Author: lenz

PGA MERCHANDISE SHOW: LPGA introduces International Crown event

ORLANDO, FL. – The Ladies PGA Tour is returning to Chicago – but it won’t be until 2016. And then it will be for the staging of an extraordinary new team event.

Mike Whan, the LPGA commissioner, highlighted the first day of the 60th PGA Merchandise Show by announcing the arrival of the International Crown event. It’ll make its debut July 21-27 at Caves Valley, a Tom Fazio design in Owings Mills, Md., and the second staging will be in the summer of 2016 at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove.

Jerry Rich, owner and designer of the Rich Harvest private facility that hosted the 2009 Solheim Cup matches, was a leader in making the new event happen.

“Three days after Mike became commissioner (in 2010)_ I brought him to Chicago and said we’ve got to do something special,’’ said Rich. “The greatest players aren’t just from America. They’re from Asia and around the world.’’

That started the planning process that led to Thursday’s announcement before a standing-room-only press conference at the Orange County Convention Center.

Rich Harvest’s Solheim Cup was a rousing success, but didn’t lead to the return of an LPGA annual stop to Chicago. The LPGA has only sporadically staged tournaments on Chicago courses, the last being the Kellogg-Keebler Classic at Stonebridge, in Aurora, in 2004.

That tourney had a three-year run in the aftermath of the U.S. Women’s Open being played at Merit Club in Libertyville in 2000. Karrie Webb won at Merit Club and at the last Kellogg-Keebler with Annika Sorenstam dominating at Stonebridge in 2002 and 2003.

The International Crown, though, will top all those and might well rival the success of the Solheim with the top players world-wide guaranteed to compete.

“At the Solheim Cup (of 2009) we had the largest event (the LPGA) ever had,’’ said Rich. “We had 120,000 people in Chicago – the greatest golf city in the world. Maybe this (new) event won’t approach the Ryder Cup that we just had at Medinah, but it will be huge.’’

Rich probably could have hosted the 2014 International Crown, but decided against it.

“I needed four years to wait because of our junior programs,’’ said Rich. His staff has studied the nearly 2,000 high school girls programs in five states. Those players, along with college players, will be invited to the International Crown with lodging already being arranged at Northern Illinois University and Aurora College.

The International Crown will present a different type of competition and have a broader world-wide appeal than the LPGA’s previous tries at one-week individual championships here. Whan predicted the event will “take women’s golf to the next level and allow fans to rally behind their homelands.’’

The International Crown will be held in even-numbered years to avoid conflict with the Solheim Cup. It’ll feature 32 players from eight countries battling to determine, according to the LPGA, “the world’s best golf nation.’’

Competition will be over four days, three for best-ball matches and one for singles matches. Teams will be determined by the top four players on the Rolex World Rankings after the 2013 CME Group Titleholders event, the last tourney of the LPGA season. If the International Crown were to be held now the eight teams participating would be South Korea, the U.S., Japan, Sweden, Australia, Taiwan, Spain and England.

The four players who will compete for each country when the competition begins will be determined at a later date.

“Our tour is so global, we need this type of an event,’’ said Stacey Lewis, the top-ranked American player. “People always want to know why golfers from Asia are so good. Now we can see how all the countries stack up.’’

Taiwan’s long-time world No. 1 player, Yani Tseng, likened the lead-in to the International Crown to “preparing for the Olympics.’’ The Rich Harvest version of the International Crown will about a month before the Olympics in Brazil, when golf will make its return to the Games.

The first International Crown event will offer a $1.6 million purse with each member of the winning team receiving $100,000. Ambassadors and financial supporters will be announced at a later date as will the nature of the trophy going to the winning nation

PGA MERCHANDISE SHOW: Tour Edge introduces variable fit driver

ORLANDO, FL. – The 60th annual PGA Merchandise Show teed off with a massive Demo Day on Wednesday but Chicago club manufacturer Tour Edge got a jump on the opposition a day early.

The Batavia-based company, in its eighth annual Multi-Manufacturers Media Day outing at the Legacy Club, introduced its first variable-fit driver. It was just one in a line of new products unveiled by Tour Edge president David Glod, but it drew the most attention.


Tour Edge isn’t the first company to test variable-fit clubs. Putter manufacturers were the first to do it, and now it’s spreading throughout the industry.

With Tour Edge’s Exotic line of clubs (shown above) a players can change the loft, face angle and shaft.

“You have options at your fingertips,’’ said Glod, who founded his company in 1986. “We’re planning on having an adjustable fairway wood, too, but it’s too net yet. It makes more sense with the driver.’’

Glod accepts the trend toward such state-of-the-art equipment and believes it’ll be around for awhile.

“It’s a great technology,’’ he said, “but it depends on the consumer. The guy who studies the game gets it. That’s why it’s been sticking around.’’


Training devices are also getting increasingly high-tech. Sky Golf, a pioneer in developing electronic yardage books with its Sky Caddie, now also offers Sky Pro – a swing analyzer that the company bills as “one of the most exciting products in golf today.’’ Many more were on display, in a series of colorful displays (pictured above), at the Demo Day lead-in to the PGA Merchandise show.

