Medinah Country Club, plagued by course conditioning issues last month, received glowing reviews as next year’s site for the Ryder Cup matches. Top players from the U.S. and Europe will battle on the club’s No. 3 course next Sept. 25-30.

The club and PGA of America celebrated the one-year countdown to the next Ryder Cup this week, with the captains of both teams lauding Medinah.

“I can’t imagine a better place for this,” said Europe’s Jose Maria Olazabal. “The facilities are extraordinary, and the last four holes will be very interesting. It’s the perfect host venue.”

“An incredible place to have a tournament,” said Davis Love III, the U.S. captain. “You look at that golf course every day, and it looks like a major championship is ready to happen.”

Conditions on all three Medinah courses deteriorated with heavy rains and extreme heat in July and August, but they’ve improved dramatically in the last two weeks.

“We made it through,” said superintendent Curtis Tyrrell. “Now we’re in excellent shape, and we’re confident where we stand. We’ll be ready for next year.”

Super Seniors set to go

There’ll be only 30 players, just seven of them professionals, in Wednesday’s first Illinois Super Seniors Open at Pine Meadow in Mundelein, but at least it’s a start.

The brainchild of Pine Meadow head professional Dennis Johnsen, the tourney was created for pros and amateurs 65 and older. Oldest to enter was Bill Erfurth, 82, the former head pro at Skokie Country Club in Glencoe. He won the regular Illinois Open in 1975 and became the first player to shoot his age in that event when he was 73.

Now he has his sights set on being the first champion of the Super Seniors event, but he’ll have to beat similarly established players such as pros Gary Groh and Steve Dunning and amateurs Bill Shean, Joel Hirsch and John Seehausen to do it.

Randy Hundley, the former Cubs’ catcher, is also among the entries who will begin play at 8 a.m.

The entry count didn’t disappoint Johnsen, who hopes both the Chicago District Golf Assn. and Illinois PGA will embrace the event in 2012.

“I consider it a success, because I’ve been told the first (U.S.) Senior Open only had roughly 40 players,” said Johnsen. “There is already talk of a Super Seniors Tour for pros and amateurs in future years.”

Tense times at Eagle Ridge

The Illinois PGA’s player-of-the-year might be decided at the last of the section’s four major tourneys — the IPGA Players Championship — next Monday and Tuesday (Oct. 3-4) at Eagle Ridge in Galena.

Assistant pros Rich Dukelow of Cantigny and Brian Brown of Naperville are one-two in the point standings, but looming behind them are Ivanhoe Club’s Jim Sobb, who has won four major titles in either regular or senior section events this year; Twin Lakes’ Travis Johns, last year’s player-of-the-year; and Glen Oak’s Matt Slowinski, already the IPGA Assistants player-of-the-year and runner-up in the IPGA Championship.

A long shot is Curtis Malm, the former Illinois Open champion who is now an assistant at St. Charles. He’s in his first year of eligibility for the player-of-the-year award.

While the bulk of the remaining available player-of-the-year points will be awarded at Eagle Ridge, the winner won’t be announced until two one-day stroke plays are completed later in the month.

Senior moments

Kewanee’s Tom Miler won last week’s 25th Illinois Senior Amateur at Effingham Country Club, depriving runner-up Tom Studer of Joliet from becoming the first three-time winner of the event.

Studer won in 2007 and 2008. Taylorville’s Dave Ryan finished third to clinch the Chicago District Golf Assn. senior player-of-the-year award for the third straight year.

The Illinois Women’s Golf Assn. also staged its 42nd senior tournament, with Chicago’s Mary Kay Thanos-Zordani winning by five strokes over Char McLear of McHenry and defending champion Roberta Sentel of Marion at Oakwood Country Club in Coal Valley.

Did you know?

Jason Rasmussen won the IPGA Assistants Match Play title last week, meaning all three of the section’s match play trophies for 2011 are at the Ivanhoe Club. Head pro Jim Sobb won both the regular and senior title. … The CDGA concludes its tournament season on Thursday with the Prairie State Challenge at Midlothian Country Club. It matches the top seniors from the Chicago area against their counterparts from Central Illinois. Tom Miler and Dave Ryan will be heading the Central Illinois team. … The Weekly Challenge Tour concludes its season with its Tournament of Champions on Monday (Oct. 3) at Bull Valley in Woodstock. … Neighboring Cary courses Foxford Hills and Chalet Hills, rivals at the start of the season, are now both managed by GolfVisions. Foxford is owned by the Cary Park District while Chalet Hills went into foreclosure. GolfVisions plans to preserve its value in preparation an eventual sale.

An announcement won’t likely come for a few weeks, but the BMW Championship figures to be played in the north suburbs when it returns to the Chicago area in 2013.

