Author: lenz

HANDA CUP: Will Inkster’s debut get U.S. back on winning track?

WEST POINT, MS. — This week in golf isn’t all about the Ryder Cup. The LPGA Legends Tour will have its premier team event, the ISPS Handa Cup, going on at the same time.

Old Waverly’s majestic clubhouse provides an attractive setting for the Handa Cup.

The Handa Cup isn’t as old as its male counterpart, but the U.S. teams in both are in precarious positions. The Handa Cup has been played every year since 2006. It’s not a biannual competition like the Ryder Cup. Like the Ryder Cup, however, the U.S. side dominated the competition early on, but now it’s a different story.

After losing the first six meetings the Internationals managed a 24-24 tie at Reunion Resort in Orlando, FL., in 2012.

That wasn’t good enough to claim the cup, named after Dr. Haruhisa Handa, a Japanese businessman and philanthropist, but the Internationals managed their breakthrough win last year, taking a 27-21 victory at Hermitage in Nashville, Tenn.

That didn’t sit well with Nancy Lopez, who was on the losing side as a player last year and will captain the U.S. in this Handa Cup.

“My team is ready to win back the Handa Cup,’’ she said. “I’m mad. I’m tired of this. We have a great team, and we’re not going to let (the Europeans) celebrate.’’

Sally Little, captain of the Internationals, isn’t so sure.

“It’s going to be a heckuva go,’’ she said. “Winning last year moved our team to the next level.’’

Like Lopez, Little is serving as captain for the first time. Sweden’s Pia Nilsson captained the winning European side last year while Joanne Carner completed her second year directing the U.S. side. Kathy Whitworth handled those duties during the U.S. victory run from 2006 to 2011.

The captains aren’t the only thing that’s different this time.

Old Waverly, a beautiful facility that hosted the 1999 U.S. Women’s Open and the 2006 U.S. Mid Amateur, should be a more familiar venue for the U.S. players – especially a most notable one. Juli Inkster, who won that U.S. Women’s Open at Old Waverly, is making her Legends debut at the Handa Cup after enjoying a brilliant career on the LPGA circuit. The Legends is for players who have reached their 45th birthday.

Also known as the Country Club of Mississippi, Old Waverly was co-designed by Jerry Pate and Bob Cupp. The course opened in 1988 and a second course, to be designed by Gil Hanse, is in the planning stages.

Joining Inkster on the 12-player U.S. team are Pat Bradley, Beth Daniel, Christa Johnson, Rosie Jones, Meg Mallon, Barb Mucha, Laurie Rinker, Nancy Scranton, Val Skinner, Sherri Steinhauer and Sherri Turner. Elaine Crosby is Lopez’ co-captain..

The Internationals roster features Helen Alfredsson, Jane Crafter, Laura Davies, Alicia Dibos, Wendy Doolan, Trish Johnson, Lorie Kane, Jenny Lidback, Liselotte Neumann, Allison Nicholas, Mieko Nomura and Jan Stephenson. Little’s co-captain is Dawn Coe-Jones.

Inkster is one of three U.S. players who weren’t part of last year’s team, the others being Mallon and Skinner. Mallon, though, has played in the Handa Cup in the past. Doolan is the lone newcomer on the International side.

In the biggest early season Legends events of the year Neumann won the Walgreen’s Charity Classic, Jones took the Wendy’s Charity Challenge and Rinker was the titlist in the Legends Championship. Trish Johnson also won a big one, taking the Ladies Scottish Open in August.

Players on both sides played practice rounds at Old Waverly on Thursday morning, and participants in Friday’s Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi Pro-Am tuned up on the course in the afternoon. Opening ceremonies are on tap for Thursday evening and pairings for Saturday’s team matches will be announced afterwards.

Saturday’s program calls for nine holes of alternate shot competition in the morning and nine holes of best ball in the afternoon. Twelve singles matches are on tap for Sunday to conclude the competition. The singles pairings will be announced after Saturday’s play is concluded and closing ceremonies will be held after the last putt drops on Sunday.

Elgin’s Carlos Sainz is now a PGA Tour member

The Chicago area has a new member on the PGA Tour. Elgin’s Carlos Sainz Jr. earned playing privileges for the 2014-15 season after finishing in a tie for 31st place in the Web.com Tour Championship on Sunday at TPC Sawgrass in Florida.

Sainz, 28, had only one top-10 finish and survived the 36-hole cut only 10 times in 23 tournaments in his rookie season on the PGA’s satellite circuit, but his best play came when it counted the most.

A tie for second in August’s Price Cutter Charity Championship earned Sainz $44,550, which accounted for most of his regular season earnings. Still, it allowed him to squeeze into the Web.com Finals, a four-tournament series of $1 million events that offered 25 berths on the PGA Tour for next season. The Finals was limited to the top 75 on the Web.com money list and players ranked from 126-200 in the PGA’s FedEx Cup standings.

Sainz, ranked 74th in regular season money, posted a tie for 19th and a tie for 12th in the first two Finals events before missing the cut by one stroke in the third. That put him in a precarious position going into the last event at TPC Sawgrass, but the former Mississippi State golfer put together rounds of 70, 70, 68 and 71 for a 278 total that was just good enough to put him on the 50 players from the Web.com circuit to advance to the PGA Tour.

