Kevin Goss is the GCSAA Class A superintendent at Sugar Creek Golf Course in Villa Park, Ill. Photos courtesy of Kevin Goss
Since 2009, Kevin Goss has done more than lead course operations as the GCSAA Class A superintendent at Sugar Creek Golf Course in Villa Park, Ill. He has helped transform a 44-acre municipal property into a model of environmental stewardship, community engagement and sustainable golf.
Located just outside Chicago, the nine-hole public course sits largely within a flood plain, presenting challenges many facilities might consider limitations. For Goss, however, the landscape presented an opportunity. His philosophy has always centered on being a responsible land steward and creating a golf course that serves the entire community.
Under his leadership, Sugar Creek has evolved into more than a place to play golf. The course also functions as an ecological sanctuary, educational hub and social gathering space where golfers and non-golfers alike can experience a landscape rich with native Illinois beauty.
Goss has embraced Best Management Practices (BMPs) as part of the course’s long-term vision, helping restore natural habitats while designing and maintaining the property to work with — rather than against — the natural flow of the stream that winds through the course. Today, butterflies, bees, herons, hummingbirds, turtles and countless indigenous plant species thrive throughout the property.
Whether it was Goss’s personal philosophy that drove the adoption of BMPs or the BMPs themselves that reinforced and shaped his actions toward measurable environmental improvements is difficult to say. What matters is the result: a public golf course that has become healthier ecologically, more sustainable operationally and more valuable to the surrounding community.
Goss’ work has also made Sugar Creek a destination for education and outreach. Goss regularly hosts tours and field trips for community organizations and students from the College of DuPage, where he serves as a guest speaker and advisory committee member. Through presentations, magazine articles, posters and social media, he continually educates golfers and residents about the environmental value of the golf course.
The streambank naturalization project at Sugar Creek Golf Course was completed in 2024.
That outreach has become just as important as the environmental work itself. Goss understands that if the community does not know what a golf course is doing for them — protecting habitat, improving water quality, supporting pollinators and preserving green space — then those efforts lose much of their broader impact. Education and communication have become essential tools in building public understanding and appreciation for the role golf courses can play in environmental stewardship.
Those communication efforts are part of the reason Goss was recently recognized as an Environmental Leaders in Golf Awards (ELGA) winner, honoring not only the measurable ecological improvements made at Sugar Creek, but also his commitment to sharing those successes with the public and inspiring greater awareness within the community.
In 2024, Sugar Creek completed a major streambank naturalization project that significantly improved the local watershed and ecosystem. The project drew widespread attention and recognition, adding to Goss’s growing reputation as a superintendent committed to sustainability and community impact.
Goss, a 16-year GCSAA member, began his connection to Sugar Creek as a young golfer before working there as a seasonal grounds employee at age 16. His lifelong relationship with the course has helped shape a vision rooted in both environmental care and public service.
Today, visitors come to Sugar Creek not only for golf, but also for events, education and the opportunity to experience a natural landscape rarely found in an urban setting. Perhaps Goss says it best himself: “Being a public golf course, we want to do what’s best for the entire community.”
Josh Tapp is director of environmental programs at GCSAA