By Mark Gregory
Editorial Director
@Hear_The_Beard
mark@buglenewspapers.com
For 20 years, Mistwood Golf Club in Romeoville has hosted its patriotic themed Stars & Stripes golf tournament on the 4th of July.
The event features patriotic costumed golfers, fireworks and entertainment on most holes all in the spirit of celebration for America’s birthday.
This year, however, Mistwood wanted more.
So the staff of Mistwood got together to brainstorm and outside of red, white and blue clad golfers and bombs bursting in air, there are few things that rival that in terms of celebrating Independence Day more than hot dogs.
“In celebration of the 20-year anniversary of Mistwood, we wanted to do something a little crazy,” said Jimmy Koklas, Food and Beverage Director at Mistwood Golf Club. “And we thought, July is national hot dog month, so why not go after a record that includes hot dogs. We Googled the Guinness Book of World Records hot dog records and decided that we wanted to go after the longest line of cooked hot dogs, because logistically, we had the space on the golf course to do this.”
More than 250 staff, volunteers and spectators showed up at the public golf course to help set the world record by lining up – and subsequently eating – 2,496 hot dogs from tee to the green on the 3rd hole, a 556-yard par 5. The nearly 1,800 uneaten hot dogs were donated to MoringStar Mission in Joliet.
“We have built a culture at Mistwood of hosting events that are fun, entertaining, and even a little crazy. Jim Koklas came up with the ideas for more than a few of them, including the Beer vs. Beer dinner we hosted using a full-size wrestling ring as a stage. We wanted to do something fun this summer, and Jimmy immediately started thinking about how to involve hot dogs on the golf course,” said Dan Bradley, General Manager of Mistwood. “Jimmy is a food and beverage professional, and when he came to Mistwood three years ago he had extensive experience running restaurants all over the country, but he had never worked at a golf course before. He was completely amazed at the amount of hot dogs that are consumed at our golf course—at every golf course really. So he started thinking of ways to host a fun event that featured hot dogs and that is when he turned to the Guinness Book of World Records. The rest is now history.”
The new record of 1,162-feet, 11-inches clipped the old record of 1,157 feet, held by Nakakyushu Kubota of Japan.
“We ended up beating the record by just under six feet. The previous record was 1,157 feet,” Koklas said. “The game plan was we wanted to go 1,200 feet, but we did not account for shrinkage of the hot dog after they were cooked and wrapped. About half way through, we were nervous we wouldn’t have enough hot dogs to beat it. We did and we ended up at 1,162-feet, 11-inches.”
All that is left to do now is to submit the evidence to the Guinness Book of World Records and wait for the record to be verified.
While the event was fun, earning a verified record is not an easy task.
“I applied for this is early March and after 13 weeks, we got the email that we were officially allowed to go for the record,” Koklas said. “We partnered with Vienna Beef and they are celebrating their 125th anniversary as a company and we have a good relationship with them and they donated a good portion of the hot dogs to us. We had rules and regulations. The hot dog had to be in a bun, the hot dog had to be edible after it was over, the hot dog could not be more than seven inches long, they had to be touching at each end. We also had to be as sanitary as possible, so we couldn’t just lay them in the grass, so we had to rent 150, 8-foot long tables to lay them on. We had to hire a professional surveyor to do the official measurement. We needed a lot of photographic and video evidence.
“I think a week or two before I came to the realization that this was going to be more than just throwing hot dogs in a line and measuring them. Just the table set up alone took about an hour and a half with eight people working to set them up. Our chef started cooking the hot dogs at 6am to be used by 2pm. It took about seven hours to wrap all of them. “
Even after all that, the Mistwood staff had to scramble at the end.
“As we were about to do the measurements, someone in the crowd told us that we had forgot to put some hot dogs at the beginning of the table,” Koklas said. “I was the one that set the first hot dog, so I made sure it was in line with the edge of the table. Apparently, some golfers coming off the hole next to us saw the hot dogs and grabbed four of them. So, we had to scramble to get four more out there.”