Author: lenz

Can Niebrugge match Spieth’s feat at JDC?

There’s an interesting combination in the field for this week’s John Deere Classic, the only PGA Tour event played in Illinois in 2014.

Steve Stricker, who considers himself semi-retired because he plays only a limited tournament schedule, has long been a JDC mainstay. He became the 44-year old tourney’s only three-peat winner when he ruled in 2009-11,

Jordan Niebrugge, meanwhile, will be one of the youngest players in the 156-man starting field. The 20-year old junior at Oklahoma State University is in the field on a sponsor’s exemption after a dazzling 2013 season in which he won the U.S. Amateur Public Links title, the Wisconsin Amateur, the Wisconsin Match Play Championship and the Western Amateur.

Stricker, 47, and the 6-4 Niebrugge are both from Wisconsin. One’s a fading star on the circuit, the other a promising newcomer. They met at the Masters in April and played a practice round together.

After the JDC ends on Sunday Stricker will decide whether to get on the tourney’s charter jet to the British Open and Niebrugge will step up preparations for his title defense at the Western Amateur, which will be played a Chicago’s Beverly Country Club from July 28-Aug. 2.

Going to the British wasn’t a major consideration for Stricker going in to last week’s Greenbrier Classic, but he said he’d consider it if he was playing well. After contending for three round he struggled to a final round 74 at the Greenbrier and tied for 35th place. He’s finished in the JDC top 10 seven times in the last 10 years.

Niebrugge, from the Milwaukee suburb of Mequon, will be playing in his first PGA Tour event at the JDC. After missing the cut at the Masters he’s sure the connection with Stricker will help.

“I’ve looked up to him,’’ said Niebrugge. “He played Wisconsin golf, so it was cool to get to play with him. He’s such a down-to-earth guy, and a family guy. I’ve been around him two or three times, and I’ve learned a lot from him every time I’ve been with him.’’

Niebrugge has even hit balls at Stricker’s winter practice building near Madison with Dennis Tiziani, Stricker’s longtime instructor and father-in-law, on hand to consult.

“You’re able to play golf in the snow,’’ said Niebrugge. “I’ve been there a lot. It’s a little building that’s probably got 10-12 hitting stalls, and it’s heated with mats. There’s a driving range out in the distance.’’

The No. 4-ranked amateur in the world, Niebrugge will be trying to replicate what Jordan Spieth did at last year’s JDC. Spieth, in his rookie pro season, became only the fourth player under 20 to win on the PGA Tour and the youngest since Ralph Guldahl won the Santa Monica Open in 1931. Spieth continued his stellar play and is ranked No. 10 in the world going into his first title defense on the PGA Tour.

The 72-hole, $4.7 million tourney begins on Thursday at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, which in on the outskirts of Moline. Sunday’s champion gets $846,000.

Another State Am at Cantigny

Next up on a busy tournament calendar is the 84th Illinois State Amateur, which tees off next Tuesday at Cantigny, in Wheaton. Cantigny, celebrating its 25th anniversary, will host the event for the fourth time and first since 2008.

Tee-K Kelly, a Wheaton resident who plays for Ohio State, is the defending champion. The winner last year at Aldeen, in Rockford, he heads a field of 136 players. Most earned their places in the 10 state-wide qualifying rounds.

All qualifiers will play 18 holes Tuesday and Wednesday, July 16. The low 35 and ties after 36 holes or any player within 10 shots of the lead will compete over the final 36 holes, all to be played on Thursday, July 17.

Here and there

Brian Carroll, of Royal Hawk in St. Charles, was a three-shot winner of Monday’s Village Links of Glen Ellyn Classic for Illinois PGA members after shooting a 7-under-par 65. The IPGA’s National Car Renal Pro-Am is on tap for next Monday at Chicago Highlands, in Westchester.

The Chicago District Golf Assn. will conduct a qualifying round for the U.S. Amateur on Friday at Heritage Bluffs in Channahon.

Eddie Fernandes, who trains at The Catalyst golf facilities in the Chicago area, won a regional qualifier for the ReMax World Long Drive Championship in Orlando, FL.

IT ZIEHMS TO ME: Woods won’t have White Eagle record for long

Sooner rather than later one of Tiger Woods’ longest-standing course records will be broken. I suspect it won’t take long. Curtis Malm just needs to find someone willing to play the championship tees with him at White Eagle Golf Club.

No one plays back there these days on White Eagle’s Red-White rotation of nines that comprise its championship course. (Another course record of 64 was set by member Ron Potter in 1998 using the regular tees).

Woods was still an amateur in the mid-1990s when he shot 4-under-par 68 while in town to play in the Western Open. Malm, the Illinois PGA Player-of-the-Year the last two seasons, became White Eagle’s head professional last winter and certainly has the game to take Woods’ name off the record books – and you can be sure he’ll be trying to do just that.