A bogey on the last hole Sunday left Sainz in a precarious position, and he had to wait for the last putt to drop several hours after he finished his round before he was assured advancement in the No. 49 position.

Sainz is scheduled to defend his title in the Chicago Open at Cantigny, in Wheaton next month, but that may be in limbo now. Under its new scheduling format, which went into effect in the fall of 2013, the next PGA Tour campaign begins with the Frys.com Open in Napa, Calif., from Oct. 6-12. The Chicago Open is Oct. 5-7.

Though he has his PGA Tour card, Sainz won’t have a high enough priority to play in all the tournaments, and he may not get into an event on the premier circuit until January.

Derek Fathauer won the Web.com Tour Championship, finishing at 14-under-par 266 for the 72 holes. He was 13 strokes ahead of Sainz.

Michigan’s Harbor Shores adds to its reputation as a tournament venue

When Harbor Shores hosted the Senior PGA Championship in 2012 it had no tournament history. That won’t be the case when the tourney returns to the Jack Nicklaus-designed course in Benton Harbor, Mich., in 2014. The May 22-25 event will mark the tournament’s 75th anniversary.

While the Senior PGA is rich in tournament history, Harbor Shores is not. In a sense the course’s history in that regard began when the first ball was struck at the 2012 Senior PGA.

Harbor Shores only opened on July 1, 2010. The Champions for Change — a skins game-style exhibition that featured golf legends Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Arnold Palmer and Johnny Miller — created a memorable grand opening as well as an appropriate lead-in to the first big tournament, but the 2012 Senior PGA was noteworthy for the history it produced more than for the arrival of big-name players.

The victory by England’s Roger Chapman, who had won only one tournament in 16 full seasons on the European PGA Tour and none as a senior player, was a Cinderella story. He was the Senior PGA’s first wire-to-wire winner since Hale Irwin in 2004, and his breathrough win has been one of the most shocking developments in golf this decade.

Even with Kenny Perry shooting a tournament record 62 in the final round, Chapman dominated a field filled with the Champions Tour’s best players. He led by nine shots with 10 holes left before winning by two over John Cook. Chapman, who won the U.S. Senior Open later in 2012, posted a 13-under-par 271 and called his Harbor Shores victory “the greatest thing I’ve ever done.’’

That win may have been the best feel-good story in golf in 2012, but it wasn’t nearly the feel-good story that Harbor Shores has become as a focal point in the revival of Benton Harbor – a community that had undergone very difficult economic times. The building of Harbor Shores was a big part of that revival.

At one point one-fifth of the city’s 11,000 residents were unemployed and the 530 acres on which Harbor Shores was built was an abused, forgotten piece of property – basically a garbage dump. Some of it had been a slag pit for a company that made automobile brakes, Another spot was occupied by a company that used radium and mercury to manufacture components for fighter jets. It took a complicated financial deal that involved acquiring federal and state grant money to get the construction started.

Construction wasn’t easy, either. Some 117 tons of trash and 20,000 tons of contaminated soil had to be removed. At one time or another Nicklaus had to deal with empty buildings, roads, power lines, a railroad track, two rivers, a lake and a public park. He had to change the routing of the holes nearly two dozen times.

But that was then, and this is now.

Harbor Shores was barely open when the PGA of America, supported by an enthusiastic local sponsor in KitchenAid – a premium brand of Whirlpool Corporation, named Harbor Shores the venue for two Senior PGA Championships.

A quick look at the place tells you why. The 6,861-yard par-71 course has three holes on Lake Michigan and 10 other holes offer views of the Paw Paw River or Ox Creek. Plus, it had a visionary architect in Nicklaus, whose design included a three-tiered monster green at the No. 10 hole. At 10,500 square feet, it’s the biggest putting surface Nicklaus has ever designed – and that’s saying something, since the Golden Bear’s portfolio includes about 275 courses world-wide.

“We set out, really, to change a community,’’ Nicklaus said. “This wasn’t just about a golf course. This was a non-profit project. That’s the important part of it.’’

Harbor Shores has become one of the most beautiful spots in Southwestern Michigan in part because it has some other special touches. Each hole was named after a plant indigenous to the area. Each hole also features a metal sculpture with at least one piece of hand-blown glass holding a plaque describing one of Nicklaus’ 18 major championship victories.

The First Tee of Benton Harbor learning center is also part of the complex and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Benton Harbor also use the facility for their daily activities, adding significantly to the feel-good atmosphere so prevalent at Harbor Shores.

Not only has Harbor Shores established itself as one of the most attractive beach resorts on Lake Michigan, its creation has also stimulated home-building and community development. The renaissance envisioned by city and county leaders when construction started just five years ago is materializing.

International Crown already looking ahead to Rich Harvest in 2016

As exciting as this first International Crown figures to be, the second staging in 2016 could well be even more eye-catching. It’ll be played at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove, IL., 46 miles west of Chicago.

