You know what might be the nicest part of the Senior PGA Championship? It’s the one golf major played on any of the pro tours that seems to like coming to the Midwest. In fact, this Champions Tour shootout is the major played closest to Chicago in 2014. The closest the PGA Tour gets for a major is August’s PGA Championship at Valhalla in Louisville. The closest LPGA major is June’s U.S. Women’s Open at Pinehurst, in North Carolina.

This year’s 75th anniversary of the Senior PGA presented by KitchenAid is May 22-25 at Harbor Shores, in Benton Harbor, MI. – just a two-hour drive from Chicago and well worth the trip. I’ve been to the last two Senior PGAs and found them as captivating as any golf competitions – even without big-name players winning the title.

Harbor Shore also hosted in 2012 and Bellerive, the tradition-rich St. Louis club, was the venue last year.

Going forward, French Lick Resort will host the championship in 2015 and Harbor Shores has already committed for both 2016 and 2018. The 2017 site hasn’t been announced.

This tourney wasn’t always so Midwest-friendly. Sixty of the first 62 Senior PGAs were played in Florida. The first two championships, in 1937 and 1938, were played at Augusta National and the first champion was Jock Hutchison – the long-time Flossmoor Country Club pro. Those were the days when Augusta National was just getting started as the home of the Masters, an event first played in 1934.

Bringing the Senior PGA to Harbor Shores for the first time in 2012 represented a radical departure in tradition for the PGA of America. Harbor Shores’ Jack Nicklaus-designed course had been open for only 10 months before England’s Roger Chapman emerged as the surprise champion.

Now Harbor Shores is firmly in the tourney’s rotation. That shouldn’t be considered so surprising, according to championship director Jeff Hinz.

“Think about who designed the course,’’ said Hinz. This Nicklaus design has received rave reviews, though the No. 10 green – the biggest, most undulating putting surface the Golden Bear ever created – isn’t always spoken of in glowing terms.

“The first time people see it, you wonder `what’s it all about?’’’ said Hinz. “Now it’s my favorite hole on the golf course.’’

Harbor Shores’ course won’t look much different than it did two years ago. The most significant change came with the rebuilding of the No. 17 green, a move designed to tie the par-3 hole in more closely with a nature trail behind the putting surface.

The daunting par-4 seventh hole was altered, mainly to facilitate daily play. The third-hardest hole on the course in the 2012 Senior PGA featured a very large, deep bunker marked with dune grass. Now sod has replaced the dune grass. Otherwise there are no notable changes to the course.

With the rest of the facility, though, that’s another story. The grand opening of the Inn at Harbor Shores, a 92-room hotel on the St. Joseph River, will be celebrated during the tournament. It also has 14 luxury suites and its top two floors are condominiums. The rooftop is a meeting area.

Next to the Inn is a new 100-slip marina, which can accommodate boats up to 90 feet long. The hotel, marina and residential real estate comprise a $114 million parcel that will get full exposure for the first time during tournament week.

Then there’s the Renaissance Athletic Center, a 23,000-square foot state of the art fitness facility located near the second hole of the course with an additional outdoor field and swimming pool. There’s also a lot more real estate on the premises than there was in 2012. Two of the condominium developments were in the early stages of development two years ago. Now Hideaways is 65 percent filled and Fairways is at 30 percent. The new Trailside Cottages, opened for only one year, are half-sold.

Hinz views the setting as something special.

“It’s small town, middle America hosting a major golf championship,’’ he said. “The 156 players come from all over the world, and the people who came two years ago will be pleasantly surprised by the growth and development.’’

The competition will be as stiff as ever, with U.S. Ryder Cup captain Tom Watson in the field after missing last year’s event at Bellerive with a wrist injury. A two-time champion (2001, 2011) he was one of 28 winners of previous major championships invited to this Senior PGA, and about 20 are expected to compete at Harbor Shores. Colin Montgomerie, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Rocco Mediate and Jeff Maggert – established players before turning 50 within the last year – will be playing in the tournament for the first time and the popular Peter Jacobson will make his Harbor Shores debut after missing the 2012 tourney because of illness.

Defending champion in the 156-man starting field will be Kohki Idoki, who rarely plays outside of his native Japan. The Champions Tour mainstays trying to dethrone him include Fred Couples, Bernhard Langer, Curtis Strange, Mark O’Meara, Hal Sutton, Hale Irwin, Craig Stadler, Kenny Perry, Jay Haas and Fred Funk. Perry set the Harbor Shores record with a 62 in the final round two years ago, even though that sizzling score wasn’t enough to overhaul Chapman.

The tourney’s 1,870 volunteers are spread across 23 states, a testament to the tourney’s widespread popularity.

A variety of ticket options are available. Grounds-only tickets are $15 for the Tuesday and Wednesday practice rounds, $30 for the four tournaments rounds and $100 for all six days. Tickets allowing admission to the 19th hole amenities are $45 for the two practice days, $60 for the tournament rounds and $225 for the entire week. Complimentary off-site parking and shuttle service is included in the ticket prices.

Juniors 17 and under will be admitted free if accompanied by a ticket-buying adult. For ticket questions call (800) PGA-GOLF or check the tourney’s website at PGA.com.

Since Chicagoland Golf made its debut back in 1989, the first issue of each year has focused on the year ahead. Not so in 2014. A look back is essential this time before we delve into the exciting developments on the horizon.

In Chicago, at least, 2014 is a year for centennials. One-hundred years is a long time, and just surviving that long is a cause for celebration.

For instance, Wrigley Field — the long-time home of the Cubs –was built in 1914. Though I’m only a casual baseball fan, Sports Illustrated devoted an issue solely on the ball park’s history, and I found it captivating.

No less significant, though, are two other centennial celebrations – and these are both for us golfers.

The Chicago District Golf Assn. was founded in 1914. It’s grown to over 300 clubs, some of which are even beyond the city’s borders. The organization will conduct 60 events this year, including 13 state or association championships.