White Eagle players face a shot towards the clubhouse to finish their rounds.
In the meantime, White Eagle is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. It’s a vibrant private club located in Naperville on the Aurora border that has a tournament history that shouldn’t be forgotten.

The club was created amidst cornfields for its opening in 1989. Just three years later its Red-White nines were used for the LPGA Chicago Sun-Times Shootout. The tourney was first held the year before at Oak Brook Golf Club, when Martha Nause produced one of the greatest finishes in LPGA history to win the title.

Nause finished birdie-birdie-birdie-eagle, holing out from the fairway on the last hole to beat Kris Monaghan by one stroke in the LPGA’s first return to Chicago in 18 years. The LPGA had a Chicago stop in its first season of 1950, but was a very sporadic visitor after that. Though the U.S. Women’s Open was played at LaGrange Country Club in 1974 and 1981, the last LPGA Tour stop before the Sun-Times Shootout was in 1973 – the Child & Family Service Open at Midlane, in Wadsworth.

As exciting as Nause’s win at Oak Brook was, the tourney profile was definitely elevated by the move to White Eagle – the first Arnold Palmer-designed course in Illinois.

White Eagle hosted in 1992, when Dottie Mochrie won the title. (She was married then, but later assumed her maiden name of Pepper and went on to a career as a top TV golf analyst).

The Sun-Times’ role as title sponsor ended after the 1993 tourney, won by a relative unknown in Cindy Schreyer, and Peter Fleming – best known as John McEnroe’s doubles partner on the tennis circuit – was the leader in keeping the event alive in 1994. The tourney was renamed the Chicago Challenge, and Jane Geddes was the champion.

Sponsorship was hard to come by after that, but the successful three-year run at White Eagle led to Chicago getting the U.S. Women’s Open again in 2000 (Karrie Wood winning at the Merit Club in Libertyville) and another LPGA Tour stop. The Kellogg-Keebler Classic was played at Stonebridge, in Aurora, from 2002-04 and it had high-profile champions in Annika Sorenstam (2002, 2003) and Webb (2004).

White Eagle hasn’t needed big tournaments to thrive since then. It added its Blue nine in 1996, making it one of the few private facilities in Chicago with more than 18 holes. A few years ago a golf simulator was added for use in the winter. The club has 75 players in its busy junior program, a caddie program that employs 40-45 youngsters, clay courts for tennis buffs and a swimming program that has participants from beyond the club membership.

The Chicago District Golf Association’s Sunshine Through Golf program also is a six-week visitor during the summer and the club hosts about 80 weddings and 20 corporate outings each year.

Malm’s arrival suggests a significant competitive event might be in the club’s future again, but only time will tell. For now club leadership is planning a renovation process that will strictly focus on enhancing the golf experiences for its members and guests. Part of the 25th anniversary celebration included an outing that featured Greg Huigens (photo below at right), who was both the men’s champion and men’s senior champion at White Eagle in 2013. Joining us the the celebration outing are Chicagoland Golf publisher Val Russell (left) and club historian Chip Wagner (second from left).

JDC may have had humble beginnings — but look at PGA Tour stop now!

The John Deere Classic wasn’t always the John Deere Classic. Illinois’ only visit from the PGA Tour in 2014 had a modest beginning. For starters, it was called the Quad Cities Open and was only a satellite event on the circuit in 1971.

That first event was played on 6501-yard Crow Valley Country Club in Bettendorf, Iowa. Deane Beman – later to become the PGA Tour commissioner – took home a check for $5,000 for winning the first tournament, and Crow Valley got the attention of some prospective home buyers who purchased property around the course.

Things didn’t change much the next year. Beman won again (but this time his check was for $20,000) and there were more home owners around Crow Valley. Beman played one more year, finishing in a tie for sixth in 1973, and Crow Valley hosted two more times, Sam Adams winning in 1973 and Dave Stockton in 1974.

That’s how it all began. The tourney moved to Oakwood Country Club in Coal Valley, IL., the next year and remained until 1999. During its stay there the tourney had a variety of names – the Ed McMahon-Jaycees Quad City Open from 1975-79, the Quad Cities Open again from 1980-81, the Miller High-Life Quad Cities Open from 1982-84, the Lite Quad Cities Open in 1985, Hardee’s Golf Classic from 1986-94, the Quad City Classic from 1995-98 and – finally – the John Deere Classic.

Going back to Crow Valley and Oakwood is always fun. I’ve played both, most recently Oakwood last month. Both are still very nice private clubs, but TPC Deere Run was a big factor in taking the tournament to a new level.

John Deere, the official Golf Course Equipment Supplier of the PGA Tour, became the title sponsor of the tournament in 1999 and the tourney moved to TPC John Deere Run the following year.

For years the tournament, in one of the smallest markets on the PGA Tour, carried on with its future in limbo. That’s no longer the case. Now it’s one of the biggest success stories on the circuit.

The JDC will be held for 44th straight year from July 7-13 with a $4.7 million purse and no worries about the quality of its field. The tourney at first had September dates, in the days before the FedEx Cup playoffs. Lots of top players were reluctant to play after August’s PGA Championship in those days.