Rich Harvest is a much different place than Caves Valley. The ultra-private club has only 100 members. The facility is spread over 1,820 acres and includes a private car museum, miles of horseback-riding trails and three lakes stocked for fishing.

At the center of it all, though, is a beautiful golf course that didn’t have all 18 holes open until 17 years ago but is already an established tournament venue. Owner Jerry Rich has wanted it that way. Not only did he design the course and build it over a 10-year period, he was at the forefront in the creation of the International Crown – the showcase event at his very special place.

Simply put, Rich is a visionary with a passion for golf, the women’s version in particular.

“I want to create a legacy,’’ he said. “Bobby Jones created the Masters, so we can create the International Crown. I had long decided that I wanted to stay in women’s golf. It’s the type of product I wanted to be involved in.’’

Rich Harvest continues to be Chicago’s most active tournament venue. This year it hosted the men’s NCAA Central Regional in May and will host the Northern Intercollegiate, nearby Northern Illinois University’s showcase event, in September. In 2015 Rich Harvest will welcome the Western Amateur and Palmer Cup events and in 2017 it’ll be the site of the Western Golf Association’s 100th staging of the Western Junior Championship. Rich is making his biggest impact on the women’s side, however.

His involvement officially began in 2004, when he started a five-year project that resulted in Rich Harvest hosting one of the most successful Solheim Cups ever in 2009. The U.S. team came out the winner, but the staging was even more important. The event drew 120,00 spectators and averaged about 30,000 on days when the matches were in progress.

The success of that Solheim Cup only whetted Rich’s appetite for something even more significant. The International Crown fits that bill. He’s hopeful the event will find a permanent home at Rich Harvest; the 2016 event is just a starter.

“I contacted (LPGA commissioner) Mike Whan after the Solheim Cup,’’ said Rich. “I told him `You’ve got the greatest product in the world,’ but the Solheim Cup didn’t have the greatest players in women’s golf; they’re from Asia. We had to create something new and different, an event that would bring them into the competition.’’

Whan agreed, and a format for the International Crown was developed. Whan, however, wanted to get the Crown going in 2014 and Rich wasn’t ready for that. He needed time to develop related junior programs and organize a promotional effort even more elaborate than his Solheim Cup received.

Rich hired seven staffers two years ago. They began contacting high school and college girls’ teams and built a large database of contacts in 240 communities within 40 miles of Rich Harvest.

More important, though, the staffers alerted the Chicago consulates based in Chicago about the International Crown. All countries competing in this year’s International Crown have consulates based there, and about 30 attended an October luncheon at a Chicago restaurant. They were receptive, and there’ll be more contact with those groups as the second International Crown approaches.

“There will be only four Americans playing, so we’ve got to energize the ethnic bases,’’ said Rich. “We’ve got to get 1,000 or 2,000 out each day from the other countries. When Golf Channel shows it, that’ll making this thing really blossom. We don’t know how many total spectators we’ll get, but we should be able to match or exceed the number we had at the Solheim Cup.’’

Rich isn’t reluctant about declaring Chicago “the greatest city in the world,’’ and an ideal area for the Crown because of the global nature of its large population. There are, for instance, 50,000 Koreans living in the Chicago area. They’re sure to be excited about seeing their golf stars compete, especially after attending this year’s Watch Parties that the Rich Harvest staff has organized at various locations during the inaugural International Crown. The first Crown will be televised in 170 countries, so many more people world-wide will know about it by the time the matches begin at Rich Harvest.

Rich already invited the top Asian players on the LPGA Tour to visit Rich Harvest anytime over the next two years. None have seen the place yet, but they’ll be impressed once they get there.

The course, always among the best conditioned in the country, has consistently been listed in the elite Golf Digest rankings of America’s Top 100 Greatest Courses. It has state-of-the-art indoor and outdoor practice facilities in addition to 29 suites on the property. Rich Harvest is also home to the Kids Golf Foundation of Illinois, which has impacted the lives of over 100,000 youth since its inception in 1998.

Players on both the U.S. and European teams stayed in cottages on the property during Solheim Cup, but that won’t be the case in 2016. The 32 players will be housed at a luxury hotel 10 minutes from the course. The three estate houses on the course, which comprise 50 rooms, will house those with ambassador packages. There will be eight of them, each coming in at the $400,000 level and offering a variety of perks in addition to the on-course lodging.

The bulk of the other golf fans attending will find it easier to get to the course than those attending the Solheim did. Due to the popularity of the event, the Solheim had a 10-mile traffic backup at one point on the first day of the matches, but that problem won’t likely happen again. Roads were widened and a round-about built near the course to facilitate traffic flow. Alternate routes to the course have also been devised.

A diverse gallery is assured for the second International Crown. Chicago’s ethnic communities are expected to turn out in large numbers, but Rich is just as happy to predict “there’ll be a lot of young people here.’’

The youngsters will have more to watch than the competitive matches. A 5,000-square foot Kids Pavilion will include special stations to interest both the youth and adult visitors.

“It’ll be a learning experience. That’s all part of it,’’ said Rich.

Once Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel heard about plans for the International Crown he told Rich that “It’s the Olympics we didn’t get.’’