Swing Jacket, which isn’t so high-tech, is back on the market after a fire burned down its production facility in China. A player wears the tight-fitting jacket on the practice range and instructor Dave Brisbee says that player’s swing “can’t get out of position….It constrains range of motion to affect a better swing.’’

And then there’s Polara, a company not reluctant to admit that it’s equipment is usually “non-conforming’’ with the rules of the U.S. Golf Assn.

Polara drew plenty of attention with its no-slice golf balls. Now president David Felker said Polara is going into wedges, the first of which will be on the market before the year it out. Polara says its wedges “will help the ball spin more,’’ and Felker admits “it’s very unlikely’’ that they will conform to USGA specifications.

Still, the company believes it’s helping golf grow by making it an easier game for the estimated 85 percent of players who don’t carry USGA handicaps. To that end Polara is joining forces with the new Recreational Golf Assn. of America to push its products with more casual golfers.

The big show has plenty of golfers of all shades of interest. Over 40,000 will attend the three days of exhibits at the orange County Convention Center. Attendees will come from about 75 countries and walk down 10 miles of show alleys to check out the products of more than 1,000 manufacturers and brands.

Wednesday’s Demo Day, held at the Orange County National Golf Center in Winter Garden, drew out over 100 manufacturers. The Center has a circular range with 200 hitting bays spread over a 42-acre practice facility.

All the top manufacturers, including Chicago-based Wilson Sporting Good and Tour Edge, had the wares on display at Demo Day. So did other major manufacturers Bridgestone, Callaway Cleveland/Srixon, Cobra Puma, Mizuno, Nike, Ping, TaylorMade and Titleist.

Stars players past and president will also be making appearances, among them Davis Love III, Annika Sorenstam, Ian Poulter, Luke Donald, Lexi Thompson, Lee Trevino and Nancy Lopez. Ricky Fowler had a big presence — or at least his hat did. An enlarged replica of Fowler’s orange headgear enticed lots of picture takers — even though Fowler wasn’t there.

IT ZIEHMS TO ME: It’s Show-time for WGA; IPGA moves Players Championship

The Chicago Golf Show will get a big boost for its 30th anniversary staging next month.

Rarely has the show, to be held Feb. 22-24 at the Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, had a presenting sponsor. The last time the Show was so blessed was in 2009, when South Carolina golf mecca Myrtle Beach took the leadership role.

This time the show will be presented by the BMW Championship, the Western Golf Association’s premier event. If ever there was a win-win situation in golf, this is it. The show needed a high profile link with the PGA Tour, and the BMW Championship has to rekindle interest among Chicago golfers. They didn’t get to see the FedEx Cup playoff event last year – it was held in Indianapolis – and it’ll have a new course for its return to Chicago in September.

Since 1991 the tourney used Cog Hill in Lemont as its Chicago home. This year it’ll be staged Sept. 9-15 at Conway Farms, a private facility in Lake Forest.

“We’ve always had a booth at the Show,’’ said Vince Pellegrino, the WGA’s tournament director, “but this year we thought we should take a more active role. We’re in an educational process, and we’ll do everything we can to create awareness. This is another vehicle for us to spread the word about the BMW going to Conway Farms.’’

Show visitors (usually numbering around 20,000) will find BMW Championship promotional material prominently displayed when they walk through the doors Feb. 22-24 and the first 200 will receive two free tickets to practice rounds for the tourney proper.

The WGA, which raises money for college scholarships for caddies, has found it profitable to move the BMW Championship to golf-starved locations in alternate years and last year underscored the wisdom of doing that. The 2012 BMW, at Crooked Stick, was named the PGA Tour’s Tournament of the Year.

While most the WGA’s PGA Tour events have been held in Chicago since the first Western Open of 1899, the event will take on a new look in 2013. Conway Farms, the home course of tour star Luke Donald, has never hosted a PGA Tour event.

“In changing locations we’ve had to start from scratch,’’ said Pellegrino. “We’ve been working with (officials from) the city of Lake Forest and Lake County for several months. They’ve been extremely engaged with us, and we’re very pleased with the support we’ve received.’’

Metamora Fields gets IPGA’s last major

The Illinois PGA will make a major tournament change. The section’s last major, on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, won’t be held at Eagle Ridge Resort in Galena – its long-time home base – in 2013.

Instead, the event will shift to Metamora Fields, a new course in Peoria. Metamora Fields opened in July, 2011. The layout was designed by PGA Tour veteran D.A. Weibring and his lead architect, Steve Wolfard. Weibring, who grew up in Quincy and went to college at Illinois State, was the 1987 Western Open champion. His design work includes TPC Deere Run, the site of the PGA Tour’s annual John Deere Classic – a tourney that Weibring also won during his days on the circuit.

A longer Western Amateur

The WGA, which will conduct four championships for the first time in 2013, is altering the format of its tradition-rich Western Amateur.

