ORLANDO, FL. – The Ladies PGA Tour is returning to Chicago – but it won’t be until 2016. And then it will be for the staging of an extraordinary new team event. Mike Whan, the LPGA commissioner, highlighted the first day of the 60th PGA Merchandise Show by announcing the arrival of the International Crown…
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PGA MERCHANDISE SHOW: Tour Edge introduces variable fit driver
ORLANDO, FL. – The 60th annual PGA Merchandise Show teed off with a massive Demo Day on Wednesday but Chicago club manufacturer Tour Edge got a jump on the opposition a day early. The Batavia-based company, in its eighth annual Multi-Manufacturers Media Day outing at the Legacy Club, introduced its first variable-fit driver. It was…
IT ZIEHMS TO ME: It’s Show-time for WGA; IPGA moves Players Championship
The Chicago Golf Show will get a big boost for its 30th anniversary staging next month. Rarely has the show, to be held Feb. 22-24 at the Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, had a presenting sponsor. The last time the Show was so blessed was in 2009, when South Carolina golf mecca Myrtle Beach took…
IT ZIEHMS TO ME: New pros for Medinah, Exmoor; 50th anniversary for Eskimo Open
IT ZIEHMS TO ME: New pros for Medinah, Exmoor; Eskimo celebrates 50th anniversary Mike Scully ended a 10-year stint as Medinah Country Club’s director of golf as soon as the Ryder Cup ended. Now the club has selected his replacement. Marty DeAngelo will take over Scullly’s former position on Jan. 21. Like Scully he comes…
IT ZIEHMS TO ME: `King of Clubs’ uncovers piece of Chicago golf history
After reading “King of Clubs: The Great Golf Marathon of 1938’’ I felt there was a message to be delivered about how bad slow play has gotten. Virginia-based sports writing veteran Jim Ducibella recounts the story of J. Smith Ferebee, a Chicago stockbroker and Olympia Fields Country Club member who was briefly in the national…
IT ZIEHMS TO ME: Meierdierks, Jeray Q-School successes are in sharp contrast
Rarely does a Chicago golfer get through a qualifying school for any of the professional tours. This year, though, two did – and their roads to success couldn’t be much more different. Wilmette’s Eric Meierdierks, a 27-year old with only one PGA start to his credit, made it all the way to the PGA Tour…
IT ZIEHMS TO ME: Meierdierks, Langley are survivors at PGA’s Q-School
PGA Tour qualifying school hasn’t been kind to the few Illinois golfers who have tried it over the years, but that wasn’t the case this week. Eric Meierdierks, the 2010 Illinois Open champion from Wilmette, and Scott Langley, the 2010 NCAA champion for the University of Illinois, both earned their PGA Tour cards during the…
IT ZIEHMS TO ME: Mierdierks is on the brink of something big
Anybody who follows the golf scene in Illinois should tune in to what happens the next few days in the final stage of the PGA Tour’s Qualifying School at PGA West in California. Wilmette’s Eric Mierdierks, winner of the 2010 Illinois Open at Hawthorn Woods and runnerup (in a playoff) to Chicago’s Max Scodro at…
IT ZIEHMS TO ME: Changes are coming among Illinois club pros
There wasn’t much movement in Chicago’s club professional ranks the past few years, but that’s not the case now. Already five well-established head pros have announced plans to move on. The move creating the most ripple effect was Mike Scully’s departure from Medinah immediate after the Ryder Cup. He is now in charge at Desert…
IT ZIEHMS TO ME: New bunkers have changed Kemper
Illinois PGA will have a different challenge if the section decides to keep its first major tourney of 2013 at Kemper Lakes. The club, which hosted the 1989 PGA Championship, the 1992 U.S. Women’s Amateur and several Champions Tour stops before it became a private venue in 2009, has begun a renovation project. Taking small…