Then the JDC was moved to July, but in a time slot a week before the British Open. Many players opted to use JDC week for rest and more leisurely travel across the pond until JDC director Clair Peterson hired a jet to fly them directly to the British Open site a few hours after the last putt dropped at TPC Deere Run.

Peterson made that innovative move seven years ago, and the field has been solid ever since. This year’s has the most exciting young player in golf, 20-year old Jordan Spieth, as its defending champion and popular past champions Steve Stricker and Zach Johnson return as well.

TPC Deere Run is located in Silvis, IL. Like Oakwood, the course is on the outskirts of the Quad Cities – officially comprised of Moline and Rock Island in Illinois and Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa.

Those Mississippi River towns roughly two hours west of Chicago have a combined 375,000 residents. Last year’s John Deere Classic helped raise $6.3 million for 467 charities in the Quad Cities area, ranking it first overall on the PGA Tour in per capital contributions. Since 1971 the tournament has helped raise $55.38 million for charity. Golf has indeed been good to the people of the Quad Cities.

“We’re so fortunate to have a golf course like this and an operation like this,’’ said Peterson. “Deere Run is one of the great venues on the Tour.’’

This year there was one significant change in the ranks. Alex Stuedemann is now the head superintendent, replacing Paul Grogan who has moved into retirement but is still involved.

Otherwise, it’s efficient business as usual with Laura “Divot’’ Ekizian heading the 1,400 tournament volunteers for a staff that is headed by Peterson, director of sales and operation Sally Welvaert, assistant tournament director Andrew Lehman, office manager Vickie McWhorter, administrative assistant Sara Stalf, Birdies for Charity leader Kristy Kethcham Jackson and Amy Orendorff, manager of charity development and services.

“This is truly a team of professionals, and they’re passionate about what they do and they’re committed to doing it the right way,’’ said Ekizian. “Within the PGA Tour ranks they’re respected for the results they bring year in and year out.’’

Peterson’s jet will fly to the British Open again, this time to Royal Liverpool, and his longstanding sponsor exemption policy has bolstered the tournament as well.

`We have a proud history of giving elite young players an opportunity to test their games against the highest level of competition,’’ he said. “By doing so, the tournament gives its loyal fans a glimpse of the PGA Tour’s future stars.’’

Provide a helping hand to a young player in need, and he’ll tend to remember that kindness down the road. That was never more evident this year, when Spieth prepared to defend his first PGA Tour title. He had received a sponsor’s exemption in 2012 when Johnson emerged the JDC champion.

Spieth would have received another invitation last year had he needed it, but he got into the 156-man field off his own record and the 19-year old went on to become the youngest winner of a top-level professional tour event in the last 80 years. He outplayed Johnson and Canadian David Hearn in a five-hole playoff after holing a bunker shot on the last hole of regulation play to stay in contention.

“There’s no way I win last year without that opportunity the year before,’’ said Spieth. “There’s no way that I’m able to feel comfortable and make the adjustment on the PGA Tour so quickly without the few starts I was given….This is just a very, very special tournament close to my heart, not because I won. It already was before that. This tournament just does it right. I love coming to the Quad Cities. There’s nowhere that has people this nice.’’

Johnson, a JDC sponsor exemption in 2002 and 2003, is on the tournament board of directors and has sponsorship from the tournament. Others who received invites to play in the Quad Cities include Justin Leonard (1994), Tiger Woods (1996), Matt Kuchar (2001), Jason Day (2006) and Patrick Reed (2013). Their careers have blossomed, and this year Peterson has given exemptions to four college stars – Stanford’s Patrick Rodgers and Cameron Wilson, Oklahoma State’s Jordan Niebrugge and Iowa’s Steven Ihm.

Rodgers is the world’s No. 1-ranked amateur. Wilson, ranked No. 2, won this year’s NCAA individual championship.

Troyanovich, the 2012 champion, could be first Mistwood player to win IWO

July will be a huge tournament month for Chicago’s best golfers, but especially for the women.

The biggest spectator event for the women comes first – the new International Crown at Caves Valley in Owings Mills, Md., from July 21-27. This is big for Chicago in particular, because the international team event’s second staging – and maybe more after that – will be played at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove in 2016. Get familiar with the event now, and you’ll be a big fan when it comes to Chicago. But more on that later.

The day after the International Crown ends the Phil Kosin Illinois Women’s Open will tee off at Mistwood, in Romeoville. It’ll be the tourney’s 20th anniversary, and the 16th year it has been played at Mistwood.

Interestingly, Illinois golfers haven’t fared so well in their premier state championship and a Mistwood player has never won.

In fact, players from Michigan have won five of the last six titles. Jenna Pearson’s second IWO win in 2011 was the only victory by an Illinois golfer in that period, though Berwyn LPGA Tour player Nicole Jeray went to a playoff last year, losing to Elise Swartout, and Burr Ridge amateur Samantha Postillion did the same in 2012 when Samantha Troyanovich claimed the crown.

