ON TO TIBURON: The clubhouse at Tiburon, in Naples, FL, is a welcome site for three pro golf tour events each year. This week the stars on PGA Tour Champions will be there.
Golf-wise it’s Florida where the action is for at least the next month.
First it was the LPGA tour staging its first three tournaments of 2022 in the Sunshine state. They were captivating events, too, with Danielle Kang, Lydia Ko and Leona Maguire winning the titles and Annika Sorenstam drawing bigger galleries than all of them playing against top male athletes from other sports in a celebrity competition.
Now – with the women headed to their next tournament March 3-6 in Singapore– all three men’s tours are either in Florida or headed that way. The PGA’s Korn Ferry Tour kicked off its first tournament of the year in the United States on Thursday with the LECOM Suncoast Classic at Lakewood National, on the outskirts of Sarasota.
On Friday PGA Tour Champions holds its first full-field event of the year, the 35th annual Chubb Classic at Tiburon in Naples. Then there’ll be four straight weeks of PGA Tour events – the Honda Classic in Palm Beach Gardens, the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Orlando, the Players Championship in Ponte Vedra and the Valspar Championship in Palm Harbor.
The Korn Ferry Tour is holding its fourth tournament of the year, with the first three being in the Bahamas, Panama and Colombia. The field includes three Illinois Open champions – Brad Hopfinger, Vince India and Tee-K Kelly.
India, who shot 66 in the first round at Lakewood National, had top-15 finishes in both the Bahamas and Panama before missing the cut in Colombia. Kelly had his best Korn Ferry performance in a tie for seventh last week and Hopfinger tied for 13th in Colombia. Rookie pro Michael Feagles, a mainstay for Illinois’ collegiate powerhouses the last four years, is also in the field.
Lakewood Ranch has two 18-holers, and the Korn Ferry players are using the Commander Course. It opened in 2017 and the winners have gone extremely low — 26-under-par in 2019, 23-under in 2020 and 13-under last year – in previous Korn Ferry stops.
More familiar names will be teeing off on Tiburon’s Black Course on Friday in the 54-hole Chubb Classic. Bernhard Langer heads a field that also includes Jim Furyk, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Sandy Lyle, Colin Montgomerie, Jose Maria Olazabal, Padraig Harrington nd Ian Woosnam. All of them won major titles.
Miguel Angel Jimenez, who won the circuit’s season-opening Mitsubishi Electric Championship last month in Hawaii, is also competing and former world No. 1 David Duval and Y.E. Kang, winner of a PGA Championship, will be making their debuts in full-field PGA Tour Champions competition.
Tiburon is a special venue, as it’s the only facility to host a PGA Tour, PGA Tour Champions and LPGA Tour event in the same calendar year. Tiburon has two courses, both designed by Greg Norman, and the Black Course will be used this week. The other two circuit’s played their events on the Gold Course.
The Chubb Classic is being held for the 35th time and is the longest-standing PGA Tour Champions event held in the same marketplace. The Black Course hosted the event for the first time in 2021 with Steve Stricker winning the title. Stricker, sidelined by a heart ailment in November, won’t defend his title.
Architect Tom Fazio gave World Woods’ Pine Barren course a wild look in the early 1990s.
BROOKSVILLE, FL. – Go back three decades and World Woods was one of the biggest things in Florida golf. It had two Tom Fazio-designed courses – Pine Barrens and Rolling Oaks – that opened together on April 1, 1993 and its Japanese owner, Yukihisa Inoue, had plans for much more.
“The previous owner (Inoue is now in his 90) wanted to be a destination golf resort that would bring in people from all over the world, especially Japan,’’ said Rick Kelso, now the resort’s director of golf. “He planned to build seven golf courses and a beautiful hotel and bring in the top Japanese players – but things changed.’’
Kelso was part of the excitement that World Woods generated then and he is looking for more of the same now that the Canada-based Cabot group completed a long purchasing negotiation for the facility.
