In the fall of 2006, Northwestern's newest golf practice facility was unveiled, the Luke Donald Outdoor Practice Facility, at The Glen Club, an 18-hole Tom Fazio design course, in Glenview, Ill. The Glen Club annually hosts the LaSalle Bank Open on the Nationwide Tour, as well as the Illinois Open.
Donald, the former Northwestern All-American and world number one golfer, made the lead gift for the construction of the new facility. Other major donors included James Morrison and the Dougherty family.
The Luke Donald Outdoor Practice Facility includes a 15,000-square foot bent grass range tee, a 1/2-acre practice pitching/chipping area with a 6,000-square foot USGA green, bent grass, bluegrass and fescue turfed areas for a variety of lies and shots. There are also three practice bunkers, totaling 5,000-square feet for shots of varying length into the chipping green.
A 3,000-square foot practice putting green is also part of the facility as well as a fairway bunker practice shot area.The facility was designed by Fazio Design.
"When we built this facility at the Glen Club, it created an opportunity for our kids to hit balls and work on their short game more often. I feel like before this we were near the top of the list in regard to facilities, but now this puts us absolutely at the top. We have access to incredible private clubs, and I am certain that no other school has better access and is more welcome at that many great courses," said director of golf and player development Pat Goss. "We have an incredible indoor facility on campus, and now we have an outdoor facility that allows our players to hit any shot they want up to 70 yards away from the green. That allows for a lot of variety around the green. They also have a tee box that is just for them. The facility is just ours and we can use it any way we want. It allows us to work on some things that we couldn't before. This facility really brings us to the forefront and completes the kind of practice regime we want to use at Northwestern. It gives us the ability to practice any time we want and develop our players to the best of our abilities."
The Gleacher Golf Center
The finest indoor learning center in the collegiate golf world
In 2019, Northwestern Athletics & Recreation officially dedicated the new Gleacher Golf Center on Sheridan Road, a complete renovation of the existing space inside Patten Gymnasium for Wildcats Men's and Women's Golf.
Nearly 20 years after changing the landscape of collegiate golf with the first comprehensive indoor training facility in the nation, Northwestern University unveiled the new facility. Named in recognition of a leadership gift from University Trustee Eric J. Gleacher '62 and Paula Gleacher, the on-campus home of Wildcats Golf is unquestionably one of the country' finest developmental facilities.
"Twenty years ago we celebrated the completion of the original Gleacher Golf Center with the purpose to develop winning teams," Eric Gleacher said. "Winning was and is the ultimate goal, which motivated our efforts 20 years ago and continues to motivate us today. Northwestern's stature in intercollegiate golf has been significantly enhanced as is indicated by the results our coaches and student-athletes have earned. I have no doubt that our achievements over the next 20 years will be even more outstanding."
The Gleacher Golf Center on Sheridan Road is the most integrated campus golf center in the country, located just a few hundred yards west of Ryan Fieldhouse, Wilson Field and the Walter Athletics Center -- and just steps away from residence halls and classrooms.
The new Gleacher Golf Center includes:
- A 5,400 square-foot short-game and putting area with raised ceilings and a nearly 3,000-square-foot green
- A state-of-the-art training area with three bays that feature Swing Catalyst Force Plates and a TrackMan Golf simulator, as well as a dedicated video instruction bay
- A 19' x 8' digitally adjustable putting platform that includes a 3D-modeled green that can be tilted at any angle and an overhead projector that utilizes augmented reality to display putting paths and drills
- Men's and women's locker rooms, featuring amenities including custom-designed lockers with multiple charging stations and room for a travel bag, luggage and golf bag
- A 1,200-square-foot student-athlete lounge with a dedicated study area and full kitchen for integration of Northwestern's Performance Nutrition program, and a nearly 1,000-square-foot sports performance hub
"We cannot thank Eric and Paula Gleacher enough for their incredible support of Northwestern Golf," said Goss. "Their impact on our successes over the years, and the student-athlete experience afforded our golfers, has been remarkable. Mr. Gleacher helped pioneer a new era of Northwestern Golf with his vision more than 20 years ago, and his commitment to our program is stronger than ever."
The ascension of Northwestern Golf over the last 25 years is due in large part to the construction of the Gleacher Golf Center in 1999. Since that time, the Men's and Women's Golf programs have combined for 50 tournament victories, seven Big Ten Conference titles, 10 Top-20 finishes at the NCAA Championships, 58 individual tournament wins, 71 All-Big Ten honorees and 20 All-Americans, including five First-Team honorees.
Luke Donald '01 claimed the program's first-ever individual NCAA Championship in 1999, and the program has seen six individuals claim Big Ten championships. The Women's team claimed the NCAA stroke play title in 2017 before finishing as the national runner-up in match play.
"We have created a standard as one of the nation's premier golf programs and are so thankful to the entire Gleacher family for the generosity that will help us remain a destination for the best amateur golfers from around the globe," Women's Golf Head Coach Emily Fletcher said. "This one-of-a-kind facility will provide our student-athletes with all the resources they need to improve on a daily basis while pursuing one of the most valuable degrees in higher education."
Eric Gleacher, a 1962 graduate of Northwestern, began his career in 1968 as an associate at Lehman Brothers, where he became a partner in 1973 and founded its mergers and acquisitions department in 1978. Gleacher joined Morgan Stanley & Co. in 1983, where he served as global head of mergers and acquisitions and was a member of the management committee. In 1990, he founded Gleacher & Co., a mergers and acquisitions and merchant banking firm. In 1995, NatWest, one of the largest banks in the U.K., acquired Gleacher & Co. He reacquired the company in 1999 and stayed on as chairman until 2013 when he retired.
He is married to Paula Gleacher and is the father of six children: John, Sarah '91, Jimmy, Jay, Patsy '12 and Willy. An accomplished competitive golfer, he won the Metropolitan (N.Y.) Golf Association Junior Championship in 1957 and was a member of the Western Illinois University golf team, which won the NAIA National Championship in 1959, his freshman year. Gleacher then transferred to Northwestern, where he earned a golf scholarship his junior and senior years. Soon after service as a lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps (1963–66), Gleacher won the first of his 25 club championships. He has claimed titles at Shinnecock (N.Y.), National Golf Links of America (N.Y.), Maidstone (N.Y.), Baltusrol (N.J.), Deepdale (N.Y.), and Montclair (N.J.) among others.
