The Diversey Driving Range is a Chicago landmark, no doubt about that. There are bigger ranges around the country. Some also might be considered more beautiful, or more elaborate, but few – if any – have as much history or are as popular as this facility that has withstood the tests of time.

Diversey was built between 1911 and 1913 as a six-hole golf course most notable for having tin can cups. It was eventually expanded to nine holes and Illinois governor Edward Dunne presided over the official dedication ceremonies on Sept. 9, 1916.

The many golf enthusiasts in the Lincoln Park area supported the course, even with many others going up around the city and suburbs. One of the best, a nine-holer first called Waveland and then renamed Marovitz in honor of a local political figure, opened just a half-mile away in 1932.

Diversey’s layout, however, took a beating during World War II, and by the late 1940s most of the land was converted from a golf course to one of the very first stand-alone practice ranges in the United States. Never has its popularity waned.

Chris Otis, who has given golf lessons at Diversey for 32 years, knows why.

“Location. Location. Location,’’ said Otis. “Where else are you going to go? Diversey has no competition whatsoever, and never will. Plus, it’s one of the best places in the city to come and watch people.’’

Diversity, surrounded by high-rises, adjoins busy Lake Shore Drive and the boats of Lake Michigan dock near the entrance. Chicago doesn’t have any locations left to match this one for a golf facility.

The range was self-operated until 1993, then KemperSports – a management firm based in the suburb of Northbrook – took over on a privatization agreement. KemperSports, which has since bolstered its portfolio nationally and even internationally, operated all the Chicago Park District facilities (the range plus four nine-holers and one 18-hole course) through 2008.

Diversey’s capacity was doubled with the creation of a double-deck range while KemperSports was in charge, and lighting was also added to allow for nighttime use. That only increased the demand for practice opportunities, and wear and tear became increasingly obvious in the late Kemper years. The balls would stick in mud after heavy rains, and they continued to accumulate until the Park District installed artificial turf on the range in 2008.

Billy Casper Golf took over management of the range and Park District courses on Jan. 1, 2009. Two years ago two synthetic putting greens were added to the Diversey facility, supplementing a nearby miniature course that was already thriving.

Jered Wieland, Billy Casper Golf’s general manager for all the Chicago Park District facilities, knew he had a good thing going at Diversey.

“It’s been an incredible draw forever,’’ said Wieland. “It’s got a prime location, and there aren’t many locations inside the city for people to practice golf. It’s a real popular attraction.’’

“We go through over 10 million balls in a season,’’ said Otis, “and there’s always 60,000 on reserve. On weekend people stand three-deep to get in, and on Saturdays and Sundays when the weather is nice people will wait in line from 9 a.m. all day long. Our people behind the desk work like a bartender on St. Patrick’s Day. They never stop doing transactions.’’

There’s no grass hitting areas, but Diversey apparently doesn’t need them. All the hitting is done off mats and there are players who can drive beyond the friendly confines of the range. It takes quite a poke, though. Wieland said the back fence, about 30 feet high, is about 300 yards from the hitting bays.

That’s enough for most players, and all types have taken advantage of the facilities. They have included celebrity types like Michael Jordan, Mike Ditka and Jonathan Toews — captain of the Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks who hit balls almost daily when his team was making its playoff run.

Diversey remains open year-around. Only the lower deck is used in the winter, when it’s partially enclosed and heat lamps are installed. During the non-winter months the facility opens before sunrise and closes after sunset seven days a week. Some people like to hit balls at 7 a.m., before they go to work. Others beat balls until closing at about 11 p.m.

Bunkers at 50, 100, 150 and 175 yards provide yardage guidelines for golfers who pay $10 for a small bucket (50 balls) or $16 for a large one (100 balls). Discount cards are available for regulars, seniors and juniors. Otis is among six instructors from the Chicagoland Golf Academy to cover teaching needs and First Tee of Chicago operates on the premises.

For those teaching pros, organized by director of instruction John McCartin, the setup is ideal.

“People just flock here,’’ said Otis. “You can make your own hours, work as much as you want and you can actually get to know people as friends. You have a captive audience, and that makes it a lot more easy for people to learn.’’

Big-time women’s golf has come to Chicago only sporadically over the years. Now that’s about to change.

Next year the UL International Crown comes to Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove. In 2017 the new KPMG Women’s PGA Championship will be played at Olympia Fields, and then in 2018 that same big championship will come to Kemper Lakes in Kildeer, marking that club’s return as a world-class tournament venue.

All three events merit international attention, and the sudden recognition of Chicago as a gathering point for the world’s best women players won’t likely stop there. The LPGA’s satellite Symetra Tour, for instance, has already extended overtures to Mistwood, in Romeoville, about hosting one of its tournaments.

The Mistwood hierarchy, however, already puts on a significant more regional women’s event – the Illinois Women’s Open, which will be played for the 22nd time in 2016 – so the decision to add another big event or alter the popular IWO will require considerable deliberation.