Not only will the Western Am move out of Chicago for the first time in five years, it’ll also get a new format. No longer will there be a 36-hole session for the low 44 and ties after the first two rounds of the 72-hole stroke play qualifying.

The July 29-Aug. 4 tourney was moved to the Alotian Club in Arkansas, a move Pellegrino said was made to take advantage of “a unique opportunity to go to a very exclusive place.’’

Temperatures figure to be higher in Arkansas than they’ve been in Chicago, so now the field will be play 18 holes Tuesday-Friday with the top 16 players settling the title in two days of match play after that. That means the competition will be spread over six days instead of five.

“The Alotian Club isn’t like Exmoor or North Shore (Chicago courses that hosted the last two Western Ams). Those courses were easy to walk. The Alotian Club is a challenge to walk, with a lot of undulation. It’ll be an endurance test.’’

Pellegrino expects the old format to be in place when the tournament resumes its Chicago rotation in 2014.

Did you know?

X—Two more Chicago private clubs will have new head professionals this season. Assistant Brian Brown moved up at Naperville, replacing the retired Jim Arendt, and Brandon Adair is moving from Prestwick to take over at Midlothian.

X – Northbrook-based KemperSports has received another honor. It was named Club Management Company of the Year by BoardRoom magazine. Kemper added four private facilities to its portfolio in 2012 – Rockledge in Florida, Quail Lodge in California, Andover in Kentucky and Victory Ranch in Utah. The award will be presented at the Club Managers Assn. of America World Conference in San Diego next month.

X – Northwestern women’s coach Emily Fletcher has landed another prize recruit. Minji Luo, the California high school champion, will enroll at NU in the fall. She qualified for both the U.S. Women’s Amateur and U.S. Girls Junior Amateur in 2012.

STREAMSONG: Finding this new resort added to the excitement

STREAMSONG, FL. – The anticipation surrounding the opening of Streamsong Resort was too great. I had to see it pronto.

Eventually I did. Eventually.

As it turned out the adventure involved in finding the place was very much part of the excitement surrounding it. Streamsong wasn’t easy to find, but well worth it once we did.

While the Streamsong website (streamsongresort.com) is explicit in giving directions, the location is hard to fathom. The resort guide describes it as “a place so far removed from the ordinary, it’s hard to believe it’s in Florida.’’

No question about that.

Streamsong is in Polk County, FL. It’s not all that far (55 miles) from Orlando, but is closer to Tampa (45 miles). The nearest towns are Lakeland, Fort Meade, Avon Park and Sebring. For the directionally challenged (like me), signage in those communities, is extremely limited and the markers that are available are small. Residents we talked to in those communities weren’t exactly sure how to get there – even though Streamsong is a big-time place. In fact, Streamsong is the name of the town it’s in. and the resort is spread over 1,600 acres.

The resort is a development of The Mosaic Company, the world’s leading producer and marketer of phosphate-based crop nutrients and a major land owner in Central Florida. Its Chicago area connection is KemperSports, which manages the golf operation just as it does at the immediately well-received Bandon Dunes in Oregon and Chambers Bay in Washington

By late afternoon, nine days after Streamsong had a soft opening that attracted about 40 players, I was there. My arrival was well ahead of the scheduled grand opening on Jan. 26. I found a very spacious clubhouse (pictured above) in full operation along with two quality golf courses ready to play and director of golf Scott Wilson in charge of the operation.

A few people can already stay there. There’s 16 beds available, but they’re booked solid through May of 2013. Accommodations with the Terrace Hotel in Lakeland provide lodging options now, and the 216-room main lodge is scheduled to open on the property in November. The upscale restaurant offered a striking panoramic view of the courses.

Those two courses are, and will remain, the main attraction. The Red course was designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw and the Blue by Tom Doak. Just the mention of those architects is an indication that visiting Streamsong won’t come cheap, but it figures to be worth whatever the price.

The Coore-Crenshaw layout was cited by Golf Magazine as the “Best New U.S. Course You Can Play’’ in 2012 – before it was officially open. The Doak 18 received honorable mention. Wilson is no stranger to such acclaim. He came from the Kemper-operated Vellano Country Club in Chino Hills, Calif. It was Golf Magazine’s Development of the Year (Private Clubs) in 2007.

Crenshaw, Coore and Doak did their work on land that had been a phosphate mine. There wasn’t time for me to play either course, but that’s be on my agenda for the near future. I can report that the courses have sweeping elevation changes and an atmosphere far removed from the Florida terrain that surrounds it. There’s even a par-3 bonus hole (pictured above) to entice Streamsong players.

The Coore-Crenshaw course can play as long as 7,148 yards or as short as 5,184. The Doak course is 5,531 yards from the most forward tees and 7,176 from the tips. Both are par-72s. Walking is encouraged, but not mandatory, on both layouts are caddies are available.

Eight months after our visit Streamsong — both of its courses — received some extraordinary recognition. Golf Magazine listed both the Red and Blue layouts among its Top 100 Courses in the United States. Red was No. 52 and Blue No. 62 — the top two new courses on the prestigious list.

