Author: lenz

Women’s golf will become very big in Chicago the next three seasons

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.

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 Playoffs, which finished up when the last putt dropped at The Tour Championship in Atlanta.

This season starts with the Frys.com Open on Oct. 15 at Silverado’s North Course in Napa, Calif., with Sangmoon Bae the defending champion. It won’t have a weak field, either, if for no other reason than Rory McIlroy has entered. McIlroy will be making his first appearance in the $6 million event, and Tiger Woods would have been there, too, had he not opted for more back surgery. He had to withdraw after announcing that he would compete in the event.

What used to be the PGA’s Fall Series doesn’t end there, either. The Shriners Hospital for Children’s Open in Las Vegas and the CIMB Classic in Malaysia also have October dates and the OHL Classic at Mayakoba in Mexico and the McGladrey Classic in Georgia will be played in November.

And in December there’s those unofficial events – Tiger Woods’ Hero World Challenge in Florida and the Franklin Templeton Shootout in Florida – along with some of the overseas exhibitions. They traditionally draw the top players who are ready to get their games in shape for the flood of weekly events that begin in January. Jordan Spieth, for instance, believes his “offseason’’ wins in the Australian Open and Hero World Challenge started him on his way to his banner season that included wins in the Masters and U.S. Open. He plans to be back at those two unofficial events this year.

As you can see, tournament golf doesn’t stop these days – not even in the dead of winter. To me, that’s a good thing.

What isn’t so good is what happens to the schedule after the new year – July in particular. The Masters is still in early April (7-10 in 2016), The Players Championship is sill in mid-May (12-15) and the U.S. Open is still in mid-June (16-19 at frequent site Oakmont in Pennyslvania).

July, though, is the heart of the golf season in Chicago, and in 2016 it will also be the heart of the golf season world-wide. A good thing? I don’t think so.

The British Open will be played at Royal Troon from July 14-17, the Canadian Open at Glen Abbey is the next week and the PGA Championship at Baltusrol, in New Jersey, is the week after that. Bunching up the big ones like that only takes some of the luster away from each of them.

That change in scheduling, of course, was due to the Summer Olympics. It’s great that golf is back as an Olympic sport for the first time since 1904, but I’m not so sure that epic development should have come at the expense of the tournaments that have been in the forefront for decades.

Why couldn’t the Olympic organizers have chosen their dates, the countries participating in golf determine their players and the competition go on from there? The PGA Tour could have continued with business as usual and, if some of the other tournaments lose a top player or two to the Olympics, so be it. The PGA Tour schedule didn’t need to be revamped just because of one new tournament, even one that admittedly will have global interest.

The major affected the most, of course, is the PGA Championship. It is traditionally played in mid-August, and the Olympics golf competition is Aug. 11-14. It wouldn’t have made much sense to play the PGA opposite the Olympics, since too many top players would likely prefer to play in Brazil.

Instead the John Deere Classic was put opposite the Olympics. JDC director Clair Peterson, citing his desire to be a “good partner’’ with the PGA Tour, took the decision gracefully. The JDC has thrived in its July dates, especially after Peterson made the brainchild move to hire a jet that would take JDC players directly to the following week’s British Open.

Now there won’t be any jet, and the JDC will likely be without its defending champion. Spieth is a shoo-in to be on the U.S. team in Brazil.

Given the local support the JDC traditionally enjoys, I suspect TPC Deere Run will still be a crowded, exciting place even with the Olympics being shown on television at the same time. One aspect of the JDC scheduling even intrigues me.

As part of pitting the JDC opposite the Olympics the PGA Tour granted Peterson some extra sponsor’s exemptions. Who will he invite? Who knows, but Peterson has consistently used them wisely. Spieth was just one of the many young stars who received an invite to the JDC as a young player and later demonstrated loyalty to the event. Perhaps the difficult scheduling in 2016 will turn out a blessing in disguise for Illinois’ only annual PGA Tour stop down the road. At least I hope so.