There’s no deliberating about the significance of the three events coming our way in the next three years, however. They’re all on par with Chicago’s biggest women’s tournaments of the distant past.

The Women’s Western Open was major amateur event beginning in 1930, before the LPGA’s creation in 1950, and it continued as an LPGA major until it was discontinued after the 1967 playing. In was contested in the Chicago area 14 times.

Since then the big women’s individual championships in these parts were the U.S. Women’s Opens of 1974 (won by Sandra Haynie), 1981 (won by Pat Bradley) and 2000 (won by Karrie Webb). The first two were played at LaGrange Country Club, while Webb’s win came at Merit Club, in Libertyville.

The return to the women’s big-time events comes with a team competition. The International Crown is pretty much the brainchild of Rich Harvest owner Jerry Rich, long a supporter of the women’s game. He welcomed the Solheim Cup in 2009, and Rich Harvest produced one of the best-received competitions ever between the U.S. and Europe.

The success of that event encouraged Rich to venture into unchartered territory. He approached Mike Whan, commissioner of the LPGA Tour, about creating a new team competition that would also involve the circuit’s abundantly talented Asian players. Whan saw the same need for such an event as Rich did, and the first International Crown was played at Cave’s Valley in Maryland in 2014.

Next year’s July 19-24 event at Rich Harvest will be bigger, better – and could be much different because Spain, winner of the first Crown, isn’t qualified for the second yet.

The top eight countries on the Rolex World Ranking on April 4 will be in the next International Crown. Spain is currently ranked ninth, behind – in order – Korea, the United States, Japan, Australia, Sweden, Chinese Taipei, Thailand and England. Each country will have four players on its team, but the players won’t be finalized until the individual world rankings are announced on June 13.

Though the teams and players won’t be determined until the spring, weekly tickets are already on sale and volunteer registration is open, both by visiting www.ULCROWN.com.

As if that event isn’t big enough, the newest – and most exciting – major championship for women will follow the International Crown to town on successive years. That became a reality with a stunning August announcement by the PGA of America the day before the PGA Championship was played at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin.

Usually the PGA of America and LPGA, as well as the PGA Tour and U.S. Golf Assn. announce their tournament sites at least five years in advance and Chicago had been largely out of the mix in recent years.

All that changed when the PGA of America announced that its newest event, the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, will be held at Olympia Fields in 2017 and Kemper Lakes, in Hawthorn Woods, in 2018. Olympia Fields and Kemper Lakes are roughly 60 miles apart.

The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship is part of a new partnership between the PGA of America and LPGA. It was held for the first time this year at Westchester Country Club in New York and it’ll be played at Sahalee, in Washington, in 2016.

Inbee Park has won the event the last three years. It had long been known as the LPGA Championship since its first staging in 1955. Usually events of such prominence are either held annually at the same site or are moved around the country. Playing back-to-back at different courses in the same geographical area is highly unusual.

“I know that those two clubs will do an incredible job hosting the major championship for the women,’’ said Kerry Haigh, chief championships officer for the PGA of America. “This will be a special moment in time for the LPGA and women’s golf in the Chicago area.’’

“There could be some great efficiencies in going to Chicago in back to back years,’’ offered Pete Bevacqua, chief executive officer of the PGA of America. “The clubs obviously have a great relationship working together to make sure that we deliver a wonderful experience in 2017, and that same group of people, plus more, can come out and experience it again in 2018. We can use that really to the advantage of the championship.’’

The women will also be playing on courses that have already hosted men’s professional majors. Olympia Fields most recently hosted the men’s U.S. Open in 2003 and Kemper Lakes hosted the PGA Championship in 1989. Both are private clubs, but Kemper was a public venue when the late Payne Stewart won the PGA there.

Olympia also hosted this year’s U.S. Amateur but has hosted just one big women’s event – the 1933 Women’s Western Open, won by Chicago amateur June Beebe. Olympia has a more recent connection with the women’s game, however, since LPGA Hall of Famer Carol Mann honed her skills while growing up at the club.

The biggest women’s event played at Kemper Lakes came in its public phase. The 92nd U.S. Women’s Amateur was played there in 1992 and future Hall of Famer Annika Sorenstam was the runner-up to Vicki Goetze in that one. Prior to turning private Kemper was a busy tournament site, hosting events on the Champions Tour and the Grand Slam of Golf as well as being the site of the Illinois PGA Championship for 24 straight years. As a private club Kemper’s lone tournament venture came in hosting the IPGA Match Play Championship each spring.

PGA Tour players see a lot of golf courses and, somewhat amazingly, they remember – at least in general terms – what most of them look like.

That wasn’t quite the case when the top 70 players in the FedEx Cup Playoffs gathered at Conway Farms in Lake Forest in September for the BMW Championship. Conway Farms was the site of the tournament just two years before, but even a star the magnitude of Rory McIlroy had to admit “it’s much different than how I remembered it.’’