MYRTLE BEACH: You can’t get more golf options than this

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – It’s almost mind-boggling when you think about it. A three-month visitor to this long-time golf hotbed could play a different course every day and would still not have played all the layouts offered.

Myrtle Beach, which aptly bills itself as the “Golf Capital of the World,’’ has over 100 courses packed into the 60-mile stretch of coastline known as the Grand Strand. They’re not a bunch of cookie-cutters, either. That became quite clear on my second visit to the area, which unfortunately fell a full eight years after the first.


The home base on Murrells Inlet wasn’t far from the one a Pawley’s Island years ago, and one of the courses – the Caledonia Golf & Fish Club – was a must replay. It seems that all my golfing friends who have visited Myrtle Beach at one time or another love Caledonia. The shrimp bisque soup, offered between nines as well as in the clubhouse, and the bright flowering on most of the tee boxes (shown above) are just some of the reasons.

Good friend Reid Hanley, the late golf writer for the Chicago Tribune who played widely around the country, always called Caledonia “a very special place,’’ and I have to agree. Rarely do I play any course a second time and like it as much as I did the first, but Caledonia fit that bill – even with the second time around coming on a windy December day with temperatures in the 40s.

Mike Strantz was the designer for this relatively short (6,526 yards if you play from the tips) layout, which was built on a one-time rice plantation in 1994. Unfortunately Strantz did his work largely in the South. He’s quite good. Caledonia’s companion course, True Blue, was also one of his designs. That one opened four years after Caledonia.

Lot of people already know about Caledonia, of course. They might not know about the Founder Club at Pawley’s Island. It’s only been in operation since 2008, after a massive renovation directed by Thomas Walker, former lead designer for Gary Player’s architectural efforts.

Walker started with a much more basic course that had been called Sea Gull Golf Club. The extensive renovation included the clubhouse, and the finished product is commendable.

I’ve never played a course quite like the Founders Club. There’s no cart paths on this layout. Instead you drive through waste hazards when a fairway isn’t available and the bunkering (an example is shown below at the No. 18 green) is striking. You also cross roads that can have car traffic 14 times. All of that makes for a most refreshing way to play golf, and the greens are unusual, too. They’re grassed with Emerald Bermuda, which almost has the feel of an artificial surface.

Capturing what’s new in golf is a high priority, and our final round of this Myrtle Beach visit was at Willbrook Plantation, still another course that was much different than the other two.

Willbrook, a Dan Maples design that has been named on Golf For Women’s Top 100 list, is part of a gated community with a most upscale atmosphere. Unfortunately, our visit was hampered by rainy weather and limited to a cart tour of the premises, but it was revealing. Especially noteworthy was No. 6, a strikingly beautiful par-3 over water (shown below).

Like Caledonia, Willbrook was built on what had been a rice plantation. Unlike Caledonia, the land’s history is underscored with commemorative plaques all around the course.

As for lodging, we wanted something new and different – and the two-year old Inlet Sports Lodge fit the bill perfectly. The local investment group that owns Caledonia and True Blue also owns Inlet Sports Lodge, which is a base for outdoor sports enthusiasts as well as golfers.

Rooms included custom-etched mahogany doors with key fobs, heart of pine wood floors, salad bowl-like sinks sitting on granite counter tops, bathrobes and pressured shower jets with five different heads. Adjoining the Lodge was Bliss, an excellent upscale chef-driven restaurant that provided a nice alternative to the more traditional dining spots in the area.

The traditional ones – we liked 20-year old Russell’s Seafood Grill and Drunken Jacks, clearly a favorite of the locals – were plenty good, too. They offered the cuisine that has helped bring tons of visitors back to this golf mecca.

IT ZIEHMS TO ME: New pros for Medinah, Exmoor; 50th anniversary for Eskimo Open

IT ZIEHMS TO ME: New pros for Medinah, Exmoor; Eskimo celebrates 50th anniversary

Mike Scully ended a 10-year stint as Medinah Country Club’s director of golf as soon as the Ryder Cup ended. Now the club has selected his replacement.

Marty DeAngelo will take over Scullly’s former position on Jan. 21. Like Scully he comes to Medinah from Florida, where he had been director of golf at Isleworth – the home club for Tiger Woods and several other PGA Tour players.

Also like Scully, DeAngelo had deep roots in Chicago before going to Medinah. DeAngelo earned his Class A status with the PGA of America after working as an apprentice at Deer Park.

Unlike Scully, DeAngelo comes with a solid background as a tournament player. He has played in tournaments on the Canadian PGA, Hooters, Ben Hogan and PGA circuits.

DeAngelo is ending a long run at Isleworth to come to Medinah. He started working at the Florida facility in 1995, became head professional in 1998 and director of golf in 2004. In 2007 he was named Private Merchandiser of the Year by the Florida chapter of the PGA and he also serves on the Florida Special Olympics board.

