Elmwood Country Club

Originally founded in 1896 as Marshalltown Country Club by the banks of the Iowa River, the course was renamed Elmwood Country Club and relocated to the South side of town due to flooding issues in 1920.

Tom Bendalow was brought in to design the new course (current back 9). Research is in progress to determine who designed the front 9 that fits in seamlessly. A decision was made in 2017/18 to renovate and modernise the undulating tree-lined course while also restoring the original Bendalow concepts.

In August of 2020, mother nature intervened with a devastating Derecho wind event leveling more than 400 large trees and substantially damaging tees, fairways and greens. Superintendent Dave Eichhorn Jr and Hoekstra Design updated the Master plan to include green expansions, new and renovated bunkers, new tee boxes, and re-grassing. One of the more unique additions was scrub areas on several holes, a design decision that evolved when figuring out what to do with the numerous storm debris burn pile areas and present something different in Iowa.

As of the fall of 2024 the majority of the master plan projects have been finalized for a sustainable cost of less than $200,000. Marshalltown is a smaller city with a population less than 30k, so a typically big dollar budget was not feasible. They were able to accomplish this by reusing sod, sand and dirt and doing the bulk of the work in house using local talent. Eichhorn has said he is proud of this fact and hopes more people will see what they have done here and see the benefit of a more sustainable model.