Conway’s membership closed the course in mid-April of 2014 and closed its practice range three months later. Both re-opened in late May of this year, and the BMW Championship was somewhat of a coming-out party for the club to show what had been done since it had last been opened to the public in 2013.

There was some work done on the course, and the pro shop and caddie house also were upgraded. What made the place look so much different, though, was what was done on the practice facilities. Players noticed it right away and spectators who had attended in 2013 were stunned immediately upon entering the gates.

“It’s a beautiful place,’’ said Jordan Spieth. “We like coming here. It’s top-notch.’’

Phil Mickelson called the setup “wonderful.’’ Zac Blair, one of the youngest qualifiers for the tournament, was even more descriptive.

“It has the best short-game place I’ve ever seen,’’ said Blair. “No wonder Luke Donald is the best short game player in the world.’’

Donald, who didn’t qualify for this year’s BMW Championship, is a former world No. 1 as well as a Conway member. He gave considerable input to director of golf Jeff Mory and architect Dennis Wise during the building process.

“Luke had a lot to do with it,’’ said Mory. “He was super-interested in the driving range but intimately interested in what the short game area should be.’’

“Luke has a very keen eye,’’ added Wise, who was the on-course architect for designer Tom Fazio when the private facility was built in time for a 1991 opening. “He’s a tremendous artist. He can see it in the dirt. He had some great impact.’’

Conway, which will also host the BMW Championship in 2017, was in need of some upgrades after the 2013 tournament. The course was re-grassed and cart paths were expanded on the walking-only course just to facilitate spectator traffic during the tournament. Spectator viewing was also improved, and Wise added new tees on nine holes, tweaked some bunkers and made some strategic changes to the short par-4 15th hole.

More eye-catching, though, was what he did to the practice facilities. The practice tee was enlarged by almost 50 percent, from 40,000 square feet to 75,000. That enlargement necessitated the building of a new putting green, one that was also notably bigger than the old one.

“We wanted one with enough size for an event like (the BMW Championship),’’ said Mory. “We went from 6,500 square feet to one that’s over 10,000. Now we have a very large putting green.’’

The larger range also necessitated the building of a new short game area. It was also enlarged by a lot, to include two bent practice greens that total 15,000 square feet plus another half acre of practice area space.

Mory said that disclosing cost figures “wasn’t appropriate’’ but admitted the project was “expensive’’ and that the practice range work was “the most substantial cost we incurred’’ on projects directly involving golfers.

Also benefitting was the Western Golf Assn., which stages the BMW Championship as a fundraiser for its Evans Scholars Foundation. The organization now has a more attractive venue for the biggest of the four tournaments it conducts annually.

“The driving range was expansive, and it allowed for a whole new entry process,’’ said Mory. “For people coming in for the tournament, they would have this mind-blowing experience.’’

Mory stressed, though, that the expanded practice facility wasn’t created to please the touring pros.

“Not at all,’’ he said. “Certainly having events (like the BMW Championship) is now part of our culture and we want to make all decisions for all the things that we are. But our primary goal was for Joe Club Member.’’

Conway has some serious players in its membership. At any one time it’ll have between 150 and 175 with single digit handicap indexes — one of the very highest percentage of members in the sprawling Chicago District Golf Assn.

“These guys and gals are passionate, and we have others who want to get better,’’ said Mory. “While the project was expensive, it was valuable for the day-to-day enjoyment for what our members are. So many clubs in Chicago don’t have the land or the opportunity to do what we did. This was a reinvestment in things that are great for our club.’’

Again, the money wasn’t spent to make things better for an occasional big tournament. Conway had its share of those even before it landed the BMW Championship. Its 209 acres was the site of a flood of major amateur competitions from 1998 through 2012, the biggest being the 1997 men’s NCAA Division I Championship, the 2009 Western Amateur and the 2012 U.S. Mid-Amateur. Getting a PGA Tour event, though, required more from the club than those events did.

“We didn’t expand the range just so Dustin Johnson could hit drivers,’’ said Mory. “We’ll start a week at 325 yards to our 10-foot high fence at the back of our range, but we can go back to 340 or 350. Most courses that don’t host tour events don’t have that kind of space. For our members now we can move the practice area around and they’ll always have good grass to hit off of.’’

Wise, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., worked for the late Larry Packard in the Chicago area from 1979 to1985 before joining Fazio. He started his own business, Dennis Wise Golf Course Design, in 2012.

In his just-completed project he had to accommodate the needs of members, tour players and the Conway teaching staff – one that features Mory and included the renowned Dr. Jim Suttie during the last summer months – and still develop a facility that was aesthetically pleasing. He apparently succeeded on all counts.

“It looks like the rest of the place. It doesn’t feel like an add-on. It looks like it should be here. It feels right,’’ said Mory.

“I’m a teacher,’’ he said, “so from our standpoint this is an amazing laboratory, an incredible place to teach, practice and work.’’

“In those three acres we didn’t leave anything on the table, and the players echoed that,’’ said Wise, after spending a week around the club while the PGA Tour stars were in town. “The tour players loved it, and the members absolutely loved it.’’