Wilson Sporting Goods, based in Chicago and its suburbs ever since Thomas E. Wilson founded the company, also arrived on the sports landscape in 1914. It’s become an iconic brand – not just for golfers but for participants in other sports as well.

Both the CDGA and Wilson haven’t just survived; they’ve thrived. Both will be announcing more detailed schedules for their celebratory events as the year goes on, but some are already evident.

The CDGA’s tournament schedule, for instance, revealed a new opening event on April 14. Its Centennial Team Championship will be held at Midlothian Country Club. It’ll be a two-player team event with a unique format – six holes of best ball, six holes of total team score and six holes of alternate shot.

Teams from all CDGA clubs are eligible for the season opener, but the season-ending Centennial Founders Club Championship will be by invitation only. It’ll be played at Hinsdale Golf Club, which was the home of Francis S. Peabody, the CDGA’s first president and the person most credited with bringing representatives of 25 private clubs together for the purpose of forming the organization.

The season-ender will be limited to teams from those 25 original CDGA clubs and the competitive format hasn’t been determined. The event will not only conclude a big year for the CDGA, it’ll also climax a monumental year for Hinsdale. The club will also host the historic CDGA Amateur, the only event contested every year since the organization’s founding. Hinsdale last hosted that big tournament in 1997. This year’s version will be held June 23-26.

While the CDGA gave an inkling of its plans first, Wilson’s centennial celebration was more immediately visible. The company started it at the Waste Management Phoenix Open in late January when its tour players showed up with retro-looking equipment. Padraig Harrington, Kevin Streelman, Ricky Barnes and newly-signed Marcel Siem headline Wilson’s stable of touring pros and they’ll remind everyone of their company’s rich history for the next few months.

The retro look, which covers bags, umbrellas and headcovers, will be evident at all the PGA, European and Asian tour events through July’s British Open.

“Then we’ll move toward the look and feel we’ll have for 2015 and beyond,’’ said Tim Clarke, general manager of Wilson’s golf division. The company brought representatives from its offices around the world to Chicago to this year’s Chicago Golf Show for an internal centennial celebration.

Wilson is also prominent in other sports, but has one golf niche that has long stirred company pride. More major titles (61) have been won by players using Wilson Staff irons than any other brand. The company also had legendary Gene Sarazen on its staff for 75 years – the longest-running contract in sports history. Sarazen created the original sand wedge during his long affiliation with the company.

Not many organizations or equipment manufacturers in any sports have lasted 100 years. The CDGA and Wilson are both going strong, a testament to the tremendous respect both merit in the golf industry.

Both the CDGA and Wilson will be around for many years to come, but another reflection of where golf is going comes from a new – much more high-tech – Chicago company, NewSpin Golf. It produces the SwingSmart, a mobile swing analyzer that is as high-tech as it gets in a golf world that is continuously evolving.

Angelo Papadourakis created the SwingSmart, set up offices in North Barrington, hooked up with famed instructor Peter Kostis and saw his product win a Techy Award from Golf Magazine in the training aid category. You can swing your club with a sensor attached and get immediate feedback on your tempo, attack angle, swing speed and face angle plus a 3-D view of your swing on your iPad/Phone or Android device.

“You don’t have to hit a golf ball to get better,’’ insists Papadourakis, who says SwingSmart develops better feel and shape of the swing. The idea for the product started in 2006, and NewSpin got a patent last Nov. 19. It’s now for sale (suggested price is about $250) throughout Europe, in addition to the United States and an upgrade is coming in March.

“We decided to add fun, and make it a game of skill,’’ said Papadourakis. “We’re only limited by our own creativity.’’

So, just think about how far golf has come in Chicago since those days 100 years ago, when a few private clubs were forming their first organization and Wilson was making its first golf clubs. Now it’s possible to learn to swing a golf club properly without having to even hit a ball.

Indeed the game is constantly changing, and growing. A month ago over 1,000 companies were represented at the 61st PGA Merchandise Show in Florida, 40,000 industry members prowled the corridors of a big convention center to see new products and the trade show drew three days of national television coverage for the first time.

I’d say this 100-year journey has been mind-boggling. Wouldn’t you?

If you had to pick one thing to feel good about in this golf season, what would it be? For me it’s what’s happening on the women’s side – both locally and nationally.

The Illinois Women’s Golf Assn. showed again that it isn’t reluctant to play its State Amateur in the Chicago area anymore. It was at Flossmoor in 2010, Ravisloe in 2012 and Cantigny this year, and the last two champions were Chicago players. This 80-year old tournament should move around the state, but from 1971 through 2008 it was almost entirely a downstate attraction. The tourney will benefit from continuing to play it regularly at Chicago courses.

The Illinois Women’s Open doesn’t have a location problem – it’s a fixture at Mistwood in Romeoville – but this year the tourney finally drew a heavy contingent of professional players. A bigger purse and a renovated course may have contributed to that.

On the professional side Jerry Rich surfaced again in a big way. Rich lured the Solheim Cup to his Rich Harvest Farms, in Sugar Grove, in 2009 and will host an even bigger event – the International Crown – in 2016. Rich wants to host the competition beyond that date as well. Hopefully he’ll be successful.

But this September couldn’t be a better time to spotlight women’s golf. Let me explain.

The men who labored on the PGA Tour have their Champions Tour to play on once they turn 50. As the Senior PGA Tour it was an immediate hit upon its founding in 1980, but the Ladies PGA Tour has struggled to get a similar circuit going. Now progress is clearly evident.

Its Legends Tour was created in 2000 but its growth has been slow. No more than three tournaments were held annually from 2000 to 2005. There was sporadic growth the next seven years, the number of events climbing to seven by 2012.

Just a year later the Legends actually seems like a bonafide circuit with a very big event coming up soon. The Legends has 13 tournaments on its 2013 schedule, three of them coming in September including its biggest event yet. The Legends Tour Championship presented by Humana will be played at one of my favorite getaway places, French Lick Resort in Indiana. It’ll be part of a week-long celebration of women’s golf that runs from Sept. 23-29.

