Chicagoland Golf

Chicagoland Golf ceased publication after the 2019 season, ending a string of 31 years covering the Chicago golf scene. My columns and features over the last few years, however, will still live on:

  • LPGA’s T of C turned into the `Annika Show’
    LAKE NONA, FL. – Annika Sorenstam didn’t win on Sunday but – as the only woman in a 50-player group of celebrities that included famous sport stars like Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux, Brian Urlacher, Jeremy Roenick, John Smoltz, Sterling Sharp and Tom Glavin, the 51-year old golf legend did just fine. No doubt she was ...
  • Q-School is sure to bring a dramatic ending to golf’s 2019 season
    The year’s biggest golf championships are over. Now comes the hard part. There’s another side to professional golf that contrasts sharply with what your see on television screen. It’s called Q-School, and it’s the main path to get to most every one of golf’s pro tours. Some lucky ones have gotten to a pro ...
  • Coaching change triggers excitement for NIU men’s golf team
    I hate writing season-ending columns, mainly because – for me – the golf season never ends. One season just blends into another. This time, though, there are some subjects that need to be addressed – one big one in particular. Northern Illinois University has a new men’s golf coach, and this hiring could reverberate throughout ...
  • JDC was a success, now comes the BMW Championship at Medinah
    One down, and one big one to go. And then what? We’re all about to enter a period of transition. Illinois is blessed with two PGA Tour events, but they couldn’t be more different. The John Deere Classic has had a variety of names since its founding in 1971. It’s played two hours west of ...
  • Wilson, Tour Edge are benefitting from the success of their players
    If ever there was a time for Chicago’s two major golf equipment companies to celebrate, this is it. The biggest reason was Gary Woodland’s victory in the U.S. Open. Woodland signed with Wilson less than a year ago, and player endorsements do bring attention to product lines. Wilson, long based in River Grove and now ...
  • Is the 1-iron coming back? This Chicago company thinks so
    I’ve been reluctant to write about golf equipment, feeling that should be left to experts on new technology or championship level players. Occasionally, though, I make an exception, and this is one of those times. Joe Jung, a Chicago guy, is a big reason for that. I met Jung at last month’s International Network of Golf’s ...
  • Illinois Women’s Open milestone comes with a change in format
    The Illinois Women’s Open will celebrate its 25th anniversary this year, a testament to the dedication owner Jim McWethy and his staff at Mistwood Golf Club in Romeoville have made to the event. When none of the Chicago golf organizations were willing to create a big event for the area’s top women players the late Phil ...
  • ANWA has taken women’s golf to a new level
    The inaugural Augusta National Women’s Amateur was staged a few days before the Masters tournament and partially on the same course the male stars played their first major championship of 2019. It turned out to be one of those rare golf competitions where the determination of the champion wasn’t the most important thing – ...
  • Chicago golf scene will be different now that four amateur stars have turned pro
    In the early 1980s the Chicago amateur ranks were dominated by a fabulous foursome, David Ogrin, Gary Pinns, Gary Hallberg and Jerry Vidovic. Toss in Lance Ten Broeck and Roy Biancalana, who were slightly younger than that group, and you had what I consider the Golden Years of Chicago amateur golf. Ogrin, Hallberg and Ten ...
  • GolfVisions’ promotions are a big reason for the Chicago Golf Show’s success
    Back in 2010 Tim Miles Sr. made a bold promotional move. He offered a free round to all Chicago Golf Show visitors at all of the courses that his company, Mundelein-based GolfVisions, was managing. Looking back, Tom Corcoran – owner of the 35-year old show since 1997 — still calls Miles’ move “the wildly greatest promotion ...
  • Now it’s time to look ahead to big events at Medinah, Whistling Straits
    Usually columns for the final issue of a season are used for look-backs at the high (and sometimes – low) points of the goings-on in the previous spring and summer months. This year I’ve coaxed Chicagoland Golf publisher Val Russell into indulging my preference to move in another direction. Rather than looking back at the Chicago ...
  • PGA Tour schedule for 2018-19 will require some fresh thinking
    I did enough venting about this year’s tournament schedule in our last issue. Then – wouldn’t you know it? – the PGA Tour made its plans for the 2018-19 wrap-around season official. There’s lots of food for thought when you analyze that one. Just knowing the PGA Tour dates isn’t enough to project how our ...
  • Golf has proven to be a tonic for this Parkinson’s sufferer
    Gary Smith, by his own admission, is not a champion golfer but his golf story is well worth telling. Tim Rosaforte, a long-time friend of mine who works for The Golf Channel, told it first as a TV feature. Now it’s my turn. Smith is a Naperville resident, but I met him at the International Network ...
  • We will all have to deal with `THE BIG CONFLICT’
    This is my 50th year reporting on the Chicago golf scene and I can assure you there has never been a month like the one confronting us this July. There have been busy tournaments times in the past, but never anything like what’s coming in the next few days. I’m calling the whole scenario “The ...