The city’s bid to host that premier international competition was rejected, but the International Crown promises to be a suitable replacement. And, if Rich has his way, it’ll be a long-lasting one.

“It’ll be huge – the biggest thing to ever hit golf,’’ Rich predicted. That remains to be seen – but no one’s arguing with him about it.

Conway Farms gets spruced up for ’15 BMW Championship

It’s back to Chicago for the BMW Championship. The Western Golf Assn. will continue its policy of playing its premier event close to its home base every other year, and Conway Farms will again be the site of tourney after it leaves Cherry Hills. It’ll next be contested from Sept. 14-20 in 2015.

Conway Farms, based in Chicago’s North Shore community of Lake Forest, hosted the tournament for the first time in 2013 and the event was a rousing success. It was one of the best-attended tournaments of the year on the PGA Tour, with 130,000 spectators. It produced the lowest 18-hole round of the season – Jim Furyk’s 59. It raised $2.3 million for the Evans Scholars Foundation and – for the second straight year – the BMW Championship was named the PGA Tour’s Tournament of the Year. The estimated economic impact for the area was $30 million.

Tournament director Vince Pellegrino called the support received at a new location “overwhelming.’’ Given that a PGA Tour event hadn’t been staged in Chicago’s North suburbs since 1972, it was no surprise when the PGA Tour confirmed the return to Conway Farms on May 28. There was no reason to change a good thing.

Still, the announcement was good news for the club’s most prominent member – former world No. 1 Luke Donald.

“As a member I’m proud that Conway Farms will again be hosting the BMW Championship,’’ said Donald, “and, as a PGA Tour player, I’m excited to have another opportunity to compete on my home course against the world’s best players.’’

Having the 2013 BMW at Conway was a tonic for Donald, who needed a strong showing there to earn a place in the top 30 in the FedEx Cup standings that would qualify him for The Tour Championship in Atlanta. Donald got it with a tie for fourth place showing at Conway.

That tourney was filled with other highlights. Furyk’s hot second round made him only the sixth player to shoot a 59 in a PGA Tour event, following Al Geiberger, Chip Beck, David Duval, Paul Goydos and Stuart Appleby. Furyk was 12-under after making 11 birdies and a holeout for eagle at the par-4 15th hole.

Hunter Mahan also made a hole-in-one on the 17th hole, and controversy wasn’t lacking with Tiger Woods assessed a video-aided penalty. Those developments also helped make for an exciting week.

Woods finished in a tie for 11th, as Zach Johnson emerged the champion with a 16-under-par 268 performance. A 65 in the final round gave Johnson a two-stroke edge on Nick Watney and a three-shot advantage on Furyk, who finished solo third.

The tourney had one major problem – the weather. The final round couldn’t be completed on time because of heavy rain, and the tourney didn’t end until Monday.

When the event returns next year the place and the course will have a new look. The club membership undertook some major projects this summer that will enhance the next BMW Championship.

The practice range was closed on July 17 for a major renovation, and the course also was shut down early, on Aug. 4, to allow for renovation work by architects Tom Fazio and Dennis Wise. It won’t re-open until Memorial Day weekend of 2015.

All the greens were renovated and some other tweaks – described as “minor’’ by general manager Todd Marsh – were also made to the course so the 70 players who qualify for the next BMW Championship will find an even better layout than the one played in 2013. As you can tell, Conway Farms members take their golf seriously. Of the 265 members, 165 have single digit handicaps. That puts Conway in the top five clubs in the country for having that many quality players in its membership.

More extensive work was done off the course. Sixty-six spaces were added to the parking lot, the golf shop underwent a complete renovation and a state-of-the-art caddie headquarters was also constructed.

Even before the updating the Tom Fazio-designed layout was plenty good for tournament play. Six years after its 1991 opening it hosted the men’s NCAA Championship and a year later the U.S. Junior Amateur was played there.

Before the BMW’s arrival Conway also hosted the American Junior Golf Assn. Canon Cup in 2002 and 2006, the men’s Big Ten Championship in 2006, the Western Amateur in 2009 and the U.S. Mid-Amateur in 2011.

Until the BMW came to town, however, the course’s only tests from pros came in the 2007 U.S. Open local qualifying and the 2008 U.S. Open sectional qualifying. The course was set up at 7,216 yards with a par of 71 for its first full-fledged test from PGA Tour players. The low scoring was in large part due to helpful playing conditions – rain-softened greens and little wind throughout the tourney.

Scoring could be much different next time, if the weather isn’t as ideal and the renovation creates more challenging playing conditions.

Ghim, Hardy could make collegiate debuts at Illini Invitational

Three weeks ago University of Illinois men’s coach Mike Small won the Illinois PGA Championship for a record 11th time, with two of those victories coming at Olympia Fields Country Club in 2010 and 2013. This weekend Small reverts from player to coach with hopes that his well-regarded Illini can do as well at the Olympia Fields Fighting Illini Invitational.

It’ll be the season opener for the Illini, who were ranked No. 4 by Golfweek and No. 6 by the Golf Coaches Assn. of America in preseason polls. Annually one of the top collegiate invitations in the country, the Olympia Fields test is also — potentially at least — the beginning of the collegiate careers for both Arlington Heights’ Doug Ghim and Northbrook’s Nick Hardy, two of the most promising young players to come out of the Chicago ranks in years.