Scully left Medinah to become director of golf at Desert Mountain, a resort facility in Scottsdale, Ariz., that boasts five 18-hole courses.

Another long-established Chicago private facility, Exmoor in Highland Park, also dipped into the Florida ranks for its next head professional. David Schmaltz was hired by the club that hosted the Western Amateur in 2012 after having worked as an assistant at Jupiter Club.

A major milestone for the Eskimo Open

The Northern Illinois Men’s Amateur Golf Assn. organized a January event for its most diehard members. It was played at times in a foot of snow (I know. I was one of the participants back in the 1970s when my late brother Rich and I played in the Eskimo 10 straight years when Buffalo Grove Golf Club was the site).

Despite some challenging weather conditions over the years as well as some course and organizational changes, the Eskimo Open has lived on and this year’s staging on Jan. 6 over the Nos. 1 or 3 courses at Cog Hill will mark the event’s 50th anniversary.

Registration begins on Monday, Dec. 31. Fees, payable on the day of play, are $42. Carts, if available, will cost an additional $16. A chili lunch, beverages and prizes are also included.

The event will be held over 18 holes with tee times ranging from 7-11 a.m. If there’s snow a nine-hole division will be also available.

Did you know?

X — Northbrook-based KemperSports has opened a well-publicized Florida resort, Streamsong, and taken over the management of one of the Sunshine State’s older private facilities, Rockledge Country Club. Both are located near Orlando.

X – Cantigny, in Wheaton, will begin offering 75-minute fitness workshops twice a month starting on Jan. 8. They’ll be directed by Dr. Paul Callaway.

X – Tickets to the Feb. 24-26 Chicago Golf Show at the Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont will be on sale at reduced rates through Jan. 6. Purchasers can get four tickets to the show for $25 until that date.

X –Chicago’s Wilson Sporting Goods has re-signed Irish star Padraig Harrington to another multi-year contract. The winner of three major championships, Harrington will again play Wilson clubs on both the PGA and European PGA tours. He started with Wilson in 1998.

PINEHURST: Famed resort’s banner year will come in 2014

PINEHURST, N.C. – It may seem silly for a golf addict from Chicago to visit the famous Pinehurst Resort – if only for a few days around Christmas – and not hit a shot. That’s what I did at the start of a long winter trip that will include plenty of golf, I guarantee that.


A Pinehurst stop, though, was appropriate because in 2014 that resort, its entrance pictured above in the heart of the Christmas season, will take on something no golf facility has ever done. It’ll host – on successive weeks in June – the men’s U.S. Open and the U.S. Women’s Open on the same 18-hole layout.

The buildup to the big golf doubleheader should be followed closely in coming months. In my book, it’s a far more cutting edge, risky endeavor than the U.S. Golf Association’s more recent, highly publicized decision to eventually ban anchored putters. Playing the two national Opens back-to-back on the same course should give a particularly big boost to the women’s game, but will also impact the elite players, the amateurs who will be watching on TV and the resort itself, which has never been reluctant to take on big projects.

The USGA made the tournament schedule announcement amidst limited fanfare in 2009. The following year architects Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw were hired to supervise a restoration project on Pinehurst’s No. 2 course. They completed the project in March, 2011, with the return of wire-grass in the rough areas the most striking feature. It had been part of the original course, designed by Donald Ross in 1907.

Ross was head professional at Pinehurst and lived off the third hole on the No. 2 course, which has come to be called “The Deuce.’’ His architectural efforts world-wide are legendary and the wire-grass will become a household name for golfers once they see how it impacts the two Opens. I’ve played it, and I like it, but – like the USGA’s decision to schedule the major championships back-to-back on the same course – opinions in the golf world are not unanimous on either.

The Christmas visit was my fourth to Pinehurst since 1999. I was there for two successful U.S. Opens and again when wire-grass was re-introduced in the spring of 2011. Given the long preparatory saga that Medinah went through leading into this year’s Ryder Cup, I suspected I’d see some evidence of preparatory work at Pinehurst.

I didn’t see much, the most notable being Lee Pace’s latest book — “The Golden Age of Pinehurst,’’ which was on sale in the Newstand at the resort’s hotel. Pace, a freelance writer who lives an hour away in Chapel Hill, previously authored two versions of “Pinehurst Stories’’ (1991 and 1999) and “The Spirit of Pinehurst’’ (2004).

Pace’s latest book updated the 2004 version, including in it the details of the architectural work done by Coore and Crenshaw. I had a talk with Pace after ending my latest visit, and he pointed out that the restoration project and the unusual scheduling of the two big tournaments weren’t related.

“The restoration had absolutely nothing to do with the U.S. Open,’’ he said. “That work was done because the course had gotten away from what it had been years ago.’’

The men’s U.S. Open is returning to Pinehurst in large part because of the success of the previous tournaments there, and the U.S. Women’s Open had three successful stagings at nearby Pine Needles since 1996.

There was some doubt that Pinehurst could handle a U.S. Open prior to 1999. They were unfounded.

“But it was such a success inside and outside of the ropes,’’ said Pace. “That’s why it got another Open so quickly (in 2005).’’

