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GUEST ESSAY By Teresa Belmont
Measuring up Several requirements must be fulfilled for a course to be named a USGA championship site hen the USGA announced earlier this summer that Erin Hills had been selected as the site for the 2017 U.S. Open, the reaction from Chicagoans, like anywhere else nationwide, was: Why not our course? How does the USGA select sites for its amateur championships? Have you ever wondered if the course you play regularly could be a site of a USGA championship? Many factors go into the process to determine if a course can serve as a host site, and it is not always about the length. It is about variety and shotmaking skills. The USGA’s primary focus for selecting a future site is to choose a course that will provide a fair and challenging test for a particular set of players at certain skill levels. First, a potential host club will send a letter to the USGA that expresses its interest in serving as a championship host site. From there, the USGA will gather information from the course that includes yardages from various tees, course history, course conditions, tournament history, grass types, even the weather and available amount of daylight at various times of the year. The USGA looks at hotels in the area, the ability of players to walk the course (where applicable) and other factors. In addition, the USGA will also do some of its own research about the course. Once all these steps have been completed, the USGA will follow up with the club to review the information and discuss the next steps in the selection process. After the initial discussions, it is
W
sometimes determined that the site is not suitable to host a USGA national championship because the course does not present the appropriate test of golf, does not have the necessary facilities, or the club’s interest does not match the USGA’s championship needs for a given year. In most cases, however, a site visit is required in order to truly ascertain if the course is able to handle a championship. While on a site visit, the USGA reviews the facilities, including the clubhouse and even the proximity of hotel facilities and airports. For instance, if a practice facility has only a small number of hitting stations, it’s easy to see the difficulty in giving 78 players, half of what is a typical championship field of 156 players, a sufficient warm-up opportunity before they start a round. Length of the course and forced carries also will dictate which of the USGA’s 13 annual national championship may be the best match for a course. If it has several holes where creeks or bunkers cross the fairway at 200-230 yards, it could be difficult for women to carry those areas, so a men’s championship may be better suited for the site. Long walks between greens and tees also can cause limitations. The time of year and course conditions also play a factor in the selection process. If the weather is hot and the course typically dries out during June and July, but weather and course conditions are better in September, a fall championship might work. Or, if the course is located in a high elevation area, a summer championship might be better suited. Even the clubhouse is important. Are there enough lockers for all the
Teresa Belmont
players? Is there adequate space for 200 people or more to eat breakfast and lunch? Is there sufficient space for USGA headquarters or a media office? Can the club accommodate a players’ dinner for 250-300 people? After completion of the visit, a selection committee discusses and reviews all aspects of the visit in order to determine a course’s suitability. It makes no difference if the course is public or private; if the USGA determines that a course is suitable, the invitation is accepted and a new process of preparing for the championship starts. While a similar review process is followed for the USGA’s Open championships, many more factors are analyzed, such as parking, transportation, hotels, the availability to secure and organize a larger number of volunteers, TV needs and a capacity of the course to handle a sizable number of spectators and support services. The Opens require much larger infrastructure and space. But remember, there are only so many national championships each year. And with many more quality clubs nationwide interested in serving as a host at their course, worthy sites can be left out. Teresa Belmont is assistant director, women’s competition, for the USGA.