Theirs is a success story unlike most others in the world of golf.

For starters, the Aurora-based Nadler clan has the longevity factor going. Nadler Golf Cars has been in business over 50 years and is still going strong. Through it all, it’s remained a family business that is now a third-generation operation servicing nearly half of the roughly 400 courses in the Chicago area.

The company leases about 6,00 golf cars and provides the maintenance on them summer and winter. And, just as important, the company gives back to the game. That was underscored this year when Nadler Golf Cars was declared the longest running continuing sponsorship for the Illinois PGA’s Pro Presidents outing, which is approaching its 40th year.

Nadler Golf Cars also has been the title sponsor of the Illinois PGA Championship for over 10 years and recently signed up for another three-year extension. The sponsorship run is also in the 40-year vicinity with the Midwest Golf Course Superintendents Assn. and the First Tee of Aurora’s headquarters is named the Nadler Golf House of Learning.

“We want to be visible to all our customers in the area,’’ said Eric Nadler, the company president since 2013 when he replaced his father, Dave. “It’s very important to our family to give back to those guys. Without them we wouldn’t have our business.’’

The Nadlers’ story, though, goes way beyond the giving back policy. It’s one well worth telling just from the historical perspective. In 1963 Bill and Bea Nadler – parents to Dave and grandparents to Eric — were operating a Harley-Davidson motorcycle shop in Elgin. They entered the golf industry when Harley-Davidson came out with one of the first golf cars.

“We’re very fortunate for the vision my grandfather had, both for our family and for golf in Chicago,’’ said Eric. “He put golf cars in as a sideline, and my grandmother said he was crazy. She had a lot of reservations. She believed people walked in golf.’’

Most did, of course, but Bill Nadler was able to lease four or five cars to the Fox Valley Golf Club, which is now owned by the city of Aurora, and he started pounding on the doors of other courses. When the motorcycle industry started experiencing tough economic times Nadler opted to focus strictly on golf cars.

“Some thought he was crazy again,’’ Eric admitted.

But he wasn’t, as it turned out.

Dave Nadler entered the business when he was 11, basically on the maintenance end, to support his father and the then one other employee the company had. Times were as tough for golf cars as they were for motorcycles then.

“When (Bill Nadler) got his first demo he decided to stop by a golf course, and he went to Bonnie Dundee (the longstanding public course in Algonquin),’’ said Dave. “The owner told him `everybody at my course walks.’’’

That was that, for a few months, but before the year was out Bill Nadler was called back to that club because the owner had a change of heart. Others course operators were also willing to try the power cars, and a thriving business was born.

“He was in the right place at the right time,’’ Dave said of his father. Dave became a full-time employee after finishing college in 1974 and joined forces with his brother Keith and sister Karen (now Karen Baumgartner) to buy out their father in 1981.

They were the officers when Eric, Dave’s son, and Matt Baumgartner, Karen’s offspring, got involved.

“I started as an 8-year old washing golf cars,’’ said Eric. “I found out early on about manual labor. I found out what the real world was all about.’’

He later spent summers working in the parts and service departments during his high school years.

“In high school my father and uncle were harder on me than the rest of the employees, and before I was to go to college my dad sat me down and gave me an opportunity (to work towards taking over the company),’’ said Eric. “I didn’t want to do it.’’

In stepped grandfather Bill again. They had a talk on a vacation in Wisconsin, and Eric changed his mind. He worked for the company for 17 years before he and Matt took over ownership of Nadler Golf Cars on Jan. 1, 2013. The company has tripled in size over the last 10 years.

Keith Nadler retired from the company in 1997 and Dave in 2013. Bill Nadler passed away on March 7, 2013, at the age of 94. Karen Baumgartner remains active, and the operation has grown to 18 full-time employees – some of whom were hired over 40 years ago by grandfather Bill. Another four are generally brought in to help with seasonal projects.

The Illinois PGA has long benefitted from its connection with three generations of Nadlers. Michael Miller, who left the IPGA this year after 23 years serving as tournament director and then executive director, said the section “wouldn’t be where we are without the Nadler family. They have been such a vital part of what the Illinois PGA has done.’’

In addition to the event sponsorships Dave Nadler served on the IPGA Foundation board that launched a $2 million program in the late 1990s that benefits Maryville Academy and the First Tee programs, among others. The Nadlers were among the initial donors.

Carrie Williams, who took over as Miller’s replacement in August after serving as executive director of the Illinois Junior Golf Assn., was well aware of the good things done by the Nadlers from an earlier working stint with the IPGA.

“The support that Nadler Golf and the Nadler family have provided the Illinois Section throughout their decades of sponsorship is unparalleled,’’ she said. “Not only is their financial support of the Section and its PGA professionals integral in continuing to elevate major events like the Section Championship and Pro-President, the unique evolution of our relationship across multiple generations of the Nadler family sets Nadler Golf apart as both the longest-standing Section sponsor – and the most generous.’’

