Don’t bother booking Erie Golf Club tee times the rest of this summer.
Or next summer.
Or the one after that.
The course in the northwest tip of Pennsylvania near Lake Erie has experienced its last drives, chips and putts this decade, according to nascent owner Charles R. Van Eekeren.
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“It’ll probably be four or five years before (it reopens),” he said. “It will be a long process.”
Erie Golf Club, July 16, 2026.
Van Eekeren, 60, said he was at the dormant 18-hole layout when contacted by the Erie Times-News on July 20. The resident of Elmhurst, Illinois, purchased the 175-acre property two years ago, plus another 65 around it.
Van Eekeren intends to renovate the course to the original 1921 links-style layout envisioned by A.W. “Tillie” Tillinghast, a World Golf Hall of Fame inductee as one of the sport’s esteemed architects. At least existing holes would be impacted by that geographic facelift.
Erie is one of more than 250 international courses fully or partially designed by Tillinghast, who died in 1942 at age 66.
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Links layout
Van Eekeren is an executive with Vanee Foods Co., his family’s business since 1950. His bid to purchase the club for more than $1.3 million was approved by Judge Marshall Piccinini in December 2024.
Van Eekeren told the Times-News after that hearing how he played rounds on more than 160 of the world’s most revered courses.
“I’ve always had a dream of owning a golf course,” he said. “(Erie) is a great piece of property.”
That property, though, is one nature has reclaimed.
No trespassing signs dot the north side of the road that leads to the course, located at the end of Old Zuck Road. Stacks of felled tree trunks and branches were visible along fairways of the former first and second holes.
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Removing all trees designated for clearance is a goal Van Eekeren would like completed by the end of 2026.
“Once that’s done,” he said, “we’ll start moving dirt around for some stream bank stabilization.”
Nature is reclaiming Erie Golf Club, including the tee box for its par-five second hole (above). The 18-hole course has been dormant since its December 2024 purchase by Illinois resident Charles R. Van Eekeren.
Although Van Eekeren doesn’t plan to turn the property into a housing community course, such as the one west of there at Whispering Woods Golf Course, he’d like to build several adjacent cabins for overnight stays.
Last on Van Eekeren’s to-do list is a clubhouse.
Ideally, it would dwarf the one that’s currently vacant.
“It could be 10 years before that’s done,” he said.
Contact Mike Copper at mcopper@timesnews.com. Follow him on X @ETNcopper.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: A.W. Tillinghast design has become pet project for Pennsylvania executive
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