Comments are solely the opinion of the author and not neccessarily those of the CDGA. Letters and opinions are welcome at info@cdga.org. 4 | CHICAGO DISTRICT GOLFER
W W W. C D G A . O R G
The world’s best amateurs will golf here in 2011, the world’s best professionals in 2017. erin hills short history – long future
Site of Ó䣣 U.S. Amateur Championship august 22-28, 2011
2017 U.S. Open Championship june 15 – 18, 2017
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Thomas H. Roth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Inverness GC
Steven S. Birky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Harrison Park GC
Don Schwarz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Prestwick CC
William R. Buecking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .At Large
Lawrence W. Schweik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Bartlett Hills GC
C. Daniel Cochran . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Biltmore CC
Lorraine Scodro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Midlothian CC
Frank D’Ambra, Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Biltmore CC
Philip Shannabarger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .The Den at Fox Creek
David A. Esler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Black Sheep GC
Gerald Skoning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Cog Hill G & CC
Charles E. Hodgson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Arrowhead CC
Rebecca A. Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Chalet Hills GC
Gerald R. Hodgson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Pekin CC
A. Glenn Stith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Arrowhead GC
Nick Mokelke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Cog Hill G & CC
Robert J. Stracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Northmoor CC
Mike Nass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Cantigny Golf
Marianne Zito . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Stonebridge CC
Dennis A. Reed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Pekin CC
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DIRECTORS Robert E. Allgyer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Shoreacres
Jack Kieckhefer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Mauh-Nah-Tee-See CC
Richard Andre . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ridge CC
William Kingore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Beverly CC
Thomas R. Artz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Sportsman’s CC
Gary B. Koch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .At Large
Guy Arvia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Exmoor CC
Bill Koeneman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .At Large
Randy Becker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Winnetka CC
Daniel R. Krpan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Boulder Ridge CC
Daniel M. Blouin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Village Greens of Woodridge
Laurence J. LaBoda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Kemper Lakes CC
Andrew Boling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Chicago GC
Josh Lesnik . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .The Glen Club
Mary Burgland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Soangetaha CC
Gregory Liebovich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Big Foot CC
Michael Camino . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Conway Farms GC
R. Scott Malmgren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Glen Oak CC
Gordon L. Campbell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ruth Lake CC
Christopher R. McClear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .At Large
Frank Charhut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Wilmette GC
Richard McCombs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Oak Park CC
Steven L. Cherveny . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Foxford Hills GC
Elston Mitchell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Pontiac Elks CC
John A. Childers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Elgin CC
David Mortell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Balmoral Woods CC
Michael J. Choate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .North Shore CC
Thomas E. Mott . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Rockford CC
Michael E. Clark, D.P.M. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .CC of Decatur
Edward Mulcahy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Midlothian CC
Edward Clissold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Westmoreland CC
Rudolph E. Nelson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Schaumburg GC
ADVERTISING SALES
Henry Close . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Aldeen GC
H. Steven Nichols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Champaign CC
David Crockett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .At Large
Clay Nicolsen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mistwood GC
Guy Crucil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Medinah CC
Lawrence Oakford . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Woodstock CC
Robert J. Cunningham . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Indian Hill Club
James J. O’Hagan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Park Ridge CC
Ronald Davidson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Makray Memorial GC
John Ozag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Rolling Green CC
Anthony DeMarco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Olympia Fields CC
John Paladino . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Forest Hills CC
Michael J. Dickman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Calumet CC
Arthur W. Peters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ruth Lake CC
Robert Dutton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Timber Creek CC
Roger L. Peterson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Lincolnshire Fields CC
Jeffrey D. Echt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Lake Shore CC
Ronald Potter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .White Eagle GC
Richard Estlin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Terrace Hill GC
D. William Robertson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .PrairieView GC
William Finn, M.D. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Riverside GC
