A favorite refrain of just about every member of the NIU athletics staff is the phrase “world-class experience.”

Carved out of old farm land and nestled behind stately tall trees is Rich Harvest Farms, the pristine course NIU men’s golf calls home.

The accolades owner Jerry Rich’s personal design has received since the course’s 1997 inception are numerous.

Golf Digest ranks Rich Harvest No. 51 on its list of America’s 100 greatest courses. Famed courses like Spyglass Hill, Riviera C.C., and Hazeltine take a back seat to the Sugar Grove gem that will host the NCAA Central Regional on May 17-18.

My experience with golf courses is extensive. As a caddy and golfer at Butler National, I’ve played at some of the finest our state has to offer – Harborside International, Cog Hill No. 4, Cantigney and the General at Eagle Ridge Resort. My favorite course sits on the DuPage County Airport in West Chicago, the Robert Trent Jones Jr. links-inspired masterpiece, Prairie Landing.

As awesome as all of these courses are, none are as exquisitely perfect as Rich Harvest Farms.

Walk the course and experience perfect placement of every detail. From the sprawling trees that inspire thoughts of Augusta National to the sand traps that make each hole pop from the adjoining greens, Rich Harvest is a study in golf course perfection.

A total immersion in nature takes place. Every electrical box is hidden by a shrub that looks like it has been there for hundreds of years, each sand trap has a rake house built into the ground to hide the eye sores that the sand combers can become, every lake or creek seems to have been a permanent fixture of the land; surrounded by stones and crafted from eons of receding glaciers.

For the golfer, Rich Harvest is beyond a world-class experience. It is heaven on earth.