The impact of scheduling around the Olympics doesn’t end there, however. The FedEx Cup Playoffs will lose some of their edge as well.

Only two tournaments – the JDC and Wyndham Classic – will be played between the Olympics and The Barclays, first event of the Playoffs. Players in the Olympics – the top stars in the game – have to rest some time. They could well skip those two regular season stops and might even choose to skip a playoff event as well. Players like Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia have done that, even with the huge prize money offered in the playoff events.

Things will be back to normal come September, when the BMW Championship returns from Sept. 8-11 at Crooked Stick in Indiana. That’s the site in between two stagings at Conway Farms in Lake Forest.

Again big events are bunched up at least in part because of the addition of the Olympics. The season-ending Tour Championship in Atlanta follows the BMW Championship and before September is out the Ryder Cup begins, on Sept. 30 at Hazeltine in Minnesota. That’s a lot of big-time golf in a condensed period of time. Will it be too much to sustain golf’s mass appeal? We’ll soon find out.

U.S. Open is over, but golfers are still flocking to Chambers Bay

Puget Sound provides a stunning backdrop for golfers playing at Chambers Bay.

UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. – At the start of 2015 Chambers Bay was viewed as an exciting new venue for June’s U.S. Open. Four months after Jordan Spieth’s victory in one of the most dramatic finishes to that championship the course is viewed differently.

Now, four months later, it still has the historical benefits from being a major championship site, but it’s even more a travel destination than it was before Dustin Johnson three-putted the last green from 12 feet to give Spieth his second major title.

Chambers looks a lot different than it did during the U.S. Open, the first ever held in the Pacific Northwest. The corporate hospitality tents are gone, of course, but the beating the course took from welcoming 280,000 visitors in that one week is still evident. The visitors are still coming, though. They’re coming strictly to play now.

General manager Matt Allen has seen it all at Chambers Bay.

There’s a different perception of Chambers in the aftermath of the big event. There was an aura of mystery about it before the Open. Now that the game’s best players have dealt with it there’s more an anticipation to learn what this place is all about. Chambers Bay was a good story to tell before the Open; it’s an even better one now.

This is a county-owned walking-only golf course. Caddies aren’t mandatory (though they’d be helpful on the 7 ½-mile jaunt that includes the equivalent of 13 floors in elevation). Staffers are assigned to various spots on the course to help the players in various ways and facilitate play, but there’s much more to the Chambers Bay experience.

For one thing, there’s no definition between the greens and the fairways — an extreme rarity in the U.S. courses. A train regularly runs along the outskirts of the course, which offers stunning water views of Puget Sound.

For historical perspective there’s the remnants of the sand and gravel storage bins that dominated the property a couple decades before it became a golf course. Now they give the course a Stonehenge look. A three-mile walking/biking trails winds through the course, much like Scotland’s storied St. Andrews, but golfers aren’t impacted by it at all. The same for a dog park. Chambers Bay is a benefit to its community, not just to the golfers.

The Lone Fir behind the green at the par-3 15th hole is a Chambers landmark.

Unlike most every other U.S. Open venue, there’s no big clubhouse. The pro shop is relatively small (but certainly adequate). Players are taken from it to the range and first tee via a shuttle, and a trailer houses the snack shop, where you claim your push cart or hook up with your caddie. It’s a friendly setting that becomes even more enjoyable as you meander through the course.

It’s a course like no other – at least in the United States — and we enjoyed exploring those differences. You frequently putt from great distances. To play well you have to cope with the many undulations, on the fairways as well as the greens. The fairways are huge – No. 13 was the widest ever at a U.S. Open – and the rough isn’t so penal that it scares you. The two of us, both very avid but ordinary recreational players, lost only one ball between us while playing with two Chambers veterans – general manager Matt Allen and assistant professional Ryan Young.