While tournament rosters haven’t been announced, Ghim could be in Texas’ lineup and fellow freshman Hardy was among Small’s latest recruiting class at Illinois. Ghim was runner-up in the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship this summer and medalist in the Western Amateur. Hardy was runner-up in both the Western Junior and Illinois State Amateur.

Hardy’s presence aside, Illinois’ lofty rankings are understandable since Small has five of six players returning from last year’s squad including All-Americans Brian Campbell, Charlie Danielson and Thomas Detry.

The Illini reached the match play finals of the NCAA tournament three times in the last four years, but winning their own event this weekend won’t be easy. The 15-team field for the three-day 54-hole event that tees off on Friday comprises one of strongest in collegiate golf with Texas and Stanford looming as the top challengers for the host team.

In the first in-season poll, released by TheGolf Channel this week, Texas was No. 2 and Illinois No. 3 behind Oklahoma State. In addition to Ghim, the Longhorns have the two finalists from this summer’s Western Amateur at Chicago’s Beverly Country Club in champion Beau Hossler and runner-up Scottie Sheffler, both Californians.

From the tours

Wheaton’s Kevin Streelman won’t be in the Tour Championship, last event of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoffs. It begins Thursday at East Lake in Atlanta, and Streelman couldn’t retain his spot among the top 30 qualifiers. Despite a closing round 66 at the BMW Championship on Sunday Streelman ranked only 48th after the first three events of the four-tourney playoff series.

Elgin’s Carlos Sainz Jr. continued his bid to earn his PGA Tour card for 2015 with a tie for 12th in the second event of the Web.com Tour Finals. He’s tied for 16th midway through that four-tournament series and the top 25 money winners after the finals conclude on Sept. 21 advance to the premier circuit next season.

Northwestern alum David Lipsky won the Omega European Masters in Switzerland, an event co-sponsored by the European and Asian PGA Tours. The victory earned Lipsky his playing privileges on the European Tour for two years and elevated him to the top spot in the Asian Order of Merit.

Lake Forest’s Chip Beck held the first-round lead in the Champions Tour’s Quebec Championship last week but a pair of 75s after that relegated him to a tie for 49th place. Hinsdale’s Jeff Sluman tied for 10th and is now in fifth place in the Charles Schwab Cup point race with five events left in the season.

Holmes tops IPGA honorees

Jim Holmes, head professional at Ravinia Green in Riverwoods, has been named the 60th recipient of the Illinois PGA Golf Professional of the Year Award.

Katie Dick, of Chicago’s Bryn Mawr Country Club, is Assistant of the Year while Wheaton’s Gary Pinns was named the Teacher of the Year and Brett Packee of Vernon Hills took the Youth Player Development Award.

Others cited include Eric Aldrich, Glen Ellyn, Player Development Award; Tim Buscombe, Champaign, Bill Strausbaugh Award; Todd Sones, Vernon Hills, Horton Smith Award; and Wally Hines, Naperville, Bill Heald Career Achievement Award. Merchandiser award-winners were Lake Zurich’s Andy Shuman (private clubs) and Hampshire’s Steve Gillie (public facilities). All will be honored Oct. 23 at Medinah

Coming up next

The Illinois State Senior Amateur runs Monday through Wednesday at Royal Club of Long Grove. It has an 85-man field, but figures to be a two-man duel. Either Taylorville’s Dave Ryan, the defending champion, or Kewanee’s Tom Miler have won the last three titles in the event and five of the last six.

There’ll be 18-hole rounds on Monday and Tuesday before the field is cut to the low 35 and ties or any player within 10 shots of the lead for the final round next Wednesday, Sept. 17.

Donald is out of both FedEx Playoffs, Ryder Cup

These are not the best of times for Luke Donald even though his last tournament round was a great one – a 67 to conclude the Deutsche Bank Championship on Monday in Boston.

“A nice round but a disappointing season on the PGA Tour,’’ the former Northwestern star and former world No. 1 said via Twitter. “Have never worked harder, so hopefully that was a glimpse of things to come.’’

Unfortunately, the hot round was only good enough for a tie for 57th place in the second of the four FedEx Cup Playoff events, and that wasn’t all. After the second of the four $8 million tournaments Donald stood 89th in the FedEx Cup standings. Only the top 70 are eligible to play in the third event – the BMW Championship, which tees off Thursday at Cherry Hills in Denver.

That meant Donald will miss out on a great financial opportunity and things got worse for Donald on Tuesday. Paul McGinley, captain of the European Ryder Cup team, bypassed Donald in making his three roster picks for the upcoming matches at Gleneagles in Scotland. McGinley went for Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Stephen Gallacher instead. In so doing, he passed on Donald who had played on four straight winning Ryder Cup teams.

Not only had he been on the Europeans’ roster but Donald also had been one of its stars. He won 70 percent of the points available in his matches, the last of which were played at Medinah two years ago. Of those who have played in at least 15 Ryder Cup matches only Poulter (80 percent) and Arnold Palmer (71.9 percent) have done better than Donald.