John Rolfe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Northmoor CC
Michael Forde . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Butler National GC
Michael Rooney . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Butler National GC
Chicago • Robert A. Rose & Associates 312-755-1133 Travel and Real Estate • Jereme Day 913-499-7310 Florida/Caribbean • Mary Dees 407-515-2601 Western • Jason Redditt 619-546-8721 Hawaii • Loren Malenchek 808-283-7112 Southwest • Rachel Patel 480-614-5230 Detroit • Flavin Associates Inc. 248-524-9000 East Coast Sales Manager • Henry Robinson 843-261-9008
Larry Fulgenzi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Old Wayne GC
James F. Rudwall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ivanhoe Club
Mary Garrison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Winnetka GC
Samuel M.Sallerson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Bryn Mawr CC
Thomas A. Gilley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Flossmoor CC
Michael J. Scheer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .LaGrange CC
Kevin Gratkowski . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Lost Dunes
Richard J. Skrodzki . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .LaGrange CC
Roger D. Greer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Skokie CC
Laura Spring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .St. Charles CC
Michael Griem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Exmoor CC
Darryl Stock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Red Tail Run GC
Howard Haberkorn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Boulder Ridge CC
C. Nelson Strom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Stonewall Orchard GC
James J. Hager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Lake Barrington Shores GC
Mike Sullivan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Bloomington CC
Thomas J. Haggerty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Butterfield CC
Nancy L. Sullivan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Westmoreland CC
J. Loren Hall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Blackstone GC
James Troy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Crystal Tree G & CC
Eugene N. Halladay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Hinsdale GC
Kenneth Urbaszewski . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Deerfield GC
John L. Hammond, II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Evanston GC
David A. Usiak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Crestwicke CC
John Henderson, M.D. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .CC of Peoria
Anthony M. Viola . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Old Orchard CC
Robert Hinton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Panther Creek CC
Timothy Vola . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Harborside International
Edward J. Hockfield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Hillcrest CC
Ben Waldie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .St. Charles CC
John C. Hoelscher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .WeaverRidge GC
David A. Walters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Crystal Lake CC
Betty Kaufmann . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Knollwood Club
Joe Williamson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Briar Ridge CC
Peter Keffer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Aldeen GC
James E. Winslow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Inverness GC
Karl Keller, D.D.S. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Kankakee Elks GC
J.C. Wise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Plum Tree National GC
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CHICAGO DISTRICT GOLFER (ISSN: #1087-6502) is published six times annually by the Chicago District Golf Association, Midwest Golf House, 11855 Archer Avenue, Lemont, IL 60439. Periodical postage paid at Lemont, IL 60439 and additional mailing offices. Editorial offices are located at Midwest Golf House, 11855 Archer Avenue, Lemont, IL 60439. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Chicago District Golfer, Midwest Golf House, 11855 Archer Avenue, Lemont, IL 60439. One-year subscription is $15. Copyright by Chicago District Golf Association. All rights reserved. The advertising space provided in Chicago District Golfer is purchased and paid for by the advertiser. None of the products or services are necessarily endorsed by Turnstile Publishing, the CDGA or its affiliates.
The listing of the CDGA professional staff is available at www.cdga.org.
6 | CHICAGO DISTRICT GOLFER
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September2010 | Vol. 21 No. 5
Departments GUEST ESSAY
34
Teresa Belmont . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
AROUND THE CDGA Fit for Golf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Ask the Docs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Aces in the Crowd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Tournament Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Club Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
FACILITY FOCUS Pontiac Elks Country Club . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
DESTINATION Wales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
GEMS OF THE CDGA Features 18 STANDING THE TEST OF TIME By Len Ziehm
Edgewood Valley has had plenty of momentous occasions to celebrate as it turns 100.
32 SWING MASTER Hank Haney, who has worked with golf’s No. 1 player, visits Chicago and talks about the multitude of problems that affect the games of amateur golfers everywhere.
The 18th at Chalet Hills Golf Club . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
RULES OF THE GAME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
20 THE QUEEN OF EVANSTON By Amy Parker
When Patricia Koch won the Evanston Golf Club women's championship this year, she ran her incredible record to 20 titles. 22 RUNAWAY TRAIN
9
By Rich Skyzinski
Slow out of the starting gate, Vince India then shifted his game into high gear and ran off with the Illinois State Amateur crown. 28 ONE-TWO PUNCH By Sean Martin
A week removed from winning one major amateur title, David Chung wasted no time grabbing another at the Western Amateur.
COVER: Vince India (Frank Polich/CDGA). CONTENTS: (clockwise, from top) Celtic Manor’s Twenty Ten Course; Pontiac Elks Country Club (photo by Beth Corbin); Luke Guthrie (Nick Novelli/Illinois PGA).