The U.S. Open didn’t always present Chambers Bay in a favorable light, which created a mind-boggling dilemma for Allen.

“As time passes you reflect on the good and the bad, and you see that globally it was an unqualified success,’’ said Allen. “But in the moment you would see the energy and the excitement at the same time when players in the media center were losing their minds about the putting greens.’’

The conditioning of the greens were a problem, no doubt about it. Allen attributes it to record heat in May and June, and it continued for two months after the tournament. That made recovery from the Open more difficult. Still, recreational play resumed the Friday after the last putt dropped and Chambers Bay returned to being a great asset to its community but with a higher profile.

“You’ve got to go back to Hazeltine (the Minnesota club that hosted the 1970 U.S. Open, won by Britain’s Tony Jacklin) as the last time the U.S. Open was played on a new course,’’ said Allen. “Players didn’t universally accept Hazeltine, either.’’

But Hazeltine survived to host another U.S. Open and as well as a PGA Championship, U.S. Amateur, U.S. Women’s Open and U.S. Senior Open. It will also be the site of next year’s Ryder Cup matches.

Chamber Bays’ story is a bit different. The course was built by Pierce County with the intention of landing a U.S. Open. That was an extraordinary mission, with lots of parties involved. Among the key ones were John Landenburg, a Pierce County executive who convinced local politicians to to spend $20 million on the project; Robert Trent Jones Jr., the architect; Chicago-based KemperSports, which manages the facility; and the U.S. Golf Assn.

They worked together to get the course open in 2007, the accolades poured in immediately and by 2010 Chambers was hosting a U.S. Amateur. The 2015 U.S. Open made Chambers the only course built in the last 50 years and the first with links-style architecture to host the tournament.

Remnants of abandoned sand and gravel holding bins provide a Stonehenge look along the No. 18 fairway.

Add to it the fact that Chambers’ No. 12 hole yielded the most eagles in U.S. Open history, and you have a lot of golf history made in a very short time frame. Allen has been at Chambers almost from the beginning so his perspective is noteworthy.

After completing his studies at Oregon he was – at age 21 — named the tournament and course rating director for the Oregon Golf Assn. Now a 17-year employee of KemperSports, he moved to Oregon’s then up-and-coming Bandon Dunes Resort in 1999 as assistant general manager and has been GM at Chambers for seven years. He recorded every Open-related telecast, but hasn’t gotten through Day 1 in viewing it all yet.

“For those of us on the grounds it certainly exceeded expectations,’’ he said. “The feedback we’ve gotten from others is how much more enjoyable it was watching a U.S. Open where you see (the world’s top players) having to think their way around the golf course the way everyone else does.’’

Trains run beside the course throughout the day, adding to the Chambers’ charm.

He expects Chambers Bay to return to as a major tournament venue at some point, but it’ll be tough to top what’s happened there already.

“We can top it by bringing the Open back in 10-12 years and doing it better,’’ Allen said. “Meanwhile, we’ll just continue to cement our championship pedigree.’’

And accommodate curious players. There’s a lot more of them now. Allen said Chambers drew players from only 12 states in the late summer months of 2014 as the Open was closing in. In the three months after this Open, though, players from 57 different states or countries have teed off there. One from France was playing during our visit.

“We’ll see that traffic for a long time to come,’’ Allen predicted.

Chambers is now even offering a unique golf package in conjunction with Tacoma’s Hotel Murano and two nearby facilities – The Home Course in DuPont and Gold Mountain in Bremerton. The Home Course was Chambers’ alternate course in the 2010 U.S. Amateur and hosted the 2014 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links. Gold Mountain hosted the 2006 U.S. Public Links and 2011 U.S. Junior Amateur.

Montana’s Big Sky gets an early winterizing.

The entry sign was getting refreshed when we stopped by Big Sky.

BOZEMAN, Montana — Based on our driving the last two days Montana is the most beautiful state in the U.S. and its town of Bozeman merits a more long-term stay ASAP. We took a side trip there to check out Big Sky Resort, even though we were aware its golf course had closed for the season on Oct. 4.