Despite his solid Ryder Cup record and the fact that he had publically pushed for McGinley’s selection as European captain, Donald knew he was on the bubble before McGinley made his roster decisions. His game has not been sharp, as evidenced by only one top 35 finish in his last nine starts.

“I told Paul last week that I felt my game was pretty close,’’ Donald told British media members prior to Tuesday’s announcement. “It seems like I’ve been in a bit of a mental rut and not been able to get any momentum going.’’

McGinley was also Donald’s partner in his first Ryder Cup match in 2006, but that didn’t prevent Donald from getting the bad news.

“He wasn’t expecting it. He was very, very disappointed – and rightly so,’’ McGinley said. “That was a very difficult conversation.’’

Missing the last two FedEx events will be difficult, too. The BMW Championship was played at Conway Farms in Lake Forest — Donald’s home course – last year and will return there in 2015. The Western Golf Assn., which conducts the event to raise funds for its Evans Scholars Foundation, has opted to play the tournament away from Chicago every other year. That’s why it’s in Denver this time.

Last year’s event at Conway was won by Zach Johnson, but the week’s highlight was a 59 by Jim Furyk. Both are in the field at Cherry Hills. So is Wheaton’s Kevin Streelman, who is No. 38 in the FedEx standings after finishing in a tie for 26th at the Deutsche Bank Championship.

Streelman needs a good week to get into the top 30 in the standings and earn a spot in the last FedEx event – the Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta. The FedEx point leader after that event will earn a $10 million bonus in addition to his prize money.

Deutsche Bank winner Chris Kirk, world No. 1 Rory McIlroy and Hunter Mahan, winner of the first playoff event (The Barclays), are 1-2-3 in the standings going into the BMW.

Here and there

The PGA’s satellite Web.com Tour holds the second of its four playoff events, the Chiquita Classic in North Carolina, starting on Thursday. It’s important for Elgin’s Carlos Sainz Jr. because the top 25 in the Web.com Finals get PGA Tour cards for 2015. Sainz is tied for 19th after last week’s first event in the series at Fort Wayne, Ind.

The last major local competition, the Oct. 5-7 Chicago Open, has its first qualifying round in the area at Village Links of Glen Ellyn on Monday. The only other one locally will be Sept. 25 at Makray Memorial in Barrington before the tournament proper is played at Cantigny in Wheaton.

The Illinois Senior Open runs Monday and Tuesday at McHenry and the Chicago District Golf Assn. holds its Par 3 Championship Monday at Lost Dunes in Bridgman, MI., and its Mid-Amateur Championship Tuesday at Bridges of Poplar Creek in Hoffman Estates.

Back-to-back tournaments present a challenge for WGA

This may well be the busiest two weeks in the Western Golf Association’s 105-year history.

The WGA, based in north suburban Golf, does much of its fundraising for its Evans Scholars Foundation through the staging of big tournaments. Until last year that basically meant putting on three events that were spread out over the course of the summer.

Last year the WGA added a fourth tournament – the Hotel Fitness Championship, which is part of the Web.com Tour Finals. This year the WGA will conduct the same four events, and the Western Junior and Western Amateur have already been held. The last two professional events will be held in back-to-back weeks.

The Hotel Fitness Championship tees off Thursday at Sycamore Hills in Fort Wayne, Ind., and the WGA’s biggest event follows with a Sept. 4-6 staging of the BMW Championship at Cherry Hills in Denver. The WGA staff will work both.

“It was different last year,’’ said WGA president and chief executive officer John Kaczkowski. “We had a week in between, and it was a little easier to manage them.’’

It’s not as easy this time. The Hotel Fitness Championship has 125 players – among them Elgin’s Carlos Sainz Jr. — battling to earn places on the PGA Tour for 2015. A week later the top 70 in the FedEx Cup standings after this week’s Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston will battle for an $8 million purse at Cherry Hills.

The BMW Championship was held at Conway Farms in Lake Forest last year, which eliminated travel considerations for the WGA staffers. That’s not the case this time.

“At the end of the day it’s easier to run a tournament in Chicago,’’ said Kaczkowski, “but moving it is better for the organization. It gives us more exposure and is more lucrative for the Evans Scholars.’’

The more money raised, the more caddies that can receive college scholarships. The WGA has been providing them since 1930 and more than 800 are currently in college on Evans Scholarships.

This week’s Hotel Fitness Championship was created when the PGA Tour revised its qualifying school format. It brings together the top 75 players on the Web.com Tour money list and players ranked 125-130 on the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup standings.

“It’s an interesting event with a really good field,’’ said Kaczkowski. “There’s some pretty big names in it (ex-major champions Mike Weir, Ben Curtis and Trevor Immelman). It’s taken awhile for the Fort Wayne community to understand what’s going on, but this year we’ve seen an uptick in ticket sales and we’re optimistic we’ll get good crowds.’’

Sainz barely made the field. His tie for 41st in the Web.com’s last regular season event, the Portland Open, gave him the No. 74 spot on the money list.

The BMW Championship returns to Conway Farms in 2015. Conway closed earlier this month for renovations, which include an upgrading of the practice ranging and re-grassing of all the greens in preparation for the return of the BMW.