This year’s July 28-30 staging could be different – sort of. It all depends on how Troyanovich fares. Her story is an interesting one.

Troyanovich was a Michigan amateur and recent graduate of Tulane University when she took the 2012 title. That automatically made her a Mistwood member, but Troyanovich didn’t take advantage of the perk offered by owner Jim McWethy immediately.

“I took a year off from golf to get my Masters in accounting,’’ said Troyanovich. “I wanted to get that done first.’’

That mission accomplished, Troyanovich left Michigan in search of a career in professional golf. She worked during the winter with Jim Suttie, the well-regarded instructor who teaches at Mistwood, during the winter in Naples, Fla.

After that she took up residence in Naperville in May so she could work with Mike Baldwin, who directs Mistwood’s upscale new Performance Center.

“I needed to work with Mike,’’ she said. “He’s my coach, and I’m a full member (at Mistwood) and it’s my job from 9:30 to 5. It’s a perfect setup.’’

Troyanovich turned pro in January and competed on the Suncoast Tour. Since then she’s had trouble getting into tournaments. She has very limited status on the LPGA’s Symetra Tour and has entered LPGA and U.S. Women’s Open qualifiers and competed in the Michigan Women’s Open. The IWO on her home course, though, could be her best bet of the year for a career breakthrough before she enters the first stage of LPGA Qualifying School in California next month.

“The first time I played the Illinois Women’s Open it was a shot in the dark. I had no idea what it’d be like,’’ she said. Now she does.

WATCHING THE CROWN: Though Rich Harvest won’t host the global team event until 2016 owner Jerry Rich and his staff are already making the competition something special. They’ve developed a series of watch parties, much like the Blackhawks put on at various locations during their long run in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Fans of the various countries will have a location where they can watch the competition live.

One will be held from July 25-27 on a jumbotron at the Sugar Grove Corn Boil. Others are scheduled on July 26 at the City Gate Center in Naperville and the Stonegate Conference Center in Hoffman Estates. Rich Harvest members and their guests will have their own version on the final day of this year’s Crown, on July 27.

More such parties are in the planning stages, and details on all of them will be announced soon. They’ll provide a new dimension to what is already the most unique new event in tournament golf.

REMEMBERING PAYNE: This year marks the 25th anniversary of Payne Stewart’s first win in a major championship. The breakthrough came at the 1989 PGA Championship at Kemper Lakes and the Kildeer club, which went private in 2003, celebrated that occasion as well as its own 35th anniversary with a Payne Stewart Legacy Night during the week of the Encompass Championship.

Peter Jacobsen, the most entertaining golfer off the course, was featured as the current winner of the Payne Stewart Award. Among other things, he voiced strong support for Kemper to return as a major tournament venue.

The Stewart Legacy Night also was the last event for Janet Dobson, the club’s general manager. She announced her retirement after 35 years at the club and John Hosteland was promoted from head professional to GM as Dobson’s replacement.

MOVEMENT AT MEDINAH: The No. 3 course at Medinah Country Club got plenty of attention in recent years as it was prepared for U.S. Opens, PGA Championships and the 2012 Ryder Cup. That was understandable, but it also worked to the club’s disadvantage.

The demand for play on No. 3 made it difficult for members to get tee times, but that won’t be a problem any longer. Renovation work on the No. 1 course started the day after the Ryder Cup ended and it was opened for play in July. Michigan architect Tom Doak supervised the renovation, the end result being his first creation in Illinois.

No. 1 is expected to lessen play on No. 3. Members are excited about the new layout, and their guests will be, too. And that’s not all.

Club president Matt Lydon expects a restoration of the No. 2 course, designated mainly women and youth, will begin next fall.

MILESTONE FOR CANTIGNY: The Illinois State Amateur is coming to the 27-hole Wheaton facility from July 15-17. It’ll be the fourth time Cantigny has hosted that big event, and this staging falls during the facility’s 25th anniversary. In 1989 it was selected as the Best New Public Course in America by Golf Digest, and its reputation has only been enhanced over the years.

The State Am was previously played at Cantigny in 1996, 2002 and 2008. The Chicago Open, revived at Cantigny last October, will also be held there this fall.

JDC playoff win provided a career breakthrough for Spieth

The only PGA Tour event in Illinois is coming up next week, and that means the return of Jordan Spieth. His victory in the John Deere Classic last year was one of the best feel-good stories in golf last year.

Spieth was just 19 when he survived a five-hole playoff with 2012 champion Zach Johnson and Canadian David Hearn to win last year’s JDC at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, about a two-hour drive from Chicago on the outskirts of Moline. That made Spieth the youngest winner of a major pro tour event since Ralph Guldahl won the Santa Monica Open in 1931.

Just a year earlier Spieth was invited into the tournament as one of tournament director Clair Peterson’s sponsor exemptions. He learned from that experience, turned pro and was an instant factor on the PGA Tour but the JDC is still his only victory.