In the weeks leading up to that big one there’ll be the Harris Charity Classic in Maine from Sept. 12-15 and BJ’s Charity Pro-Am in Massachusetts on Sept. 18.

The big one, though, is at French Lick — a four- to six-hour drive from Chicago depending on your starting point. The 54-hole tournament has, as of this printing, 66 entrants with 10 of them LPGA Hall of Famers and seven former Solheim Cup captains. They’ll play for a $500,000 purse, the biggest in Legends history, and the champion will received $75,000.

Not only that, but there’ll be a 36-hole Super Legends competition on the last two days of the week, featuring stars of the more distant past like Sandra Haynie (winner of the U.S. Women’s Open at LaGrange in 1974), Donna Caponi, Jane Blalock and Sandra Palmer.

Not only that, but there’ll be a Legends Hall of Fame established at French Lick with active Legend Jan Stephenson, winner of the circuit’s first tournament 13 years ago, heading the first class of inductees.

And, not only that, but there’ll be a two-day amateur event – the Alice Dye Invitational – to kick off the celebration. That event, to be held for the fourth time, has been extremely popular as part of French Lick’s annual calendar. Alice is the wife of Pete Dye, and both are course designers. The acclaimed Pete Dye Course will be used for the Legends competition, though it would be just as appropriate to have the women tee off on the Donald Ross Course there.

The hilly Ross layout hosted the men’s PGA Championship in 1924, with Walter Hagen winning, but it has an even bigger place in LPGA history. That circuit wasn’t organized until 1950, and three tournaments in its first decade were played at French Lick. The 1957 French Lick Women’s Open was won by Louise Suggs, and that event’s success led to the LPGA Championship being scheduled at the resort in 1959 and 1960. Two of the greatest women golfers of all time, Betsy Rawls and Mickey Wright, were the champions.

Suggs, Rawls and Wright will be inducted into the Legends Hall along with Stephenson and retired Legend Kathy Whitworth. The Hall will reside off the Atrium of the West Baden Springs Hotel.

I went to the Legends tourney announcement at French Lick 15 months ago. The event intrigued me then and excites me now. There aren’t nearly as many former LPGA stars who want to still compete as there are on the men’s side, but there are enough. I had Pat Bradley and Val Skinner as playing partners during my visit. Their skills haven’t diminished much, and they have growing company in that regard.

The Legends Tour now lists 120 members with a combined 675 LPGA tournament wins, including 70 major championships. Among the Legends members are two players who came out of Illinois to become LPGA regulars – Allison Finney (Winnetka) and Nancy Scranton (Centralia).

Though scheduling tournaments has been challenging, the Legends has paid out $10 million in prize money during its first 12 seasons and raised $13 million for charity. There have been events of one sort or another in 12 states – but not Illinois – plus Japan and Australia.

And now the Legends will put on their biggest show yet in southern Indiana. Adult tickets are $12.50 per day. In addition to the three days of Legends tournament play there’ll be a day-long clinic given by the LPGA greats as well as a pro-am in which they’ll be the featured attraction.

The community of French Lick fell on difficult economic times in the years after the LPGA’s last event there. It has recovered big-time as a golf destination, as attested to the landing of the 2015 Senior PGA Championship last month. French Lick has also hosted both the men’s and women’s Big Ten Championships twice and the Professional Players National Championship was also played there in recent years.

Now it’s the LPGA Legends turn. The event marks a breakthrough for the LPGA and women’s golf in general. It will be well worth the half-day drive.

It’s almost here now, the only annual Illinois stop on the PGA Tour.

Yes, the John Deere Classic is something special. Those visiting the spiffy TPC Deere Run course in Silvis, on the outskirts of the Quad Cities, will realize that in a hurry if they’re first-time visitors to this July 8-14 shootout.

The JDC is one of the few medium-size markets left on the PGA Tour. Milwaukee and Detroit lost their longstanding tournaments in recent years, but that won’t happen to the JDC as long as John Deere is around to sponsor the biggest sports event near its home base, roughly a two-hour drive from the Chicago city limits.

John Deere wasn’t always the sponsor. The tourney started as the Quad Cities Open in 1972 when Deane Beman – later the commissioner of the PGA Tour – won the title by beating Tom Watson. The tourney was held at Crow Valley, a private club in Bettendorf, Ia., the first three years.

In 1975 the event moved to another private facility, Oakwood in Coal Valley, IL., and remained at the short (6,602 yards) facility until 1999. Then one of the tourney’s former champions, D.A. Weibring (1991, 1995), completed design work on TPC Deere Run. The course has immediately been a favorite of PGA Tour players.

Sponsors came and went until John Deere took over in 1999 in a match made in sponsor heaven. Not only is the well-established Deere & Company a fixture in nearby Moline, it’s also the PGA Tour’s official equipment supplier, landscape products supplier, course equipment leasing company and official irrigation supplier. Its roots in professional golf run deep.

Over the years the tourney has grown with the times. It delivers a $20 million economic impact to the Quad Cities annually and fulfilled its main goal: helping local charities.

Last year the JDC donated $6.79 million to 493 charities. That put the JDC in the top 10 on the PGA Tour in overall charity dollar donations and it ranked No. 1 on the circuit in per capita fundraising. The PGA Tour recognized that accomplishment in declaring the Quad Cities its Most Engaged Community of 2012.

In recent years the tourney has been blessed with extraordinarily good story lines, a big help for tournament director Clair Peterson in promoting the event beyond the Quad Cities area.

The popular Steve Stricker won the tournament three years in a row, from 2009 through 2011. Last year his bid for an extremely rare four-peat was followed world-wide. Though Stricker was the main attraction, the tourney also was the scene for a PGA record round of 59 by Paul Goydos during the Stricker reign and the last two championships were climaxed by spectacular finishes.

