Former Masters champions don’t usually play in Web.com Tour events like this week’s Rust-Oleum Championship at Ivanhoe Club. Mike Weir, the Canadian left-handed golfer who won the 2003 Masters, made it a point of coming this year, however, and Friday he was glad he did. “Other than the Canadian Open I probably won’t play in…
Author: lenz
Sainz has best start among Chicago players at Ivanhoe
The 156 starters in Thursday’s $600,000 Rust-Oleum Championship at Ivanhoe Club included six Chicago area players and two more who played collegiately at Illinois. None were a threat to first-round leaders Andrew Novak, of Raleigh, N.C., He claimed the 18-hole lead with a 7-under par 65. However, four of the locals got off to solid…
This Illinois PGA pro is also in graduate school at Northwestern
A golf professional’s job is never an easy one. Some inevitably wind up working harder than others, however. And then there’s Tony Semonick. Semonick, 28, has worked on head professional Jim Sobb’s staff at Ivanhoe Club since his graduation from Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Mich., in 2012. His work days aren’t like any…
TRAVEL NOTEBOOK: More from the Missouri Ozarks; Changes on Indiana’s Dye Trail
The Ozarks is an unusual region of the country. Broadly defined, this beautiful area encompasses parts of Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas and Oklahoma. Golf-wise its central point is Missouri’s Branson area and Johnny Morris’ array of exciting projects there. Top of the Rock and Mountain Top are Morris courses completed in recent years. Ozarks National, a…
Langley heads big local contingent in Web.com tourney at Ivanhoe
The future of the Web.com Tour’s Rust-Oleum Championship may be in doubt, but one thing is certain. The $600,000 event, teeing off at Ivanhoe Club on Thursday, has the loyalty of the best local players. This year’s event marks the professional debut of Northbrook’s Nick Hardy and tourney director Scott Cassin also awarded sponsor exemptions…
Here’s what to expect at this year’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship
The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, coming to Kemper Lakes in Kildeer from June 26 to July 1, is the biggest golf tournament coming to the Chicago area this season and it figures to be the biggest for many years to come. Formerly called the LPGA Championship, this tournament is – with the U.S. Women’s Open…
Exmoor hosts the next of bunched up Champions Tour major tourneys
While PGA Tour Champions has always been fun to cover, I’ve always felt there was one thing that was strange about it — the circuit’s designated major championships. Like the LPGA, the Champions circuit has designated five tournaments as major championships, while the PGA Tour has stuck to just four – the Masters, U.S. Open,…
Mistwood, Kemper Lakes host big women’s tourneys at the same time
It’s a shame, it really is. In the biggest year ever for women’s golf in the Chicago area the biggest women’s professional tournament and the biggest women’s amateur event will be played on virtually the same dates. The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship is June 26 to July 1 at Kemper Lakes in Kildeer. It’s one…
KPMG Women’s PGA will be Kemper’s biggest event in 29 years
This spring has not been business as usual at Kemper Lakes. The Kildeer club, which had been a tournament hotbed for more than two decades before going private, has been a busy place again even during the period when snow delayed the traditional start of spring. That’s what happens when a club takes on a…
The world’s next great golf destination will be….the Missouri Ozarks?
HOLLISTER, Missouri – Where do you start in describing all the big new things Johnny Morris has in the works for golfers in the Missouri Ozarks? For starters, how about a prediction? This area in the Ozark mountains near the entertainment hub of Branson will – in the not very distant future – become the…