The 69^th 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 27^th, 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.

That horrible pandemic made 2021 a difficult year for everybody, but it was somewhat less so for those in the Chicago area golf industry. The courses were busy, the big events were back on schedule and an extraordinarily large number of facilities took on expansion projects.

The biggest was at Heritage Oaks, the Northbrook Park District’s facility formerly called Sportsman’s. It got a remake of its 27 holes and a new clubhouse, a $12.75 million project with the clubhouse costing $6 million. The facility was closed throughout 2020, but everything was up and running in August of 2021.

Another overhaul, at The Preserve at Oak Meadows in Addison, was brought to an end with the building of a new $12.6 million clubhouse that opened in early August. The work on its 18-hole course, owned by the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County and long beset by flooding issues, required a $16 million renovation that was completed three years earlier.

The Preserve had been in operation since 1923 (as Elmhurst Country Club), and Heritage Oaks dated back to 1931 (as Sky Harbor Golf Club ). The revival of these two longstanding facilities were a big deal, but not as impressive cost-wise as a project that Medinah Country Club announced in the waning days of December.

A membership vote approved a $23.5 million renovation of the club’s famous No. 3 course, a layout that opened in 1923 and has hosted three U.S. Opens, two PGA Championships and the 2012 Ryder Cup. Work won’t start on the renovation until the fall of 2022 and the new version won’t re-open until sometime in 2024 but, golf-wise, it’ll be the talk of the town for a few years at least.

The club wants to have the new version in top shape for the 2026 President’s Cup matches. That’ll be the next of Medinah’s high-profile events.  The work will be done by OCM, an Australian design firm headed by former U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy and partners Mike Cocking and Ashley Mead.

While Medinah No. 3 has long been one of the world’s most famous courses, its new version will look much different. It’ll have three new holes, with a five-hole short course and enlarged putting green also part of the renovation plans.

William Kuehn, the Medinah president, said the renovation wasn’t taken on just because the President’s Cup is coming.

“The plan encapsulates a continuing vision to provide compelling tournament play and a world-class golf experience for members, guests and the professional tournament player,’’ said Kuehn.

Michael Scimo, a former club president and the club’s chairman for the President’s Cup, said Medinah “has an option for another tour event.’’ That includes the possibility of a U.S. Open returning to the Chicago area. That event was last held at Medinah in 1990 and the event hasn’t been at a Chicago course since Olympia Fields hosted in 2003.

Medinah had more to celebrate in 2021 than the massive plans for its showcase course.  Tee-K Kelly, a Medinah member, won the Illinois Open and also earned conditional status on the Korn Ferry Tour, which offers a direct pathway to the PGA Tour for its best players in the 2022 season.

BEFORE 2021 is gone there were some other big memories made within the Chicago golf world:

Northbrook’s Nick Hardy earned his PGA Tour card thanks to his solid play over the last two years on the Korn Ferry circuit, and he immediately proved he can compete on the premier circuit when he made the cut in three of his first four tournaments as a PGA member.

Highwood’s Patrick Flavin had a huge week in the PGA’s Bermuda Open, winning $99,125 for a tie for 17^th finish after making the starting field through Monday qualifying.

Batavia-based equipment manufacturer Tour Edge made a huge signing in adding Bernhard Langer to its roster of PGA Tour Champions staffers.  Langer went on to win the Charles Schwab Cup, and Tour Edge got a late-season boost when John Daly, with 13 Tour Edge clubs in his bag, teamed up with his son to the win the PNC Championship.

Winnetka’s Elizabeth Szokol, in her second season as Illinois’ lone LPGA Tour player, made a huge climb on the money list from her rookie campaign.  Thanks largely to a third-place finish (worth $198,617) in the Founders Cup, Szokol topped the $500,000 mark for the season.

The Western Golf Association announced it’s bringing the BMW Championship back to Chicago area.  It’ll be played at Olympia Fields in 2023. The WGA also landed a new sponsor for its Korn Ferry event. Formerly the Evans Scholars Invitational, it’ll be known as the NV5 Invitational Presented by First Midwest Bank when it is held in May at The Glen Club in Glenview.

While Mistwood’s Andy Mickelson won the Illinois PGA Championship, the section’s players of the year were Skokie’s Garrett Chaussard in the regular division and Blackberry Oaks’ Roy Biancalana in the senior division. Nick Tenuta, of Mount Prospect, and Mark Small, of Frankfort, were the Players of the Year in the Chicago District Golf Association season.