Peterson has traditionally invited promising young players – this year he’s bringing in college stars Cameron Wilson, Patrick Rodgers, Jordan Niebrugge and Steven Ihm – and Spieth wishes other tournament directors would do the same. Most prefer to give their coveted exemptions to struggling older players who have supported their event in the past.

“Other tournaments need to look at this one as an example,’’ said Spieth. “There’s no way I win last year without getting those starts (off amateur invites). This tournament does it right.’’

Spieth was six strokes off the lead going into the final round last year, was nursing a sore wrist and made bogey on the first hole. Then everything came together, and he holed a bunker shot on the last hole of regulation play to earn his spot in the playoff.

“I had two shots that were more important than the bunker shot but that one was the most exciting,’’ said Spieth. “It was such a shock.’’

Spieth and Johnson, who is on the JDC board of directors, were partners in last fall’s Presidents Cup matches and Spieth will play in Johnson’s charity event on Sunday and Monday in Cedar Rapids, Ia., before arriving at TPC Deere Run.

Since his win at Deere Run Spieth finished second in both the Tournament of Champions and Masters, tied for fourth in The Players Championship, tied for 17th in the U.S. Open and climbed to No. 6 in the world rankings. He’s the highest-ranked player in the JDC field.

“I’ve been so set on looking forward,’’ he said. “I want to be the No. 1 player in the world, and I had opportunities to win again and didn’t pull it off, so that goal is still out there.’’

At the JDC he’ll face another strong field that includes Johnson, three-time winner Steve Stricker and Wheaton’s Kevin Streelman, who shocked the PGA Tour with his come-from-behind win at Harford, Ct., in his last start. After missing four straight cuts Streelman shot 28 on his final nine and one-putted his last 10 greens to win the Travelers Championship. Coming off a two-week break, Streelman will be on the chartered jet to the British Open as soon as the last putt drops at TPC Deere Run.

Pro-am play begins there on Monday, and there will also be a pro-am on Wednesday before the 72-hole tournament proper starts on July 10 when $4.7 million in prize money ($846,000 to the champion) is on the line.

Here and there

Hole-in-one reports are commonplace in golf, but not this one. Joe Perica, of Arlington Heights, struck not once but twice at Stonehenge Golf Club in Barrington – and that’s not all. Perica made his two aces a week apart, playing with the same three partners on the same hole using the same club. On June 9 he aced Stonehenge’s 189-yard eighth hole with a 5-wood. On June 16 he did the same. The same foursome returned a week later and Perica’s tee shot on the same hole stopped two feet from the cup.

The JDC comes three weeks after Illinois’ only other pro tour event of 2014, the Encompass Championship at North Shore in Glenview. Next year the two events figure to be played on the same dates. The Encompass has announced a switch to July 6-12 in 2015.

Peoria’s Jordan Fahel won the 95th Chicago District Amateur last week at Hinsdale, beating Blake Johnson, 45-year old Glen View Club member, 2 and 1 in the 36-hole final. Johnson, one of only two players over 30 to make the 16-man match play portion of the event, was in the final for the second straight year.

Three Illinois club professionals came close, but none qualified for the PGA Championship at last week’s Professional Players National Championship in Myrtle Beach, S.C. White Eagle’s Curtis Malm was the odd man out in a six-man playoff to determine the last five qualifiers for the PGA and Conway Farm’s Matt Slowinski and Illinois coach Mike Small both finish one shot out of the playoff. The top 20 club pros at Myrtle Beach earned spots in the PGA Championship.

IT ZIEHMS TO ME: Tweaking is almost done at Erin Hills

Erin Hills has undergone more than its share of tweaks in its brief history, but interest in the layout 35 miles northwest of Milwaukee has never wavered. In fact, enthusiasm for the course has grown with each of the changes made since the opening in 2006.

It’s good news, though, that the alterations are just about done.

“Except for the practice putting green we’re pretty much where we want to be for the U.S. Open,’’ said Jim Reinhart, ‘’ general chairman for the national championship’s first-ever staging in Wisconsin in 2017.

Erin Hills’ new third green isn’t short on pin placements after what figures to be the last big tweak to the course in preparation for the 2017 U.S. Open.
Reinhart, president of the Wisconsin State Golf Assn., was also general chairman of the 2011 U.S. Amateur played at Erin Hills. He likes the progress that’s been made since then. Work on the course began in 2004 under the direction of architects Michael Hurdzan, Dana Fry and Ron Whitten, and Erin Hills became the first course awarded a USA championship (the 2008 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links) before it even opened for play.

None of the events staged so far will have the impact the Open will have, of course. Recent U.S. Opens have had an economic impact on its area of between $120 and $160 million. Erin Hills is excited about its upcoming time in the sun – and is already looking behind 2017.