Cabot has an owner with big dreams, too. Ben Cowan-Dewar is Cabot’s founder and chief executive officer. He took his first look at World Woods 20 years ago and considered buying it for the last 10. The purchase was completed last December 16 with no terms disclosed. Then conjecture about the exciting plans for World Woods’ future kicked in. That was inevitable, and spurred two Chicago golf addicts to make a visit there.
Chicago’s Mike Keiser, whose golfing vision spurred the creation of Oregon’s Bandon Dunes and Sand Valley in Wisconsin, will be involved. The question is to what extent.
Kelso can’t answer that but confirms that Keiser and Cowan-Dewar are “very good friends who talk all the time.’’ He suggests that Keiser is Cowan-Dewar’s “mentor’’ when it comes to golf projects. World Woods will be Cabot’s first venture in the United States and the first existing club that Cabot acquired.
No. 1 at Pine Barrens sets the tone for a round at World Woods. (Photos by Rory Spears)
The company’s portfolio already includes Cabot Cape Breton, home of Cabot Cliffs and Cabot Links – both highly ranked among Canadian courses. Cabot St. Lucia and Cabot Revelstroke, in British Columbia, are under construction. Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw are the design team for St. Lucia and the architect for World Woods is to be announced next week.
Kelso says “the majority of the main architects have been out,’’ and who gets the job will have lots to work with. The densely-wooded Pine Barrens, with its deep bunkers, was Golf Digest’s Best New Resort Course of 1994 and spent several years on that publication’s prestigious list of Top 100 Greatest Courses. Rolling Oaks ranks high among courses in Florida.
“(The new architect) will fix them up,’’ said Kelso. “They’re coming in to bring back World Woods’ luster, not re-design the courses. The bones are already there.’’
Pine Barrens in particular has played to between 75,000 and 83,000 rounds a year without getting much updating. It needs it. World Woods also has a nine-hole short course, three practice holes,, a putting course and a 360-degree driving range. They will get major updating after the facility is closed, probably in late spring.
And that’s not all. The Cabot purchase included more than the 550 acres on the golf courses. It also included 600 acres of undeveloped land and a couple of nearby courses, Sugarmille and Southern Woods. The role those courses will play in the project is uncertain, but Kelso assured there’ll be big changes once the facility re-opens. Retail outlets, restaurants and a spa are under consideration.
The par-3 sixteenth helped make Pine Barrens popular immediately.
One thing is certain. World Woods will be rebranded as Cabot Citrus Farms.
“When we open again there will be some sort of lodging and a new clubhouse,’’ said Kelso. “We don’t plan any houses on the facility, but there will be some real estate.’’
Visiting golfers have stayed in the nearby towns of Spring Hill and Crystal River in the past and made day visits from Orlando and Tampa as well. The Tampa airport is an hour away and Brooksville has its own airport that can accommodate corporate jets. Nearest golf destinations include Innisbrook (one hour away), the Disney courses (1 hour 40 minutes) and Streamsong (slightly over two hours).
Kelso expects Cabot Citrus Farms to be more friendly for golfers who want to walk, and caddies will likely be available.
Pine Barrens was the site of a final qualifier for the Senior PGA Tour in the 1990s and a Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf match between David Toms and Phil Mickelson in the early 2000s. Since then about 300 yards was added to the course, making it play 7,300 from the tips now. Course records are sketchy though one Jeff Leonard was said to shoot a 60 in a mini-tour event many years back.
TRAVEL TIDBITS: Streamsong has announced plans to add a fourth course, and it’ll be shorter than the other three. The design team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, who created the first course at the resort in 2012, are planning another layout that will have holes ranging from 70 to 300 yards. It’ll be built on 100 acres and feature lots of elevation changes.
Sweetgrass, one of two 18-holers at Michigan’s Island Resort & Casino, has been named Course of the Year by the National Golf Course Owners Association. Sweetgrass, a Paul Albanese design, opened in 2008. Sage Run is the resort’s other course, and the entire facility just announced the completion of a $33 million expansion.
Boca West Country Club, another Florida facility, has become the first country club in the nation to upgrade its driving range with Inrange – a radar tracking technology.
The clubhouse at Tiburon is a welcome site for three pro golf tour events.
