KemperSports Makes Mark in U.S. Golf

By: Blaine Newnham

It might have been so different had Mike Keiser, in building a Scottish golf course at Bandon Dunes, decided to hire a Scottish management company to run the course as well as David Kidd, a Scottish architect, to design it.

In what the industry calls a "bake-off" - two firms showing their wares and their vision - in this case Gleneagles North America and KemperSports, battled in the late-1990s to manage the new Oregon resort.

As history has it, Keiser picked KemperSports and, a few years later, so did Chambers Bay's owners, Pierce County, and more recently StreamSong, the spectacular Florida venue with courses designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, and Tom Doak.

It also happened that Kidd would leave Gleneagles, where his father was the greens superintendent, and set up shop in the U.S.

KemperSports now manages more than 100 U.S. courses, finding success even in a time of travail. It may be the first third-party management group to assist the USGA in hosting a U.S. Open - next year's championship at Chambers Bay on the outskirts of Tacoma. Behind the scenes KemperSports is working with both Pierce County and the USGA's championship departments to ensure the tournament is a major success.

KemperSports has actually had to turn away prospective clients. In this stagnant-at-best golf economy, KemperSports has kept busy by selectively managing courses that fit its overall philosophy.

"It is not the sport of golf's fault that we built too many courses," said Josh Lesnik, the president of KemperSports and son of its founder, Steve Lesnik. "It's not the sport's fault that courses were made too difficult, or built for non-golf reasons, like selling real estate.

"We have more passionate young players than we had five years ago, green fees and lessons are more affordable than ever, equipment has never been better and the few new courses we are building are phenomenal.

"There has never been a better time for the golfer."

And so KemperSports expands pragmatically, adding all types of courses to its portfolio - public, private and nine-hole venues - and offering better ways to serve customers and market the facilities.

The business began in 1979 as Kemper Insurance Co., moved to a sprawling campus outside of Chicago, so big that it wondered what to do with the remaining land.

James S. Kemper, Jr., president and chairman of the board, played golf and decided a golf course might be the best use. He needed someone to manage the course and went to the company's public relations man, Steve Lesnik, who didn't play golf but agreed to lease the property and manage it.

According to the Chicago District Golf Association magazine, Kemper Lakes Golf Club is a big, sprawling 1970s-style layout designed by Ken Killian and Dick Nugent that stretches 7,217 yards. In its early years it was ranked by Golf Digest as one of the 100 Greatest Golf Courses in America. In 1989, it hosted the PGA Championship won by Payne Stewart. It also hosted the PGA of America's Grand Slam of Golf several years in the mid-1980s.

Beset by financial difficulties, Kemper Insurance began selling off its assets, and in 2003 the course was sold from underneath Lesnik, who thought the asking price of $13 million was just too high to give the operation a chance to succeed. A year later, Lesnik helped in the building of Vernon Hills, a course KemperSports still manages.

In 2003, Kemper Lakes was sold and began a four-year changeover from public to private status.

"We are not a one-size-fits-all management company," said Josh Lesnik. "Every course is different and has different challenges. We concentrate on customer service and innovative marketing."

KemperSports has played an integral role in some of America's most touted golf courses. In 2011, it was instrumental in the development and opening of Bandon Dunes' latest course, Old Macdonald, along with Cape Fear National near Wilmington, N.C., the Seneca Tribe's Robert Trent Jones Jr. course in Niagara Falls, N.Y., and Harbor Shores in Benton Harbor, Mich.

The company has made a name for itself with high-quality projects, allowing it to add 40 new clients between 2004 to 2007, eclipse $1 billion worth of assets under its management, and grow its client base another 50 percent over the last four years.

Steve Lesnik became friends and partners with Mike Keiser in Chicago-area golf courses and, when it came time to do Bandon Dunes Keiser wanted Josh Lesnik - then 28 years old - to be the first general manager.

"He said Bandon Dunes could be a real success or a real folly," recalled Josh Lesnik. "Let's go find out."

Since then Keiser's selection of KemperSports has been made dozens of times over by other course owners, allowing the Chicago-based company to become a national force in the golf industry.

Blaine Newnham has covered golf for 50 years. He still cherishes the memory of following Ben Hogan for 18 holes during the first round of the 1966 U.S. Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco. He worked then for the Oakland Tribune, where he covered the Oakland Raiders during the first three seasons of head coach John Madden. Blaine moved on to Eugene, Ore., in 1971 as sports editor and columnist, covering the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. He covered five Olympics all together - Mexico City, Munich, Los Angeles, Seoul, and Athens - before retiring in early 2005 from the Seattle Times. He covered his first Masters in 1987 when Larry Mize chipped in to beat Greg Norman, and his last in 2005 when Tiger Woods chip dramatically teetered on the lip at No. 16 and rolled in. He saw Woods' four straight major wins in 2000 and 2001, and Payne Stewart's par putt to win the U.S. Open at Pinehurst. In 2005, Blaine received the Northwest Golf Media Association's Distinguished Service Award. He is the author of the forthcoming book, "America's St. Andrews," which tells the colorful back-story of how Chambers Bay was selected as the site of the 2015 U.S. Open. Due for release on October 1, 2014, the book may be pre-ordered at www.AmericasStAndrews.com. He and his wife, Joanna, live in Indianola, Wash., where the Dungeness crabs outnumber the people.

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