Illinois Open, Illinois PGA moves will enhance events It’s been a long, cold winter for all of us – but maybe moreso for me than most of the rest of you. Prostate cancer surgery in January slowed me down for awhile, but that made me all the more anxious for the arrival of spring and the resumption of my annual pursuit of Chicago’s multitude of great courses.
But, enough about me – and no more talk about how much quieter this year’s Chicago season will be as far as tournaments go.
Yes, it won’t be what it’s been in the past without a PGA Tour stop for the first time in 45 years, but the Nationwide Tour stop (formerly the LaSalle Bank Open, now the Bank of America Open) returns to The Glen Club on May 26 and the big local events are changing – to my mind much for the better. Tournament viewing won’t be so bad, there just won’t be as much of it.
I’M DELIGHTED by what the Illinois PGA has done in both its short-term and long-term tournament scheduling during the winter.
On the short-term side the IPGA moved its biggest event, the 59th Illinois Open, to Hawthorn Woods Country Club. It had been held at The Glen Club the previous six years. The switch was made because the IPGA didn’t want the Illinois Open bumping up with the PGA Championship again. That was a big problem last year for one player. Mike Small, the best player in the state, won the Illinois Open and had no day off before playing in the PGA in Tulsa, Okla.
Small did well in both, but that kind of scheduling isn’t ideal. Eventually it might have cost the Illinois Open some of the state’s top club pros who didn’t want to risk the heavy playing load that Small took on. So, IPGA executive director Mike Miller wanted the Illinois Open pushed back to July 28-30. This year’s PGA is Aug. 7-10 at Oakland Hills in suburban Detroit.
That proposed new date didn’t suit The Glen Club, so – for one year at least – private Hawthorn Woods will be the site of the Illinois Open.
Frankly, I see nothing wrong with the move to Hawthorn Woods, other than the fact that not many of the state’s best players have tested it. I’ve played the Arnold Palmer design several times. It’s a fun layout, much different than The Glen Club.
Hawthorn Woods will be well-received by the players, and the Illinois Open will benefit from the move because it’ll be the big show at Hawthorn Woods. It won’t be the second of the year’s big tournaments hosted by The Glen Club.
ON A MORE LONG-TERM basis, the IPGA made a major change in its oldest event. The 86th Illinois PGA Championship will move from public Stonewall Orchard in Gurnee to Medinah. Then it’ll have a staging at Olympia Fields the year after that.
This scenario sounds like a radical change, and it is – but it makes lots of sense.
Now the IPGA Championship, which had a 24-year run at Kemper Lakes before shorter runs at nearby north suburban courses Royal Melbourne and Stonewall, will be more accessible to players from clubs to the south. There’s going to be a rotation – this year in the West (Medinah), then back to the north (Stonewall), then way south (Olympia). Medinah is to host again in 2011 and Stonewall in 2012.
There’s more to the moves to historic Medinah and Olympia than might meet the eye, too.
The big national events that have been held at Medinah have almost always been on the famed No. 3 course, most recently the site of the 2006 PGA Championship. For the 2008 and 2011 IPGA, however, Medinah No. 1 will be used. Olympia’s main tournament layout has been its North course, most recently the site of the 2003 U.S. Open. When the IPGA visits the competition will be on the South course. Medinah No. 1 and Olympia Fields South have been unfairly overshadowed by their neighboring layouts. No. 1 is a great track at Medinah and South had been my favorite at Olympia. When the IPGA gets there it will be a showcase for the just-completed Steve Smyers’ renovation of the South.
FINALLY, winter developments require that we take a look at a huge national (actually world-wide) development in which Northbrook-based KemperSports played a major role.
Golf has been a sport based on traditions and history. The famous old courses would host the biggest tournaments.
That’s been slowly changing, but the U.S. Golf Association accelerated the change when Chambers Bay – a county-owned course near Seattle, Wash., that had been open only eight months, was awarded both the 2010 U.S. Amateur and 2015 U.S. Open.
The Chambers Bay announcement came after the USGA awarded one of its 13 national championships to Wisconsin’s Erin Hills before that course had even opened. Erin Hills, which opened in 2006, will host the U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship this year. It will also host the 2011 U.S. Amateur, according to the USGA’s most recent announcement.
The Chambers Bay selection was especially gratifying to KemperSports, which manages golf courses in 24 states and Latin America with Chambers Bay being one of them.
“We were given a mission,’’ said Steve Skinner, who replaced Steve Lesnik as chief executive officer of KemperSports this winter, “to bring championship golf to the Seattle area. A lot of courses dream of hosting the U.S. Open. Rather than be asked to host we reached out. We thought we had something special, and the course sold itself.’’
Still, getting both a U.S. Amateur and a U.S. Open before hosting even a smaller tournament seems unfathomable.
“We were surprised it happened so quickly,’’ Skinner said. “It was a bold statement by the USGA. We talked to them before the facility opened. The setting is unique. Those who know shot design and shot quality see things the rest of us don’t see. They felt it was a great setting,’’