NAPLES, FL. – The traditional warmup in Hawaii is over. Now PGA Tour Champions is ready to get down to business. With the tournament rounds scheduled for Feb. 18-20, the Chubb Classic Presented by SERVOPRO is the first full-field event of the season for the 50-and-over circuit.
“A great place for it,’’ said Peter Jacobsen, who played in the tournament last year and will be on Golf Channel’s broadcasting crew for this one.
Oh yes, he’s also a member at Tiberon, the host club that first welcomed the Chubb in 2021.
PGA Tour Champions made its traditional season debut at the Mitsubishi Championship, but only winners of tournaments from the previous year can play in that one.
“It’s the crown jewel because everyone wants to play there,’’ said Jacobsen, “but all the players are excited to get out and get their year started. Last year was a weird one with Covid.’’
Indeed it was. Last year’s Chubb was moved to April and was one of the many events on all the golf tours that was played without fans in attendance. The fans will be very evident at Tiberon this year, and not just because the tournament won’t be dealing as much with pandemic issues.
The Chubb is always a special event. It’s become a Florida tradition and this year’s playing marks the tournament’s 35th anniversary. It’s the longest-running Champions Tour event in the same marketplace. The Champions circuit started in 1980, and the Chubb made its debut just eight years later. It’s produced plenty of golf excitement ever since.
So, let’s get down to business. Here’s what golf fans need to know in the waning days before the first tee shot is struck on Tiburon’s Black Course.
Executive director Sandy Diamond (left) and media director Jeremy Friedman give the Chubb a new look.
WHAT’S NEW: The tourney has a new executive director, but this won’t be Sandy Diamond’s first rodeo. He worked at the tournament 20 years ago, then spent a long career with the PGA Tour before hooking on with the First Tee of Metropolitan New York as its chief development officer.
When the Chubb position opened up Diamond was excited to take it and promptly moved to Naples to oversee management of the tournament.
“My background has been more on the development side – sponsorship, marketing – and not on the operational side,’’ said Diamond, but he’s off to a flying start. He’s lined up full fields for morning and afternoon pro-ams on both Wednesday and Thursday of tournament week. There’s a $14,000 fee to get a foursome into the field in those, and Diamond had 56 teams lined up two weeks before the tournament.
“And there’s no freebies,’’ said Diamond.
There may also be another pro-am on Tiberon’s sister Gold Course on Tuesday of tournament week, based on demand.
The Gold Course at Tiburon hosts the LPGA and PGA tours, but not the Champions.
WHAT ABOUT TIBURON? It’s the only facility to host events on the PGA and LPGA tours as well as PGA Tour Champions in a one-year period. The club has taken on that demanding task in a four-month period. The LPGA’s CME Championship, which included the 2021 season, was held in November and was the biggest money event in women’s golf. The QBE Shootout, held in December, brought in an array of PGA Tour stars and now it’s PGA Tour Champions’ turn.
The Chubb is the only event of the big three held on Tiburon’s Black Course. The other two were held on the Gold. Both courses were designed by Greg Norman.
WHO’S DEFENDING? Unfortunately, probably nobody. Steve Stricker was a one-stroke winner over Robert Karlsson and Alex Cejka last year. It was the 54-year old’s sixth victory on the Champions circuit, and he followed up with an even more high-profile accomplishment when he captained the U.S. Ryder Cup team to a record 19-9 whomping of Europe at Wisconsin’s Whistling Straits course in September.
Unfortunately Stricker was hit with a severe illness – described as an inflammation around his heart — in late November and his participation in the Chubb is doubtful, though reports suggest he has been making big strides in his recovery.
“I don’t think he’ll be here, and that stinks,’’ said Diamond. “It’d take a minor mira
While Greg Norman designed both Tiburon courses, the Gold and Black have their own distinct qualities.
WHO WILL BE HERE? Diamond had only a handful of early commitments, but they were some good ones – Jim Furyk, Colin Montgomerie, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen and Bernhard Langer. David Duval, a former major champion, is also coming. He made his Champions debut in the Mitsubishi event, finishing in a tie for 34th, and the Chubb will be Duval’s first in a full-field competition. He was the 2001 British Open champion and a former world No. 1.