The 115th U.S. Amateur at Olympia Fields couldn’t have gone much better.

The weather was great, the champion showed potential for long-term greatness and Fox Sports – new to golf broadcasting – presented Olympia Fields in a very positive light. Dave Allard, the club’s chairman for the event, said U.S. Golf Assn. officials told him that Olympia’s greens were the best for a USGA championship this year – and that’s saying a lot since the organization puts on 20 such tournaments at some of the country’s best courses.

There’s only one problem. The USGA isn’t coming back – at least not for a long while. For the first time in at least four decades not one of the USGA championships is scheduled for the Chicago area. Golf’s ruling body in the U.S. generally schedules at least five years in advance. Its biggest event, the U.S. Open, already has sites determined through 2024.

Tom O’Toole, the USGA president, underwent a screening from select golf media about the scheduling issue and stressed that “Olympia Fields has done a fabulous job.’’

So, why no USGA events coming beyond qualifiers for national tournaments? O’Toole didn’t shed much light on that but said it was nothing personal.

“We’d like to continue our history in Chicago because it’s been a rich one,’’ said O’Toole. “There’s a wonderful plethora of clubs here.’’

Olympia Fields, of course, is just one of them and – rather than belabor the future schedule issue – now it’s more appropriate to celebrate another rich moment in Chicago golf history. Thirteen U.S. Amateur Championships have been played in Chicago or its suburbs and the first one at Olympia Fields had to be one of the best – a bonus for the club, which used the event to highlight its Centennial celebration.

The U.S. Amateur made its first Chicago appearance in 1897 at Chicago Golf Club, the site for the championship four times. It was also played at Onwentsia, in Lake Forest; Glenview Club, Flossmoor, Beverly, North Shore (twice), Knollwood and Cog Hill. The Cog Hill version, won by Matt Kuchar, was the most recent. It was played in 1997.

Olympia Fields hosted the U.S. Senior Open the same year Cog hosted the Amateur – a banner year in Chicago golf history. In landing the Amateur, Olympia was able to spotlight its two recently-renovated courses. It was the last Chicago course to host U.S. Open, in 2003 when Jim Furyk won the title. This U.S. Amateur may have measured up better than that Open did. Olympia’s North Course didn’t prove to be the monster that most Open venues have been.

For the U.S. Amateur, though, it was ideal. The North and South layouts contrasted nicely for the 36 holes of stroke play that started tournament week for 312 qualifiers, and the North offered all kinds of interesting challenges for the 64 match play survivors.

There could be only one winner, of course, and that turned out to be Bryson DeChambeau, a senior at Southern Methodist University from Clovis, Calif. He was clearly the best of the lot. Rain delays, caddie changes, a bad tee shot at a critical moment. Nothing was going to keep DeChambeau from joining some of golf’s most elite company.

In winning at Olympia Fields Country Club DeChambeau joined Jack Nicklaus (1961), Phil Mickelson (1990), Tiger Woods (1996) and Ryan Moore (2004) as the only players to win the NCAA Championship and the U.S. Amateur in the same year.

Both finalists, DeChambeau and Derek Bard, earned berths in next year’s Masters, U.S. Open and British Open, but there were few other similarities in their status after the title match. DeChambeau was just too good. He never played beyond the 16th hole in his first five matches and had even less trouble with Bard in the 36-hole final, winning 7 and 6 with a torrid nine holes immediately after the lunch break. That was one of the widest victory margins since the tourney was inaugurated in 1895.

“I kept putting the pedal to the metal,’’ said DeChambeau. “I wanted to play Bryson golf, and that’s what I did. I just made everything.’’

A physics major at SMU, DeChambeau, 21, opened birdie-birdie to go 2-up quickly, but that lead didn’t last. Bard, a 20-year old junior at the University of Virginia, won four of five holes in one stretch to go 2-up, but DeChambeau took charge for good after chipping in to win No. 8.

The 47-minute rain delay didn’t help, but he battled back to get to all square and then won Nos. 14, 15 and 16 to claim the lead for good. There were some moments of adversity, though.

During the 42-minute lunch break DeChambeau’s regular caddie, Mike Sly, told him that he couldn’t continue on the bag in the afternoon. A case of plantar fasciitis was too painful. No problem. DeChambeau called on a friend who had carried his bag occasionally in the past and only briefly lost momentum.

His first tee shot of the afternoon round sailed left into the woods, and he was lucky to find his ball. Still, no real problem. Bard, who had won No. 18 to conclude the morning round, took advantage of DeChambeau’s rare muff to win that hole, too. Still, DeChambeau wasn’t ruffled.

He went on a tear, stringing one great iron shot after another and backing up those approaches with brilliant putting. He had Bard dormie after winning No. 10 and closed out the match when Bard’s birdie putt lipped out on the 30th hole.

