After conducting its premier tournament in the Chicago area for two straight years the Western Golf Association will take the BMW Championship away from the area for at least the next two. The Glenview-based WGA announced Tuesday that the BMW Championship will be played on the South Course at Wilmington Country Club in Delaware…
Author: lenz
It’s all in the family: Coral Ridge redesign is Rees Jones’ `lifetime dream’
FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida — Robert Trent Jones Sr. was the premier golf course architect of his generation, having designed about 450 courses around the world. Both of his sons – Robert Trent Jones Jr. and Rees – became prominent – and prolific – architects as well. Rees, for instance, has worked on a…
Streelman missed this year’s Masters but is in position to make it in 2021
The Masters finally tees off on Thursday, but Chicago’s best player – Kevin Streelman – won’t be there. Streelman had a great year and, in a normal season, would have been on the brink of qualifying when he held a No. 49 world ranking entering last week’s Houston Open. In a normal year the top…
Sluman, back in Chicago, will wind down his career on Champions tour
Life will change dramatically for Chicago’s only member of PGA Tour Champions after this week’s season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Phoenix. Jeff Sluman will enter the retirement phase of what has been a great 40-year career on both the PGA Tour and the 50-and-over circuit. “I’m not going to go full-time anymore after this…
Rees Jones’ latest course design is a `lifetime dream’
Rees Jones has worked on a ton of golf courses — about 230 world-wide, according to the best estimates. He’s well known as “The Open Doctor’’ because he’s been brought in to get fine existing courses in shape for big championships. That number includes seven courses used for U.S. Opens, nine for PGA Championships and…
Hopfinger has begun his run for a PGA Tour card
This is a local golf success story that is still in the making. Lake Forest’s Brad Hopfinger put himself in position to earn his PGA Tour card in the last eight weeks of his tour’s season. He has another full year before he can join golf’s premier circuit, but his chances of making it to…
Unexpected problems didn’t faze Biancalana at Senior PGA tourney
In this chaotic year for scheduling golf tournaments the Illinois PGA did the best of the three major local organizations. The pandemic forced the cancelation of the Western Golf Association’s two national junior championships and the Chicago District Golf Association had to call off its two biggest events – the Illinois State Amateur and Chicago…
Healy wins, but Paeglow is IPGA Senior Player of the Year
It’ll be the senior members of the Illinois PGA in the spotlight this week as the Chicago golf tournament season wraps up. The IPGA Senior Players Championship concluded on Tuesday at Twin Orchard, in Long Grove, and the key players in it headed for Port St. Lucie, FL., for the Senior PGA Professional Championship,…
PGA’s fall tournaments have been good to rookie Doug Ghim
The PGA Tour’s top stars generally sit out the fall tournaments after the FedEx Cup Playoffs are over. That’s been the case again this season, even though the Masters – rescheduled from April until Nov. 12-15 because of pandemic issues – is still to be played. Doug Ghim, the PGA Tour rookie from Arlington…
These trying times didn’t faze Myrtle Beach’s Founders Group
MYRTLE BEACH, South Carolina — Believe it or not, there are some good things coming out of this horrible pandemic that has negatively impacted the U.S. for the last nine months. It created a bigger demand for golf nation-wide — play is up over 20 percent, according to the National Golf Foundation — and…