Weather notwithstanding, you know the local golf season can’t be far away when the Chicago Golf Show is on the horizon.

The show started on a small scale 33 years ago, an experimental venture by the Illinois PGA at Harper College in Palatine. It has grown into the largest consumer golf show in the country. About 300 exhibitors and 20,000 visitors are expected to attend the Friday-Sunday event at the Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont

While the smaller Tinley Park Golf Expo celebrated its fifth anniversary two weeks ago, the Chicago Golf Show remains the big one for local players anxious to start the season. This year’s show will feature its first-ever exhibition by popular local trick shot specialist Peter Longo, dubbed the “King of Clubs.’’

Three members of the 1985 Super Bowl champion Bears – Emery Moorehead, Mike Richardson and Jim Morrissey – will celebrate the 30th anniversary of their championship season by taking lessons from IPGA professionals Kevin Weeks, Brad Syslo and Kurt Kollmeyer. Moorehead will get his public lesson on Friday, Richardson on Saturday and Morrissey on Sunday.

Exhibitors include local courses and organizations, equipment and fashion manufacturers and travel destinations. Show hours are noon-7 p.m. on Friday (FEB 26), 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m. on Saturday (FEB 27) and (9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. on Sunday (FEB 28).

Adult tickets are $5 on Friday and $10 on Saturday and Sunday. Youngsters under 12 will be admitted free and those 12-15 will get in for $4. Show attendees will also get coupons for free rounds from GolfVisions, which operates 16 area courses.

Though the courses have been basically closed since last fall, the Chicago golf community has not been idle during the winter, and tournament play isn’t far off. Carrie Williams, starting her first full season as executive director of the Illinois PGA, used Chicago Golf Show Week to make her first major announcement – the return of the Illinois Open to Royal Fox in St. Charles.

Royal Fox will host the tourney for the eighth time; only The Glen Club, in Glenview, has hosted the premier event for Illinois golfers more times. The Illinois Open has been played at The Glen nine times. Royal Fox will co-host with St. Charles neighbor Royal Hawk from July 25-27.

The Illinois Open will have seven state-wide qualifying rounds in June to determine 258 finalists. It’ll mark the second year for an expanded field and two-course format for the 54-hole finals. All qualifiers will play both courses in the first two rounds, and those who survive the cut will battle over Royal Fox in the final round.

The Illinois PGA will begin its tournament season on April 11. Its full schedule will be announced this week and registration will open on the section’s website on March 1. and The Chicago District Golf Assn. campaign will tee off on April 27.

While the only Western Golf Assn. tournament for this season in the Chicago area will be the Western Amateur, to be played at Knollwood Club in Lake Forest from Aug. 1-6, there are two new professional tour events on the calendar — the Web.com’s Rust-Oleum Championship at Ivanhoe from June 9-12 and the Ladies PGA UL International Crown, at Libertyville’s Merit Club from July 19-24.

The CDGA has created a major new addition to its schedule – an Individual Net Series for players with established handicaps. It’ll include four Better Ball of Pairs events and two Individual Net competitions, all to be played between May 23 and Sept. 13.

New IPGA head professionals have been named at several clubs. They include Daniel Behr, at Ravinia Green in Riverwoods; Dan Kochevar, at Carriage Greens in Darien; Nathan Perry at Aurora Country Club; Luan Ramadani, at Joliet Country Club; Chad Robbins at Arrowhead, in Wheaton; Andrew Stevens, at Calumet Country Club, in Homewood; and Shane Stuart, at Silver Ridge, in Oregon, IL.

Cog Hill, the premier public facility, has announced the creation of a new tournament that is planned as an annual attraction. The Cog Hill Amateur will be played May 21-22 on the Nos. 2 and 4 courses at the 72-hole Lemont facility. Entries will be limited to the first 100 applicants and the top 72 after 36 holes will qualify for the championship flight.

Both Cog Hill and Cantigny, in Wheaton, have announced starting dates for major teaching programs. Cantigny will kick off a new six-week course on fitness training for golfers on March 3 and the Golf Academy schools at Cog will begin on March 19.

WINTER PARK, FLORIDA – A big reason for scheduling a round at Winter Pines Golf Club is that it is – at least arguably – the busiest course in Florida. Given the reported 1,500-plus courses in the Sunshine State – and particularly the array of good ones in the Orlando area – that’s saying something.

Determining the busiest course anywhere is difficult, since the number of rounds played is self reported. It’s hard to imagine any U.S. course, for instance, getting more rounds than Rancho Park – the city-owned Los Angeles hotbed that is blessed with consistently better weather year-around than any course in Florida.