It wasn’t just the dominating result that set DeChambeau apart from the field during the week. It was also his unconventional style. His trademark is a cap like the one Ben Hogan wore. He also spoke proudly of going to the same college as the late, great Payne Stewart, who also wore similar headgear.

DeChambeau’s clubs are also unusual. The shafts are all the same length, that of a standard 6-iron. His style for lining up putts is different, too. He lines them up with his putter in a horizontal position rather than the usual vertical method – like taking aim with a gun. And, his training methods include cursive writing backwards with his left hand (he’s right-handed) because it improves the sensitivity in his hands.

“Obviously he’s a very smart kid,’’ sad Bard. “I was prepared for all that. Whatever works –and this week it worked for him pretty well.’’

Eri Crum arrived at Stanford University in 1994, the same year that Tiger Woods did. They were teammates on the school’s golf team for two years, before Woods started his legendary career as a touring pro.

Crum stayed at Stanford, earning his letter in golf his final two seasons, and now he’s still involved in his sport as a professional. His role is a bit different than Woods’, however. Crum has discovered Speedgolf, and he’ll defend his title in the Speedgolf World Championship at The Glen Club in Glenview on Oct. 19-20.

In Speedgolf you’re judged on both your score and pace around the course.

“It’s an awesome sport, but it needs help to grow,’’ said Crum before giving a demonstration over the last three holes at The Glen. He cruised through No. 16, a par-4, in 1:49 and made par, got through No. 17, a par-3, in 62 seconds and made bogey and then made birdie on No. 18 — a par-5 – while getting from tee to green in 2:08.

Crum was a good college golfer but was involved in other sports, as well. He was captain of the school’s hockey club team and later ran a three-hour Boston Marathon. After school days he became a physical therapist and chiropractor. He got serious about golf again after learning about Speedgolf.

“It’s been a wonderful outlet to get my golf game back,’’ he said. “Efficiency is so important.’’

Players must avoid unnecessary delays to be successful at Speedgolf. One of Crum’s top rivals putts one-handed and doesn’t drop his golf bag. None of the players stop to check yardages. Golf bags are made as light as possible with most using six clubs or less. Standard golf attire is expected in competition, but most wear shorts instead of pants.

There are some rule variations. The pin remains in the cup in Speedgolf and there’s no loss of distance for a lost ball. Players go off alone in roughly six-minute intervals.

“We’re not suggesting it replaces regular golf,’’ said Tim Scott, president of Speedgolf International. “But Speedgolf promotes creativity and fitness. It’s growing.’’

The Speedgolf World Championship has been held at Bandon Dunes, the popular Oregon resort, the last three years. A couple well-known track and field athletes – Nick Willis and Bernard Lagat – were among the competitors that Crum defeated last year. Lagat, from Kenya, was a four-time Olympian at 1,500 meters while Willis, from New Zealand, was the silver medalist at 1,500 meters in the 2008 Olympics.

Speedgolf has a history dating back to the late 1960s and early 1970s and got more widespread recognition when Steve Scott, the American record-holder in the mile, reportedly shot 95 while covering 18 holes in 29 minutes using only a 3-iron.

The world record, according to Scott, was posted by Christopher Smith, a teaching pro from Oregon, while playing in a competition at Chicago’s Jackson Park in 2005. Smith got around Jackson Park in 65 strokes and 44 minutes.

Combining the score and time, Smith’s record is 109. Crum’s winning total last year at Bandon over 18 holes was 121 – a score of 76 in 45 minutes.

The elite division at The Glen will have about 30 competitors, including some from Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, the United Kingdom and Canada. There are Speedgolf organizations in those countries. In addition to the overseer, Speedgolf International, there are U.S. branches in Houston and Southern California. A $40,000 prize fund will be on the line in the elite division at The Glen.

This will be the third year for the World Speedgolf Championship. Chris Walker, a mini-tour pro who played collegiately at Notre Dame, won in 2012 and Rob Hogan, a pro from Ireland, won in 2013 with Crum finishing second.

An amateur division with age group competition will also be offered on the first day of the World Championship at The Glen. Entry fee is $150. For details contact www.speedgolfinternational.com.

What would be your reaction be if a playing partner arrived at the first tee with a full set of golf clubs, but no golf bag?

That’s what happened to me when long-time friend Brett Detterbeck arrived with a backpack – much like the type that high school students use to carry their books. A big difference, though. In it was a full set of clubs, with the shafts separated from the clubheads.

Brett assembled his clubs as we went along, screwing the shafts into the clubheads. I can’t say they helped his play in a Couples Scramble event put on by the staff at Cantigny, in Wheaton, but they looked and felt like golf clubs when you swung them.

One of Brett’s Glen Ellyn neighbors, Pat Brady, brought the clubs to his attention. Brady was one of three founders of an Atlanta-based equipment manufacturer called the DV8 Sports. The company was founded in 2009.
Its website reports that Brady has 13 patents to his name with six more pending. He’s not a golfer, the website is quick to declare. But he is an inventor and an investor who has done well in other fields.

