guests like me who have no affiliation with the club.

The course is located in the heart of Beloit, a beautiful border community of 38,000 people that is enjoying a resurgence, especially in its downtown. It is there where you can find the beautiful new ABC Supply Stadium (opened in 2021), funded by Hendricks and home to the Single A Beloit Sky Carp baseball team.

Beloit is also home to Krueger-Haskell Golf Course, one of my favorite municipal layouts in Wisconsin.

Nearby Janesville has two great public courses to play, Glen Erin and Riverside, while Janesville Country Club offers a classic layout built on rolling land. Just a short drive south is Rockford, Illinois, where there are a bunch of underrated golf options, as well.

The Beloit and Janesville area is one of my favorite places in Wisconsin to play golf, and The Beloit Club is right there in the middle of it. This is a wonderful course and terrific experience that I would highly recommend if you ever get the chance to play it.

The Beloit Club Website

Note: Reporting from Gary D’Amoto and Wisconsin.Golf was used as background for this story.