Stricker achieved his three-peat by getting up-and-down from a fairway bunker in 2011 to edge Kyle Stanley and Zach Johnson, every bit as popular a winner as Stricker was, put a 6-iron from that same bunker (193 yards away) to within a foot of the cup to win a sudden death playoff with Troy Matteson last year.

This year Johnson, a long-time JDC board member who grew up in Cedar Rapids, IA., will try to become the fourth player to win the tournament in consecutive years.

Peterson can’t expect similarly spectacular finishes this year. That would be asking a lot, but don’t bet against it. The atmosphere at the JDC is always pleasant, no matter who wins. Here’s some tips to make your visit even more enjoyable:

BE PREPARED to walk at least a little bit. The views of the course from spots near the Rock River (my favorite is from the No. 4 green) are spectacular. Plus, there are plenty of players worth watching. Johnson and Stricker are the main ones, with Stricker making one of his few appearances of 2012 after deciding to cut back on his schedule.

There are some other guys who won tournaments this year – Boo Weekley (Colonial), Kevin Streelman (Tampa Bay), D.A. Points (Houston), Derek Ernst (Wells Fargo) and Sang-Moon Moon Bae (Byron Nelson). Some other recent past JDC champions – Sean O’Hair, John Senden and Jonathan Byrd – will also be competing, and if you want to see a star of the future check out Steven Ihm. He’s a junior at the University of Iowa and the first Hawkeyes’ collegian in the 43-year history of the tournament to receive a sponsor’s exemption.

EVENTUALLY finding a seat will be necessary. Obviously one behind the No. 18 green is ideal, but there are other good ones. If you can wangle admission to a hospitality tent the best viewing is behind the green at No. 16 – the par-3 along the Rock River.

On the front nine there’s good viewing behind the green at No. 4 and along the fairway at No. 9 – a par-4 that figures to be the toughest hole on the course. I also enjoy a spot near the green at the short par-4 14th on the back side. This hole is reachable off the tee for the PGA stars and the elevation changes around the green make for interesting viewing.

YOU’LL probably get hungry, too. The tournament became legendary for its pork chop sandwiches long before it settled at TPC Deere Run. Fortunately tournament organizers recognized that, and the pork chop sandwiches are still on sale around the 16th green, 17th tee and 18th green. They’re not to be missed.

Also, new this year is the Greenside Club, an air-conditioned sports bar beside the 18th green. You might want to check it out, too.

WANT A BARGAIN? Go to TPC Deere Run on Monday or Tuesday. Admission is free on those days. Tuesday is also ideal for youngsters, as Chick-fil-A Youth Day Activities will be going on all day and the Dan Boever Youth Golf Show will be staged on the driving range at 2 p.m.

Seniors (60 or older) get in for $18 on Thursday – the first round of the tournament. Children 12 and under are free when accompanied by a paid adult and those 13-18 can get in for half price at the gate.

Ticket prices aren’t bad anyway — $24 for any one day admission Wednesday through Sunday and $34 for one day clubhouse admission. Other ticket options are available through the tournament office.

PARKING? There’s a fee, but not a big one. General parking is $5 and you get a free shuttle to the main gate. VIP parking is $10, with the free shuttle taking you to the clubhouse.

Those money amounts aren’t hefty, but the players will be playing for big bucks. Their purse is $4.6 million with the champion getting $828,000.

Mistwood Golf Club, the long-time Illinois Women’s Open site in Romeoville, closed early the last two years and opened a bit later than most of the other Chicago public courses this spring. Now those hard decisions, made by owner Jim McWethy and his veteran staff, are paying off.

The August closings in 2011 and 2012 enabled architect Ray Hearn to more easily put the finishing touches on his elaborate renovation work. The slightly delayed opening this weather-hampered spring was done for the same reason.

“Some areas held a little more water than we wanted,’’ said director of golf Dan Phillips. “We did some drainage work and some irrigation. We wanted to make sure everything was perfect.’’

Now it is.

Not only is the course – featuring 19 unique sod-wall bunkers – ready for a big season, but the long-awaited 5,000 square-foot Performance Center will soon become the talk of the Chicago golf scene. It is truly spectacular. There may be bigger practice facilities in the area, but there are none better. That’s why Mistwood is Chicagoland Golf’s next Course-of-the-Month.

Golfers managed a look at Hearn’s re-design last year and liked it. The IWO was even played there. This year those same golfers will be able to warm up at the new Performance Center and also stop there between nines or after their rounds, since the facility is also serving as a halfway house.

It’s not your average halfway house, though. It has a full-service bar and snack show along with eight televisions.

“We can put on anything we want,’’ said Phillips. “No one has done this before.’’

What McWethy has done with the entire Mistwood facility since taking over ownership in 2004 is extraordinary – especially considering the tough economic times that saw most courses cutting back rather than expanding. While Mistwood was a long-term project, McWethy also took over the former Ditka Dome in Bolingbrook, upgraded both the indoor range and restaurant and renamed it McQ’s. It lured golfers during the winter.

Work at Mistwood took much longer and isn’t quite done, though the parking lot has been doubled in size to eventually accommodate 240 cars.

Hearn was the course’s original designer before McWethy took over, and that finished project was well received. Golf Digest even gave the par-5 No. 8 hole a two-page spread in 1999. Hearn’s updates, done in the renovation, simply make for a better course.

No. 8 was lengthened from 552 to 590 yards, and the overall course grew from 6,702 to 7,028 yards from the back tees. The “new’’ Mistwood has a slope of 144 (up from 140) and a 74.7 rating (up from 73.0). While some holes (especially No. 3) have been given a new look and the new stone bridges at striking, the unusual sod-wall bunkers have been the most-discussed aspect of the course renovation.

