New name, new logo for Chicagoland course

The Evanston Wilmette Golf Course Association and KemperSports announced the re-brand of Canal Shores to The Evans at Canal Shores. The new name and logo spearhead the re-branding efforts as the 100-year-old course embarks on a new era of delivering exceptional and memorable experiences for Chicagoland golfers.  

Led by KemperSports in conjunction with the Canal Shores Board, the non-profit course is funded and reimagined through a partnership of golf industry leaders, including the Western Golf Association/Evans Scholars Foundation, First Tee – Greater Chicago, Wadsworth Golf Charities, the Chicago District Golf Association, Quitno Golf Designs and through private contributions. The reimagined golf course will re-open in 2025 with a completely upgraded par-60, 18-hole golf course, youth development training center and Western Golf Association Caddie Academy.

“Canal Shores has served a special place in the community for more than 100 years,” board president Matt Rooney said. “The Evans at Canal Shores continues the legacy of Canal Shores while putting added focus on the youth development and youth caddie training opportunities that will come from the renovated golf course.”

The golf course renovation, which started in 2022 and is led by architect Todd Quitno, is the modernization and reimagining of the urban golf course. Located alongside the North Shore Canal, which feeds into the Chicago River, The Evans at Canal Shores will serve as a beacon for youth golf development and a youth caddie training facility through partnerships with the First Tee – Greater Chicago and the Western Golf Association/Evans Scholars Foundation.

“It’s still the charming and quirky urban park-like course it’s always been,” said Josh Lesnik, golf EVP for KemperSports and a member of the Canal Shores board. “We simply created a new mission focused on youth development and scholarships, invested in infrastructure so we could improve playing conditions — and certainly added some architectural interest and excitement to an already memorable routing.”

The new name represents a deep connection to the namesake of the Evans Scholars Foundation, Chick Evans, who attended high school in Evanston and became one of the greatest amateur golfers of all time. Instead of turning professional, Evans worked with the Western Golf Association to use the earnings from his golf career to establish the Evans Scholars Foundation in 1930. To date, the Foundation has awarded full tuition and college scholarships to more than 13,000 youth caddies, including the 1,130 Evans Scholars enrolled in 24 leading universities nationwide this year. The Evans at Canal Shores is located less than a mile from the first Evans Scholarship House, established in 1940 on the campus of Northwestern University.

The golf course logo is the graphical representation of an owl perched on top of a golf club. The logo represents the course’s commitment to being a good steward to all inhabitants in the community and represents its mission of educating the community’s youth through golf.

The Evans at Canal Shores will open a limited number of holes for preview play in late summer and open all 18 holes in summer 2025.