University of Illinois alum Tristyn Nowlin won the Illinois Women’s Open at Mistwood after finishing second in both the IWO and Women’s Western Amateur at the Romeoville Course in 2018.

The Preserve at Oak Meadows and Heritage Oaks aren’t the only places to  get new clubhouses in 2021.  Fox Run,  in Elk Grove, just opened a new one, too, and more are in the planning stages at Glencoe Golf Club, Heritage Bluffs,  in Channahon, and Settler’s Hill, in Geneva. The Bridges at Poplar Creek, in Hoffman Estates, also just opened its new indoor-outdoor practice range so the building boom appears to be ongoing.

In summing up 2021 it should be noted world-wide climax came not too far away.  After two decades of frustration in the Ryder Cup matches the U.S. team posted a record 19-9 victory when the biennial competition was held at Wisconsin’s Whistling Straits in October.

While most area golf courses are in the process of closing for the season, a couple are just kicking into high gear thanks to the completion of some major construction work.

The Bridges of Poplar Creek, an 18-holer in Hoffman Estates, has opened its new Toptracer Range. It features 10 covered, heated hitting bays. While a Grand Opening won’t be held until March director of golf Brian Bechtold has set a six-day-a-week operating schedule.

It’ll be open from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4-8 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays and 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.  Fee is $25 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, $40 per hour Wednesdays and Fridays and $50 per hour on Saturdays and Sundays.  A maximum of six golfers per bay is permitted. Reservations can be made seven days in advance and food and beverage service is available.

The 140-foot long facility, built at a cost of $750,000, is a Hoffman Estates Park District property.  It has two sets of heaters and was built adjacent to the first tee and driving range.

Bechtold said the original target date for opening the facility was in June but it had to be continually pushed back for a variety pandemic-related issues.

Fox Run, an 18-hole facility in Elk Grove, opens its new sports bar on Friday, Dec. 17.  It has a full service restaurant, 22 televisions and three simulators with fees of $45 on weekends and $40 on weekdays.

JOHN DEERE CLASSIC – Illinois’ only annual PGA Tour event was moved up a week on the circuit’s 2022 calendar to June 27 through July 3, making it opposite the Fourth of  July Weekend, and that’s not all.

In recent years the JDC chartered a jet to take its players directly to the following week’s British Open. The earlier spot in the schedule makes that unnecessary, as players will have more time to get to the year’s final major championship, but more will have the opportunity to play in the British next year by doing well at TPC Deere Run in downstate Silvis.

The top JDC finisher among the top five finishers not previously qualified for the British Open were given a spot in the field in previous years.  In 2022 that opportunity will be awarded to three players from the top 10. No such exemptions were offered in 2021 due to pandemic concerns but Jordan Spieth (2013) and Bryson DeChambeau (2017) with recipients in the past.

JDC executive director Clair Peterson also announced the charity payoff from last year’s 50^th anniversary playing of the tournament.  It raised $12,568,038 for 470 local charities in the Quad Cities area.

CDGA – Chicago golf organizing groups rarely announce the following year’s event schedule until the spring, but the Chicago District Golf Association broke with tradition and unveiled an 86-event schedule complete with the sites  for 2022.  There are 55 on the championship slate and 31 on the social side.

Key dates and sites are July 19-21 for the 91^st Illinois State Amateur, to be played at Westmoreland in Wilmette, and June 27-30 for the 102^nd Chicago District Amateur, to be played at Glen Flora in Waukegan.

The CDGA is also coming out with a commemorative yardage book, this one a coffee table version produced by PuttView Books of Delaware, listing its Dream Eighteen holes. Olympia Fields, with its Nos. 2 and 6 chosen, is the only course with more than one hole honored in the voting by CDGA members.

HERE AND THERE: The Eskimo Open, the annual cold weather tournament for golf diehards, is coming up on Jan. 2 at Cog Hill, in Palos Park….Tony Anderson, a Chicago Golf Club member, has been nominated for a second three-year term on the U.S. Golf Association’s Executive Board.  The election is Feb. 19 at the USGA’s annual meeting in California….Tristyn Nowlin, a stalwart on the University of Illinois women’s teams and the reigning Illinois Women’s Open champion, missed getting her LPGA playing privileges by two strokes in last week’s finals of the circuit’s qualifying tournament in Dothan, Ala….Inverness Golf Club is getting a grounds makeover with the addition of resort-like facilities. Paddle and pickleball courts, indoor golf simulators, a sports par and casual dining room are under construction at the private club….Eagle Ridge Resort, in Galena, is in the process of moving its Stonedrift Spa – located in the clubhouse for nearly 20 years – to a stand-alone location.  The move will increase the spa’s size from 3,500 square feet to over 8,000 and Abi Porter, formerly of Elms Hotel in Missouri, will manage the new facility.