Crooked Stick, in Carmel, Ind., is expected to host in 2016. The BMW Championship was played there in 2012 with Rory McIlroy winning the title. Club members are expected to formally approve the tourney’s return on Thursday. The previous event at Crooked Stick was one of the best-attended tournaments, with 143,000 showing up during the course of the week. It was also voted the PGA Tour’s Tournament of the Year.

Titles on line for IPGA, Mid-Am

The final rounds for both the 92nd Illinois PGA Championship and 22nd Illinois State Mid-Amateur will be played on Wednesday. The IPGA began its 54-hole run on Monday at Stonewall Orchard in Grayslake and the Mid-Am started with 36 holes on Tuesday at Flossmoor Country Club.

Fields at both tournaments were cut after Tuesday’s rounds. The IPGA started with 117 players but only the low 60 and ties after 36 holes will play on Wednesday. The Mid-Am teed off with 81 players and was cut to the low 35 and ties plus any player within 10 shots of the lead for Wednesday’s wrapup.

Defending champions are Mike Small in the IPGA Championship and Todd Mitchell in the Mid-Am. Small is seeking his 11th win in the IPGA Championship and Mitchell is after his fifth victory in the Mid-Am. He won in both 2011 and 2013 at Flosssmoor.

New finishing holes enhance Michigan’s Crooked Tree

PETOSKEY, MI. – Boyne Resorts may be best known for skiing nationwide, but golf has never been just an afterthought. That was clearly evident this season when Boyne undertook two major projects simultaneously on its Michigan courses.

Crooked Tree’s No. 16 offers a spectacular view of Little Traverse Bay from the tee. (All photos courtesy of Boyne Golf).
The bunkers on The Moor layout at Boyne Highlands Resort underwent an extensive renovation while nearby Crooked Tree Golf Club was given an even more noteworthy updating. The Crooked Tree project represents, arguably, the most significant work done in this golf –rich state in 2014. That’s saying something, since Michigan has over 800 public courses.

Crooked Tree’s original designer was Harry Bowers, his creation opening in 1991. Bowers has worked with Robert Trent Jones Sr., Raymond Floyd and Curtis Strange on various projects in addition to his own designs, which include Odyssey in Tinley Park, IL (done with Strange). It opened a year after Crooked Tree.

A good tee shot at No.16 will give you this approach to the green.

Plenty of players liked the challenges Crooked Tree presented, to say nothing of the scenic views it offered of Lake Michigan’s Little Traverse Bay, but Bernie Friedrich, Boyne senior vice president of golf and retail operations, is quick to admit that all was not ideal with the original design.

There were issues with the three finishing holes. The well-respected architect Arthur Hills, who has another course named in his honor at Boyne Highlands, was brought in to correct the problems.

“We had three finishing holes that, frankly, weren’t very pleasing,’’ said Friedrich, in his 38th season with Boyne. “People would leave with a bad taste in their mouths.’’

For many players, those holes were too tough but Friedrich insists that Hills’ re-design effort wasn’t about making the holes easier.

“Easier? No,’’ he said. “It made them more playable. There’s a difference.’’

No. 16 is a par-4 that measures 389 yards from the back tees and 310 from the front. Hills’ version has some enthusiastic supporters, one telling me “We now have one of the best holes in North America.’’

It is indeed memorable. Little Traverse Bay doesn’t come into play, but it’s highly visible from the elevated tee. A good drive can leave you with another nice look, a downhill shot to a green blocked in part by a pond front right. The fairway was extended and the green moved behind the pond. That represented a big change for the hole.

Much more work was needed at No. 17, a par-5 that now plays 510 yards from the tips and 379 from the front markers.

“It was a really bad golf hole,’’ said Friedrich. An assessment can’t get any more blunt than that.

“A 10-handicapper would hit a driver, then lay up with a 9-iron and then hit a 150-shot over a ravine to the green,’’ said Friedrich, describing the old No. 17. “Women’s couldn’t play it. They’d skip it.’’

So, Hills backed up the tees, moved 165 yards of dirt, lowered the green and flattened it out. Friedrich now calls it “a very pleasant par-5.’’

No. 17 at Crooked Tree has gone from a “bad golf hole” to a “pleasant par-5” in part because of this new tee placement.

The finishing hole is now a 431-yard par-4 and can be played as short as 272 yards. The green’s the thing here. No. 18 shares the same green with No. 9. Previously it lacked a variety of pin positions for a finishing hole. Now it has three tiers, so there’s plenty of them. The fairway was also moved and some bunkers narrowed, the end result being a more playable hole before you head to the clubhouse.

Friedrich reports the new holes have been “extremely well received,’’ but it wasn’t a quick fix and it didn’t come cheap. Hills began his work last fall and the course re-opened on June 11 after an array of challenges.

The new holes were seeded twice because “horrible’’ spring weather resulted in 11 inches of rain falling in a three-week span. That led to the decision to lay sod instead.

“Otherwise we would have ended up trying to grow grass all years,’’ said Friedrich. “It turned out very expensive – in excess of $600,000 for just those three holes.’’