Later player commitments included Fred Couples, Davis Love III, Sandy Lyle, Jose Maria Olazabal, Ian Woosnam, Billy Andrade, Brad Faxon and Dudley Hart. Sponsor exemptions were awarded to Michael Balliet, head pro at nearby Calusa Pines, and amateur Michael Muehr.
There’ll be 78 players in the field, and Diamond promised “The field will be extremely strong.’’
HISTORICALLY SPEAKING: The first Chubb first champion was Gary Player at The Club at Pelican Bay, the site for the first three years of the tournament. Other Naples area courses took their shot at hosting – Vineyards, Lely, Bay Colony, Pelican Marsh, TwinEagles, Quail Creek, TP Treviso Bay and The Quarry – before Tiburon joined the mix.
When Player won the purse was only $300,000. Now it’s $1.6 million. Lee Trevino was the first back-to-back winner (1990-91) and Mike Hill also accomplished the feat in 1993-94.
Langer is the only three-time winner (2011, 2013 and 2016).
BEST STORY LINES: Langer, who lives just a couple hours away, in Boca Raton, is always a good one. Now 64, this guy can still play and will continue to chase Hale Irwin’s record 45 Champions wins at least for another year. Langer has won 41 Champions titles and captured the Charles Schwab Cup six times, the last win coming last year.
Miguel Angel Jimenez got off to a great start in Hawaii when he won the Mitsubishi event for the third time, this time in a playoff with Steven Alker. Alker was the surprise of last season and will be well-watched if he keeps his success run going.
And who know what to expect from David Duval?
BEST VIEWING HOLES: Jacobsen, who has lived in Naples and been a Tiburon member for 18 years, believes the key holes will be Nos. 2 and 18.
“The second is tight and long, a difficult par,’’ said Jacobsen. “It’s extremely difficult and tests your driving right off the bat. The last hole is a reachable par-5. A player will have the opportunity to make eagle and win the tournament there.’’
“Overall, the Black Course is a good design,’’ said Jacobsen. “It’s not overly difficult or very long (6,949 yards from the tips). Greg Norman did a good job. He designed a course that is good for tour players and resort guests as well.’’
The battle was intense, but Lydia Ko dropped some key putts as Danielle Kang could only watch.
BOCA RATON, FL. – The first full-field event of the Ladies PGA tour’s 2022 season was just a two-player duel between two of the circuit’s most popular stars. One of them not only came away with a vicrtory but also gave herself a big boost for her Hall of Fame aspirations.
Lydia Ko, a 24-year old New Zealander who was an instant sensation when she came on the tour at age 16, took her 17th career LPGA title by holding off 29-year old American Danielle Kang. The good friends were in the spotlight throughout in the $2 million Gainbridge Championship at Boca Rio.
Ko took the first-round lead with a 63 and Kang rallied into a tie for the top spot after 36 holes. They played together in the final two rounds, and Ko regained her two-stroke advantage with a solid even par round in cold windy weather on Saturday.
Kang, the runner-up to Nelly Korda in last year’s Gainbridge event, got back into a tie when Ko got off to a slow start on Sunday. They took turns taking sole possession of the top spot until Ko claimed it for good with birdies at Nos. 15 and 16, and she protected it with stellar bunker shots to save pars on the final two holes.
“The putt on 15 was really the momentum shifter,’’ said Ko. “I kept reading it further and further right, and it turned out the perfect read.’’ Kang had the same problem with the read from seven feet and agreed. But she missed hers.
The winner of last week’s season-opening Tournament of Champions at Lake Nona, in the Orlando area where Ko now resides, Kang missed a 15-foot birdie putt on the final green to end her hopes of sending the seesaw competition to a playoff. Ko finished at 14-under-par 274 for the regulation 72 holes, one swing better than Kang.
In addition to claiming the $300,000 winner’s check Ko boosted her chances of making it into the LPGA Hall of Fame. Selection is determined on a performance-based point total. She has 21 points and needs 27.
“Sometimes I try to be too much of a perfectionist,’’ she said. “The Hall of Fame would be huge, but I just try to play my best golf.’’