We wanted to see Big Sky because it is Montana’s version of Michigan’s Boyne Resorts – long one of our favorite golf destinations. Big Sky’s welcome sign was getting a facelift when we arrived, the clubhouse was closed but the course looked great.

I guess I can’t identify with the snow-skiing set and I do accept that October weather in Montana is unpredictable. Still, it was difficult to find a beautiful course empty on a perfect day weather-wise in early October. Oh, well….

Anyway, though I consider myself well-travelled within the U.S. and Canada due to all the work-related trips I made over the years, this week has been in largely uncharted territory. Earlier we made our first visit to South Dakota. Now we’re in Montana for the first time and later today it’ll be our first time ever in Idaho. All very interesting.

Floating Green will get re-grassing before 25th anniversary

Idaho’s famous Floating Green is like no other hole in golf.

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho — The Floating Green is a gimmicky thing, but it brought the desired attention to Lake Coeur d’Alene Resort.

It was envisioned by Duane Hagadone in 1991, when the first ball was struck toward this movable putting surface. The 6,803-yard course was designed by Scott Miller but No. 14 is the hole that put the course on the global map.

The tee doesn’t move – there are five tee placements, allowing the hole to play anywhere from 95 to 218 yards –but the green does. It’s a man-made, 15,000-square foot island green that changes location. It gets further from the tee as the season goes on because the depth of the water changes. The “putter’’ boat takes golfers from the tee to the green and back. Wish I could have played this famous hole, but time constraints prevented that.

Still, checking it out was well worth the visit. Arguably the most unusual hole in all of golf will celebrate its 25th year in 2016 by getting a re-grassing. The course had its conditioning problems recently, with a staff member informing me that six of the greens were lost during the season. He said that No. 14 is likely the best on the course, but all 18 will be re-grassed shortly after the course is closed on Oct. 17 – two weeks earlier than usual.

It’s hard to look past the Floating Green – after all, the road leading past the gate house to the clubhouse is Floating Green Drive – but the course has more attractions than that. It has lake views on every hole and 1,500 wild flowers also spice up the viewing experience.

Nebraska’s Prairie Club offers a unique brand of golfing fun

If you’re passionate about your golf, Nebraska’s Prairie Club is a perfect place for a get-away.

VALENTINE, Neb. – The first thing you notice as you approach the Prairie Club in the sandhills of Nebraska is what’s not there.

You cruise through the “big’’ town of Valentine (population 2,830) and 17 miles later you see the first indication that a big-time golf resort is nearby. It’s just a small sign saying the entrance is a half-mile away.

Then you hit the entrance – just a small sign as well – and face a two-mile drive down a winding dirt road to the clubhouse that, most notably, takes you by some mean-looking cattle. Then the fun begins.

At the Prairie Club the accommodations are more than comfortable. The décor has a rustic elegance that includes leopard carpeting on the stairs. The food is good, the atmosphere memorable, the staff extremely friendly and helpful. But at the Prairie Club it’s all about golf . You can have your fun on its two 18-hole courses as well as its unique 10-hole Horse Course, a par-3 layout that has no tee markers.

An interesting place, this Prairie Club. There’s not many golf options around it, but plenty inside its ample borders. This place is pure golf, just what founder Paul Schock wanted when he got the place up and running on June 11, 2010.

“Blowouts” give a different look to the bunkers at Prairie Club.

“We want our guests to have fun. That’s the object of our Horse Course,’’ said head professional Loudan Steffes. “It gives you as many options, and as many players in a group, as you like. And a round there doesn’t take four-five hours.’’

The Horse Course is unique. Gil Hanse, now famous as the designer of the Brazil course that will host next year’s first Olympics golf competition since 1904, created it. You play the Horse Course like you would play that popular game in backyard basketball, hence the name. The Horse Course spurs creativity as well as fun competition. Too bad more golf facilities don’t offer such a course. Golf, as played on the Horse Course, would bring more players into the game.