SEPTEMBER 2010
16 CHICAGO DISTRICT GOLFER | 7
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» FIT FOR GOLF Shoulder strength exercises lead to better swings particularly in the posterior aspect of the shoulder, is an important part of the golf swing. Lead shoulder strength is important in order to control the club into impact and toward a good, full follow-through. Trail shoulder strength is critical in getting the club into a good position at the top of the backswing and ensuring an inside-out swing path. There are many good shoulder-strengthening exercises available, but simply remembering four letters—Y, T, W, L—is a great way to strengthen both lead and trail shoulders throughout a full range of motion that is necessary for a great swing. The golfer’s alphabet consists of four exercises that mimic the shape of the letters Y, T, W, and L. Each of these does a great job in taking the shoulder through different positions that the arms might be in during the golf swing. These exercises can be done in the gym with the use of a stability ball or simply in one’s address position, thereby creating a great warm-up on the range or before a round. In addition, by utilizing all four movements, one can strengthen all the muscles around the shoulder joint, including the prime movers and those responsible for stabilizing the area. This creates better arm function throughout the swing and minimizes risk of injury. Y: Standing in a golf posture or with stomach resting on a stability ball, let the arms hang, turn the thumbs toward the sky and lift up the arms, thus creating a Y. Slowly return arms to starting position and perform 10-15 repetitions. T: Standing in a golf posture or with the stomach resting on SHOULDER STRENGTH,
a stability ball, let the arms hang, turn the thumbs toward the sky and lift the arms straight out to the side, creating a T. Be sure to keep the neck relaxed and focus on squeezing the muscles between the shoulder blades. Slowly return arms to starting position and perform 10-15 repetitions. W: Standing in a golf posture or with the stomach resting on a stability ball, let the arms hang, bend the elbows to 90 degrees and turn the thumbs toward the sky. Keeping a 90-degree angle at the elbow, touch elbows in front and then move them as far apart as possible, squeezing muscles between the lower part of shoulder blades. Slowly return arms to front and touch elbows and repeat. Perform 10-15 repetitions. L: Standing in a golf posture or with the stomach resting on a stability ball, hold a club parallel to the ground with one hand at the top of the grip and the other on the shaft, just above the clubhead. Bring up the club as if lifting something toward your chest, making sure the elbows stay wide. Once the elbows are in a straight line with one another and the shoulders, rotate the arms so that the club is directly above the head. Reverse the motion and lower the club back toward the ground. Repeat 10-15 times. Remember to consult your physician before starting an exercise program. For more information on AthletiCo’s Golf Performance Center, visit www.athleticogolfcenter.com or call 630-572-9700. —Tom Asuma
» ASK THE DOCS Diagnosing the severity of rotator cuff tears Question: I believe that I have a rotator cuff injury. Are there degrees of rotator cuff tears? If so, do they all require surgery for repair?
The rotator cuff is a group of tendons and muscles in the shoulder that connect the upper arm to the shoulder blade. It is the tendons that provide stability to the shoulder and the muscles assist the shoulder in being able to rotate, which is necessary in the motion required to swing a golf club. Age or normal wear and tear often tears a rotator cuff tendon, and painful strain injuries often are caused by repetitive overhead use.
Answer from Dr. Nikhil N. Verma:
8 | CHICAGO DISTRICT GOLFER
Rotator cuff tears come in many sizes both with regard to length and width. An orthopaedic physician will typically evaluate several conditions when making a diagnosis. The first aspect to consider is whether it is a complete or partial tear. Second, determining the length of the tear is important. Finally, the duration of the injury and degree of tendon retraction needs to be known. Rest, ice and pain relievers might serve as effective remedies in some instances, but as far as treatment options are concerned, not all tears require surgical management and, in most cases, an initial trial of conservative management is indicated. This decision is best made in consultation with
your surgeon and is based on factors such as age, activity level, work requirements, tear size, and the degree of symptoms. Editor’s note: This information is intended only for general public education and is not intended to serve as a substitute for direct medical advice. It should not replace necessary medical consultations with a qualified orthopaedic physician. For more information about Dr. Verma and the sports medicine physicians of Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush, call 877-632-6637 or go online at www.rushortho.com.
