Amateur invitational offers slot in Nationwide event
Maybe next summer’s Chicago tournament schedule won’t be as lean as it has appeared. Already there’s one new event in the works that shows promise.
Nothing is official yet, but LaSalle Bank Open tournament director Scott Cassin is putting together an 18-hole invitational for amateurs with the winner getting a sponsor’s invitation into his Nationwide Tour stop at The Glen Club.
The tourney itself may have a different name by then, with LaSalle Bank in the process of being sold, but the golf tournament’s growth figures to continue.
Cassin will work with the Chicago District Golf Association on the one-day amateur event. Invitations will be sent to the top players on the CDGA player-of-the-year standings from 2007. Matching charitable donations will be made to the CDGA’s Sunshine Through Golf Foundation and the winner’s designated beneficiary as part of the competition.
“The idea came because the BMW Championship [the new PGA Tour event held at Cog Hill in September] was not allowed to give an exemption to the winner of the Western Amateur any more,” Cassin said. “The rich tradition of amateur golf is something we wanted to continue, especially since we’ll be the only PGA Toursanctioned tournament in Chicagoland next year.”
While the Western Golf Association conducts the BMW Championship, the event is an invitational open to only the top 70 on the FedEx Cup standings. There were no sponsor exemptions, as there were when the WGA conducted the now-defunct Western Open. Next year, the BMW Championship will be held at Bellerive in St. Louis, leaving Chicago without an event on the main PGA Tour for the first time since 1961.
HE’S GOT SENIORITY: Jeff Sluman didn’t have a great year on the PGA Tour. He didn’t even qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs, but he’s not an unhappy camper. The Hinsdale resident now enthusiastically joined the Champions Tour immediately after he turned 50 in September.
“I was probably – except for Dana Quigley – probably the only guy to commit to the last five tournaments of this year last January,” Sluman said. “Dana is probably committed through 2012 right now.”
Quigley’s ironman feats, which included playing in 278 straight tournaments for which he was eligible, astounded Sluman when he was on the PGA Tour.
“We’d talk to Brett [Quigley’s nephew who has played the PGA circuit] and he’d tell us about Dana taking a red-eye in Los Angeles and playing 36 holes for fun on Monday,” Sluman said. “We’d wonder how in the world is the guy doing that? We love the game – but not as much as him, I guess. What he’s done is very remarkable, and my hat’s off to him.”
Sluman isn’t quite sure what he’s getting into on the Champions Tour.
“I see the scores these guys are shooting, and I know that I have a lot to learn,” he said. “It’s 54 holes [in Champions tournaments]. You’ve got to start quickly versus our [PGA] tour, where sometimes you’re just trying to get your feet on the ground [in the early rounds]. I’m in awe of what these guys do for 54 holes and how low they shoot and the way they’ve continued to play throughout their careers. I’ve got quite a learning curve out here. Hopefully I’ll pick it up quickly and blend in.”
ONWARD AT OLYMPIA: Don’t be surprised if Olympia Fields is back on the U.S. Golf Association’s tournament calendar as soon as 2010. The USGA needs a site for the U.S. Amateur that year, and Olympia – thwarted in its bid to get another U.S. Open since it was held there in 2003 – has wanted to host that championship.
The south-suburban private club had put in a request with the USGA to host the U.S. Amateur in either 2011 or 2012.
An earlier date became available because Congressional, the Washington D.C.area layout that was to host in 2009, pulled out after landing Tiger Woods’ new PGA Tour event. Southern Hills, this year’s PGA Championship site, agreed to move up from its scheduled year as the host site in 2010 to take the tourney in 2009. That left 2010 open, and Mike Davis, the USGA’s senior director of rules and competitions, has already been at Olympia Fields to analyze the possibilities of bringing the tournament there.
Davis couldn’t see the full Olympia because the club’s South course is undergoing a renovation supervised by architect Steve Smyers. The course is scheduled to reopen next Memorial Day weekend, however, so it would be available for 2010. The U.S. Amateur requires two courses for its 36-hole stroke play qualifying competition.
In another Olympia Fields development, the club has made University of Illinois golf coach Mike Small an honorary member. Small was stunned by the honor. The club has hosted the Fighting Illini Olympia Fields Invitational men’s event the last two years.
U.S. Open Champion Jim Furyk, who won his major at Olympia in 2003, was accorded a similar honor.
SOLHEIM REVISITED: The Solheim Cup matches, just completed in Sweden, produced an exciting win by the U.S. team. They also kicked off promotional efforts for the competition’s next staging – at Rich Harvest Farms in 2009. Rich Harvest owner Jerry Rich sent about 30 representatives to Sweden to analyze how the event was staged there.
One development since the U.S. victory – and it was no surprise – was the announcement that Beth Daniel will be the U.S. captain in 2009. Daniel, a Rich Harvest honorary member, was Betsy King’s assistant captain in Sweden.
MORE IS BETTER: Details are still to be announced, but another golf show is being planned for Chicago this winter. It’ll be held at the Schaumburg Convention Center in February, two weeks before the longstanding Chicago Golf Show returns to Rosemont’s Donald E. Stephens Convention Center. The Rosemont show will also have February dates. It was held in March in 2005 and 2007.
COMING SOON: The neighboring states of Wisconsin and Indiana could be having spiffy new courses available next year. Wild Rock, in the Wisconsin Dells, had a soft opening on Oct. 1 and will be in full swing in the spring. In Indiana, Pete Dye is designing a layout in French Lick, the onetime resort hotspot that is in the throes of a major revival. The Donald Ross Memorial 18-holer and a 9-holer designed by Tom Bendelow have already been renovated there. Both opened this past summer. I’ve seen the Dye course under construction, and it should turn out a masterpiece when it opens either next fall or the spring of 2009.