She became the youngest-ever player-of-the-year in professional golf history — male or female — to be named rookie-of-the-year when she started her LPGA career. Ko won two major championships among her victories early in her career and medals in two Olympics after that, but wins have been hard to come by – until Sunday. It was the first of her LPGA victories claimed in the month of Januaryafter failing to win on the LPGA tour in 2021.
Ko is taking this week’s final of three straights stop of the LPGA’s Florida swing off. This week’s event is the Drive On Championship in Ft. Myers.
Lydia Ko had her driver working, and she wound up with the Gainsbridge trophy.
Rory Spears and I were Outstanding Achievers in the ING Podcast Category in 2022.
The Chicago area was well represented at the International Network of Golf’s Media Awards announcement, made at the 69th PGA Merchandise Show at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL.
Dave Lockhart’s Golf 360 was named the top television show and Steve Kashul’s Golf Scene was named the best in the Internet video category.
Rory Spears and I were multiple winners of Outstanding Achievers awards, given to those finishing in the second through fourth positions in each category. Two of Rory’s three such awards came for his broadcast efforts (on Golfers on Golf radio and the Ziehm & Spears Podcast Series). This marked the first year that I won something in a broadcast category.
In addition to my part in the podcast series I received one in competition writing for a piece on the Ryder Cup in the Daily Herald. This marked the sixth straight year that I won at least one Media Award (there was no competition in 2021).
The run started in 2016 and I had multiple awards in four of the six years. In 2022 I earned my first Award in the podcast category. Four of my Awards came in competition, including my lone win in 2018. I have won twice in Travel and Opinion/Editorial and once each in Equipment/Apparel and Business.
Zero Friction president John Iacono introduced a three-in-one golf bag at the PGA Merchandise Show.
ORLANDO, FL. – The biggest show in golf wrapped up on Friday at the Orange County Convention Center, and the 69th PGA Merchandise Show was a bit different than the previous 68 stagings. The pandemic forced cancelation of the show in 2021 and the two-year hiatus took its toll
Normally the show has about 1,000 brands showing their products for three days at the OCCC. This year there were only about 600. The event’s Demo Day — an outdoor attraction at Orange County National the day before the OCCC opens its doors — had only a sparse crowd this time, in part because of cold, rainy weather.
While most all of the major equipment manufacturers were absent, the show was by no means a downer. Zero Friction, the Oak Brook Terrace-based company that was a big hit at the show two years ago, didn’t miss a beat with the big companies gone.
“I was extremely disappointed to not see the large brands, the ones who consider themselves to be the leaders of the industry, to take this opportunity to back out,’’ said John Iacono, the Zero Friction president. “I don’t think you’re a leader of much of anything if you’re not on the front lines. Here it’s the rest of the industry – the small brands like ours. Everybody had difficulties keeping their businesses going during the pandemic. The bigger brands, who profited heavily in this industry, didn’t take time to have a smaller presence here, and I feel that’s sad. It’s a sore eye for the golf industry when the leaders aren’t leading at all.’’
How the show, which has been closed to the public but still drew 40,000 industry members annually, will change in 2023 remains to be seen but Iacono is optimistic about his own company’s growth.
Zero Friction started as a manufacturer of wooden tees in 2006 and expanded to other golf products in 2012. Both its line of tees and gloves were recipients of Industry Honors by the International Network of Golf at the 2020 show, and since then the company opened sales offices in Charlotte, N.C.; Kansas City and London added its own distribution center in Melrose Park.
With many of its products produced overseas, a quality control director based in Indonesia was added to the staff. The gloves are now sold in 26 countries, and Iacono believes that the newest model of tees will be a big hit. This model has a divot repair tool built in.
“A tee product that can be used to repair a green that can be put in every player’s hand – that’s a must have,’’ said Iacono.
The company’s newest product, the Wheel Pro golf bag, was one of the biggest hits of this year’s show. It’s a three-in-one bag. It starts as a push bag. If you want to walk and carry, you pop the wheels off. If you want to ride you stick it in your cart. That’s one versatile golf bag, and it carries a retail price of $349.