The tourney’s 20-year run by Cog Hill Golf & Country Club figures to come to an end after complaints by three high-profile players. Phil Mickelson, Steve Stricker and Luke Donald all were critical of the Lemont layout in one way or another during last week’s BMW, and their opinions carry weight with both the event sponsor and organizer, the Western Golf Association.

Donald, the world’s No. 1-ranked player, said WGA members have already consulted him about where to play after the 2012 tourney is held at Crooked Stick in Indianapolis.

“They’ve looked at a bunch of different courses, and they’ve come to me and kind of narrowed it down to a few,” said Donald.

One is Conway Farms Golf Club, a private facility in Lake Forest that includes Donald among its members. A Tom Fazio design, Conway has been a frequent site for big amateur events, but has yet to host a pro tournament. Donald is pushing hard for its selection.

“It’d be a great venue,” said Donald. “Obviously being a little more north of Chicago, it’ll attract a few more fans. The players will love it, and hopefully it goes there in 2013.”

Another possibility might be North Shore Country Club, a much older private facility, in Glenview. The WGA was impressed by its members’ support of this summer’s Western Amateur.

“(Conway) has more than North Shore,” Donald said.

Still another course possibly in the mix is the new Chicago Highlands course in Westchester. Its central location is a plus. John Baxter, managing partner of the facility, was at Cog Hill during the BMW and declared “I want this tournament.”

Chicago Highlands hasn’t been tournament-tested, but it has more available space for big-tournament necessities than Conway Farms or North Shore.

Points plans ahead

D.A. Points, the University of Illinois graduate who won his first PGA Tour event this year at Pebble Beach, didn’t qualify for this week’s Tour Championship in Atlanta. He was never a factor at the BMW, but is among many players who had no objection to the tournament returning to Cog Hill.

“But maybe that’s not in the cards,” said Points. “Everybody wants to move to the north side. I just hope they find some place that is a good depiction of what Chicago golf is all about. There’s probably 50 quality courses in the Chicago area that could host a tournament, but BMW needs space.”

Points feels that requirement rules out most of the courses except for Cog Hill, the sprawling Olympia Fields Country Club and Medinah Country Club, site of next year’s Ryder Cup matches.

“Olympia is pretty far south, so that might deter the Tour from going there, and Medinah always has got a plate-full (of big events),” Points said.

With his FedEx playoffs over, Points expects to finish his season with four tournaments in a row, beginning with the McGladrey and Disney events in the PGA’s Fall Series. He’ll wrap up his season with tournaments in Malaysia and China.

“I won this year, and that was a huge step,” said Points. “But I was disappointed the way the rest of the year went. I had one top-10 after that, and that’s not good enough.”

Did you know?

WGA president John Kaczkowski said BMW has donated more than $9 million to the Evans Scholars Foundation since replacing the Western Open in 2007. … The University of Illinois men’s team, ranked 13th nationally but without head coach Mike Small, tied with Notre Dame for eighth place behind champion Stanford in the Olympia Fields Fighting Illini Invitational last weekend. Small was playing for the U.S. team in the PGA Cup matches against Europe’s top club pros in California. … Veteran club pros Gary Groh and Steve Dunning have joined Bill Erfurth, Joel Hirsch, Bill Shean and John Seehausen as leading contenders in the first Illinois Super Seniors Open at Pine Meadow in Mundelein on Sept. 28. Entry deadline for that event is Wednesday (Sept. 21). … The Illinois Women’s Golf Assn. finishes off its Senior Amateur Wednesday and Thursday at Oakwood, the Coal Valley course that once hosted a PGA Tour stop.

The Illinois PGA senior stars beat their Chicago District Golf Assn. counterparts 7-5 in the 22nd Thompson Cup matches at Chicago’s Ridge Country Club last week.

The IPGA has its sixth stroke play event of the year on Monday at Westmoreland in Wilmette. … The men’s Illinois Senior Amateur concludes Wednesday (Sept. 21) at Effingham Country Club and the CDGA’s 40th Husband-Wife Championship is Thursday at Ruth Lake in Hinsdale. … Last of the Weekly Challenge Tour’s four major championships is Saturday at Balmoral Woods in Crete.

The PGA Tour’s BMW Championship will be heavy on Illinois talent when it tees off Thursday at Cog Hill in Lemont.

World No. 1 Luke Donald is fourth in the FedEx Cup point standings, with Steve Stricker eighth, Mark Wilson 17th and D.A. Points 49th.