“We’ve seen tremendous building in and around the golf course,’’ said Reinhart. “We’re proud of where we’ve come from and where’s we’re at today. We certainly hope this is just the beginning for U.S. Opens at Erin Hills. We don’t look on this as a one-and-done opportunity.’’

The course has conducted media briefing days each year since being awarded its U.S. Open, and this year’s spotlight was put on Zach Reineking, the course superintendent who was on the job even before the course opened. He outlined the most recent changes, the biggest coming at the par-4 third hole, which is designed to play at 478 yards from the back tees. Reineking said No. 3 turned into a bigger project than originally planned.

“It started with a re-design of just the green,’’ he said.

This is the new fourth cottage, which adds to the lodging options at Erin Hills.

In the end, though, that putting surface wasn’t just re-designed to get more pin locations. It was also moved 18 yards to the right and three bunkers were added to protect it.

“Now it’s one of our better holes,’’ Reineking said.

Two new tees were added at No. 5, another was put it at No. 15 to create the possibility of a drive-able par-4 and still another was put in at No. 17 to create a different angle into the fairway.

“One reason the USGA liked Erin Hills was because (executive director) Mike Davis liked the flexibility of the golf course,’’ said Reinhart. “We also have the space (more than 652 acres) for the corporate setup, and we’re excited about the number of spectators we can have for 2017 (an estimated 45,000 per day). We’re one of the few places where you can have corporate hospitality right on the golf course, and we’re sure we’ll have a lot of that here.’’

Erin Hills now has many similarities with Pinehurst No. 2, which hosted both the U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open this year. That was the first time those big events were staged back-to-back on the same course and the experiment has generally been considered a success.

“We share a lot of the same philosophies as Pinehurst. We have very restricted irrigation,’’ said Reineking. “How we manage our course is very similar to Pinehurst. If we get rain, we get rain. If not we allow those fairways to burn out.’’

Pinehurst has its wire-grass in the rough areas. Erin Hills has 140 acres of unmowed fescue. In recent years 2,000 trees were removed, and that opened up more panoramic views.

“It’s been an evolutionary process,’’ said Reineking. “We’ve gone through several changes since 2006, and the next three years we’ll refine details for 2017.’’

General chairman Jim Reinhart updates the media on Erin Hills’ preparations for the 2017 U.S. Open. John Morrissett, the club’s competitions director, looks on.
John Morrissett, Erin Hills’ competitions director, said tickets would go on sale for the 2017 U.S. Open shortly after; the 2016 U.S. Open concludes at Chambers Bay, in University Place, Wash. Like Wisconsin in 2017, next year’s Open will break new ground, too. It’ll be the first time the national championship is played in the Pacific Northwest.

Two USGA staffers will move to Erin Hills this winter. By the end of 2015 there’ll be a recruitment for volunteers.

“Our U.S. Amateur needed 800,’’ said Morrissett. “The U.S. Open will need about 5,000. We’re fortunate in that we have an enthusiastic, experienced base of volunteers.’’

In the meantime, this future U.S. Open venue continues to attract curious golfers from throughout the world. They’ll be coming right up to the closing date on Oct. 26. It’s all part of the extraordinary golf boom that has engulfed the entire state of Wisconsin the last few years.

“We went from a golf wasteland to one of the premier destinations in American championship golf,’’ said Reinhart.

And that golf boom won’t be subsiding any time soon. Golfers will keep coming.

As far as Erin Hills is concerned, that led to the building of a fourth four-bedroom cottage on the premises that’s now available. Rooms start at $195, suites at $450 and cottages at $1,100. The 2014 green fee is $225 per player plus caddie fees ($50 per player plus a suggested gratuity of $45 per bag).

There’ll also be an event to whet the appetite for the spectator golf to come. Erin Hills will host the Wisconsin State Amateur in 2015.

MISSION HILLS: Thoughts about my walk down memory lane

I found this interesting. My introduction to golf came at age 11 when my mother took me to Mission Hills, then a 27-hole public facility in Northbrook, IL., along with another mother and her son, who was about my age. We still lived on the northwest side of Chicago then and didn’t move to Palatine (actually then-unincorporated Inverness) until the following year.

Mission Hills was one of the older public courses then, having opened in 1926. I didn’t return to the place until about 1975, when the father-son architecture team of Larry and Roger Packard completely renovated the facility and turned it into what I believe to be Chicago’s first golf course community. It had 18 holes that weaved between high-rise condos, and the thinking then was that the housing was too close to the golf course in many places. Mission Hills became a private facility in the middle of a gated community shortly after its opening.

Fast forward to this week and a hot, humid mid-week day. Coupons arrived via email with an extraordinary offer — $25 for 18 holes with power cart at Mission Hills. This was a perfect time for a walk down memory lane.

Mission Hills had struggled economically as a private club in recent years and, like many others, took on public play after an ownership change last year. At that price it was a bargain. Though the clubhouse was undergoing some work, the course was in good condition. It was short and tight by today’s standards – I learned that only the No. 12 hole remained from the course I played my first round on – but the housing didn’t seem quite so close to the course as it did about 40 years ago.

