Anybody who follows the golf scene in Illinois should tune in to what happens the next few days in the final stage of the PGA Tour’s Qualifying School at PGA West in California. Wilmette’s Eric Mierdierks, winner of the 2010 Illinois Open at Hawthorn Woods and runnerup (in a playoff) to Chicago’s Max Scodro at…
Author: lenz
MISSOURI OZARKS: Old Kinderhook is the place to go
CAMDENTON, Mo. – It’s easy to have warm feelings about Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks region. Mine go back to college days, and that was way too long ago. Not everything in the world is better now than it was back in those more carefree years, but Lake of the Ozarks fits the bill. It…
DOWN ROUTE 66: Good golf mixes well with all the nostalgia
For years it had been on my bucket list of things to do. I wanted to make a driving trip down Route 66. Upon retirement from my full-time job as a sportswriter I made that trip happen. In June, 2010, the two of us took off on a drive of nearly 6,000 miles, which included…
IT ZIEHMS TO ME: Changes are coming among Illinois club pros
There wasn’t much movement in Chicago’s club professional ranks the past few years, but that’s not the case now. Already five well-established head pros have announced plans to move on. The move creating the most ripple effect was Mike Scully’s departure from Medinah immediate after the Ryder Cup. He is now in charge at Desert…
IT ZIEHMS TO ME: New bunkers have changed Kemper
Illinois PGA will have a different challenge if the section decides to keep its first major tourney of 2013 at Kemper Lakes. The club, which hosted the 1989 PGA Championship, the 1992 U.S. Women’s Amateur and several Champions Tour stops before it became a private venue in 2009, has begun a renovation project. Taking small…
IT ZIEHMS TO ME: A new column to help golfers cope with winter weather
I may have felt that a 125-pound 14-year old would have to be teeing it up in the Masters before there was a need for me to write a golf column for primarily Midwest readers in the cold weather months. Oops, now there is such a rare golfer– or at least there will be in…
IPGA PLAYERS: Orrick wins again, but Malm sweeps player-of-the-year awards
GALENA, IL. – It was a rarity when Steve Orrick won the Illinois PGA Championship in August. He was the first non-Chicago area club professional to take that title in 60 years. It wasn’t so unusual for Orrick, the head man at Country Club of Decatur, to rule the last of the section’s four major…
Western golf groups honor two legends
The Western Golf Assn. and the Women’s Western Golf Assn., now in partnership, are honoring two of the greats of the game. The WWGA named Mickey Wright this year’s Woman of Distinction honoree at a luncheon on Thursday at Lake Shore Country Club in Glencoe. The award was first passed out in 1994 when another…
Malm is the player to watch in IPGA’s last major at Eagle Ridge
It’ll be nothing like the just-completed Ryder Cup, but there is one big competitive event left in the Chicago golf season. The Illinois PGA will stage the last of its four major tournaments, the IPGA Players Championship, at Eagle Ridge in Galena on Monday and Tuesday. The section’s player-of-the-year and assistant player-of-the-year awards will be…
RYDER CUP: Kaymer’s attitude adjustment paid off in the end
Germany’s Martin Kaymer changed his attitude. For that he was rewarded Sunday with the honor of assuring the Ryder Cup would remain in Europe for two more years. Kaymer hadn’t been playing well leading into this year’s Ryder Cup. In fact he skipped the last qualifying tournament for Team Europe even though he held the…