The project, though, produced the desired result. “The course is fun to play, and you leave the golf course with a much better feeling now,’’ said Friedrich.

His job, of course, encompasses much more than Crooked Tree. Within Michigan he’s also responsible for the Arthur Hills, Donald Ross Memorial, The Heather, Hidden River and The Moor at Boyne Highlands as well as The Alpine and The Monument at Boyne Mountain Resort and The Links, The Quarry and The Preserve at Bay Harbor.

He also oversees Boyne courses in Montana and Maine, and most are also impacted by busy ski seasons. Sometimes those seasons overlap. Two years ago, for instance, northern Michigan had 80-degree temperatures in March.

“We were trying to stretch out the ski season, and we were making snow on one side of a hill and on the other side (where golf holes were in place) we were watering,’’ said Friedrich. But that is highly unusual.

“If golf and skiing are going on in this climate at the same time it’s probably not very good for either one of them,’’ said Friedrich. “Having them together depends on the year, but it’s not a goal. We start golf in May (in Michigan) when a lot of holes still have snow on them and we’ll see snow until June.’’

Michigan’s True North brings Carlson out of retirement

HARBOR SPRINGS, MI. – Terry Carlson thought his working life was done after being a head golf professional in the Chicago area for 26 years and then getting a big sendoff into retirement at a prestigious club in Arizona.

Terry Carlson couldn’t turn down the chance to work at True North.

Forty years as a club professional plus one as a player on the Champions Tour seemed like plenty until Carlson got a call from one of his former members. He wanted Carlson to spend four summer months running the golf operation at True North, a northern Michigan club that had undergone an ownership change and was in transition.

“I never realized how beautiful the courses are here,’’ said Carlson, who just reached his 70th birthday. “And I was overwhelmed when I saw this place. It’s a top-50 golf course in America. Every hole is just gorgeous.’’

The addition of five golf cottages has made True North a more attractive destination.

Carlson knows all about good golf courses. He was the head pro at Elgin Country Club for 10 years, then spent 16 in a similar position at Glen Oak in Glen Ellyn. While at Glen Oak he served term as president of the Illinois PGA.

Then he got a call from Estancia Club, a Scottsdale, Ariz., private facility that has a course ranked in America’s Top 100 Courses by Golf Digest magazine. Its members include two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson and several other PGA Tour players. Carlson spent 14 years there.

In addition to his club duties in Arizona and Illinois Carlson was a good enough player to earn playing privileges on the Champions Tour for one season and play in nine major championships.

“I’m very proud of that. Club pros today don’t get a chance to do that,’’ said Carlson. “It was a great life for me.’’

Carlson left Scottsdale after his retirement and moved to New Orleans to be close to family members. Then came the call from True North.

Elevation changes, on both the tees and greens, add to the challenge at True North.

“I jumped at the chance to come here,’’ said Carlson. True North has 67 members, and the list isn’t quite like it was at Estancia with its array of PGA Tour players. True North, however, does have Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly, former Michigan coach Lloyd Carr and the son of Hord Hardin, former chairman of the Masters tournament for Augusta National.

True North has an interesting history. Its designer was the well-respected Jim Engh, whose first Michigan design – Tullymore in Stanwood – was an immediate hit in the Midwest. True North, which opened two years later in 2003, is at least as good. Carlson calls it a “good, tough and fair’’ layout. It measures 7,040 yards from the back tees with a rating of 73.2 and slope of 146.

“(Engh) has a specific style with his bunkering,’’ said Matt Payne, True North’s general manager. “What he did here was let the course flow with the natural terrain.’’

The first ownership group wanted the course to be the centerpiece for a real estate development. That didn’t work out. The next wanted to go fully public. That didn’t work, either. The present four-man group of owners is moving in a different direction, with five new golf cottages built in the last two years to create a setting for a national membership..

“They wanted a fully private, low volume, high quality level experience,’’ said Payne. “Our members just want a place to play when they come. We’re pretty casual, a first-name club that’s unique to the area. We don’t need a lot of members to make the place successful. We just need the right people to make it successful.’’

An up-close view of the wildlife is an added attraction to a round a True North.

Northern Michigan is loaded with good golf courses, most of them public or resort layouts. But not True North. Payne says the initial target for members is 150.

“We’re building a private club, which means we’re trying to sell privacy,’’ said Carlson. “We’re kind of bucking the trend. This is a place where a guy who doesn’t want to own a second home – and a lot don’t these days – can come and stay in our cottages. We take care of everything from the moment he arrives until the moment he leaves and we can pick up him and take him back to the airport. For a guy looking for a vacation home, this is a pretty good choice.’’

The club is offering generational memberships, meaning a member’s privileges extend to a spouse, parents and all dependents of the members. The club is looking to fill the membership roster with more than just individuals, but with a lineage of legacy that will be with the club for many years down the road. The member also has the ability to transfer the membership to a dependent at any time.

National corporate memberships are also an option. The club is offering one-time visits for non-members to enable them to experience the club, the cost depending on rounds played, cart and lodging fees and transportation requirements. Details on how that works is available through www.truenorthgolf.com.