It was back to work this week for Kevin Streelman, Chicago’s lone homegrown PGA Tour player and one of the elite 70 players in the field at the BMW Championship at Conway Farms in Lake Forest. Last week’s break in the FedEx Cup Playoffs gave Streelman a chance to get away from the rigors of…
Author: lenz
A move to the north will freshen up the BMW Championship
The PGA Tour hasn’t visited the north suburbs in 41 years, when the Western Open was staged at Sunset Ridge Country Club in Northfield. That’s surprising, given the golf enthusiasm demonstrated annually in the area and the wide area of quality courses available. Other golf tours did make appearances. The U.S. Women’s Open was played…
Pro-ams are an important part of the BMW Championship
The biggest reason the top golfers on the PGA Tour will be at Conway Farms in Lake Forest this week isn’t because of the $8 million in prize money that’ll be on the line. The Western Golf Assn. conducts its BMW Championship to raise money for its Evans Scholars Foundation. While the 72-hole tournament doesn’t…
Expanding tournament schedule to include BMW could pay dividends for Stricker
The 70-man field for next week’s BMW Championship at Conway Farms in Lake Forest is finally official. It will include four players with Illinois connections, including Conway member Luke Donald. Donald’s play has dropped off since he was the world’s No. 1-ranked player in 2011, but he will go into the BMW Championship ranked No….
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…
Streelman, Points in good shape but Wilson is out of BMW Championship
Streelman, Points in good shape but Wilson out of BMW Championship Now there’s just one FedEx Cup Playoff tourney left before the PGA Tour makes its first return to the Chicago area since 2011. The Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston has a Friday-Monday run this week, and the low 70 in the standings after that…
Malm’s 63 at Elgin bodes well for his chances in IPGA tourney
Clearly Curtis Malm is the player to watch in next week’s 91st Illinois PGA Championship on Olympia Fields Country Club’s South course. Malm, first assistant professional at St. Charles Country Club and the IPGA’s player-of-the-year in 2012, fired a 9-under par course record 63 at Elgin Country Club on Monday in the section’s fifth stroke…
Playing in BMW Championship isn’t a done deal for Donald, Wilson
Luke Donald and Mark Wilson, Chicago-based PGA Tour players and members of the Western Golf Assn. board of directors, put on an exhibition this week to promote next month’s BMW Championship at Conway Farms in Lake Forest. The nine-hole closed-to-the-public event, which included new Northwestern basketball coach Chris Collins and Bulls’ guard Kirk Heinrich, raised…
Goss, Mory develop unique Academy for juniors
Pat Goss and Jeff Mory, both long prominent in Chicago golf, are busy guys. Goss is director of golf at Northwestern, head coach of the NU men’s team and the swing coach of Luke Donald. Mory is director of golf at Conway Farms, the Lake Forest course that includes Donald among its members. It will…
NORTHERN MICHIGAN: Guss takes charge at Treetops’ Academy
GAYLORD, MI. — Treetops has grown into – arguably at least – Michigan’s most spectacular golf resort and one of its main features is its teaching program. Started in 1990 by Rick Smith and Henry Young, the school thrived as the Rick Smith Golf Academy and Smith became prominent far beyond his home state as…