What intrigued me was the price. What could the greens fee have been for my golf debut in 1955-56? My guess is about $25 — and this year the fee also included a power cart. They didn’t exist back then, of course. Golf was a walking game, and we walked this time. I could be wrong about the greens fee estimate, and welcome any more accurate appraisal, but the entire experience got me to thinking, at least a few things haven’t changed all that much over all these years.

Newly-opened Medinah No. 1 might be more popular than No. 3 layout

Medinah Country Club has seen it all in its 90 years of existence – three U.S. Opens, two PGA Championships, three Western Opens, the last Ryder Cup in September of 2012.

Virtually all the big events were held on Medinah’s No. 3 course, and that eventually became a problem. The demands for member and guest play made No. 3 so busy that getting a tee time became difficult. Now that problem’s solved. Last week Medinah re-opened its No. 1 course, and the membership believes it’s good enough to take play from No. 3.

“We love it,’’ said club president Matt Lydon. “This provides us with two distinct golf courses that have the quality to be top-ranted. Course One is no longer in the shadow of Course Three.’’

Medinah membership addressed the issue before the Ryder Cup, hiring Michigan architect Tom Doak to supervise a $6.5 million restoration of No. 1. All three of the club’s courses were built in the 1920s, but No. 3 received virtually all the attention after that. It was renovated several times in preparation for the big tournaments as well as to deal with flooding issues.

Flooding was also addressed when work started on the No. 1 course 13 hours after the Ryder Cup ended on No. 3, but the project turned into much more than that.

“We did know we had to do something about water retention,’’ said Lydon. “Engineers were brought in to tell us what we needed to do to solve the flooding problem. What they told us was that we needed to expand water retention areas in certain spots. Those spots interfered with the routing of the golf course.’’

The end result was that Doak had to change the routing, create six new holes and make alterations to the other 12. That made Medinah No. 1 Doak’s first course in Illinois. His work has been well-received in a variety of other places.

“He did a magnificent job,’’ said Lydon. “He retained the best of the old holes and the new ones he put in are exciting. We won’t have trouble attracting guest play because our members are excited. We’ve found that people who have played No. 3 want to play No. 1, which is more playable for our members. Those courses require different skill sets.’’

Lydon said the club has had “loose discussions’’ about Medinah hosting “a tournament that would involve Nos. 1 and 3 – an amateur event.’’ Though he wouldn’t confirm it, that event sounds exactly like the U.S. Amateur, which will be played at Olympia Fields in 2015. The size of the field (312 players) requires two courses, but that wasn’t a factor in the upgrading of No. 1.

“The real reason was that we wanted our members to have an alternative to No. 3, which can be a brutal test,’’ said Lydon.

Work isn’t over at Medinah, either. The No. 2 course, generally used for women and youth play, is due for a restoration next year. Like the others, it was designed by Tom Bendelow, by far the most active designer in the early years of American golf. Both Nos. 1 and 3 were updated by other architects over the years, but not No. 2.

“It’s an untouched Bendelow design,’’ said Lydon. “Our plans are to restore the original contours of the greens, restore the bunkers, level the tees, improve the fairways and restore it to what it originally was.’’

Rees Jones, the architect who handled the last of the No. 3 renovations, has provided the club with some design work already for No. 2. “But this isn’t a re-design,’’ said Lydon. “It’s a restoration.’’

Here and there

Three of the players in Champions Tour’s Encompass Championship at North Shore – John Inman, Tom Byrum and Jose Coceres — survived Monday’s U.S. Senior Open qualifier at Village Links of Glen Ellyn. So did Oak Lawn’s Lance Ten Broeck, the former PGA Tour player and long-time caddie on that circuit. Medalist was Wesley Short of Austin, Tex., with a 6-under-par 66.

The 95th Chicago District Amateur runs through Thursday at Hinsdale Golf Club. The championship match is over 36 holes on the final day.

Northbrook’s Vince India had a breakthrough round on the Web.com Tour on Sunday, shooting a 64 to claim his best finish (tie for 17th) and biggest paycheck ($9,000) in his rookie season on the developmental circuit.

Three University of Illinois golfers – Brian Campbell, Thomas Detry and Charlie Danielson – were accorded All-America status, the first time the Illini have had three so honored since Luke Guthrie, Scott Langley and Chris DeForest were selected in 2011.

ENCOMPASS: Cochran’s 64 was the best at North Shore

It may have been too little too late, but Russ Cochran took more than a mediocre paycheck away from the Encompass Championship on Sunday.

The left-handed golfer claimed the tournament 18-hole record with an 8-under-par 64. The previous low round in the Champions Tour event was 65 posted by 2013 champion Craig Stadler and Bob Tway last year. Tom Lehman matched it in this year’s first round on Friday.

Here’s the trophy that Tom Lehman picked up after winning the second Encompass Championship played at North Shore.