But I digress. The Prairie Club is a lot more than the Horse Course. The Dunes Course, designed by former British Open champion Tom Lehman with guidance from Chris Brand, is long – a par-73 that can play at over 8,000 yards from the very back tees. This is one of those courses where it’s imperative you play from the right set of tees. If you don’t you could well be in for a long day.

Don’t get behind those fence posts in the Prairie Club bunkers. They’re nothing but trouble.

The length shouldn’t dissuade you, though. Neither should all the weird-shaped bunkers, some of which have “blowouts’’ in them and some of which feature what look like Pete Dye railroad ties placed in a much-less-random order. They’re more like fence posts.

“Those are posts, for aesthetic purposes, just to give a different look,’’ explained Steffes. “You don’t see them everywhere.’’

No, you don’t, and if you get behind one you’re dead.

The “blowouts,’’ native to the sandhills so prevalent in the area, are featured in the wide area of waste bunkers throughout the layout. You never know what you’re going to get when you go into those bunkers.

“The wind creates them, and they’re constantly changing over time as well,’’ said Steffes. “The wind changes the shape of the sand.’’

The entry sign is understated, but the 46 holes of golf behind it are big-time.

The other 18, called the Pines, is also a par-73 but much different than the Dunes. The Australian star, Graham Marsh, designed that 18, which is more playable for the average player and perhaps easier than the Dunes — even though the greens are more severe. Regardless of how you compare the courses, the views of the Snake River Canyon offered on the Pines are stunning from the Points of Solitude viewing spot behind the No. 16 green.

There’s one thing about the Prairie Club that’s historically amazing. It was built in just over five months. That seems astounding, given the time it takes to build or renovate courses everywhere else these days.

Prairie Club was spawned as the third big-time course in the sandhills. Shock had been a member of one, the 18-hole Sand Hills Country Club, designed by the noted design team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw. The other, Dismal River, has 36 holes. Both of those are private clubs while at Prairie Club play is about half and half between its members (about 400 of them) and the public.

The two private clubs had closed for the season by early October, when we visited Prairie Club. Nebraska has a surprisingly short golf season thanks to the unpredictability of fall weather. The sandhills area has been known to have snow in October, so the Prairie Club will close for golf on Oct. 18 and won’t re-open until next May 13. There will, however, be some winter activities there, primarily to accommodate hunters and weddings.

This may not look like your usual halfway house, but it’s a nice feature on the Dunes course.

Nebraska’s new Tatanka course has buffalo among its many special features

Golfers can seemingly see forever during a round at Nebraska’s Tatanka course.

NIOBRARA, Neb. – Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen much anymore. New courses are rare, and most of those are created as renovations. They’re not really built from scratch; they’re built over existing golf courses.

It’s great that there are more renovations now than there were the last few, economically difficult, years. Some are good-looking courses, like Tom Doak’s creation of a new No. 1 Course at Medinah Country Club.

Tatanka Golf Club, is no renovation, though. It opened in mid-September after nearly three years in the construction process on land that had most recently been a homestead. Michigan architect Paul Albanese created a full-fledged, championship golf course — priced in the $5 million range – on fresh land in northeastern Nebraska, which is hardly a hotbed for golf courses.

What exists golf-wise in a 20-mile radius of Tatanka are only about five community-owned nine-hole courses. No disrespect intended, but Tatanka is certainly not one of those.

Nos. 9 and 18 share the same huge green at Tatanka, which has two such striking double greens.

“It’s not just some little golf development, but a dramatic 18-hole championship course,’’ said Brian Bursheim, the facility’s general manager. “This will be something you can’t find for miles. You give people a real nice layout, and they will travel.’’