In May Iacono plans to introduce a completely recycled golf ball called the Eagle Z. The covers of old golf balls will be scraped off, recycled and put on the cores of the old balls. Ball prices figure to be soaring because of problems obtaining surlyn, a key ingredient.
“The pandemic gave us an opportunity to structure differently for long-term growth,’’ said Iacono. “We’ll grow as long as we produce interesting new products that show technological advancement and are priced fairly.’’
Last week’s cold weather hampered Nelly Korda (right) in the LPGA’s Tournament of Champions but warmer temperatures are expected this week at Boca Rio.
BOCA RATON, FL. — The first full field event of the LPGA’s 2022 season tees off on Thursday at Boca Rio Golf Club. It’ll have 120 players, but not Annika Sorenstam.
Sorenstam, who won 72 tournaments on the LPGA tour before taking 13 years off from golf competition, is still tinkering with a comeback but her next tournament won’t be for a while. She was a big reason why the LPGA’s season-opening Tournament of Champions was a big hit.
Despite cold, sometimes rainy, weather the gallery turned out in bigger than usual numbers to see Sorenstam compete at Lake Nona, her home course. She did well, but is taking a break now.
“I won’t play next week. It’s the PGA (Merchandise) Show (in Orlando), and we have a fun week coming up,’’ she said. “We have a busy week with meetings with sponsors.’’
“Next week’’ is also the Gainbridge Championship. Sorenstam will leave that one up to Danielle Kang, who took a three-shot victory in the LPGA portion of the Tournament of Champions on Sunday, and her main rivals of the previous four days – Mexico’s Gaby Lopez, Canadian Brooke Henderson and the Korda sisters – Nelly and Jessica.
Nelly is the defending champion in the Gainbridge, having won last year when the event was played at Lake Nona. Kang won the T of C, finishing at 16-under-par for 72 holes and earned $225,000.
“I shot 4-under on a cold day and 3-under (in the third round) – probably the best I’ve ever played in the cold,’’ she said. Last year Kang lost the Tournament of Champions title to Korda’s sister Jessica in a playoff at Tranquilo, another course in the Orlando area.
Kang, a 29-year old Californian, won for the sixth time on the LPGA tour but her biggest win was her first. She won the 2017 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, one of the circuit’s majors, at Olympia Fields.
Sorenstam has a couple tournaments coming up, one in February and a senior event in March. She lost a playoff to former major league pitcher Derek Lowe in the celebrity division of the T of C. Lowe got the win by making a 25-foot birdie putt on the first hole of sudden death but Sorenstam took the whole four-day test in stride.
“I’m not sure what I expected, but I’m super pleased with the great pairings I had all week,’’ said Sorenstam. “If this tournament was played at any other course I probably wouldn’t be playing, but this is why I came here in the first place. The support is fantastic, I love this golf course and I’m a proud member for sure.’’
Sweden’s Madelene Sagstrom won the Gainbridge title when the event was played at Boca Rio in 2020, and she’ll also be in the field this week. She finished 17th in the Tournament of Champions.
Nelly Korda led the T of C after 54 holes but shot 75 on Sunday to finish in a tie for fourth.
“I was freezing,’’ she said. “I always get colder than it actually is. That’s why I always stay away from tournaments that are always in the cold.’’
Korda lives in Bradenton, FL., and it’s rarely as cold in the Sunshine State as it was last week. Lexi Thompson, who is from Delray Beach, FL., will make her season debut at Boca Rio. She didn’t qualify for the T of C field. Australian Karrie Webb is also in the field. A former major champion, she will return to the LPGA circuit for the first time in two years. The Gainbridge field includes 16 of the top 25 in the world rankings.
The sponsor exemptions are also interesting. Taylor Collins, a teaching professional at nearby Coral Ridge Country Club in Ft. Lauderdale, was the first woman to win the South Florida PGA Section title in 42 years and Nishtha Madan, a promising player from India, will be making her LPGA debut. She will compete on the Symetra Tour in 2022.