Is the DV8 Sports product good? Is it bad? I can’t say one way or the other, but it is most interesting. Its clubs are certainly easier to transport than the standard bag of clubs. I’m told they can even be carry-ons at airports.

Golf has always stirred the creative juices of golfers and non-golfers alike. I’ve seen some really weird gear at shows and pro shops over the years, some of it even laughable, but these clubs make more sense than many of the other products I’ve seen. Apparently others felt so, too, because other players in the outing were curious enough to take a look. None needed an invitation to take a peek. They just wanted to find out what the product was all about.

This new product led to a discussion with Patrick Lynch, the head professional at Cantigny. He reported being contacted recently by a company that makes bicycles that players can use to transport their clubs around the course during a round. Lynch was curious enough to welcome a closer look. I would be, too.

The Western Golf Association’s premier tournament, the BMW Championship, is still nearly two months away, but the WGA showed off the improvements coming for the third tournament of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs

Tourney site Conway Farms, in Lake Forest, underwent an extensive renovation since hosting the event in 2013 and spectators — 130,000 are expected again – should have an improved experience. Cart paths have been widened throughout the course to improve foot traffic and seating has been improved dramatically for that big week when trophies (to say nothing of big prize money) is on the line.

The size of seating around the 18th green has been doubled and there’s also expanded viewing at Nos. 1, 2, 7, 9, 11 and 17. The Beer Garden, a popular attraction two years ago, will also be doubled in size.

More than anything, though, the work done on the course has opened up vistas for better spectator viewing. Also improving the spectator experience is the establishment of an attendance limit. Vince Pellegrino, the WGA’s senior vice president, tournaments, said attendance will be limited to 27,000 per day. When the tourney was played at Conway two years ago the gallery topped 35,000 on Saturday.

The players will find a major change in the practice facility. It’s been enhanced with a 10,000 square foot putting green, a two-acres practice range and a new short game area. All 18 greens were re-grassed. several new tees were constructed and others re-shaped. New back tees resulted in the lengthening of Nos. 4 and 17.

Strategically, No. 16 – my favorite hole on the course – has two sod-wall bunkers now instead of three and they’ve been moved to the right. This, you’ll remember, was a key hole in 2013 because Jim Furyk made eagle there en route to shooting his record 59.

The tournament dates, Sept. 14-20, are a week later than they were in 2013 with players getting a week off in between the first two playoff events and the last two. The purse has increased slightly, to $8.25 million.

Shuttles from the nearby Metra stations are expected to relieve congestion around the course. The shuttles from the stations to the course are only two minutes. The new general parking area is in Waukegan (Waukegan and Belvidere roads), and shuttles from there will be in the 15-20 minute range.

Pellegrino announced a new event for tournament week. The Evans Scholars Cup will be contested on Monday. It’ll feature teams from 28 clubs and their head professional. Otherwise the schedule is the same as in the past except for the starting times for the first two rounds. Play will begin at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday and Friday and 7:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

A three-year project to renovate its bunkers is over, and Kemper Lakes is ready to “Restore the Roar.’’ The club, based in Chicago’s northwest suburb of Kildeer, wants big tournaments again, and the new looks that Libertyville architect Rick Jacobson created with the bunkers should help.

“The renovations are now complete, and it’s been a seamless transformation into a premier championship venue that we believe is once again ready for the best players in the world,’’ said John Hosteland, the club’s general manager. “So, this summer we’ll be welcoming golf media and the various governing bodies to visit Kemper Lakes. We call it our `Restore the Roar’ initiative. In the event there’s a need or desire to bring a national tournament to Kemper Lakes, we’re ready.’’

Augie Tonne, a club member who heads its championship committee, is also spearheading the `Restore the Roar’ effort. Both he and Hosteland point to the available space around the course for parking and other event necessities as an added plus in its appeal for big tournaments.

It wasn’t all that long ago that Kemper Lakes was the No. 1 big tournament site in the Chicago area. Opened in 1979 as a public facility, the course made the world spotlight in 1989 as the site of Payne Stewart’s first major title at that year’s PGA Championship.

Kemper hosted more big events than that one, however. It was the site of Chicago’s annual Champions Tour stop for six years and hosted the Grand Slam of Golf four times. Two big women’s events – the 92nd USGA Women’s Amateur Championship and the 25th U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship – were played there. And, in addition to all those big events, Kemper hosted the Illinois PGA Championship 24 straight years.

The big events disappeared after the LaSalle Bank Open made its debut on the Web.com Tour in 2002. Private investors purchased the Kemper facility the following year, and the Web.com stop was moved to The Glen Club in Glenview for the next six years. It is no longer held.

Kemper, meanwhile, was gradually transformed into a private club. It became fully private on Jan. 1, 2007, and the only non-member event on its annual schedule since then has been the Illinois PGA Match Play Championship.

Now the club and its 285 members hope that will change. The bunker project certainly gave the course a refreshing new look.