At least that’s what the Santee Sioux Nation is counting on when it decided to add a golf course to its Ohiya Casino and turn it into a resort on the outskirts of a town with just 375 residents.

Ohiya, which opened 17 years ago, is the oldest casino in Nebraska. It’s now in its third location and has an accompanying 48-room hotel. Though still small, it’s growing and the golf course figures to keep the momentum going among the residents of Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota and even Minnesota. They can all benefit from having a new upscale golf course nearby.

Albanese created the course on 300 acres, but there’s about 700 available around the casino. The course won’t hold its grand opening until next May, but golfers are already discovering the place. Several came three times from Omaha in the first month the course was open.

The layout has barely a flat spot. It’s surrounded by stunning, all-natural views and has some special touches. Albanese included two double-greens in his design (on holes 3 and 16 and No. 9 and 18). He also made it possible for buffalo to factor into the rounds played there. Tatanka is the Indian word for buffalo.

At least three bodies are believed to be buried at this gravesite on Tatanka’s No. 3 fairway.

The buffalo are fenced in, but clearly evident – especially off the 13th hole. Given the mood of the herd, buffalo can get as close to 10-15 yards of the golfers.

“Nothing is forced,’’ said Albanese. “Nature has been respected in the design process, which is very important to the Sioux and appreciated.’’

For example, the land for the course was purchased from a family that had a burial ground on it. The family wanted the burial ground, which includes at least three bodies, to remain and it’s prominently marked in the fairway leading to the No. 3 green.

Bursheim was hired after the course construction had begun. He had been a head professional for five years at the Sundance public course in Buckeye, Ariz., a suburb of Phoenix. Bursheim was anxious to return to his family roots in South Dakota and took the job without seeing the property.

He believes Tatanka will stand on its own, independent of the casino, in due time. Initially he envisions greens fees no higher than $75 at prime time.

Tatanka’s on-course decor has a wood-themed look.

“The one thing that’s different about our course compared to others in the area is that the others are either links-style or tree-lined,’’ he said. “We are a little of both, and there are undulations on every hole.’’

Some of those undulations are extreme, suggesting that Tatanka will never lend itself to being a walking course. That’s no problem for a resort facility anyway. The fairways, though, are very generous and there’s plenty of length available. The course measures 7,450 yards from the tips with a rating of 75.7 and slope of 134 but it can play as short as 4,784 yards. The are six sets of tee placements.

Tatanka won’t be in full operation until the spring of 2016. Bursheim has installed three simulators to stir golf interest among casino visitors during the winter months. When the course opens in the spring it’ll likely have GPS on the carts and the look will be a bit different than it is this fall. It’ll have new, wooden flagsticks, a general wood theme in its on-course atmosphere and full valet service will be available.

Albanese had specific ideas on how the course should look. It’s reflected even in the Indian lore included on the scorecard.

“Paul’s idea was to have it look like just-planted grass,’’ said Bursheim. “He didn’t move much dirt. He wanted to keep it as natural as possible for the golfers – like they were just out on a nature walk.’’

Buffalo are part of the scenery at Tatanka, and they can get much closer to the course than this.

HERE AND THERE: Harbour Town’s course has re-opened

With the golf season in the Midwest winding down, it’s a good time to check out what’s been happening at golf’s best travel destinations – and there’s been plenty. Our first golf/travel notebook of the fall begins at one of America’s most famous courses.

The famed Harbour Town course at Sea Pines Resort in Hilton Head, S.C., re-opened this week after undergoing major renovation work that included the installation of a new irrigation system.

Harbour Town, a joint design effort by Pete Dye and Jack Nicklaus, closed in May after last year’s PGA Tour stop, the RBC Heritage Classic. All the greens were also resurfaced while the course was closed.

Keiser abandons Bandon Links project

The makings of a scenic course at Bandon Links were evident even with the work not far along.
Seven years ago Michael Keiser hired architect Gil Hanse to plan a destination golf course near his Bandon Dunes Resort in Oregon. This week Keiser, citing issues with the Bureau of Land Management and disappointing results in recent well testing, announced he was abandoning the project.