The PGA Tour’s 2021 season concluded on Sunday, but the circuit – along with the Western Golf Association – made an announcement on Monday that will have a huge effect on the Chicago golf community for years to come.

After a two-year absence the PGA Tour will be back in the Chicago area in 2023 with Olympia Fields named as the site for another playing of the BMW Championship.

And that’s not all. The announcement also included a five-year extension of the BMW Championship as the second event of the FedEx Cup Playoffs through 2027. That waylays any fears that the tour’s season-ending playoff series might be headed to a major revampment.

The FedEx Cup Playoffs were launched in 2007 and Chicago was part of it after the WGA agreed to discontinue the Western Open, a tournament first played in 1899 and a Chicago fixture since 1962. BMW took over sponsorship of the event then.

While the WGA considers the BMW Championship an extension of the tradition-rich Western, there are major differences in format and venue choice.  The Western was a full-field event, the BMW is limited to the top 70 players on the FedEx Cup point standings.  While the Western was a Chicago fixture, the WGA has taken the tournament out of town frequently.  It was played at Cave’s Valley, in Maryland, this year and will be played at Wilmington Country Club, in Delaware. The sites after 2023 have not been announced.

Those changes have been very beneficial to the WGA, which uses proceeds to benefit its Evans Scholars Foundation.  The Foundation has provided college scholarships for caddies since 1930.  Over the past 15 years the BMW Championship has raised more than $40 million on behalf of the Evans Scholars and that has helped send more than 3,000 students to college.  This academic year a record 1,070 caddies are attending 21 schools on Evans Scholarships.

The North Course at Olympia Fields was the last Chicago site for the tournament in 2020. That staging produced one of the most memorable playings of the BMW Championship, though it went on without fans due to pandemic concerns.  It ended with a one-hole playoff that was decided when Jon Rahm beat Dustin Johnson by sinking a 66-foot putt.

Olympia had a rich tournament history long before Rahm’s putt dropped.  Professional champions crowned there in one big tournament or another were Jock Hutchison (1920), Walter Hagen (1927), Macdonald Smith (1933), Jack Nicklaus (1968), Bruce Crampton (1971) and Jim Furyk (2003).  Current star Bryson DeChambeau also won the 2015 U.S. Amateur there and Danielle Kang captured the 2017 Women’s PGA Championship at the south suburban layout.

The BMW has also been an organizational success.  It has been named the PGA Tour’s Tournament of the Year four times (2008, 2012, 2013 and 2014).

“BMW has been our valued partner and a steadfast supporter of both our championships and the Evans Scholars Foundation,’’ said John Kazkowki, the WGA president and chief executive officer.  “As title sponsor BMW has fully embraced our mission, helping us transform the Evans Scholars Foundation into a truly national program.  We’re excited and grateful for the opportunity to continue working together to change the lives of you caddies nationwide.’’

PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan also credited BMW for its role in the FedEx Cup Playoff series.

“BMW’s commitment to presenting a best-in-class event each year continues to elevate the Playoffs,’’ said Monahan.

Monday qualifiers are a way of life for Patrick Flaviin, the budding golf touring pro from Highwood.

One of only two players to win both the Illinois State Amateur and Illinois Open in the same year, Flavin estimates he’s played in 30 such nail-biting rounds in hopes of getting into tournaments on either the PGA Tour or the Korn Ferry Tour, its developmental circuit. Never have his efforts paid off as handsomely they did last week’s in Bermuda.

The 18-hole session to determine four qualifiers for the Butterfield Bermuda Championship, a PGA Tour stop, was held a full week early because of pandemic-related protocols related to travel.  Many players skipped the qualifier and even the tournament proper because of difficulties in inherent in getting to Bermuda.

Flavin, though, finished third in the early qualifier – only the second time he earned a spot in a PGA Tour stop. (He qualified for the Waste Management Open last year  in Phoenix but didn’t survive the 36-hole cut).

After qualifying in Bermuda his father Mark gave him a further boost by volunteering to be his caddie. They made a great team.

In the first three rounds Flavin shot 69-66-68.  After eight holes on Saturday Flavin was tied for the lead – the first time that has happened on the PGA Tour.  A 72 on Sunday dropped him into a tie for 17^th place but the 9-under-par performance for the week earned him $99, 125. That’s more than three times the size of his previous biggest check, $30,000 for a victory on the PGA Latinoamerica Tour.