Cochran caught fire after two lackluster 1-under-par 71 rounds on Friday and Saturday. His round was still shy of the North Shore overall record – a 61 by Luke Donald, who played the course frequently while a student at Northwestern – but it enabled Cochran to climb 34 places and finished in a tie for sixth place.

“I was streaky the first two days, but then just made a point of getting my weight on my toes and getting down to the ball,’’ said Cochran. “It sounds simple, but it seemed to do the trick.’’

Cochran was 11 strokes behind leader Lehman at the start of the final round, and that was too much ground to make up. Cochran made birdie at No. 1, however, and then rolled in an 18-foot eagle putt at the 515-yard sixth after hitting the green with a 2-hybrid second shot.

A bogey on the next hole slowed Cochran momentarily, but he strung five birdies in a row on the back nine and holed his longest putt of the day, 22 feet, for par at No. 18 after an errant drive wound up in the right rough.

Cochran drew one of the tourney’s 10 celebrities, Northwestern basketball coach Chris Collins, as his pro-am partner in the two-man team competition. He didn’t blame Collins for his shaky first two rounds in the tournament within the main tournament.

“I owe D.A. Weibring (a Champions Tour player who didn’t compete at North Shore) the biggest steak he could ever eat,’’ said Cochran, “because I think he had something to do with that pairing. I’ve been a big fan of his and his dad (one-time Bulls’ coach Doug Collins). What a wonderful guy he is.’’

The amateurs weren’t part of the final round and the course played differently than the first two days after torrential rains caused a suspension in play on Saturday.

“The course was soft, so it was easier to hit the fairways, but it played longer, too,’’ said Cochran. “It’s a really good golf course.’’

Cochran believes at least one other Chicago course is really good, too. His biggest win on the PGA Tour was in the 1991 Western Open at Cog Hill’s Dubsdread course in Lemont. The course hosted the PGA Tour for the next 19 years before the Western Golf Assn. went in a different direction. The tourney, now called the BMW Championship, is held out of Chicago every other year and the home layout is Conway Farms in Lake Forest.

Cog Hill is no longer in the rotation. A controversial renovation by architect Rees Jones was blasted by the players, and that was a factor in the WGA’s change in policy.

“I’m upset about that, I really am,’’ said Cochran. “I don’t know the mentality on the (PGA) Tour anymore, but that was one of the most beautiful courses on tour. It took a little rap, but it’s still a wonderful track. You’ve got to blame the architect. He messed up, and that’s a shame.’’

U.S. Senior Open hopefuls head to Village Links of Glen Ellyn

The Champions Tour players didn’t all leave town after the Encompass Championship concluded. Many in Sunday’s field stayed around for Monday’s sectional qualifying round for the U.S. Senior Open at Village Links of Glen Ellyn.

Ninety players will battle for six spots in the Senior Open proper, to be held at Oak Tree in Edmond, Okla., from July 10-13. Among them are Champions Tour members Tommy Armour III, Tom Byrum, Jose Coceres, Rick Fehr, Anders Forsbrand and Brian Henninger. Because of its proximity to the Encompass, the Chicago sectional may have the strongest field of any of 34 qualifiers held across the U.S. to whittle the 2,715 entrants down to the 156 who will compete at Oak Tree.

Hinsdale’s Jeff Sluman didn’t have to qualify. He was already assured a spot in the Senior Open and looking forward to it with a touch of nostalgia. Sluman won his only major title there in the 1988 PGA Championship.

“In 26 years I went back just one day, and that was the following year,’’ said Sluman. “They had a Senior PGA Championship there, but that was before I turned 50. I know there have been changes made in the course, but I’ve been told the routing hasn’t changed.’’

Oak Tree is a Pete Dye design that Sluman is certain will be challenging.

“It had been labeled the world’s most difficult test at the time I won,’’ he said. “I led the tournament in fairways hit and greens in regulation. I’m excited because I know I can play that golf course well, but 26 years later? It is what it is.’’

Here and there

Professional Jeff Hart and amateur Jody Rotondo won the pro-am portion of the Encompass after the last pros finished their Saturday round on Sunday morning. They posted a 119 score for the two days and won by four strokes over pro Roger Chapman and amateur Andrew McCabe.

Bernhard Langer, leader in the Champions Tour’s Charles Schwab Cup standings, finished tied for 20th. It ended a streak of 20 straight tournaments in which Langer finished in the top 10.

Hale Irwin shot his age (69) on Sunday. The winner of a U.S. Open, Western Open and Champions Tour event in Chicago during his career, Irwin finished in a tie for 39th on Sunday.

Defending champion Craig Stadler won with a 13-under-par performance in 2013. He was 3-over-par in his title defense and tied for 68th place.

Sluman was the best of the locals, finishing in a tie for sixth after a 69 on Sunday. Gary Hallberg, who grew up in Barrington but has long resided in Colorado, tied for 39th and Lake Forest resident Chip Beck tied for 59th among the 81 contestants.