Entertainment

Tomah VA golf course to reopen

Published

5 years ago

April 26, 2019

After a five-year wait, patients at the Tomah VA Medical Center will be able to tee up again soon.

The hospital’s 9-hole golf course was shut down in 2014, but a renovation is just about done.

Medical center spokesman Matthew Gowan remembers his first day working at Tomah, when vets at the hospital immediately asked him when the golf course would be open again.

Gowan says the course was closed because government money could not be used to operate it, so private funding has been raised.

A ‘ground-breaking’ for the remodeled golf course happens Friday.

Funding has been provided by a foundation named in memory of former Tomah VA patient Jason Simcakoski, who died accidentally in 2014 from a combination of several drugs he was supposed to take at one time.

Jason’s father, Marv Simcakoski, has been a driving force behind the golf course restoration, and members of the family are scheduled to attend the ceremony for the golf course along with U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin and Congressman Ron Kind.

Brad Williams

A native of Prairie du Chien, Brad graduated from UW - La Crosse and has worked in radio news for more than 30 years, mostly in the La Crosse area. He regularly covers local courts and city and county government. Brad produces the features "Yesterday in La Crosse" and "What's Buried on Brad's Desk." He also writes the website "Triviazoids," which finds odd connections between events that happen on a certain date, and he writes and performs with the local comedy group Heart of La Crosse. Brad been featured on several national TV programs because of his memory skills.