Hotel space was limited in 1999 but improved in 2005 and four more hotels have since been built in the neighboring towns of Aberdeen and Southern Pines. Population of Moore County has also increased, from about 50,000 seven years ago to nearly 90,000 now.

Reg Jones, who had worked for Pinehurst while directing the two previous U.S. Opens there, now has an administrative office at Pinehurst in preparation for 2014. Otherwise, there aren’t many outward signs of the big things coming.

“You won’t see much change until a couple months out,’’ said Pace. “(Pinehurst leaders) don’t want to disrupt the ebb and flow of the club experience. They have (big tournament preparations) down to a science. There’s not another club the USGA would have tried to do this with, and everything will be fine.’’

As for our stay, everything was very much fine – even though the atmosphere was much different than it will be in June, 2014. Christmas at Pinehurst didn’t have the hustle-and-bustle of other places, visitors weren’t as numerous as they are in the golf season and some of the quaint little shops in the village operated on limited hours.

Instead Pinehurst offered its trademark great breakfast buffets in the Carolina Room and more casual dining in its Ryder Cup restaurant. The courses were open, with the exception of No. 8. It was closed to facilitate work projects. Rather than play golf, a hike in the nearby arboretum area was a worthy substitute.

All in all, not a bad way to celebrate Christmas. I certainly can recommend it.

IT ZIEHMS TO ME: `King of Clubs’ uncovers piece of Chicago golf history

After reading “King of Clubs: The Great Golf Marathon of 1938’’ I felt there was a message to be delivered about how bad slow play has gotten.

Virginia-based sports writing veteran Jim Ducibella recounts the story of J. Smith Ferebee, a Chicago stockbroker and Olympia Fields Country Club member who was briefly in the national spotlight for his bid to play 600 holes of golf in eight cities over four consecutive days.

Think about this. Seven decades ago Ferebee played more than 33 rounds of golf in 96 hours and never shot 100. Had he hit triple digits he would have lost the bet that started his whole ordeal, and Ferebee did post 99 in one round. Most of his scores were in the 80s, however, and he was playing on many courses – located from Los Angeles to New York – that he’d never seen before.

To put the feat in better perspective, Ferebee would play at least 144 holes per day, keeping a very brisk pace between each shot. There were no golf carts involved, and Ferebee had to tee up his drives and take the ball from each cup after he putted out. Those were the terms of the bet.

Then he’d board a plane, with an entourage that included a doctor, caddie and publicist among others, and fly to the next stop to do it all again. I recall twice playing 45 holes in a day, walking all in the second, in tours of the five Chicago Park District nine-hole courses. Those tours were organized by KemperSports in the early 1990s. They were a lot of fun, as a few media friends would get van transportation between each course.

Playing that much golf in a day that started at dawn at the Marovitz course on Lake Michigan and finished at dusk at Columbus Park was considered a noteworthy back then – at least by us – but we had nothing on J.Smith Ferebee. In one stretch he played 144 holes in 15 hours 7 minutes and averaged 86 for every 18 holes. In that time he walked an estimated 40 miles. I’m staggered by it all.

Olympia Fields, his home club, had four courses back then including one (now known as the North course) that has hosted two U.S. Opens and two PGA Championships. Ferebee played those four courses in the middle of his marathon in 89, 83, 85 and 89. All of the courses he played were short by today’s standards, but hardly of the pitch-and-putt variety.

Anyway, with all due respect to my Big-3 partner – golf historian extraordinaire Tim Cronin – Ducibella’s “King of Clubs’’ deserves a place in Chicago’s golf history archives. It is much more than a recounting of a whacky pre-World War II publicity stunt. Ducibella tells me that very few people (including the current membership and staff at Olympia Fields) knew much – if anything – about Ferebee.

That’s surprising, given that Ferebee’s quest to complete his marathon was closely followed by media outlets throughout the country. In Chicago his adventure shared the spotlight with a late-season charge by the Cubs to the National League pennant.

Perhaps Ferebee’s moment in the spotlight was simply a reflection of another, most colorful, era in the history of Chicago sports. Still, it makes for most interesting reading. I heartily recommend this book, published by Potomac Books of Dulles, Va.

BMW, JDC tourneys honored by PGA

The PGA Tour gave glowing reports to its 2012 tournaments with Illinois connections. The BMW Championship, conducted by the Western Golf Assn., was selected as the circuit’s Tournament of the Year and the John Deere Classic received the Most Engaged Community Award.

In 2012 the BMW raised $3.1 million for the Evans Scholars Foundation and was one of the top-attended tournaments of the year. The crowd count for the week at Crooked Stick in Indianapolis in September was 143,000 – a good reason for the WGA to continue its recent policy of moving its biggest event out of Chicago every other year.

The WGA took the event to Bellerive, in St. Louis, in 2008. The BMW Championship was also the PGA Tour’s Tournament of the Year that time.