“Termination of the Bandon Links project will have no effect on anything having to do with the Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, where the public will continue to experience the first-class golf experiences which they have come to expect there,’’ said Keiser.

He also said he would seek another site where a project similar to Bandon Links “would be viable.’’

Kemper to manage Desert Rose

Chicago-based KemperSports has been selected to manage Desert Rose, a Las Vegas public course that has been closed for more than two years. When it re-opens sometime this fall it will have a new, still undisclosed, name.

Desert Rose was designed by Joe Lee and Dick Wilson – the architects who designed Cog Hill’s Dubsdread course that hosted Chicago’s PGA Tour stop for 20 years. Desert Rose opened in 1964 and was completely re-designed by Randy Heckenkemper during its closing.

Heckenkemper’s most recent design work includes the Champions Course at TPC Scottsdale and he also worked with Phil Mickelson on McDowell Mountain.

Salamander connects with Virginia course

PGA Tour players will find a different Copperhead course when they return for the Valspar Championship in 2016.
Salamander Hotels and Resorts, which has 10 courses spanning Virginia and Florida, has added its Salamander Resort & Spa in Middleburg, Va. The facility will enable its guests to play at Creighton Farms, a nearby Jack Nicklaus design.

The Copperhead course at Salamander’s Innisbrook Resort in Florida is scheduled to re-open in November after a six-month restorative enhancement. It was the site of Jordan Spieth’s first victory of his storybook 2015 season in the Valspar Championship.

Another Salamander Florida resort, Reunion in Orlando, has begun work on a new clubhouse at its Nicklaus Course. Reunion is the only resort with signature designs by Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Arnold Palmer and it also houses the Annika Academy, the creation of LPGA legend Annika Sorenstam.

New course in Nebraska

The Tatanka Golf Club has been added to the Ohiya Casino Resort of the Santee Sioux Nation in Niobrara, Nebraska. The course, a Paul Albanese design, opened in September.

Wild Dunes’ Links Course will re-open soon

Tom Fazio’s first-ever solo design was the Links Course at Wild Dunes Resort in Charleston, S.C. It’ll re-open in late October after getting a new irrigation system, concrete cart paths, a renovated halfway house, a 4,500-square foot putting green and new views of the Atlantic Ocean on holes 16-18.

New look for California’s Quail Lodge

Fresh bunkering at No. 10 has spruced up the Quail Lodge course in California.
Todd Eckenrode, a California-based architect, removed several lakes and introduced deep grass swales in his effort to freshen up Quail Lodge & Golf Club in Irvine, Calif. Swales are prominent on holes 1, 2, 14, 16 and 17, the last of which is now the course’s feature hole.

Web.com Tour is coming back — at Ivanhoe in 2016

Ivanhoe Club will host the Rust-Oleum Championship — a full field event on the PGA Tour’s satellite circuit – from June 6-12 in 2016. The event was played at Lakewood Country Club’s West course in suburban Cleveland the last two years.

Shane Bertsch was the champion of last year’s Rust-Oleum Championship, which offered a $600,000 prize fund and paid $108,000 to the champion. Next year’s event will have the full 156-player field and be contested over 72 holes. The prize fund hasn’t been announced.

The Web.com Tour has been a developmental circuit for the PGA Tour since its founding in 1990. It was initially called the Ben Hogan Tour and later was known via its Nike, Buy.com and Nationwide sponsorships.

The circuit had an annual stop in the Chicago area from 2002 to 2008, the tournament being known as the LaSalle Bank Open from 2002 to 2007 and the Bank of America Open in 2008.

Kemper Lakes, in Kildeer, hosted the first of those tournaments with Marco Dawson winning the title in 2002. Then the event moved to The Glen Club, in Glenview. The champions there were Andre Stolz, Brendan Jones, Chris Couch, Jason Dufner, John Riegger and Kris Blanks. Dufner went on to win a major title, the PGA Championship in 2013.