Most strikingly different is No. 14 – a short par-4 that once had a 100-yard bunker (the longest bunker in Chicago golf) stretching down the left side of the fairway on the dogleg left. Now that area has several bunkers and another has been added on the right side of the fairway.

The green-side bunkering at the par-5 seventh hole is also markedly different. Water lines the left side of the fairway and a retaining wall had blocked the bunker from both the water and the green. That wall is still there, but you don’t see it. It’s been covered over by turf that runs down into the water.

The sand bunkers on every hole, however, have either been re-constructed, renovated or eliminated to – according to the club’s formal announcement — “bring it to 21st century standards.’’

“For the Chicago golfers and fans who either enjoyed playing the course or attending the previous championships, if we host an event we’d be excited for them to see the course they haven’t seen in over 10 years,’’ said Hosteland. “It’s a dramatic change.’’

And, while Hosteland and Tonne have both declared the course ready for the big time again, work is continuing.

Jacobson is now tackling the tee boxes. He completed a new tee at the super tough par-4 sixteenth hole and will also build new tee boxes at Nos. 9, 13, 15 and 17. The new markers at the 15th will stretch a 578-yard par-5 to 620 yards. The course measures 7,217 yards from the tips now but will be over 7,400 when the new tee boxes are put into play.

Since the big crowds were last on the grounds Kemper’s members remodeled the locker rooms and put plaques commemorating big events of the past on each hole. A contest is now underway to create a name for the three finishing holes, a stretch that is at least arguably the toughest stretch in the Chicago area.

You might think that Carlos Sainz Jr. would be down in the dumps after enduring eight missed cuts, seven of them in a row, to start his rookie season on the PGA Tour. That was certainly not the case, though, as the Elgin golfer approached the midway point of the season.

“I’m excited,’’ said Sainz during his final days of preparation for his tenth PGA Tour event – the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in late April. “I’ve got to keep things in perspective. It’s just a matter of time before I start playing well again.’’

Sainz earned his PGA Tour privileges with a strong finish in the 2014 Web.com Tour season, and a return to that circuit at the El Bosque Mexico Championship in April did wonders for his confidence. Making eagle on the last hole, Sainz finished in a tie for 27th place, ended his string of missed cuts and shot 68, matching his low round of the year first posted in Round 1 of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro Am on the big circuit.

“I was really happy about that week in Mexico,’’ said Sainz. “I hadn’t been performing as well as I’d have liked, and it was nice to see my hard work pay off. But that week we played for $600,00 and (at New Orleans) we play for $6 million. Nothing against the Web.com. It’s a great tour, but the PGA Tour is the one I want to play on.’’

That’s understandable, but – unless his success improves quickly on the PGA Tour – Sainz may have to keep bouncing between the circuits. He missed the cut at the Louisiana Open in his only other Web.com tournament of the year in March and was looking forward to his next one – at the United Leasing Championship at Victoria National in Evansville, Ind., the week after New Orleans.

“That course is one of the best on the Web.com Tour,’’ said Sainz. “It was where I played my first Web.com event. It’ll be the third time I’ve played there.’’

What Sainz needs, though, are more showings like he had in his second PGA Tour event – a tie for ninth place in the Sanderson Farms Championship back in November. It earned him $100,000, which was more than he earned in all of 2014 on the Web.com circuit. He was 10 under par in that tournament, played near Mississippi State University where Sainz enjoyed a solid collegiate career before turning pro in 2010.

“It seems like forever ago,’’ admitted Sainz. The string of missed cuts followed –the OHL Classic Mayakoba in Mexico; Sony Open in Hawaii; Humana Challenge, Farmers Insurance Open, AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro Am and Northern Trust Open in California; and the Puerto Rico Open – before his uplifting finish at the Web.com stop in Mexico.

“Playing the West Coast swing was a great experience, but I was sick for two of the tournaments and I also pulled my back,’’ said Sainz. “My allergies popped up at Pebble Beach, then I had a touch of the flu. But these are the things we deal with. Those things happen.’’

Other than the Zurich Classic and United Leasing Championship, Sainz wasn’t sure where he’d be playing the rest of the season.

“It’s hard to tell,’’ he said. “It all depends on who commits to events late, but there’ll be opportunities. I’ll have five to 10 more tournaments on the PGA tour and I’ll play another five to 10 on the Web.com to keep my game sharp.’’

He felt his best chances to get into PGA Tour events would be at the Wells-Fargo Championship, the Byron Nelson Classic, the FedEx St. Jude Classic, the Greenbrier Classic, the John Deere Classic and the Barracuda Championship in Nevada. They’ll all be played before the PGA Championship comes to Wisconsin’s Whistling Straits course in Wisconsin in August.

Sainz is also entered in the U.S. Open and has a pass into sectional qualifying. His life could change in a heartbeat if he plays well in any of those.

“It just takes one great week and a couple of good ones on these tours,’’ said Sainz, who doesn’t turn 30 until November. It’s safe to assume plenty of good tournament are still in the offing.