Winter Pines is right up there in popularity, though. In 1992 it had a reported a high of 90,000 rounds. That’s about 300 players a day. That number dropped off to about 75,000 rounds in 2002 but general manager Steve Singh says the course still averages about 65,000 per year despite the economic struggles that have affected the golf industry nation-wide.

I’ve played Rancho Park, once the site of the PGA Tour’s Los Angeles Open and the U.S. Golf Association’s U.S. Senior Open among other big events. It’s still a championship-style course and still busy. Winter Pines is much different.

The course is short, but not a par-3 or executive-length layout. It plays at 5,401 yards from the tips and is a par-67. When building began in 1964 the architect, C.A. McCalister, plotted a par-62 course for the five original owners of a course then temporarily called Golfside Country Club.

The course opened in 1968 and was expanded in 1977. Five holes were lengthened by Bud Timbrook, a golf professional who was part of the original ownership group, and Gardner Dickinson, the veteran PGA Tour player.

Ed McMillin, whose family owns a pie factory in Erie, Pa., bought the course in 1980. About to turn 90, McMillin had the right idea from the start, offering players a good product at a fair price. That policy continued when McMillin’s son Jon served as the club’s general manager. Jon is now the club president. Singh started working at Winter Pines 13 years ago when he washed carts as an 18-year old and worked his way up to the GM position.

“Winter Pines is my family, and I’m very lucky to be part of the company,’’ Singh says. He’s not alone in feeling that way. Joe Ondo, the superintendent, arrived in 1979 and hasn’t left. He plans to retire in August after 37 years on the job.

The Winter Pines leadership has the right idea. It draws big numbers of players year-around — not just during the heart of the tourist season –for a variety of reasons.

You can’t beat the price (currently a high of $25 on the weekends, cart included), but the popularity of Winter Pines is just based on cost. The course conditioning is good throughout. The practice area is more than ample. For those who prefer walking, the course is great for that. There are programs offered for juniors and an event calendar for all types of older players as well. The clubhouse had a cheerful atmosphere and the staff was friendly when we visited.

Located across the street from the Orlando city limits, Winter Pines felt like just what it is – a nice neighborhood golf course. Winter Park Pines is the subdivision in which the course is located, and it’s only about 15 minutes from the downtown area.

As for the course, its most striking architectural feature is the stream that meanders through most all the holes. It serves as a hazard in spots and a visual enhancement in others. Players, though, will probably find the four consecutive par-3 holes on the back nine the most memorable aspect. The layouts has two par-5s, the longer of which is 480 yards. The seven par-3s range from 85 yards (front tee at No. 8) to 224 (back tee at No. 12).

There are no par-5s on the back side, and that may be a big plus in attracting new players. Shorter holes do facilitate lower scores and lower scores are encouraging for any player. Winter Pines won’t beat you up, that’s for sure, and showing a greatly improve score on the back nine is incentive to come back for more.

OCALA, Florida – The ingenuity of golf course architects never ceases to amaze me, but Tom Lehman – a player first and designer a distant second – has outdone all his architectural counterparts for the time being.

Lehman — a two-time major championship winner, former Ryder Cup captain and a regular on the Champions Tour – has unveiled a radical new design. Working with Tripp Davis, an architect with roots in Oklahoma, Lehman created a full-fledged 18-hole course on just 50 acres.

And, actually, the course is much more than that. It can be played as a six-hole par-3 layout, a six-hole executive course (one par-3, four par-4s and one par-5), an 18-hole par-54 short course or a full 18-hole par-72 layout that measures over 6,600 yards.

This mind-blowing creation is at the Trilogy Golf Club at Ocala Preserve in Florida, just three miles down the road from Golden Ocala Golf & Equestrian Club – home of the Coates Championship on the LPGA Tour.

According to Brian Woodruff, who left a club job at Vistancia in Arizona to become The Trilogy’s head professional a month before the course’s February 2 grand opening, the highly innovative design was Lehman’s idea and Davis helped him bring it to fruition.

Lehman lists Verrado and Encanterra in Arizona as his two main golf architectural efforts and he also is planning an 18-holer at the Prairie Club in Nebraska. The Trilogy, though, is better proof that his creative juices are flowing big-time.

Trilogy is actually four courses. Two are 18-holers. The short Skills is a par-54 with holes ranging from 63 to just over 200 yards and the Players will stretch over 6,600. It’s a par-72 and includes two tee complexes and two hole locations per hole.

Also available are two six-hole loops – the Gallery which is a par-3 layout and the Players, which is a par-24 with one par-3, four par-4s and one par-5. Players with limited time will be accommodated on those holes.

Mixed into all that is the possibility of a Horse Course, one in which players can have a match much like the classic version of a basketball game of the same name. The Horse Course isn’t completely new. The Prairie Club in Valentine, Neb., has a 10-hole version designed by Gil Hanse, architect of the Olympic Games venue in Brazil, and Geoff Shackelford. I’ve played it and found it lots of fun.