  • Mistwood, Kemper Lakes host big women’s tourneys at the same time
    It’s a shame, it really is. In the biggest year ever for women’s golf in the Chicago area the biggest women’s professional tournament and the biggest women’s amateur event will be played on virtually the same dates. The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship is June 26 to July 1 at Kemper Lakes in Kildeer. It’s one of ...
  • KPMG Women’s PGA will be Kemper’s biggest event in 29 years
    This spring has not been business as usual at Kemper Lakes. The Kildeer club, which had been a tournament hotbed for more than two decades before going private, has been a busy place again even during the period when snow delayed the traditional start of spring. That’s what happens when a club takes on a major ...
  • Here’s what’s good — and bad — about the Chicago tournament schedule in 2018
    I don’t know that Chicago has ever had a golf season like the one coming up in 2018. It’ll be a good one – any links season in Chicago is a good one – but this one will be different. Last year’s tournament schedule was the busiest in 20 years and featured the national collegiate ...
  • Women’s Western will benefit from closer relationship with WGA
    This one was long, long overdue. The Western Golf Association and Women’s Western Golf Association have jointly announced that they have formed “a new partnership.’’ That made May 10, 2017, an announcement date to remember in Chicago sports history. Given the rich histories of the two organizations, its importance goes beyond just golf. While the ...
  • CDGA Amateur makes rare appearance out of Illinois
    The Chicago District Golf Association has been staging competitions since 1914 and it’s the regional governing body for amateur golf in Illinois and parts of three other states. It services nearly 400 clubs and 800 individual golfers in a variety of ways. Most know the CDGA for its computerized handicaps. All members get a ...
  • Pieters, Points are latest Illinois tour players who bear watching
    We’ve always given the broadest definition to the pro golfers classified as “local players.’’ Players who resided a significant period of time in Illinois or attended college in the Prairie State all fit the criteria. After all, Illinois is a welcoming place for golf talent, and the more the merrier. Still, Luke Donald and Kevin ...
  • It’s not too early to start planning for the 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Hills
    The 117th playing of the U.S. Open is still eight months away, I realize that. Still, it’s not too early to so some planning around it. After all, U.S. Opens don’t come our way very often. Next year’s will be June 15-18 at Erin Hills, a public-access venue located in a little town northwest of ...
  • October provided a variety of meaningful ends to Chicago golf season
    I never quite understood this. October, with its generally milder temperatures and beautiful color changes, is in many ways the best month of the year to play golf. Plus, with school back in session, the courses aren’t as busy as they are from June through August. Still, interest seems to be on the downside with the ...
  • Ryder Cup is the real climax to this PGA Tour season
    Let the greatest show in golf begin. With all due respect, it’s not any major championship. It’s not the FedEx Cup Playoffs. It wasn’t the return of the sport to the Olympics for the first time in 112 years. No, the greatest show in golf isn’t even a tournament. It’s the Ryder Cup, and the ...
  • Upgrades provide big boosts at Eagle Ridge, Ruffled Feathers
    Eagle Ridge, Illinois’ premier golf resort in Galena, has changed – and for the better – since its latest ownership change. Capital Crossing acquired the facility in 2013 and brought in Texas-based Touchstone Golf to manage Eagle Ridge’s 63 holes and Mount Prospect-based Bricton Group to manage the rest of the resort. Touchstone manages courses ...
  • Dates opposite the Olympics won’t be a big problem for the JDC
    If you had asked me, I would have told you. The PGA Tour should not have made all those changes to its mid- to late-summer schedule just to accommodate the Olympics. All that did was inconvenience tournament organizers, leave most of the players in limbo and confuse ticket-buyers who had gotten used to watching specific ...
  • Any U.S. Open at Oakmont has a special meaning to me
    It’s that time of year again. The U.S. Opens – for both the men and women – always dominate the golf world during the month of June and 2016 is no exception. Both tournaments are huge in terms of participants and historical significance. They are also organizational monsters for the U.S. Golf Association, which conducts ...
  • Could Mistwood’s playing staff be the best in the U.S.?
    Mistwood director of golf Andy Mickelson said it, almost without any hesitation. “I’d be bold enough to say that we could put our playing staff against any in the country,’’ Mickelson told me. And I couldn’t argue with him. Mistwood owner Jim McWethy has a big staff of teaching pros in Romeoville and their playing resumes are ...
  • Olympics’ influence will make for a different season in 2016
    OK, so the 2014-15 PGA Tour season is over. You want more? No problem. You don’t have to wait long, thanks to the circuit’s decision to go with a split season just like the National Hockey League and National Basketball Assn. have done for years and years. Last season ended with the FedEx Cup ...
  • BMW’s return to Conway Farms will be even better this time
    The first BMW Championship played at Conway Farms in Lake Forest was voted Tournament of the Year on the PGA Tour. That was in 2013. When the FedEx Cup Playoff event returns this month it will be even better. Work done by both the Western Golf Assn. and the Conway membership ensures that. Conway was tournament-tested ...
  • Illinois amateur golf is at its best since the 1980s
    The Illinois State Amateur was played for the 85th time in July, and this time it was more than a golf tournament. It was a showcase. If nothing else, we should take away one thing from this State Am: the state of amateur golf in Illinois is at its highest level in many, many years. ...
