TINLEY PARK, IL. – At first it seemed a walk down memory lane. I hadn’t been back to the Odyssey Country Club in Chicago’s south suburbs since 1997 – the third and final year the course was used as the site of the Illinois Women’s Open championship. Odyssey got that tournament, the state’s most prestigious…
Author: lenz
Island Hills, Yarrow are good bets for golf trips to Michigan
AUGUSTA, MI. – Michigan-based golf course architect Ray Hearn has made an impact in Chicago with his work at Flossmoor Country Club, one of the area’s top private facilities, as well as at Mistwood in Romeoville, one of the best public courses. If you want to test more of Hearn’s work you don’t have to…
Mistwood shows off its new bunkers
Stacked sod-wall bunkers are an extreme rarity at Chicago courses, but they won’t be as much a mystery after owner Jim McWethy re-opens his Mistwood course in Romeoville. That’ll happen for the course’s members and permanent tee time holders on Saturday (JUNE 2). Michigan-based course architect Ray Hearn incorporated 19 such bunkers into his new…
SENIOR PGA: Chapman surprise win is still hard to imagine
BENTON HARBOR, MI. — To put it mildly, it’s hard to fathom Roger Chapman’s victory in the Senior PGA Championship on Sunday. In 16 full seasons (and parts of a few others) on the European PGA Tour Chapman had just one victory – in a tourney called the Brazil Rio De Janeiro 500 Years Open…
SENIOR PGA: A Chapman breakthrough, or an Irwin comeback?
BENTON HARBOR, MI. – If you look at golf’s big picture, there are two significant stories brewing going into Sunday’s final round of the 73rd Senior PGA Championship. The more obvious one is Roger Chapman, the English pro who tied the record at the new Harbor Shores course with a 7-under-par 64 on Saturday to…
Indiana’s Swan Lake lands U.S. finals, ING gathering
GREENVILLE, S.C. – Swan Lake, the Indiana resort that has operated relatively low-key since its opening in 1969, is about to elevate its profile. Located in Plymouth, near the Notre Dame campus, Swan Lake hosted the National Junior College Championships last week and will host that event again in 2014. Of even more note, it’ll…
Harrigan, Rosinia take aim at Senior PGA
This is an unusual year for big-time tournament golf in Chicago. Only September’s Ryder Cup at Medinah is on the calendar, but five other big-time events are within a short drive. The first of those is the 73rd Senior PGA Championship, one of the majors on the Champions Tour. It begins a 72-hole run on…
Sobb’s streak is over in IPGA match plays
For two years now Jim Sobb has been the man whenever the Illinois PGA holds a match play tournament. This year, though, his reign can to an abrupt halt. The Ivanhoe pro won the section’s senior match play title in 2010 and 2011, was runner-up in the regular match play in 2010 and became the…
Chien, Hopfinger lead first U.S. Open local qualifier
Monday’s rains forced the Illinois Public Links Championship to be reduced from 36 to 18 holes, but the bad weather didn’t hamper the first of two local qualifying rounds for the U.S. Open – the first significant competition of this Chicago golf season. Northwestern student Sam Chien, an amateur, and Iowa alum Brad Hopfinger, winner…
French Lick’s fourth course, Sultan’s Run, is a keeper
JASPER, Ind. – If ever there was a comeback story in the golf business, it’s the one that has unfolded at French Lick Resort — and it continues to get better. This little town in the resort’s namesake in southern Indiana, near Louisville, was the home to one of the most popular retreats in the…