LAKE NONA, FL. – Annika Sorenstam didn’t win on Sunday but – as the only woman in a 50-player group of celebrities that included famous sport stars like Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux, Brian Urlacher, Jeremy Roenick, John Smoltz, Sterling Sharp and Tom Glavin, the 51-year old golf legend did just fine. No doubt she was the star of the show at the first event of the LPGA season
She beat all of those big names in her group at the LPGA Tournament of Champions, but lost the celebrity title to Derek Lowe – a major-league pitcher for 17 seasons. He earned $100,000 by winning their one-hole playoff after Sorenstam forced extra holes with a clutch par on the last hole of regulation play.
“To play against Annika Sorenstam, how many people can say that – and in a playoff and prevail?’’ said Lowe. “She’s a special person. She means a lot to Lake Nona (the host club) and to all of golf.’’
Sorenstam, who won 17 tournaments on the LPGA tour before taking 13 years off from golf competition, is still tinkering with a comeback.
“I won’t play next week. It’s the PGA (Merchandise) Show (in Orlando), and we have a fun week coming up,’’ she said. “We have a busy week with meetings with sponsors.’’
“Next week’’ is also the LPGA’s first full-field event of 2022 – the Gainbridge Championship in Boca Raton, FL. She’ll leave that one up to Danielle Kang, who took a three-shot victory in the LPGA portion of the Tournament of Champions on Sunday, and her rivals of the previous four days – Mexico’s Gaby Lopez, Canadian Brooke Henderson and the Korda sisters – Nelly and Jessica.
Kang shot a 68 Sunday on the same 6,617-yard layout that the men played on. She finished at 16-under-par for 72 holes and earned $225,000.
“I shot 4-under on a cold day and 3-under yesterday – probably the best I’ve ever played in the cold,’’ she said. Last year Kang lost the Tournament of Champions title to Korda’s sister Jessica in a playoff at Tranquilo, another course in the Orlando area.
Kang, a 29-year old Californian, won for the sixth time on the LPGA tour but her biggest win was her first. She won the 2017 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, one of the circuit’s majors, at Olympia Fields.
As good as Kang was, the star of the show was Sorenstam, who was paired with the top LPGA players throughout the four rounds. The women’s competition was at stroke play, the celebs played in Modified Stableford point system.
“I’m not sure what I expected, but I’m super pleased with the great pairings I had all week,’’ said Sorenstam. “If this tournament was played at any other course I probably wouldn’t be playing, but this is why I came here in the first place. The support is fantastic, I love this golf course and I’m a proud member for sure.’’
Annika Sorenstam, with husband Mike McGee on the bag, is showing — at age 51 — that she can play with the LPGA’s best players in the circuit’s Tournament of Champions.
LAKE NONA, FL. – The Ladies PGA Tour, like the PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions, opens each season with a Tournament of Champions. The women do it a little differently, though. They hold a celebrity event in conjunction with theirs, and Saturday’s third round had an even more unusual twist.
Paired in the final group was the legendary Annika Sorenstam, winner of 72 LPGA titles, and current world No. 1 Nelly Korda. Both could win titles in today’s final round.
The 22-year old Korda, whose older sister Jessica is the defending champion, owns a one-stroke lead over Danielle Kang and Gaby Lopez among the 29 LPGA members. Sorenstam, who had been out of tournament golf for 13 years until making a mini-comeback last year, has a two-point lead in the celebrity division.
Sorenstam, a member of the Lake Nona club that is hosting the tournament, is 51 and the only woman in a 50-player field of celebrities that include former Chicago sports heroes Jeremy Roenick, Brian Urlacher, Jon Lester and A.J. Pierzynski. Because the LPGA players are competing at stroke play and the celebrities are using a Stableford point system, it’s to difficult to compare their performances.
Last year Sorenstam, on a whim, entered an LPGA tournament and made the cut. Then she was a run-away winner of the U.S. Women’s Senior Open. When she headed the field in the Tournament of Champions, limited to players who have won LPGA titles in the last two years, a comeback story seemed in the offing.
Sorenstam didn’t exactly quell those rumors this week.
“I’m thinking how much golf I’m going to play after this event,’’ she said. “I’m not really sure.’’
