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…
Author: lenz
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…
Revised Players tourney will determine IPGA Player of the Year
In moves that are sure to bring more drama, the Illinois PGA will unveil a new format for its Players Championship next week at Conway Farms, in Lake Forest. Only the top 35 players on the season-long Bernardi Player of the Year standings, plus the host professional, received invitations to the 36-hole event that…
Kilmarlic’s Cottages provide a big boost to golf on the Outer Banks
POWELLS POINT, N.C. – Golf has been played around the Outer Banks of North Carolina since 1988 but its development was a slow one. Nags Head Links was the first to open, and The Sound Links, The Pointe, Currituck, Carolina Club, Kilmarlic, The Pines and Scotch Hall Preserve all were taking players by 2008….