Harbor Shores Development

By KEVIN ALLEN  H-P Business Writer

BENTON TOWNSHIP — Harbor Shores is scheduled to open nine holes of its Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course in mid-July.

On Thursday at the Boys and Girls Club in Benton Township, project officials introduced the two people that will guide the course’s operation and its interaction with the community

Ross Smith, a golf professional with 26 years of experience in golf club management, will be Harbor Shores’ director of golf operations.

Ebon Sanders, the executive director of the First Tee youth golf program in Benton Harbor, will be the club’s assistant golf professional and director of youth development.

Harbor Shores is a 530-acre multi-use develop­ment centered around the golf course, which will be open to the public and also be used for local high school golf invitationals and the First Tee program.

Developers have often called Harbor Shores a “community transformation” project, as much of it is being built on formerly contami-nated industrial land.

Smith and Sanders are two people who can “take the vision and make it a reality,” said Terry Hanley, regional operations executive for Kemper Sports, the company managing the golf course.

“This is truly an incredible situation taking place in the city,” Hanley said.

Smith will be responsible for overseeing all aspects of Harbor Shores golf operations.  He was previously di­rector of golf at the Sagamore Club in Noblesville, Ind., which is also home to a Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course.

And he is familiar with the Twin Cities area, as he spent 16 years as the head golf professional at South Bend Country Club.  He also coached the University of Notre Dame women’s golf team for eight years while in South Bend.

Sanders is a St. Joseph resident and a 1990 graduate of St. Joseph High School.  He has been head coach of the boys and girls golf teams at Benton Harbor High School since 2006 and has been executive director of the First Tee program since its inception in 2005.

Nine holes of the golf course will be available for play this summer, Hanley said.

“We’re considering this a preview season,” he said.

The season will likely run from mid-July to mid-October, but the exact dates and other specifics need to be approved by the Golf Course Oversight Panel, said Wendy Dant Chesser, a Harbor Shores trustee and president of Cornerstone Alliance.

The five-person panel was set up as part of Benton Harbor’s agreement to lease 22 acres of Jean Klock Park to Harbor Shores for three holes of the course.