FedExCup Top 10 leaders

Here’s a look at the point standings as the FedExCup moves to the third round with the Top 70 players advancing to the BMW Championship at Cog Hill in Lemont this week:

Rank, Player (Points) Money

1. Webb Simpson (4,711) $5,301,043

2. Dustin Johnson (3,814) $4,150,841

3. Matt Kuchar (3,124) $3,970,142

4. Luke Donald (2,875) $5,034,548

5. Brandt Snedeker (2,869) $3,336,895

6. Jason Day (2,357) $3,670,687

7. Nick Watney (2,291) $4,614,229

8. Steve Stricker (2,205) $3,816,785

9. Chez Reavie (2,088) $1,904,267

10. Phil Mickelson (2,040) $3,518,208

Local notables

17. Mark Wilson (1,748) $2,957,232

49. D.A. Points (1,055) $2,006,463

Did not advance to the third playoff event:

72. Kevin Streelman (770) $1,113,080

Donald went to Northwestern and Stricker and Points to Illinois. Wilson lives in Elmhurst and does the bulk of his practicing at Cog Hill.

One local, though, is notably absent from the 70-man field. Kevin Streelman, raised in Winfield, uses Cog Hill’s Dr. Jim Suttie as his swing coach. Streelman just missed the top 70, standing 72nd on the FedEx point list.

“I was disappointed not to get in,” said Streelman. “I tried my best. I knew I had to make the cut in Boston (he missed by four shots at the Deutsche Bank Championship after rounds of 75-72), but I had a poor putting round.”

There’s no feeling sorry for Streelman, though. He’s already assured his fourth straight year with over $1 million in winnings and will play in three Fall Series events — Las Vegas, Sea Island and Disney World — to pad his winnings and, hopefully, win his first PGA title.

“I was disappointed not to get into Chicago, but I’ve got three more chances to win a golf tournament,” said Streelman. “It’s nice to have your job secure, but that’s not why I do it. I do it to win.”

You may be seeing more of Streelman before the Fall Series starts. He has been seen in Golf Channel commercials with Senior PGA star Tom Lehman promoting a mentoring program. That may lead into more TV exposure soon.

“I’m not sure where they’re going with that,” said Streelman. “We filmed three to four hours during the Colonial (tourney),” said Streelman. “Tom and I are close friends off the course and in Bible studies. He’s like a big brother to me.”

Pro-am changes

In past years the BMW Championship and its predecessor, the Western Open, staged the Chick Evans Pro-Am on the day before the tournament proper teed off. The Evans Pro-Am was moved to Monday this year, however, and Wednesday’s offering will honor the late Gardner Heidrick.

Heidrick, a Hinsdale Golf Club member, played in the first Evans Pro-Am in 1963 and was a participant for 30 years. The bigger of the pro-ams will honor Heidrick’s lifelong commitment to the Evans Scholars Foundation.

Wednesday’s final tuneup before the $8 million, 72-hole main event includes two celebrity-types: Adrian Grenier, one of the stars of “Entourage”, the HBO series that just ended its long run, and Ricky Berens, is a former U.S. Olympian in swimming.

Another U.S. Olympian, 17-year old table tennis whiz Grant Li, will take on some of the PGA Tour players in their last day of relaxation today. BMW has another new attraction planned for Saturday, when the Notre Dame-Michigan State football game will be shown on big screens on the 18th hole and at the first hole of Cog’s No. 2 course.

More honors for Dubsdread

Golf Magazine has included Cog Hill’s Dubsdread layout in its biennial list of Top 100 courses. Listed No. 89, it’s the first time Dubs has been so honored since the Rees Jones renovation of 2008.

“This is one of the industry’s toughest lists to get on because it combines public, private and resort courses,” said Cog Hill owner Frank Jemsek.

Dubs is the only public facility of the five Illinois courses on the list. Chicago Golf Club, in Wheaton, is 15th, Shoreacres in Lake Forest is 36th, Medinah’s No. 3 course is 37th and Olympia Fields’ North course is 86th.

Did you know?

Luke Donald is designing his first course, called Ba Na Hills in Vietnam. … Top seniors from the Illinois PGA and Chicago District Golf Association will square off in the Thompson Cup matches on Friday at Chicago’s Ridge Country Club. … The new Illinois Super Seniors Open at Pine Meadow in Mundelein on Sept. 28 has already drawn entries from such notables as pro Bill Erfurth and amateurs Joel Hirsch, Bill Shean and John Seehausen. … The Olympia Fields Fighting Illini Invitational is Friday through Sunday on Olympia’s North course. Illini coach Mike Small, who played in Monday’s Evans Pro-Am, won’t be guiding his team. He’ll be in California playing for the U.S. team in the PGA Cup matches against club pros from Europe.

The 25th Illinois Senior Amateur runs Monday-Wednesday at downstate Effingham Country Club. … The Weekly Challenge Tour visits Golf Club of Illinois in Algonquin on Saturday. … The U.S. Golf Association has issued a call for volunteers for the next U.S. Women’s Open, to be played at Wisconsin’s Blackwolf Run on July 2-8, 2012.