Club History - Thunder Hills Country Club

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History of Thunder Hills Country Club

Conceived in 1969, Thunder Hills Country Club was the vision of five individuals who wished to develop and build the second planned golf course community in the state of Iowa. Those five individuals were Gordon Cunningham, Peter Beaves, C.J. May, Jr., Frank Dunn, and Bob Frommelt, who was the first president of Thunder Hills Country Club.
These five individuals were instrumental in the purchase of the Burds and Harris farms just east of Peosta, Iowa. Their vision was to build a residential community of paved streets with homes backing up to an eighteen hole championship golf course. The five embarked on an aggressive membership program to reach 300 members as they built and developed the planned golf course community. The club would have an initiation fee of Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00) and monthly dues of Twenty Dollars ($20.00). The five decided that the development should be named with an Indian name and, after searching through 1000 names at the public library, settled on Thunder Hills. Thus Thunder Hills Homeowners Association and Thunder Hills Country Club came into existence.
Plans, permits, meetings and construction began as soon as the idea was conceived and all the appropriate agencies approved of the planned unit development. When the membership filled and members paid their stock purchase in full, i.e. $500.00, a lottery was held with the existing members to purchase the residential lots. The proceeds from the sales of the lots funded the building of the golf course and the infrastructure for the community.
In 1970 Thunder Hills Country Club opened the front nine featuring watered tees and greens, the new Clubhouse and a pool for the membership. In 1971 the back nine was opened to play and the three tennis courts were opened. Over the years the club has made many improvements to the course, pool and clubhouse, many times using member labor or member support through financial donations or financing. Notably the Club added a new addition to the Clubhouse called the "Green Room" and also a pro shop in 1981, installed a new irrigation well in 1988 and kicked off "Operation Grass Roots" in 1991 to water all 18 fairways which was paid for entirely by the membership.
	In August 2002 the Board formed a Facility Study Committee consisting of Mike Donohue, Ron Kirchhoff, Bob Frommelt, Steve Juergens, Jeff Edwards, Dick Launspach, Jim Edwards and Kerry Azbell to study and make a recommendation concerning the strategy of improving or replacing the clubhouse facility. .
The strategy being considered was to bring more value to the membership at Thunder Hills and to grow the Club through new memberships. The membership had seen a decline from 315 in 1997 to 285 in 2002 and later bottomed with a low of 267 in 2003. Excavation work began on October 27, 2003 and operations were moved into the new building on May 22, 2004 as the club hosted a golf outing and dinner for 120 people on May 24th, 6 months and 3 weeks after excavation work began. Along the way, there were modifications, additions, and revisions to the original plan as might be expected. A few of the notable additions included:
New tee on #1 Cart path to the driving range Concrete cart path behind the old club house Loading dock in the kitchen area Planter walls in front of the building Side walk on the west end of the building Pool cabana Additional parking lot light in the southwest side Privacy fence around the loading area Stamped concrete at the front canopy entrance Water softener Dish washer vent Asbestos removal in the old building Relocation of score board New landscaping and sodding 100% member financed

The beautiful new clubhouse has inspired growth in the membership for Thunder Hills. We sit poised on a hill between Dubuque and Peosta, Iowa, looking to the future and our new beginning.