Mike Jones leaves Cantigny for Maui; Tom Studer is senior player of year One of the good guys in the Illinois PGA ranks is leaving town. Mike Jones,
who spent the last eight seasons at Cantigny, is headed for Hawaii.
Jones
will leave one of Chicago’s premier public courses, and the site of
last summer’s U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship and the 2006
Western Junior to become director of golf operations at Kapalua Resort.
Kapalua has two courses, each of which will host a major tour event in
2008, and a third layout – Mauka – is expected to built in 2009. Tom
Fazio is the designer of that one, and it’ll be a private course.
Jones,
scheduled to start at Kapalua on Dec. 3, will have just a month to get
ready for the PGA Tour’s Mercedes Championship on Kapalua’s Plantation
course. Then, in October, the resort will host a new event – the LPGA
Kapalua Invitational – on its Bay course.
“[Hosting tour events]
wasn’t a major factor in my going there,” Jones said. “It’s just a huge
opportunity for me to keep advancing, to run one of the most recognized
golf resorts in the world.”
He was hired by another popular guy
from the Chicago golf world. Gary Planos, who grew up in Evanston, was
an Evans Scholar at the University of Illinois and is a member of the
board of directors of the Western Golf Association, is Kapalua’s senior
vice president of resort operations. Kapalua is spread over 23,000
acres, and its facilities include a pineapple plantation. The resort is
undergoing a $125 million transformation.
Among the perks to get Jones there was a Mercedes.
“This isn’t your typical golf job,” he said. “There could be some corporate entertaining involved. It’s going to be exciting.”
Jones
has been a big part of two golf facilities during his Chicago stay. He
was general manager at Thunderhawk during its first two seasons before
going to Cantigny. Cantigny is building a new learning center and has
had ongoing dialog with the U.S. Golf Association about hosting more of
its national championships following a successful staging of last
summer’s Publinx. Chicago golf won’t just lose one of its top pros,
either. Jones’ wife Laura will also be departing her job as the girls
golf coach at Waubonsie Valley High School.
TOM’S THE MAN:
Earning the CDGA Senior Player-of-the-Year award was just the latest in
golfing accomplishments for Joliet’s Tom Studer, but it does provide
the opportunity to underscore just how good this lifelong amateur has
been.
Studer has played in 30 Illinois Amateurs, with 10 top10
finishes and the other 20 in the top20. He has been Joliet Country
Club’s champion 20 times since becoming a member in 1979 and he needed
to play in only two tournaments to win the CDGA Senior
Player-of-the-Year award in his first year of eligibility. He won the
Illinois Senior Amateur and was fourth – as well as the low amateur for
the third time in five years – in the Illinois Senior Open. Players
have to be 55 to be eligible for the CDGA’s top senior award.
“I
spotted everybody the season and won it in two tournaments,” Studer
said. “I’m very proud of the longevity I’ve had, and I’m playing as
well now as I ever have.”
Studer is one of those few top amateurs who doesn’t regret giving professional golf a try.
“I
never had any delusions,” he said. “I know I’m not good enough, and
couldn’t take a cut in pay to do it. I was just good enough to be a
golf bum. I’m glad I did it this way.”
Studer has had to play well to keep up with this colleagues at Chicago’s National Financial Services, where he is a sales rep.
The National Financial staff has included Joel Hirsch, Mike Stone, Chip Beck and Gunnar Bennett at one time or another.
“At
one time we could field eight players with a combined handicap of
zero,” Studer said. “My role model is Joel Hirsch. My goal is to just
do all the things he’s been doing. He plays on a senior amateur tour.”
Studer
said he’s done with the Illinois Amateur, but then again he has an
exemption into next year’s finals and might want to give it one more
try. No player has swept the titles of the Illinois MidAmateur, CDGA
Amateur and Illinois Amateur, and Studer has won the first two.
“If
the place where it’s held is interesting I might go,” Studer said, “but
don’t think I could do it anymore. The [top] players in it are like
minitour players. I’m just trying to be the best senior I can be.”
Studer was the CDGA Player-of-the-Year in 2000. This year that award was won by Peoria’s John Ehrgott.
GOLF NATION IS COMING:
I’m not sure if Golf Nation, a 25,000square foot facility in Palatine,
will be a success – but it certainly is an interesting concept.
Indoor
golf facilities are nothing new, but Golf Nation claims to be
different. It will have practice facilities plus fitness options or
personal trainers.
Golf Nation is expected to open in midDecember.
It
will have six covered outdoor hitting areas with gas heaters and
golfers will hit 60 yards to a net. Indoors there’ll be a 1,600
squarefoot putting green, chipping, pitching and sand shot areas and
four golf simulators.
COMING ATTRACTION: Another
United States GA national championship is coming to the Chicago area.
Conway Farms, a private club in Lake Forest, has landed the U.S.
Mid-Amateur in 2012.
The tourney, first held in 1981, was held
at Knollwood in 1982 in its only previous Chicago staging. Elgin’s Bill
Hoffer was the champion that year and Jay Sigel was the medalist. Dave
Lind, who came out of Butler National to enjoy a brief career on the
PGA Tour, lost the 1987 final to Sigel in a 20-hole thriller and was
also the runnerup in 1992.
The tourney has grown a lot since
then. In 1982 the Mid-Am had 1,779 entries nationwide. It’s drawn
4,000plus every year since 1986. Players must be 25 years old and have
a handicap index not exceeding 3.4 to be eligible.