Winning the Most Engaged Community Award isn’t anything new for the JDC, held annually at TPC Deere Run in the Quad Cities. The JDC previously won the award in 2008 and 2011. This year’s event showed a 12 percent increase in ticket sales, a 27 percent increase in money raised through its Birdies for Charity campaign and a record $6.79 million windfall for 493 local charities. That amount was raised from more than 20,000 individual donors.

Did you know?

Two Chicago golf leaders of a few decades back passed away with a month of each other recently. Nat Rosasco was owner and president of Northwestern Golf Co., a prominent equipment manufacturer, and Charles Chudek was the founder of Chicagoland Golfer, a twice-a-week publication that flourished in the early 1960s. Chudek’s publication is not to be confused with Chicagoland Golf, which operated under the late Phil Kosin from 1989-2009. Rosasco was 83, Chudek 82.

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The University of Illinois’ Luke Guthrie played in only 10 events on the Web.com Tour this year after using up his collegiate eligibility, but he was one of three finalists for the circuit’s player-of-the-year award. It went to money-leader Casey Wittenberg through a vote of tour members. Guthrie, second on the money list, is headed for the PGA Tour in 2013.

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The NCAA announced its postseason sites for 2014 and 2015. Rich Harvest Farms was awarded a men’s regional, with Northern Illinois the host school, in 2014.

IT ZIEHMS TO ME: Meierdierks, Jeray Q-School successes are in sharp contrast

Rarely does a Chicago golfer get through a qualifying school for any of the professional tours. This year, though, two did – and their roads to success couldn’t be much more different.

Wilmette’s Eric Meierdierks, a 27-year old with only one PGA start to his credit, made it all the way to the PGA Tour for 2013 with his tie for 14th finish in the three-stage November elimination that started with 1,558 players.

Berwyn’s Nicole Jeray, 42, competed in the qualifying tournament for the LPGA Tour for the 19th time. It had 122 finalists, and she finished tied for 17th . That 90-hole competition ended earlier this week.

Meierdierks, though relatively new to the rigorous qualifying procedures, made it easily. The top 25 and ties qualified for PGA Tour cards at PGA West in LaQuinta, Calif. A week later Jeray survived in dramatic fashion at LPGA International in Daytona Beach, FL. Only the top 20 get LPGA cards in that circuit’s Q-School, and Jeray had to go to a seven-player playoff for the final four spots. She survived with a 20-foot birdie putt on the fifth extra hole.

The first PGA Tour event for Meierdierks as a card-carrying member of the circuit will likely be the Sony Open in Hawaii on Jan. 7. Jeray has been on and off the LPGA circuit since earning privileges for the first time in 1994. She won’t make her full-fledged LPGA return until at least February, since that’s when the circuit begins play in 2013.

Meierdierks arrival on the PGA Tour was a feel-good story, just as much as Jeray’s grittiness was on the women’s side. He had been basically a mini-tour player since turning professional in 2009. His career highlight had been a victory in the 2010 Illinois Open at Hawthorn Woods, and he lost that tourney’s 2012 title in a playoff with Max Scodro last August at The Glen Club.

Six days before the first stage of this fall’s Q-School Meierdierks suffered a family tragedy. His father Dick, who had been in poor health after developing an infection following surgery, passed away at the age of 70. Making it through the first stage may have been Meierdierks’ toughest test in the qualifying process.

Fond memories of his father, however, played a role in Meierdierks’ success in the final stage, played over the Tournament and Nicklaus courses at PGA West.

“We had stayed in Palm Springs on spring vacations,’’ he said, “and I distinctly remembered one year.’’

That was when the family’s lodging was off the seventh hole of the Nicklaus’ layout. It was understandable he’d remember that, given an incident that happened to his father there when he and Eric went out on the course to play a few holes late in the day.

“He walked through a screen door and tore his patella tendon,’’ recalled Meierdierks. That misfortune aside, good family memories helped Meierdierks cope with the tension that always plays a part in Q-School. By the time his 90-hole marathon was over Meierdierks was set for the next stage in his golfing life.

“It’s been incredible,’’ he told me after a few days of reflection. “It’s been a long journey, and it feels really good to finally have a dream come true and see a lot of hard work pay off.’’

Except for caddie and boyhood friend Bill Bohr, Meierdierks winged in alone during the final stage of Q-School. His mother Linda debated coming after Eric moved into contention, but decided to stay in Chicago.

“She didn’t want to change the mojo that was going on in my week,’’ he said, “though I’m not sure it would have made any difference. Anyway, she’ll be able to see me play lots of tournaments now.’’

Meierdierks, who has spent considerable time in Arizona “chasing the money on mini-tours’’ the last two years, planned a return to Illinois for two weeks during Christmas. Then he’ll be off on a new adventure. His only previous PGA Tour event was the 2009 Frys.com Open. He made it into the field through Monday qualifying but didn’t survive the 36-hole cut.

“I didn’t play particularly bad,’’ he said. “It was mainly a learning experience, and it was very eye-opening. I had placed the players on the PGA Tour on such a high pedestal, but I realized then that they weren’t that far away. It was a really big step for me. I also saw how well they were treated out there.’’

