It’s back to Chicago for the BMW Championship. The Western Golf Assn. will continue its policy of playing its premier event close to its home base every other year, and Conway Farms will again be the site of tourney after it leaves Cherry Hills. It’ll next be contested from Sept. 14-20 in 2015. Conway Farms,…
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Michigan’s True North brings Carlson out of retirement
HARBOR SPRINGS, MI. – Terry Carlson thought his working life was done after being a head golf professional in the Chicago area for 26 years and then getting a big sendoff into retirement at a prestigious club in Arizona. Forty years as a club professional plus one as a player on the Champions Tour seemed…
A Q&A with USGA’s Tom O’Toole
The U.S. Golf Assn. is based in Far Hills, N.J., and its leaders don’t get to Chicago all that much. That’s why Tom O’Toole’s recent stopover offered a good opportunity to find out what’s new with golf’s ruling body in the United States. O’Toole, the USGA president, is from St. Louis. He’s been involved with…
Legends do their part to help children’s hospital
FRENCH LICK, Ind. — Braden Tamosaitis got to roll some putts on the Pete Dye Course on Saturday and also meet many of the players competing in the second round of the LPGA Legends Championship. Braden, age 9, enjoyed the experience thoroughly and the players he touched most certainly did, as well. “He’s a special…
Leukemia survivor was a big hit at Legends event
Ashtyn Brown’s final swing at the LPGA Legends Championship may not have produced the desired result, but there’s no doubt she was the star of the show. As the ambassador for Riley Children’s Hospital at IU Health, Ashtyn was the honorary starter for the 54-hole tournament on Friday. She hooked her tee shot, just a…
Blalock sees a bright future for LPGA Legends Tour
FRENCH LICK, Ind. — Jane Blalock and Nancy Lopez will be inducted into the LPGA Legends Hall of Fame on Thursday night. They’ll also oversee ribbon-cutting at the circuit’s new Hall of Fame at the West Baden Springs Hotel. The big night precedes Friday’s start to the 54-hole LPGA Legends Championship on the spectacular Pete…
Second International Crown, at Rich Harvest, should be bigger than the first
The LPGA’s first International Crown competition ended less than a week ago and already preparations are well underway for the second staging, in July of 2016 at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove. Rich Harvest owner Jerry Rich, LPGA star Anna Nordquist from Sweden and LPGA commissioner Mike Whan (left to right) hosted a Launch…
IT ZIEHMS TO ME: Asian Watch Party was vital for International Crown’s future
The first International Crown concludes Sunday at Caves Valley, in Owings Mills, Md., but a Saturday gathering that wasn’t held anywhere near the course will have a more direct bearing on how the event plays out at Rich Harvest Farms in 2016. Jerry Rich, in the forefront during the Crown’s creation, hosted a Watch Party…
IT ZIEHMS TO ME: Woods won’t have White Eagle record for long
Sooner rather than later one of Tiger Woods’ longest-standing course records will be broken. I suspect it won’t take long. Curtis Malm just needs to find someone willing to play the championship tees with him at White Eagle Golf Club. No one plays back there these days on White Eagle’s Red-White rotation of nines that…
JDC may have had humble beginnings — but look at PGA Tour stop now!
The John Deere Classic wasn’t always the John Deere Classic. Illinois’ only visit from the PGA Tour in 2014 had a modest beginning. For starters, it was called the Quad Cities Open and was only a satellite event on the circuit in 1971. That first event was played on 6501-yard Crow Valley Country Club in…