Now the Performance Center is going to surprise its first-time visitors. Some of this year’s first ones thought it was a clubhouse. It’s that big and striking from along the entrance on Renwick Road. A new clubhouse, though, is just the next in McWethy’s plans for Mistwood. The Performance Center was a major project in itself.

“The planning took close to seven years,’’ said Phillips. “A lot of thought has gone into this project, and the architect (Elmhurst-based Dan Wohlfeil) hit a home run. We have a year-around facility now.’’

Not only are 11 climate-controlled hitting stations and two indoor/outdoor teaching bays heated for winter use, so is the cement floor. The hitting mats will always be nice and warm.

Most of the indoor bays won’t become a major factor until late fall. Of more immediate interest will be the expanded outdoor range.

“It’s really contoured now,’’ said Phillips. “It looks a lot like the golf course, with hills and bunkers. When you’re hitting into the practice greens it feels like you’re on the course.’’

While indoor space is available in case of inclement weather (mats in front of the Performance Centre are also an option), the outdoor range is as spacious as it needs to be for big events like the American Junior Golf Association’s Midwest Players Championship, coming June 17-20, and the IWO, which will run July 31-Aug. 2.

“Thirty-two spaces are available all the time,’’ said Phillips, “but we can have as many as we need to. We can get everybody on the range before our outings.’’

Make no mistake, though. The Performance Center is more than a practice range. In addition to the bar, snack shop and TVs the facility is equipped with high-tech teaching aids like Trackman ball flight analysis, SAM Putt Lab and Quintec ball motion putting analysis. There are also separate areas for custom club-fitting and club repair.

Club-fitting options include Fujikawa shafts. Mistwood is one of that company’s few dealers. Fujikawa produces one of the most popular shafts for tour players and doesn’t sell to traditional consumers.

Coinciding with the opening of the Performance Center, Mistwood added John Platt to its teaching staff. The Illinois PGA’s Teacher-of-the-Year, Platt joins Performance Center director Mike Baldwin and Chris Ioriatti as heavy-duty instructors. Phillips and Mistwood head professional Visanu Tongwarin also include teaching as part of their duties.

“As a whole, our goal is to offer a complete performance experience,’’ said Baldwin. “We can work on every aspect of your game. We can make any tweak from the club performance side and the player performance side.’’

While Platt focuses on tournament players and Ioriatti is U.S. Kids-certified, the Mistwood staff can accommodate all types of players.

“We try to create an overall experience that is memorable, makes you better and touches every level of performance there is,’’ said Baldwin. “And we want to have some fun doing it.’’

The Champions Tour is returning to the Chicago area for the first time since 2002 and nobody – repeat nobody – is as happy about this most positive development as I am.

Chicago’s been losing its pro tour stops, and the return of the Champions will help correct that. The Encompass Championship will be held June 17-23 at North Shore Country Club in Glenview. It will add to the rich history the 50-and-over circuit has had in Chicago – even if the cycle has endured an 11-year absence attributable to sponsorship problems.

Plus, the new event will introduce a new, spectator-friendly format and should draw virtually all of the top players. They’ll be well-rested because the Champions Tour doesn’t have an event the preceding week, when the U.S. Open is contested at Merion in Philadelphia.

The Champions Tour dates back to 1980, when it was known as the Senior PGA Tour and had just four events and purses totaling $475,000. An indication of just how far the circuit has come is reflected in the Encompass purse — $1.8 million with the winner receiving $270,000

Encompass Insurance, headquartered in Northbrook, sponsored the Encompass Pro-Am of Tampa Bay in April of 2012 as part of an agreement with the PGA Tour that called for the creation of a new tournament in Chicago for the following three years. This will be the first of those three.

Previous Chicago tournaments on the Champions Tour were known as, first, the Ameritech Senior Open from 1991 to 1999 and, finally, the SBC Open, from 2000 to 2002.

During Ameritech’s sponsorship run the tourney was considered one of the best on the Senior PGA Tour. The ASO was first held in 1989, at Canterbury in Cleveland, and Michigan’s Grand Traverse Resort was the site in 1990 before the tourney began its Chicago run. Bruce Crampton and Chi Chi Rodriguez were the first two champions.

Chicago had a taste of senior golf prior to the ASO’s arrival at Stonebridge, a then-new private club with a course designed by Tom Fazio. The facility had opened on the Aurora-Naperville corridor in 1990.

In 1988 the U.S. Golf Assn. staged its U.S. Senior Open at Medinah, with Gary Player winning. That event would also come to Olympia Fields in 1997, Australian Graham Marsh emerging as the champion. Those 72-hole competitions contributed to the popularity of the senior golf in Chicago but didn’t have the same free-wheeling flavor as the annual 54-hole tour stops that began in 1991.

Mike Hill, then the hottest player in the 50-and-over ranks, won the tourney’s first staging at Stonebridge and Dale Douglass took the second. Those tournaments were only mildly successful compared to what was to come.

Michael Jordan was in his heyday as a basketball player then, and his passion for golf was just starting. In 1992 he played 54 holes at Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club in Florida even though he was scheduled to play in the NBA All-Star Game that night. After his golf marathon — but before he left Bay Hill for his basketball game — Jordan let it be known that he wanted to play a round with Palmer – any time, anywhere.

That round materialized at the 1993 ASO’s Thursday pro-am, with a then-record 17,500 following the two sports legends around the course. Palmer shot a 1-over-par 73 and Jordan, who billed himself as an 8-handicapper, had an 81. George Archer’s victory in the tournament proper seemed anti-climactic.

John Paul Cain’s win in the 1994 ASO was interesting, as he became a rare sponsor’s exemption to use the invitation as the prelude to a championship run.

The best golf at Stonebridge – and my favorite ASO/SBC memory – came in 1995, the tourney’s last staging on that course. Joe Jimenez, then 69 years old, shot a 62 and set a record for the most strokes below age. On the same day eventual champion Hale Irwin shot 63. Those dazzling scores, shocking at the time, underscored just how good senior golf could be.