Now Meierdierks will find that out more frequently. He expects to get into quite a few early-season events, and his play will dictate how much he plays as the year progresses. Bohr, who carried his bag in all three stages of Q-School, will remain his caddie. They grew up together as caddies at Sunset Ridge, though Meierdierks went to high school at New Trier and Bohr at Loyola.

His equipment sponsorship, with TaylorMade, isn’t a concern and he feels prepared for what’s ahead the next few months.

“I could see (at Q-School) that the PGA Tour is a massive organization, and it has a lot of people in place to help you through this process,’’ said Meierdierks. “There’s going to be a little lifestyle change, but mainly I figure I’ll be paying a little more taxes.’’

Jeray has been the only Chicago player on the LPGA Tour for the last two decades. The last Chicago player to earn privileges on the PGA Tour was Crystal Lake’s Joe Affrunti, who earned his card by finishing in the top 25 on the Nationwide (now Web.com Tour) money list in 2010. He required shoulder surgery last spring and missed most of what would have been his rookie season on the PGA Tour. Coming off a medical exemption, he hopes to resume playing on the circuit in 2013.

IT ZIEHMS TO ME: Meierdierks, Langley are survivors at PGA’s Q-School

PGA Tour qualifying school hasn’t been kind to the few Illinois golfers who have tried it over the years, but that wasn’t the case this week.

Eric Meierdierks, the 2010 Illinois Open champion from Wilmette, and Scott Langley, the 2010 NCAA champion for the University of Illinois, both earned their PGA Tour cards during the six-round marathon that concluded at PGA West in LaQuinta, Calif., on Monday.

Meierdierks, a New Trier High School graduate who didn’t play golf in college at Michigan State, followed his Illinois Open win of two years ago at Hawthorn Woods with a playoff loss to Chicago’s Max Scodro in this year’s championship at The Glen Club, in Glenview. Meierdierks, who turned pro in 2009, has spent most of his time since then on the Gateway Tour in Arizona but he did return for his state’s premier championship.

Since turning pro he also had a Gateway win to his credit, but he also had to deal with personal issues in getting through Q-School. His father passed away six days before the first stage of the competition.

“That was the hardest tournament I ever played,’’ Meierdierks offered after the battle for his card ended successfully. “It made (the final stage) a walk in the park.’’

He also had good vibes as he toured the TPC Stadium Course and Nicklaus Tournament Course, the 18-holers at PGA West used for the qualifying rounds. Meierdierks’ family had vacationed off the No. 7 fairway of the Nicklaus’ course, and his glimpses of the lodging there triggered good memories for him in the heat of the competition.

This year’s Q-School – the last one to send players directly to the PGA circuit – had 1,558 registrants. There was a pre-qualifier and then three stages of eliminations before the top 25 and ties were awarded PGA playing privileges. Mierdierks tied for 14th, and Langley tied for 17th. Low man over the six tense rounds was Dong-hwan Lee, at 25—under-par. Mierdierks was at 20-under and Langley was another stroke back.

Also making it was Kris Blanks, the winner of the last Chicago area Nationwide (now Web.com Tour) tournament – the Bank of America Open at The Glen Club in 2008. Blanks earned a return trip to the PGA circuit. A shoulder injury had led to his failure to reach money-winning standards necessary to retain membership this year.

Another plus for the Illini

Langley’s arrival on the PGA Tour was just the latest in major accomplishments for University of Illinois alums. Five will play on the PGA Tour in 2013, with Langley joining Steve Stricker, D.A. Points, Luke Guthrie and Joe Affrunti. Affrunti is still recovering from major shoulder surgery last spring.

Like Langley, Guthrie will be a PGA Tour rookie. He qualified for the big tour by finishing second on the Web.com Tour money list – and he needed only 10 tournaments to do it. Guthrie didn’t turn pro until the Illinois season was over in June. Interestingly, Meierdierks’ Illinois Open win came in a duel with Guthrie.

Langley’s advancement was no surprise. In addition to winning his NCAA title the left-handed golfer was a factor in the last two U.S. Opens. He tied for 16th in 2011 and tied for 19th this year.

Illinois’ run of success hasn’t been without a cost. Coach Mike Small lost his assistant coach when Zach Guthrie, Luke’s brother, resigned that post. He’ll be Luke’s caddie on the PGA circuit in 2013.

They didn’t make it

Those who didn’t crack the top 25 (actually 26 earned turn cards) at PGA West included Camilo Villegas, Heath Slocum Billy Mayfair, Nick O’Hern, Skip Kendall, former Northwestern star Chris Wilson, ex-British Open winner Todd Hamilton and Patrick Cantlay, who dazzled the PGA Tour when he shot a 60 as an amateur in the 2011 Travelers Championship.

Next year’s Q-School will only offer spots on the Web.com Tour. That circuit will play a bigger role in determining who advances to the big circuit. This year the top 25 on that tour’s money list was promoted to the PGA Tour for 2013.