  • Illinois Open benefitted from new format
    Strange? Memorable? Different? Those are all apt descriptions for the 66th playing of the Illinois Open. My first year covering the Illinois Open was in 1975 – the last year in which the Illinois PGA and Chicago District Golf Assn. were joint managers of the event — and I’ve been to virtually every championship since ...
  • Greenbrier, Homestead, Bay Hill, Pinehurst — What a winter it was!
    What have you done golf-wise since dropping your last putt in the Chicago area in 2014? Not as much as me, I’ll bet. This has been an extraordinary “offseason.’’ It began in November when we made a series of golf/travel-writing stops – a few days here, a few days there — at some very choice ...
  • More changing of the guard for the Illinois PGA
    Call it a changing of the guard, or just a transition. I’ve always thought that change was generally a good thing, and there’s certainly been plenty of that going on within the Chicago golf community in the last few months. It started with the departure of Michael Miller, long-time executive director of the Illinois PGA who ...
  • Staff departures put Illinois PGA in limbo
    The Illinois PGA is in limbo heading into the first big month of the Chicago golf season. There’s no doubt about that. Two key staffers, Jared Nowak and Lauren Moy, left the section during the winter and executive director Michael Miller replaced them both. Robert Duke took Nowak’s place as tournament director and Catherine ...
  • Golf has endured some tough times lately — so let’s all just enjoy the game
    Over the course of the last year or so I’ve been asked my views from a variety of people – inside and outside the Chicagoland Golf community – about the state of the golf industry. They were, of course, triggered by the general state of the economy. Because golf is an activity requiring the spending ...
  • There was one day that defined this golf season
    This golf season, of course, is far from over. We diehards know that fall golf is the best. Still, the conclusion of the PGA Championship does mean the end of the major championships and a good time to reflect on developments from the 2014 season. SO, IF YOU had asked me I would have told you…… THE ...
  • Major changes are coming to the Illinois Open in 2015
    Last month’s 65th Illinois Open revealed one change – the addition of First Tee of Chicago as a charity partner. More changes are coming, and they’re likely to be just as good. The Illinois Open officially dates back to 1950, when Felice Torza won at Onwentsia, but tournaments of the same name were played as ...
  • Troyanovich, the 2012 champion, could be first Mistwood player to win IWO
    July will be a huge tournament month for Chicago’s best golfers, but especially for the women. The biggest spectator event for the women comes first – the new International Crown at Caves Valley in Owings Mills, Md., from July 21-27. This is big for Chicago in particular, because the international team event’s second staging – ...
  • Here’s 10 good reasons to go to the Encompass Championship
    The Encompass Championship on the Champions Tour is coming to North Shore Country Club in Glenview from June 16-22. Tournament rounds are June 20-22. If you love golf you should be there. Here’s 10 good reasons why: 1, It’s Unique. The pro golf tours are making fewer and fewer appearances in the Chicago area, and ...
  • Harbor Shores prepares for its second Senior PGA shootout
    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 ...
  • Wilson, CDGA centennials should be celebrated, and look out for SwingSmart, too
    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 ...
  • LPGA Legends event will bring something special to French Lick
    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 ...
  • Here’s some tips for your visit to the John Deere Classic
    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 ...
  • Mistwood’s new Performance Center is spectacular
    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 ...
  • Celebrity involvement will make Encompass a spectator-friendly tourney
    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 ...
  • CHICAGO PREVIEW: No Ryder Cup, but season won’t be dull
    No Ryder Cup. No Western Amateur. A quiet year is ahead for golf in Chicago, right? WRONG!!! Chicago golf is never dull, and this season will be as inspiring as the last one – and maybe even more so. Believe me. Yes, the epic Ryder Cup at Medinah has come and gone – and will ...
  • Let’s not forget about the U.S. Mid-Am
    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. ...
  • July, 2012, was a milestone month for golf in the Midwest
    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 ...
  • RYDER CUP: A look behind the scenes with three months to go
    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 ...
  • Dr. Jim Suttie answers all our questions
    Dr. Jim Suttie is, at least arguably, Chicago’s best-known golf teaching professional. Noted as a pioneer in applying biomechanical principles to the golf swing, Suttie was the PGA of America’s national teacher-of-the-year in 2000 and won that award three times from the PGA’s Illinois section. He’s also been among GOLF magazine’s top 100 instructors and among ...
  • Haney’s “Big Miss” is well worth reading
    Please forgive me, but I must vent. I’ve been a member of the national golf media for over 40 years, and I’m proud of it. There are times, though, when I don’t agree with the majority of my brethren and this is definitely one of those times. It seems to me that most media members devoted to ...
  • No BMW here, but this summer will be extraordinary
    Maybe — MAYBE — this will be a quiet summer for golf in Chicago. At least there won’t be a PGA Tour stop. The BMW Championship will be played at Crooked Stick in Indianapolis this year, but the absence might not be long. While nothing’s official as of this printing, the Western Golf Association is expected ...