That ’95 win earned Irwin the moniker of “Mr. Chicago.’’ He had won the Western Open at Butler National in 1975 and the U.S. Open at Medinah in 1990. (He wasn’t done, either. Irwin would go on to win back-to-back ASO titles in 1998 and 1999 after the event moved to Kemper Lakes).

Irwin’s wins there came in the third and fourth of six stagings at Kemper. The first two were won by a Morgan, Walter in 1996 and Gil in 1997.

The tourney remained at Kemper after Irwin’s victories there, but the tourney made a name change. The last three tourneys were known as the SBC Open, with Tom Kite the champion in 2000 and Dana Quigley in the last staging at Kemper in 2001. Irwin went to a playoff with Bob Gilder when the tourney moved to Harborside International in 2002. Gilder got the win that time, and the senior stars haven’t been seen here since. The end of the run was sad, for both the players and Chicago’s always loyal golf fans.

That’ll all change when the Encompass Championship tees off at North Shore, a private club that hosted the Western Open in 1928, the U.S. Open in 1933, the U.S. Amateur in 1939 and 1983 and the Western Amateur in 2011.

Tournament director Mike Galeski expects most every top player on the Champions Tour to compete in an exciting new format. They’ll have standard pro-ams on Wednesday and Thursday and then begin the tournament proper with an amateur partner. The 81 pros and their 81 amateur partners, some of them celebrity types, will compete as two-man teams Friday and Saturday in a tournament within a tournament, then the pros will decide their champion on Sunday in the third and final round of the 54-hole test.

The galleries should be sizeable, and not just because of the big names playing. Ticket prices are reasonable — $20 in advance or $25 at the gate, and those 18 and under will be admitted free.

The U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship could get lost in the shuffle with the Ryder Cup coming to town just two weeks later. That might be understandable, but I hope it doesn’t happen.

Chicago, in particular, and the Midwest, in general, need more big tournaments each year – not less. And, make no doubt about it, the U.S. Mid-Am is a big tournament. It’ll be played at Conway Farms and Knollwood Club, in Lake Forest, from Sept. 8-13.

Conway, which will host the bulk of the competition, landed the Mid-Am before it was awarded the PGA Tour’s BMW Championship for 2013. This Mid-Am, though, will add to Conway’s comparatively brief but already rich tournament history. Designed by Tom Fazio and opened in 1991, Conway has already hosted tons of college events – among them the Big Ten and NCAA Championship; a U.S. Open sectional and one U.S. Golf Assn. national championship, the U.S. Junior in 1998, when James Oh defeated Aaron Baddeley in the title match.

Knollwood is older – a Colt Alison design that opened in 1924 – and its tournament history isn’t as rich but it did host Chicago’s only other Mid-Am – in 1982 when Elgin’s Bill Hoffer won the title.

Both these private clubs are among the very best in the entire country – not just the Chicago area.

“I don’t think we’ve ever had a better combination of courses,’’ said Bill McCarthy, the U.S. Golf Association’s director for both this Mid-Am and the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship. Over 500 volunteers, many from the two clubs, have stepped forward to help in the staging of this Mid-Am.

Here is why it is important.

The U.S. Golf Assn. long ago saw a need for a national championship for serious amateur players after they turned 25. Hence, the Mid-Am was born 31 years ago. Post-college amateurs still need something like this. They may not be as good as most professionals their age but their interest in competition is there. The USGA had a record 5,271 entries for the 1997 Mid-Am. Fifteen years later the tourney drew a more modest 3,810, but that is still 67 more than were accepted in 2011 when Randal Lewis, of Alma, MI., won the title at Shadow Hawk in Richmond, Tex.

“This tournament is for players for whom the game is truly an avocation, a business card, a celebration of golf at its best,’’ said Gene McClure, the championship chairman and a USGA executive committee member. Plus, the Mid-Am is one of the big events in which there is no admission charge. In fact, spectators are encouraged to come. That makes it special, too.

Most important, the players considered it a big deal. Todd Mitchell, the amateur star from Bloomington, IL., gave me proof of that after he tied for third in the recent Illinois State Amateur at The Links of Kokopelli in downstate Marion. Mitchell won the Illinois Am in 2002 and 2003 and has been a consistent contender ever since against much younger players, but the Mid-Am holds a bigger place in his heart.

In 2008 Mitchell went to the title match of the U.S. Mid-Am at Milwaukee Country Club.

“I had never advanced that far. It was a very special year,’’ said Mitchell. “It was a fantastic feeling, and nothing since then has been close.’’

Mitchell isn’t assured a place this year. He was first alternate in the qualifier at Piper Glen, in Springfield. There will still be a big Illinois contingent in the field at Conway. The state had three qualifiers, and they advanced 13 in-state residents to the Mid-Am finals.

Scott Hasley, of Winnetka; John Wright, Aurora; Matt Olson, Chicago, Chad Arsich, Mokena; and Nick Schenk, St. Charles, made it from one qualifier at Chicago Highlands. Andrew Price, Lake Forest; Scott Rowe, Hinsdale; Brian Silvers, Byron; Michael Vansistine, Caledonia; and Richard Balla, St. Charles, survived the qualifier at Mauh-Nah-Tee-See Club in Rockford; and Tim Sheppard, East Peoria; John Ehrgott, Peoria; and Scott Rech, Chicago, made it at Piper Glen.

The winner of the Mid-Am gets an invitation to the Masters. That perk led to the last winner, Lewis, becoming the oldest first-time Masters participant and oldest-ever Mid-Am champion. He was 54 when he shot 81-78 to miss the cut at Augusta National in April.

“I didn’t play well,’’ said Lewis. “Augusta was so long and you got no roll. I had to lay up on all the par-5s.’’

Still, the experience produced memories for a lifetime. He played with Tom Watson, Phil Mickelson and Bubba Watson, among others. His practice round with Mickelson came a week before the tournament, before 50,000 people streamed through the gates. “Surreal’’ was how Lewis described it.

