{"id":767902,"date":"2026-07-17T08:19:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T08:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/767902\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T08:19:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T08:19:18","slug":"odana-hills-storied-history-will-carry-into-an-intriguing-future-madison-magazine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/767902\/","title":{"rendered":"Odana Hills’ storied history will carry into an intriguing future | MADISON MAGAZINE"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even before Odana Hills Golf Course<\/a> officially opened in 1957, a 9-year-old kid who lived across the street on Charles Lane was upset because the construction was tearing up the sandlot baseball field where he and his friends played.<\/p>\n

Soon enough, however, young Mike Plautz began playing golf at the course, which was on Madison\u2019s far westside. There weren\u2019t yet malls at Westgate or Hilldale.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwenty cents for nine holes,\u201d he recalled last week. \u201cIt was a perfect location for kids to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plautz eventually got good enough to win the citywide men\u2019s golf championship four times, and he was inducted into the Madison Sports Hall of Fame in 2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Plautz no longer plays, but he\u2019s heard some of the rumblings about the future of the course where it all started for him close to 70 years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m real curious about what they\u2019re going to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not alone.<\/p>\n

In March, the city of Madison announced on its Golf Madison Parks website<\/a> that a major renovation to the Odana Hills Golf Course, as well as the construction of a new clubhouse, was being planned with details to follow.<\/p>\n

One detail that has already been revealed speaks volumes. The city will once again be partnering with Michael Keiser, the golf entrepreneur whose father, Mike Keiser, stunned the golf world with the success of his Bandon Dunes Golf Resort<\/a> in remote coastal Oregon in the late 1990s.<\/p>\n

Michael and his brother, Chris, opened the Sand Valley golf resort<\/a> in Wisconsin to rave reviews in 2017.<\/p>\n

Then in 2021, Michael and his wife, Jocelyn \u2014 Madison residents \u2014 made an extraordinary offer to help fund a renovation of the former Glenway Golf Course<\/a> on Speedway Road.<\/p>\n

Keiser\u2019s design-build team reimagined Glenway\u2019s greens, added a remarkable putting course and improved natural areas. Thus, The Glen Golf Park<\/a> was born. The course was closed for more than a year for renovations, but the enhanced golf experience has since increased rounds and revenue by more than 40%. People can also enjoy a new offering of movie and music nights at The Glen.<\/p>\n

When I spoke last week with Madison Parks Superintendent Eric Knepp, he said The Glen\u2019s early success started some wheels turning regarding Odana Hills.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say it\u2019s been on the radar since about three weeks after The Glen opened,\u201d Knepp said. \u201cMichael and I had a conversation about how beautiful it looked and how much positive reaction we were getting. We started a conversation [saying] it would be great to do this again sometime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keiser and I shared a conversation last week, as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur hope was that The Glen would become successful and we\u2019d have a chance to do it again,\u201d he said. \u201cGet the band back together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOdana [Hills] made sense,\u201d Knepp said, of a second collaboration with the Keisers. \u201cIt has failing infrastructure. It\u2019s a well-loved course, but it\u2019s also a really well-worn course at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knepp points to things like a costly irrigation system and inconsistent turf grasses that make current maintenance difficult.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe course feels and plays better than its bones,\u201d Knepp said.<\/p>\n

Here I must digress momentarily and say that, like Mike Plautz, I know those old bones.<\/p>\n

My dad was on hand in 1961 with 2,000 other spectators when Arnold Palmer and Gary Player played an exhibition match at Odana Hills. Palmer shot a 65 and briefly held the course record.<\/p>\n

I grew up four blocks from the course and never won a championship \u2014 not even close \u2014 but I estimate I\u2019ve played at least 1,000 rounds there. My son, Quinn, shot a 67 at Odana Hills at age 14, the same year he placed third in the club championship. Our picture was once on the cover of the Odana Hills scorecard<\/a> with our friends Justin Brady and Jeff Scott Olson.<\/p>\n

I wrote a newspaper column for The Capital Times when the course turned 50 in 2007. I interviewed head pro Tom Benson and Erv Graf, Odana Hill\u2019s first greenskeeper, who told me \u201cthe trees have matured, but that\u2019s about it,\u201d when I asked how the course had changed across half a century.<\/p>\n

Benson shared funny memories, including the time the mother of a high-school golfer accidentally drove an SUV out onto the course. Post-golf beers at the picnic tables behind the clubhouse always produced stories and laughter. One friend would book bets on how many balls would spill out of a bucket beneath the automatic range ball machine.<\/p>\n

For me, and I expect many other Madisonians, it\u2019s this history that makes what Knepp and the Keisers are hoping to do so meaningful. Change isn\u2019t inherently good, but the right kind of change executed by the right people can make Odana Hills shine brighter than ever.<\/p>\n

Knepp said it was late last December or early January when he and Michael Keiser met, and Keiser said the timing would work for his team to tackle Odana from roughly fall 2026 to spring 2028. The timing worked for the city as increased golf program revenues meant the city could use those resources for the Odana Hills clubhouse project, while Keiser and his team would handle the golf course.<\/p>\n

Keiser said the exact scope of the course renovation will be determined by the additional funds his efforts and the Madison Parks Foundation are able to raise for the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat Jocelyn and I have committed to is rebuilding the greens and the approaches the way we did at The Glen,\u201d he said. \u201cWith maybe some very slight modification of their placement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keiser said he hoped the success of The Glen would encourage others to want to donate to the Odana Hills project.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be the lead donors,\u201d he said, \u201cbut we\u2019re hoping we can get some people to run with us and expand the scope of the project.\u201d<\/p>\n

A rendering of the Odana Hills Golf Course Master Plan<\/a> on the Golf Madison Parks website, designed by Keiser\u2019s associate Craig Haltom, reveals a plan more ambitious than the work at The Glen, with a new driving range and some rerouting of holes.<\/p>\n

Whatever its final form, the project promises to put Odana on a terrific upward trajectory. I once wrote that having Michael Keiser transform a Madison public golf course is like having Steven Spielberg volunteer to shoot the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce\u2019s annual video.<\/p>\n

As for timing, Knepp said, \u201cSome form of [course] closure will happen this fall.\u201d How many holes will close, and when the course may reopen \u2014 likely spring 2028 \u2014 is still to be determined.<\/p>\n

Knepp knows what a good seat he\u2019s had to observe a special time in Madison municipal golf.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say there are times through this process when I do pinch myself,\u201d he said. \u201cLightning striking twice is pretty unique. I really hope Madisonians can reflect not just on the generosity of Michael and Jocelyn, and how fortunate we are, but also on what that really means for our community and the opportunity it challenges us all to: What can we do to support our park system [and] our public spaces as well?\u201d<\/p>\n

Doug Moe is a Madison writer and a former editor of Madison Magazine.<\/p>\n

\u200bCOPYRIGHT 2026 BY MADISON MAGAZINE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.<\/p>\n


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