Mark Flavin has caddied for his son only occasionally. He was on a road trip on the West Coast when he learned that Patrick had survived the Monday qualifier in Bermuda. He immediately drove back to Chicago, then caught a flight to Bermuda.  Word of the father-son hookup spread among the gallery at Bermuda.

“It was awesome. I felt a ton of support all week,’’ said Flavin.  “The whole week changed my perception of my game.  Now I’ll try to get more sponsor exemptions, and that could change my career.’’

A solid college player at Miami of Ohio,  Flavin’s stock soared when he won the Illinois Amateur and Open in 2017, a feat pulled off only once previously – by former PGA Tour journeyman David Ogrin 37 years earlier.

After turning pro the following year Flavin won on the Latinoamerica circuit and earned membership on the Forme Tour, a temporary substitute for the Canadian circuit. Last year his fifth-place in the Evans Scholars Invitational at The Glen Club, in Glenview, gave him temporary membership on the Korn Ferry circuit. He had hoped to earn full-time status for 2022 but didn’t survive the second stage of qualifying in Tampa, FL., a week before the trip to Bermuda.

“That was a huge bummer, but I’m proud of the bounce-back,’’ he said. “I just never got it going (in Tampa), and that was pretty devastating, but I handled it well.’’

Now he’ll be a travelin’ man who may not know where he’s going from one week to the next. Flavin is a member of the Latinoamerica and Canadian circuits but will squeeze in as many PGA and Korn Ferry qualifiers as he can.  The next one is next Monday, for the PGA’s Houston Open.

“I’ve got a lot of places to play, for sure,’’ said Flavin, who is spending this week in Phoenix before heading to Houston. In December he’ll play in Latinoamerica tournaments in Argentina and Chile.  Then, who knows?

Mike Small considers himself a golf coach first and a player second,  but he proved again how good a player he can be in qualifying for another major championship last week — this one of the senior variety.

The University of Illinois men’s coach was free to compete after his Illiini concluded the 2021 portion of their season with a strong runner-up finish in the Isleworth Invitational in Florida, an event that saw Illini sophomore Piercen Hunt win the individual title.  Only No. 3-ranked Arizona State could beat the improving Illini at Isleworth

A  few days later Small and eight Illinois PGA members competed in the 33^rd Senior PGA Professional Championship in Port St. Lucie, FL, a competition that sends the top 35 to the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship at Harbor Shores, in  Benton Harbor, Mich., next May.

Small finished solo third, one shot out of a playoff, when the 72-hole event wrapped up on Sunday and Roy Biancalana, teaching pro at Blackberry Oaks in Bristol, tied for 29^th so the IPGA will have two of its best players in the national event next spring.

Tour Edge rewarded

Batavia-based club manufacturer Tour Edge has raised its profile by signing top players on PGA Tour Champions the last few years, but that payoff reached new heights on Sunday when Bernhard Langer became the oldest player to win on the 50-and-and-over circuit.

Langer, who joined the Tour Edge staff this year, won the Dominican Energy Classic in Richmond, Va., at age 64. It was his 42^nd Champions Tour victory but first since March of 2000. The win came in the first of the Champions Tour’s three season-ending playoff series events. The second is next week — the TimberTech Championshiip  in Langer’s hometown of Boca Raton, FL.

Two other Tour Edge players, Tim Petrovic and Ken Duke, also finished in the top five at the first playoff event. The series ends with the Charles Schwab Cup Championship in November.

HERE AND THERE: Arlington Heights’ Doug Ghim, a rookie on the PGA Tour in the 2020-21 season, earned a spot in the 78-player Zozo Championship in Japan last week and tied for 66^th place after a disappointing 74-73 finish on the weekend….Northbrook’s Nick Hardy, who earned $86,000 for making the cut in his first two events as a PGA Tour member, returns to action in the Butterfield Bermuda Championship this week.  Luke Donald and Northwestern alum Dylan Wu are also  in the field….The Illinois Open champions of the last two years, Aurora’s Bryce Emory and Wheaton’s Tee-K Kelly, have reached the final stage of the Korn Ferry Tour qualifying.  The finals are Nov. 4-7 in Savannah Ga. , and Illinois alum Michael Feagles will also be in the field….A staff shakeup at the John Deere Classic has tournament director Clair Peterson moving up to executive director and Andrew Lehman assuming the tournament director’s role. Lehman had been the assistant tournament director….The Chicago District Golf Assn. has named Nick Tenuda, of Mount Prospect, as its Player of the Year and Frankfort’s Mark Small as Senior Player of the Year.