Bubba Watson did a good job of keeping Lewis loose during the Masters’ popular Par-3 Contest, when he was surprised to find some of the spectators standing as close to three feet from him.

Then came the start of the tournament itself, when Lewis was paired with Jose Maria Olazabal and Robert Garrigus. His first tee shot was maybe his last highlight from the Masters.

“Garrigus hit his first drive way left and Olazabal went right. I killed mine right down the middle,’’ recalled Lewis, who comes from a town with a population of 9,800). He spent seven weeks of last winter in Florida to prepare for his week at the Masters.

“When I got back to Michigan I was a little depressed,’’ he admitted. “There was quite a letdown after the Masters.’’

That was understandable, but didn’t detract from his play last year at Shadow Hawk, when he whipped a field of mostly younger guys. Lewis had lost in the Mid-Am final in 1996 and was eliminated in the semifinals in 1999. He wasn’t thwarted last year, however.

“The adrenalin kicked in there,’’ said Lewis of the time immediately after he found himself in contention. “I didn’t know if that chance would ever come again. I didn’t want to let it slip away. I played as hard as I ever have in my life.’’

His game hasn’t been the same since. He pulled a hamstring a week before the U.S. Senior Open in August. It was held in his native Michigan, and Lewis was also battling “horrible’’ tendinitis in his left hand that required a cortisone shot.

“I had nine on one hole,’’ he admitted, and his health concerns limited his preparation for his Mid-Am title defense. His main tuneup was the U.S. Amateur last month in Denver.

This Mid-Am will be the 59th USGA championship held in Illinois, the most recent being the 2011 U.S. Girls Junior at Olympia Fields. The 264-man starting field features 27 exempt players. The others were determined in 64 nation-wide qualifying rounds.

Stroke play qualifying rounds will be held at both Conway Farms and Knollwood on Sept. 8 and 9, and match play will be conducted at Conway from Sept. 10-13. The championship match will be over 36 holes.

Where do I begin?

Rarely, in my nearly 43 years covering golf in these parts have I witnessed so many noteworthy tournament developments in a month’s span. The tournament schedule was bunched up this season, and all the things that happened in July were almost overwhelming. We’ll try to put them all in perspective here.

I’d say the most notable of those developments came at the 41st John Deere Classic, the only PGA Tour stop of 2012 in Illinois. That’s where Steve Stricker’s historic winning streak ended and where another University of Illinois golfer, Luke Guthrie, continued his great start as a touring pro. From a local golf perspective they’re both significant.

The focus — as it should have been — was on Stricker’s bid to become the fourth golfer (behind Tom Morris Jr., Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen and Tiger Woods) to win a major professional tournament four years in a row. Stricker made a good run at, but Zach Johnson won. Nothing wrong with that. Johnson, who grew up in Cedar Rapids, Ia., is considered a native son in the Quad Cities and his victory was a popular one.

Down the road, though, that tourney might well be remembered for the showing that Guthrie made in his second start as a pro. It might well be the start of something big. Guthrie had finished a solid tie for 19th in the first PGA Tour stop as a pro at Memphis and his final-round 64 gave him a tie for fifth (with Stricker) at the JDC.

Guthrie was a fine college player (two-time Big Ten champion), but his fast start as a pro was still surprising. Just two years ago, while still an amateur, he lost to Eric Meierdierks in a duel for the Illinois Open title at Hawthorn Woods.

“He should have beaten me because he played better than I did, but he wasn’t as experienced,’’ said Meierdierks. “He was a good player. I saw a lot of talent in his game when I played with him.’’

Meierdierks was on the other end of a similar duel with an up-and-coming young player at this year’s Illinois Open. Notre Dame graduate Max Scodro beat him in a five-hole playoff at The Glen Club, in Glenview.

Scodro started his professional career by winning the Arizona Open in June. Two tournaments later he won the Illinois Open. Next month he’s in the Iowa Open. Could it be a three-peat, state-wide version?

MOVING ON, there was the story of a former Chicago whiz kid – now 56 years old – who made national news in the U.S. Senior Open at Ironwood, in Lake Orion, Mich. Who wouldn’t appreciate a caddie leaving his bag-toting duties to make a run at a major championship. That’s what Lance Ten Broeck did.

In the 1970s Ten Broeck was the youngest of eight children in a family of golfers living on Chicago’s South Side and playing at Beverly Country Club. In 1975, at age 19, he made the cut in the U.S. Open at Medinah and in 1984 he won both the Illinois Open at Flossmoor and the Magnolia Classic, then an unofficial PGA Tour event.

Ten Broeck was a journeyman on the PGA Tour who turned to caddying when his playing career fizzled. For 10 years he was on Jesper Parnevik’s bag, then spent two years working for Robert Allenby and is now with Tim Herron.

Ten Broeck is both player and caddie now. In a 10-week span ending with the Senior Open he had carried in eight tournaments and played in two. At the Senior Open – the biggest event of the year for 50-and-over players — Ten Broeck led after 36 holes before finishing in a tie for ninth. If there ever was a Cinderella story, this was it.

THEN, IN ORDER OF SIGNIFICANCE, comes the U.S. Women’s Open, played at Wisconsin’s Blackwolf Run for the second time. No local angle there, though two-time Illinois Women’s Open champion Aimee Neff and Flossmoor’s Ashley Armstrong both got into the field after being first alternates in sectional play.

No, the significance of that tournament was similar to the aftermath of the 1998 staging there, when Se Ri Pak won. This was another story that was huge in Korea, as Neon Yon SP??? Choi and Amy Yang finished one-two – the second consecutive year that two players from a country the size of Indiana have finished at the top of the leaderboard in the biggest tournament in women’s golf.

FINALLY there was the 63rd Illinois Open, back at The Glen Club after a four-year absence. It ended with Scodro beating Meierdierks, but before that there were some developments in Round 2 that sent the attending media and Illinois PGA staffers scouring the record books.

