The 69th PGA Merchandise Show is coming up this week in Orlando, FL., and that’s generally a big week for club professionals nation-wide who use the big event at the Orange County Convention Center to begin preparations for another season. It won’t be quite the same this year for two of Chicago’s longest-standing club leaders….
Author: lenz
PGA Show, LPGA tourneys give Florida the real start to golf season
Dismiss the fact that the PGA Tour has played tournaments in Hawaii the last two weeks. The 2022 golf season really starts this week. That’s when the golf spotlight shifts to Florida and will stay there for a while. The PGA Merchandise Show returns after taking a year off because of pandemic concerns and the…
This author made the ultimate American golf trip
If you’re a golfer you’ve got to envy Tom Coyne. Lots of author types – me included to some extent – have been more than willing to write about their golf travels in some form or another. Coyne has done it much better than most. He’s a globe-trotting golfer with lots of stories to…
Aviv’s oxygen therapy could become a big boost for golfers
THE VILLAGES, Florida – Golf is huge in The Villages, a fast-growing vibrant over-55 adult community in Central Florida. That’s obvious. Golf carts are everywhere, and not just at the courses. Golf carts of all sizes and colors fill the area’s parking lots as well as those at the 12 championship and 40 executive courses…
Medinah announcement might be highlight of 2021 Chicago golf season
That horrible pandemic made 2021 a difficult year for everybody, but it was somewhat less so for those in the Chicago area golf industry. The courses were busy, the big events were back on schedule and an extraordinarily large number of facilities took on expansion projects. The biggest was at Heritage Oaks, the Northbrook Park…
New additions open at Poplar Creek, Fox Run courses
While most area golf courses are in the process of closing for the season, a couple are just kicking into high gear thanks to the completion of some major construction work. The Bridges of Poplar Creek, an 18-holer in Hoffman Estates, has opened its new Toptracer Range. It features 10 covered, heated hitting bays. While…
Bubba Watson’s `Up & Down’ is well worth reading
It was part of my tournament coverage routine at a PGA Tour events to walk at least nine holes in the first two rounds with a player just to get a handle on the course. At that stage of a tournament it wasn’t necessary to be caught up in what players were in contention. That…
Chicago experienced an extraordinary golf building boom in 2021
The 2021 Chicago golf season should be remembered for much more than pandemic-related issues. Some extraordinary building was going on at clubs across the Chicago area, and it wasn’t all done on golf courses. Golf course renovations are commonplace annually, but this year the most noteworthy upgrading related to clubhouses. Two facilities – The Preserve…
Palm Aire’s Champions Course re-opens on Dec. 1
SARASOTA, FL. – The Champions Course at Palm Aire Country Club was one of the more difficult courses in Florida, and it may still be. It will, however, have a much different look when it re-opens following an extensive $2 million renovation on December 1. The original…
Olympia Fields will host another BMW Championship in 2023
The PGA Tour’s 2021 season concluded on Sunday, but the circuit – along with the Western Golf Association – made an announcement on Monday that will have a huge effect on the Chicago golf community for years to come. After a two-year absence the PGA Tour will be back in the Chicago area in 2023…