Getting players around The Trilogy sounds complicated (and it is, believe me), but Woodruff – sounding only somewhat confident – said “I don’t believe players will get confused.’’

Well, we’ll see. The course won’t be fully open until Feb. 12, when public players get their first crack at it. Then it’ll be a case of deciding what players can play which of the four courses and at what times. One thing that will help is the use of different colored flags. They’ll be blue on the Skills Course and red on the Players Course.

For starters the courses will be open to members only Sunday to Thursday and the public can play Fridays and Saturdays. Members will pay $7 for use of the course for a whole day. The public rate will be $35 in the current tourist season and $20 out of season.

The Trilogy will be a walking-only course with push carts and a Golf Skate Caddy available for those who don’t want to carry their own bag.

One other unique thing of note: there’ll be only one tee marker per hole. A player can tee off within a yard in front, behind or to either side of the marker. Lehman wanted to create different lies, even from the tees.

There’s a bit of history to this new concept. The land on which The Trilogy was built was once a golf course – an 18-holer called Ashley Farms. Its owners went bankrupt and the land sat idle for six years. Lehman and Davis built their course in nine months and it’ll eventually have a boathouse and clubhouse with all the amenities. The surrounding housing community is targeted for 1,700 homes, about 50 of which are in various stages of construction.

I thought I’d seen everything when I walked over The Loop, a Tom Doak design in Roscommon, Mich., when it was in the early stages of construction. Planned as a second course to complement play at the adjoining Forest Dunes, The Loop layout enables players to go 18 holes in one direction on one day and then play 18 in the other direction the next. And I thought that was radical.

As is the case with The Trilogy, I’ll have to see The Loop in operation before I can judge it. The Loop is expected to open this summer. Woodruff promised me a chance to play The Trilogy once its deemed ready for play. You can bet I’ll take him up on it.

America’s first 18-hole course is back on the U.S. Golf Assn. tournament schedule — and as the site of its newest national championship to boot.

Chicago Golf Club, in Wheaton, was named Saturday as the first site of the U.S. Senior Women’s Open. It’ll be played July 12-15, 2018.

The USGA has been pressured to host an event for women in the 50-plus age group for several years. It has long held championships for men in all age groups and also conducts youth and women’s national championships, highlighted by the U.S. Women’s Open and U.S. Women’s Senior Amateur, for players of both sexes, but it didn’t have an event for all the competitive older women. Those who spurred the growth of the Ladies PGA Tour were ignored.

Last year the organization announced such an event would be added to its schedule but it wasn’t until Sunday that the actual event became a reality – and the first playing is still over two years off.

“The USGA is proud to realize its vision of hosting a national championship for players of all age demographics, and we are thrilled that that first two editions of the U.S. Senior Women’s Open will be contested at two of the most respected courses in the U.S.,’’ said USGA president Tom O’Toole.

Pine Needles, in Pinehurst, N.C., will host the second U.S. Senior Women’s Open in 2019. Both will be walking-only events over 72 holes and have 120-player fields, to be decided in a series of nation-wide sectional qualifying events for players with Handicap Indexes not exceeding 7.4. As is the format in other USGA competitions, the starting field in the finals will be cut to the low 60 and ties after 36 holes.

Sectional qualifying sites, as well as prize money for the finals, will be announced at a later date.

The Ladies PGA Tour has existed in 1950 for professional players, and that circuit has a Legends Tour for players who have reached their 45th birthday. The great players of the last few decades – like Nancy Lopez, Joanne Carner, Laura Davies, Carol Mann and Jan Stephenson – may find it challenging to get their games tournament-ready for Chicago Golf Club but they played a big role in finally getting the event on the USGA calendar.

While the USGA was slow to act on the senior women’s side, one of the other top LPGA players – Jane Blalock – organized The Legends Tour, which has provided competitive opportunities for the older, former stars of the LPGA circuit. They’re the counterparts to the PGA’s Champions Tour, which has long flourished for male players whose competitive skills have diminished with age.

“We hope this championship will inspire generations of female golfers to continue competing at the highest level long into their careers,’’ said O’Toole.

The selection of Chicago Golf Club was most appropriate, as it will make the inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open something special historically. The course in Wheaton was designed by Charles Blair Macdonald, the first U.S. Amateur champion, and was renovated by Seth Raynor in 1923. Otherwise, the layout has been relatively untouched since then.

“As a founding member of the USGA, Chicago Golf Club is honored to support the newest championship,’’ said Brad Kinsey, the club’s president. “We look forward to making this, our 12th USGA championship, an exceptional event for players and spectators alike.’’