Meierdierks posted back-to-back eagles on Nos. 14 ant 15. Had that ever been done before in the tournament? Nobody knows for sure, but I strongly doubt it and I’ve covered every Illinois Open since 1975 – the last year the Chicago District Golf Assn. conducted the championship before turning it over to the Illinois PGA.

And then there was a double eagle by amateur Shane Smith of Godfrey, IL., a few hours later. (He holed a 263-yard 3-wood at the 559-yard first hole). Was that double eagle another tourney first? Probably, but again the records are lacking.

Another stat worth noting is the cut number – 3-over-par 147 for the first 36 holes. No cut number has been lower since 1999 and the only time the number was matched was in 2011. That time, however, host venue Hawthorn Woods was set up as a par-71 while The Glen Club was a par-72 this year.

Smith’s double eagle was the fourth of the year by either an IPGA member or at an IPGA event. Most dramatic of those was by Ridgemoor pro Jason Lee in the section’s Match Play Championship at Kemper Lakes. It brought a quick ending to a playoff in the early rounds.

Glen Oak assistant Matt Slowinski had a double eagle in the Professional Players National Championship in California and Green Garden’s John Platt had another in a Senior stroke play event at Naperville Country Club.

There’s still a few months to go before the 39th Ryder Cup matches take over Medinah Country Club and put Chicago in the forefront of world sports.

Big events like this one don’t just happen, though. Tons of work, by literally thousands of people, is required before that first ball is struck. Much – but by no means all – of it has already been done.

There’s been a ticket drawing, a promotional tour by captains Davis Love III of the United States and Jose Maria Olazabal of Europe, a sale of corporate hospitality options and a recruitment for volunteers.

Eventually 75 corporate chalets, accounting for about 2 million square feet of flooring, will be constructed on the Medinah premises. The grounds will also include 15 video boards and 650 televisions. That’ll all have to be in place before the food and beverages are brought in. Over 250 companies have committed to some form of the corporate hospitality offerings already.

Event director Michael Belot, no stranger to massive golf events, has been based at Medinah for more than a year to tend to the myriad of details required for such a project and he has five staffers under his supervision there. In his 10th year working for the PGA of America, Belot was tournament director for the 2006 PGA Championship, the last big event staged at Medinah. The Ryder Cup, though, is a different animal.

Medinah hosted three U.S. Opens before taking on the PGA Championships of both 1999 and 2006. Those were big deals, but Belot is confident this Ryder Cup “will stand out as Medinah’s crown jewel….It’ll be the biggest golf event ever in Illinois.’’

Don Larson, Medinah’s chairman for the event, is in charge of matters on the club’s end and Curtis Tyrrell, the course superintendent, has the delicate job of getting the famed No. 3 course in peak condition for the Sept. 25-30 extravaganza. And, long before he even began putting finishing touches on the course, Tyrrell was involved prominently in a $1.5 million greens renovation project to prepare the facility specifically for the big days ahead in September.

Michael Miller, executive director of the Illinois section of the PGA of America, is overseeing the efforts of his members who will perform a variety of duties before and during the competition. Miller said his staff is 50 percent busier this season just because of Ryder Cup demands. Over 300 IPGA members are volunteering their services in one way or another.

And then there’s the PGA of America staff that is really in charge of the whole thing. It operates under the direction of executive director Joe Steranka from headquarters in Palm Beach Gardens, FL.

In addition to the kickoff events held over the last year, more promotional features have or will be coming. There’ll be a Bears vs. Packers golf match at Medinah, a Youth Skills Challenge, a Junior Ryder Cup competition, an international pep rally called Bagpipes & Blues at the Field Museum and an outdoor art exhibit dubbed Tartan Art on the Avenue. All are directly connected to this Ryder Cup.

In addition to the work of about 50 local artists the Tartan Art on the Avenue exhibit will include a classic piece of artwork by the famed LeRoy Nieman. – a five-foot golf ball that will be on display throughout the Chicago area from Sept. 13 to Oct. 10.

The art exhibit as well as Bagpipes & Blues are part of an official fund-raising campaign benefiting Ronald McDonald Children’s Charities of Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana as well as the Illinois PGA Foundation.

As you can see, the 24 players who will compete in the emotion-charged competition are but a small part of the overall event. Still, in the end, they will be the show and patriotism will abound.

The 75 corporate hospitality tents are more than organizers originally envisioned. They thought 53 would be enough, but then this is Chicago – a city that has long supported big-time sports events. The original ticket sale assured galleries of 40,000 per day at the Ryder Cup.

Helping those 40,000 get around the premises will be 4,000 volunteers, who will perform a variety of duties when the matches are in progress. Lake Park High School, located across the street from Medinah, will shut down during the competition. The parking and concessions operations will be run from the school, and it will benefit big-time from the closing.

In exchange for use of its facilities, Lake Park High School will receive enough financial compensation to complete the installation of a turf field on its West campus – a benefit for the football program, marching band and other athletic events.

The global significance of the Ryder Cup might also surprise you, and it requires the involvement of many, many more people. Television feeds from the Ryder Cup will go to 200 countries, or more than half a billion households. Some are in such remote places as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Chad, Djibouti, Mauritania, Rwanda, Tongo and Yemen.

HERE’S HOW YOU CAN STILL GET TICKETS

Individual tickets to the Ryder Cup at Medinah were gobbled up fast, making the event one of the toughest tickets in all of sports.

There is still a way to get some, though. The catch is, they won’t come cheap. Tickets to the Ryder Cup are available to supporters of Bagpipes & Blues, one of the attractions of the Magnificent Moments fundraising campaign.

Bagpipes & Blues will be held Sept. 27 at the Field Museum. Those who buy tickets to that international pep rally can get Ryder Cup tickets as part of the deal. A variety of packages are available. To find out more check out the website www.magnificentmoments.org. and then click on Ryder Cup tickets.