She is raising a family now, and that’s just one factor.
“There’s really a fine balance, especially when you play with the best,’’ she said. “You see the level of players you’re playing against and you realize you’re not there anymore. My mindset isn’t the way it used to be.’’
She remains a drawing card, however. In previous years the celebrity competitors drew as much attention as the LPGA competitors in the Tournament of Champions. On Saturday, in chilly weather that included some rain, that wasn’t the case. The LPGA regulars and the celebrities were mixed together and the bigger than usual roving galleries supported all the women, but especially Sorenstam and the Korda sisters.
“(Sorenstam) has so much game. It was cool to see,’’ said Nelly Korda. “She shot 1- or 2-under on the back nine. She’s not hitting it as far off the tee, but her woods and iron game is so good.’’
The 69th PGA Merchandise Show is coming up this week in Orlando, FL., and that’s generally a big week for club professionals nation-wide who use the big event at the Orange County Convention Center to begin preparations for another season.
It won’t be quite the same this year for two of Chicago’s longest-standing club leaders. Both Bob Malpede and Brian Morrison retired once the calendar turned to 2022. Malpede, who will attend the show to renew acquaintances, finished a 16-year run in a dual role – general manager and head golf professional – at White Deer Run, in Vernon Hills.
Morrison, who spent 21 seasons at Olympia Fields and was the storied club’s director of golf, is now living in Florida. The 2003 U.S. Open, 2015 U.S. Amateur and 2020 BMW Championship were all held at Olympia during Morrison’s tenure there. Douglas Farrell has moved up from head professional to become Olympia’s new director of golf.
Malpede isn’t ready to end residence in Illinois, where his golf roots are deep. He got started in the business at Pistakee Bay, in McHenry, when his father owned the club. He formally entered the professional ranks in 1972 at Glen Flora, in Waukegan, and also did time as an assistant pro at Knollwood, in Lake Forest, and Bel-Air and Riviera, in California.
After landing his first head pro job at Columbine, in Colorado, Malpede returned to Illinois where he got the golf operations started at two new clubs. He was the first head pro at both Stonebridge, in Aurora, and Stonewall Orchard, in Grayslake, and remains a managing partner at Stonewall. He’ll remain on staff at White Deer Run as pro emeritus.
Another club has announced a change in head pros. Stonebridge has named Steve Gillie to the job. He had been a teaching pro at Boulder Ridge, in Lake in the Hills.
NEW WGA CHAIRMAN: Joe Desch is the new chairman of the Western Golf Association. The Cincinnati resident succeeds Kevin Buggy, of Park Ridge Country Club, in the leadership role.
Desch, along with four of his brothers, attended college on an WGA Evans’ Scholarships. Desch attended Miami of Ohio after working as a caddie as a youth.
“It’s exciting, and very humbling, being an (Evans Scholars) alumni and having a chance to do this,’’ said Desch, who has lofty goals for the organization that has raised money for college scholarships for caddies since 1930. Over 1,000 students are now attending colleges on Evans Scholarships. He’s been on the WGA board of directors since 2021.
“Now the goal is to have 1,500 Evans Scholars by 2030,’’ said Desch. “We’re moving to a more nationwide organization and trying to be much more than a Midwest scholarship. We also want more diversity – women and kids of color among our caddies as well as at our staff headquarters.’’
HERE AND THERE – Naperville Country Club, celebrating its 100-year anniversary, has broken ground on a $2.7 million clubhouse renovation….Luke Donald, the former Northwestern star and world No. 1, has struggled with back problems in recent years but he made the cut in his first 2022 start at the Sony Open of Hawaii on Sunday. He tied for 27th, his best finish of the PGA Tour’s 2021-22 wrap-around season.….Neither Chicago club manufacturer, Wilson or Tour Edge, will be represented at the PGA Merchandise Show but Zero Friction, of Oakbrook Terrace, will have a prominent role. It has created the official tee and indoor hitting range for the show and will also introduce its new push-cart golf bag and TheraTech golf glove.
Golf-wise it’s Florida where the action is for at least the next month.