Gary Pinns is probably best known in Illinois golf circles for winning the Illinois Open five times.  No one else has done that.

Pinns has done much more than that, howeve3r. He gave the PGA Tour a four-year shot before making an instantly successful transition into teaching. He’s been doing that as director of instruction  at Oak Brook Golf Club for 31 years and has won numerous awards for his teaching prowess.

For those reasons he will be among six inductees into the Illinois Golf Hall of Fame during ceremonies at The Glen Club, in Glenview, on Friday.

The Hall of Fame inducts new members every two years, and Pinns will   joined by one other teaching pro, Dr. Jim Suttie. Suttie’s pupils include PGA Tour players Paul Azinger, Chip Beck, Jeff Sluman, Kevin Streelman and Mark Wilson.

Other inductees, all deceased, include Phil Kosin, creator of Chicagoland Golf magazine and radio show as well as the Illinois Women’s Open; Bessie Anthony, the state’s first great women’s player in a career that was highlighted by a title in the 1903 U.S. Women’s Amateur; Mason Phelps, an Olympic champion and two-time Western Amateur winner more than a century ago; and Herbert James Tweedie, a pioneer architect who designed 21 Chicago area courses in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Pinns’ career is one that stretches through all phases of the sport. A Wheaton resident now, he won the Illinois high school title for Glenbard East in 1974, then was a two-year captain at Wake Forest on teams that featured eventual PGA Tour members Gary Hallberg, Scott Hoch and Robert Wrenn.

First of the Illinois Open wins came at age 19 in 1978 at Elgin Country Club.

“My last tee shot went right and hit a tree,’’ recalled Pinns.  “The ball came back in the fairway, and I won. Once you win one time you think you can win again.’’

He dd – again and again and again and again. Pinns  picked up three more titles in the 1980s and the final, most dramatic one on his long-time home course at Village Links of Glen Ellyn in 1990. That one led him to enter qualifying for the Ben Hogan Tour – one of the predecessors of what is now the Korn Ferry Tour. From the developmental tour Pinns went on to the PGA circuit.

“I probably played in 75 tour events and made the cut in 30 of them,’’ he said.  The highlight was his lone top-10 finish at the now defunct Greater Milwaukee Open. Eventually, at age 33, the realities of the real world set in. Married with two children by then, Pinns needed another means of support and teaching was it.  His brother Doug has long been a teaching pro at Village Links.

“I got busy right away in the first month  because my name was known,’’ said Pinns.  “I needed it to happen then, and it’s turned out that teaching has been a better life than tour life. It’s been very satisfying, and  I ‘ve been very fortunate.’’

He now has three adult children and has been working 60-hour weeks during this busy summer for recreational golfers. Tournaments are a thing of the past.

“I lost interest in competition because I couldn’t work at it,’’ said Pinns, who believes his record five Illinois Open titles will withstand the tests of time.  Mike Small the University of Illinois men’s coach, has won the Illinois PGA Championship 13 times and is Pinns’ only challenger since he stopped playing. Small won four Illinois Opens but is now playing mainly in the senior ranks.

“My record won’t be broken,’’ predicted Pinns.“It’s harder now because there’s a lot of good players. When I was working at it I had just a few good club pros to beat.’’

WWGA honors Fullmer

Sandra Fullmer, an Illinois Golf Hall of Fame inductee in 1997, will add the coveted Woman of Distinction Award from the Women’s Western Golf Association on Thursday at Lake Shore Country Club in Glencoe.

Fullmer had an outstanding playing career, winning four Mexican Amateur titles as well as the Spanish and German amateur crows in 1959 before moving to Chicago.  She kept winning here,  claiming four Chicago Women’s District titles, three Northern Illinois Women’s titles and five Illinois State Senior crowns as well as the National Club Championship for Women in 1991.

She’s also been a long-time WWGA board member and a past president of the organization that has been a leading organizer of women’s events since 1899.

HERE AND THERE: The Chicago District Golf Assn. championship season concludes on Thursday with the end of the four-day Amateur Senior Four-Ball at Ravinia Green in Riverwoods….The leading assistant professionals from Illinois and Wisconsin will collide in a four- ball match play competition  on Friday at Strawberry Creek, in Kenosha…..White Eagle Country Club, in Naperville,  has announced plans for  a $12.5 million upgrade of its facility.  The club, site of the Illinois Open in 2020, will be the site of the Mid-American Conference tournament next April.