It doesn't look like much now, but where it has come from and where it will end up is a far cry from its present condition.

"It" is referring to the back nine at Little Big Horn Golf Course on Old U.S. 30. LBH, a nine-hole golf course since 1992, will be expanding soon into a full 18-hole course. The process of adding the second nine holes has been years in the making and is nearing completion.

The date for the opening of the "back nine" is around Memorial Day 1999, according to owner and course superintendent Lee Webb.

"Anything can happen between now and then," Webb said. "Nothing is certain. If we get it seeded when we want to this fall and get it watered and not have too many disasters, we should be able to get it to be a golf course by then.

"I didn't get as organized enough to start with, I guess," he said. "We needed to do a lot more early on last year."

Back when the Webbs (Lee and Gail) bought the course in July 1993, a back nine was always in the plans. It was just a matter of getting the money and expanding the course by virtue of purchasing a neighboring farm and trading land with another farmer. The Webbs now have about 160 acres of area to work with, 40 of which is the front nine and about 60 that will be the back nine.

"We were planning on a second nine since the time we bought the golf course," Webb said. "It was a matter of getting it together. And we needed more space for the practice area. We haven't run into anything tough construction-wise. It has been the money for materials and doing all the things we needed to do. If we would have had an extra $200,000, we could have had it done last year."

Working with the Kosciusko County surveyor's office and former county surveyor Charles Brower, a plan was designed for the back nine.

"The ground pretty much dictated what we had. We had an aerial survey from the county, and we had a layout of the ground," Webb said. "We wanted to try to make these holes longer, and we had enough space to do that. The way the ground laid worked out to locate them like that.

"We worked with the surveyor's office," he said. "I gave them the routing and a rough location of the tees and greens. And then they helped us work up a layout and a drawing."

The process has gone from moving the dirt and mixing and planting the seed for the greens last year to working on the irrigation system this year. Webb, who has worked on golf courses most of his adult life, hopes to have the irrigation system in place and to be ready to seed the fairways by August.

Right now the area that will be the back nine is a combination of grass and wheat. By the looks of things the 3,178-yard back nine with two par 5s and two par 3s will be a little longer and more challenging then the existing front nine.

The back will include three consecutive holes, Nos. 15, 16 and 17, that could well end up being the three toughest holes on the course. Number 15 will be a 170-yard par-3 that includes an elevated tee and elevated green with a valley in between. If the tee shot is just a little short of the green, the ball will roll back into a creek that runs in front of the hole. Numbers 16 and 17 will include tough dog-leg left holes that will make an accurate tee shot a necessity. Both will also have greens partially surrounded by water.

Youth Golf News

Results of recent IGA/PGA Junior Tour Events:

Maxfli PGA Junior Championship

At Honeywell Golf Course

Boys 16-17 - 16. Justin Howell (Warsaw) 39-39 78; 64. Scott White (Pierceton) 45-41 86; 73. Andy Martin (Akron) 39-47 86; 75. Ryan Skaggs (Syracuse) 45-42 87; 77. Chet Walters (Nappanee) 43-44 87

Boys 14-15 - 14. Drew Shafer (Akron) 44-38 82; 15. Adam Johnson (Warsaw) 42-40 82; 22. Derek Howell (Warsaw) 43-42 85

At Hillcrest County Club

Boys Division, All Sport Junior Masters series

29. Justin Howell (Warsaw) 38-41 79

At Peru Municipal Golf Course

Boys 17-19 - 13. Chad Wortinger (Syracuse) 44-44 88

Boys 15-16 - 14. Andy Martin (Akron) 41-40 81; 21. Kyle Lundy (Leesburg) 43-42 85; 34. Anthony Domenico (Burket) 45-47 92

Boys 13-14 - 2. Stephen Conrad (Syracuse) 40-39 79; 3. Adam Johnson (Warsaw) 43-39 82; 6. Josh Abrams (Leesburg) 43-42 85

Holes-in-one

Ruben Rose

Ruben Rose aced the No. 17 hole at Stonehenge Golf Course June 19. Rose got his hole-in-one on the 160-yard hole with an 8-iron. Witnessing were Pete Smith, Greg Scharnotte and Don Robinson.

Val Gordon

Val Gordon aced the No. 5 hole at Stonehenge Golf Course June 25. Gordon got her hole-in-one on the 118-yard hole with a 6-iron. Witnessing were Marv Gordon and Scott Wolfrum. [[In-content Ad]]