Chicago Golf Club hosted the first U.S. Open and first U.S. Amateur in 1897 and also hosted U.S. Opens in 1900 and 1911. The first U.S. Senior Women’s Open, though, will be the first USGA event at the club since the 2005 Walker Cup matches and first individual national championship since the U.S. Senior Amateur in 1979.

The USGA regularly picked Chicago courses for its biggest events in its first century of existence but that hasn’t been the case since 2000. Though the U.S. Open of 2003 and the U.S. Amateur last year were played at Olympia Fields, the USGA did not have a Chicago course on its schedule for a national championship until Saturday’s announcement.

Now, however, Chicago golf has jumped into the forefront of women’s golf. The LPGA’s UL International Crown team event will be played at the Merit Club in Libertyville in July and the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship will be at Olympia Fields in 2017 and Kemper Lakes in 2018. The Kemper Lakes event will be played a month before the U.S. Senior Women’s Open comes to Chicago Golf Club.

With the PGA Tour’s BMW Championship to be played in Indianapolis this year, the biggest golf tournament of 2016 in the Chicago area will be the UL International Crown – a global team competition put on by the Ladies PGA Tour. will be played at the Merit Club in Libertyville from July 19-24.

The LPGA has taken a low-key approach to this year’s Crown since last fall’s surprise venue change. That will soon change, according to LPGA media communications director Kelly Schultz.

“We’ll be having a few different events – perhaps one in February, then ones in May and June. There will be a big push for us in Chicago, said Schultz. “We’re still educating people because the Crown is very different from everything else.’’

The Crown event, to determine the best nation in women’s golf, has been played only once. Spain won the inaugural staging at Cave’s Valley near Baltimore in 2014. The creation of the competition was announced at the PGA Merchandise Show in 2013 and Rich Harvest Farms, in Sugar Grove, was named to host the second staging in 2016.

A fallout between the LPGA and Rich Harvest owner Jerry Rich ended that possibility, and the Merit Club was named the site last Nov. 24. Neither the LPGA nor Rich has discussed the reasons for the split.

“I can’t speak to any specifics,’’ said Schultz, “but we’re really excited about the Merit Club. It’s a great location, a great venue with a major championship history. Now it will be host on the big stage again. We love Chicago, and Chicago loves women’s golf.’’

Chicago certainly did in 2009, when crowds were big at the Solheim Cup matches at Rich Harvest. The Crown, though, is a different animal. It has a somewhat complicated two-year long qualifying process that requires some immediate study to fully appreciate the significance of what will happen at the Merit Club in six months.

The eight team participants will be revealed after the A&A Inspiration event on April 3 and the four players on each of those teams won’t be determined until June 13, after the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. Both the teams and the individual participants will be decided by the world rankings on those dates. The competition for both heats up this week in the LPGA’s first U.S. event of the year – the $1.5 million Coates Championship at Florida’s Ocala Golf & Equestrian Club, which is about 80 miles from last week’s PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando.

To avoid conflict with the Super Bowl the Coates Championship has a Wednesday through Saturday run (FEB 3-6). Regardless of the outcome in Ocala and the results in the next seven tournaments, the Crown participants will have some notable absentees.

Last year Suzann Pettersen, consistently one of the world’s players, couldn’t participate because she had no teammates from Norway on the LPGA Tour. That same problem will keep the current world’s No. 1 player, 18-year old sensation Lydia Ko, away from the Merit Club.

Last year Ko became the youngest player – man or woman – to gain golf’s No. 1 ranking but she can’t play in the Crown because New Zealand doesn’t have any other golfers eligible for the competition.

At this point defending champion Spain hasn’t even qualified. That country is No. 10 in the current standings and needs to climb to No. 8 to get in. The present top eight are Korea, the U.S., Japan, Chinese Taipei, Sweden, England, Thailand and Australia. China is No. 9 and – like Spain – needs some good showings by its residents in the next three months to play in the second International Crown.

On the individual side, one attraction for the Merit Club being chosen as Rich Harvest’s replacement as the host site was that it had hosted the 2000 U.S. Women’s Open. Australian Karrie Webb won that one, but her participation in the Crown is precarious at best. Australia is on the bubble, standing No. 8 and Webb hasn’t played yet. She makes her season debut next week in the Australian Open.

“Our players always get excited about competing for their country, and now they have the opportunity to do it twice within a month,’’ said Schultz, noting that golf returns to the Olympics in August in Brazil. Schultz insists the Crown won’t be looked on as a warmup for the Olympics.

“The Olympics is stroke play, a typical tournament,’’ she said. “Our players love the match play element (used in the International Crown). The International Crown represents what the LPGA is all about – the best players from around the world competing. It’s a huge thing for every country.’’