Ivanhoe was a logical new location for the Rust-Oleum Championship since its chief executive officer, Tom Reed, is a member of the club. Rust-Oleum took over sponsorship of the tournament last year after it was played as the Cleveland Open in 2014.

The Web.com Tour had a long history in Cleveland. The circuit’s Greater Cleveland Open ran from 1990-2001 and the Legend Financial Group Classic was played there from 2005-07.

During its run in Cleveland the tourney was notable for two developments. In 2007 it was the site of Jason Day’s first professional victory when the Australian was just 18 years old. Day blossomed this year, when he won the PGA Championship in August and last month’s BMW Championship at Conway Farms in Lake Forest — a victory that catapulted him to No. 1 in the World Golf Rankings.

The 2014 event in Cleveland also was notable, in that it produced the longest playoff in Web.com Tour history – 11 holes — before Steven Aker won the title.

Speedgolf, FootGolf find their way to Chicago area courses

With the exception of the Presidents Cup team event, coming up in Korea in two weeks, the PGA Tour’s 2014-15 season is over. Jordan Spieth’s win in the FedEx Cup playoffs on Sunday brought it to a dramatic conclusion.

In the Chicago area, though, there’s still a few events on the October calendar including two that carry fancy titles. The U.S. FootGolf National Championship will be held on Saturday (OCT 3) at the Chicago Park District’s Sydney Marovitz course and the Speedgolf World Championship is Oct. 19-20 at The Glen Club in Glenview.

FootGolf, a combination of soccer and golf, has made inroads at courses nation-wide, with the American FootGolf League reporting that it has accredited 440 golf facilities. In FootGolf a soccer ball is kicked into a 21-inch cup. The 36-hole stroke play event at Marovitz is a qualifier for the World FootGolf Championship Jan. 6-10 in Argentina.

Bill Rehanek, senior vice president of Billy Casper Golf – manager of several Chicago courses – claims the sport “is attracting new generations of golfers and non-golfers to courses coast to coast.’’

While FootGolf isn’t really golf, SpeedGolf definitely is. Its defending world champion is Eri Crum, who was one of Tiger Woods’ college teammates at Stanford in the 1990s. 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 recent 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.

After his Stanford days Crum 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 players using six clubs or less.

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 record was posted by Christopher Smith, a teaching pro from Oregon, while playing in a competition at another Chicago Park District course, 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, Ore., 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. A $40,000 prize fund will be on the line in the elite division. An amateur division with age group competition will also be offered at The Glen. Entry fee is $150.

Good local showings in USGA championships

Three Illinois players survived stroke play qualifying and first-round matches in this week’s U.S. Golf Association national championships. Curtis Skinner of Lake Bluff and Dave Ryan of Taylorville advanced in the U.S. Senior Amateur at Hidden Creek in New Jersey while Palatine’s Jean Cheszek moved ahead in the U.S. Women’s Senior Amateur at Hillwood in Tennessee.

Vince Antoniou, of North Barrington, survived stroke play at Hidden Creek before losing to Ryan in their first-round match. Ryan became the first three-time winner of the Illinois Senior Amateur title earlier this month.

Here and there

The last of the four major championships for Illinois PGA members – the IPGA Players Championship – will be played Monday and Tuesday (OCT 5-6) on the North Course at Eagle Ridge Resort in Galena.

Only an Oct. 13 qualifying session for the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship remains on the Chicago District Golf Assn. schedule. It’ll be played at The Glen Club.

The Addison Senior Open is on tap at the Links & Tees facility on Sunday (OCT 4) and Nickol Knoll, in Arlington Heights, will host a senior fall scramble next Wednesday (OCT 7).

Little City, in Palatine, has announced that it will open a golf academy for adults with developmental intellectual disabilities in mid-October.