KENOSHA, Wis. — This golf season has been a centennial celebration at the only course within Kenosha city limits. Locals know Washington Park Municipal Golf Course simply as “Muni,” a nine-hole course enjoyed by generations since it opened in 1922.
Muni hosts league plays six days a week during the summer, and some participants have played the course their entire lives. Brad Kovachik, a Kenosha native, learned to play golf at Muni. His two best golf memories took place in the same spot: the tee box at the par-3 fifth hole.
“When I was 10 years old, I was here with my brother, and I got a hole-in-one on this hole,” Kovachik recalled. “Then, 45 years later, when I was 55, I got my second hole-in-one on this same hole.”
Now 69, Kovachik plays every Friday morning in a league he runs for the Danish Brotherhood. His recent playing group, which includes friends Jim Kirby and Bob LeFebve, estimated they have combined to play close to 1,000 rounds at Muni.
Kirby, 74, said he remembers paying a quarter to walk nine holes in the late 1950s. The retired Marine is still playing his hometown course more than 60 years later, still swinging after undergoing five back surgeries.
“It’s playable,” Kirby said. “You go out to a regulation course, [you have to] hit the ball 250-300 yards. But this course, anybody can play it.”
With nine holes and no par-5s, this is a throwback public course. But narrow fairways provide a challenge, and Muni might become even tougher in its second century.
“In one summer, they planted like 150 trees,” Kovachik said. “I pity the guys that are following me, because those are gonna be a challenge.”
From learning to play as boys to carting the course as seniors, Kovachik and his crew joked that they are still discovering new angles to the green after errant tee shots. The group’s camaraderie is just one example of how Muni has brought friends together in Kenosha for 100 years and counting.