W W W. C D G A . O R G
MADE IN CHICAGO
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» NAMES IN THE NEWS
»
Guthrie comes up short on try at rare sweep
Lindsey Haines
CLUB CORNER
ACES IN THE CROWD
Crete
junior Luke Guthrie was in a great position to become just the seventh golfer to own victories in both the Illinois State Amateur and Illinois Open. Guthrie, however, couldn’t pull off the Open win, losing a four-shot lead en route to a second-place finish at Hawthorn Woods Country Club in late July. But he declared his game sharp for a run at back-toback Illinois State Amateur titles. Wilmette’s Eric Meierdierks, the 2006 CDGA Amateur champion and a Sunset Ridge member who does most of his competing on Arizona’s Gateway Tour, took advantage of a Guthrie letdown midway through the final round to win the 61st Illinois Open Luke Guthrie with a 6-under-par 201 for 54 holes. Guthrie, who finished one stroke back as low amateur, couldn’t overcome a double bogey-bogeybogey stretch on holes 9-11. He paid dearly for being too aggressive with his approaches on the first two holes of that stretch, hitting his ball into a hazard at the par-3 ninth and over the green and into another hazard at the 10th. “I was cruising, but I pulled that shot at nine and it started me on a bad streak. It cost me the tournament,” said Guthrie, a resident of Quincy, Ill., who helped the Illini claim their second straight Big Ten title with a fourth-place finish back in May. Guthrie had a one-stroke lead at the start of the final round of the Illinois Open and widened it to four after eight holes. Though he stumbled after that, Eric Meierdierks Guthrie at least beat his college coach, the venerable Mike Small, who had been bidding for a record-tying fifth Illinois Open title. Small finished in a tie for third with Deerfield amateur Bennett Lavin. Guthrie had the Western Amateur and Illinois State Amateur on his schedule for the weeks immediately following the Illinois Open, so he didn’t dwell on what happened at Hawthorn Woods. He said he was playing better than he had been during his 2009 win at the Illinois State Amateur. “I wasn’t playing as well last year. I just hung around and had a good last round,” said Guthrie. “Overall, my putting’s better because my game is in better shape.” His improved play started after the college season, which Guthrie didn’t feel was up to par. “I never really struggled badly,” he said, “but I never played really good, either. I never really played the way I wanted to. Now I’m looking forward to playing the way Scott Langley’s been playing.” Langley, an Illini teammate from the St. Louis area, tied for low amateur honors at the U.S. Open after winning the individual title at the NCAA Championship in Tennessee. “Playing against him every day down in Champaign makes you really want it more,” Guthrie said.
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
PHOTOS BY NICK NOVELLI/ILLINOIS PGA
—Len Ziehm
SEPTEMBER 2010
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Haines, a recent Illinois Wesleyan University graduate, was named Woman of the Year by the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin and will represent the conference as a nominee for the 2010 NCAA Woman of the Year award. Haines played on the women’s golf team, won two straight conference titles in 2008 and ‘09 and earned Most Valuable Player honors for the past year. She is a member of the Dean’s List, received numerous academic and service awards, worked as a caddie for Special Olympics golf and was an intern for the Sunshine Through Golf Foundation.
Benjamin Henderson Bloomington Henderson, a 17-year-old senior at University High School in Normal, Ill., made a hole-in-one at the par-3 fourth hole at The Den at Fox Creek in Bloomington. While competing in the 16-17-year-old division of the Country Youth Classic, in which he finished tied for 25th in the first flight, he holed a pitching wedge from 145 yards. Henderson is a member of the boys golf team at University, which this season will be attempting to win its eighth consecutive Class 2A state championship.
Katherine Hepler Lincoln The 15-year-old Hepler shot a course-record, 10-under-par 62 at Lincoln Greens Golf Course in Springfield during the opening round of the 73rd Drysdale Tournament. Competing in the girls 15-16-year-old division, she broke by one stroke the record held by Dale Schofield, a professional in Springfield, with five birdies on each side. Hepler, who had previously won eight Drysdale titles, shattered her career low for 18 holes by a stunning margin of six strokes, and she beat by 10 shots her previous best score at Lincoln Greens.
Tim Sheppard East Peoria Sheppard advanced into the second round of match play at the 85th U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship in mid-July. After 36 holes of stroke play at Bryan Park Golf and Conference Center in Greensboro, N.C., in which he finished in a tie for 25th place to earn a spot in the 64-person match-play field, Sheppard defeated Mark Knecht of Paducah, Ky., 4 and 3. The match was all square through three holes, but Sheppard then won four of the next six. Sheppard lost in the second round, 4 and 3, to Kyle Souza of Livermore, Calif.. Aces In The Crowd recognizes noteworthy accomplishments by people in the CDGA coverage area. Prospective candidates for Aces In The Crowd may be submitted via e-mail to info@cdga.org or aparker@golfweek.com.
CHICAGO DISTRICT GOLFER | 9
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Âť PEOPLE AND PLACES Losole rallies to grab Arizona Amateur title
A CHICAGO NATIVE HAS WON a state amateur title out West. Nicholas Losole III, a sophomore at Northwestern University, won the 86th Arizona Amateur in late July. He defeated Jake Golembiewski, a senior
10 | C H I C A G O D I S T R I C T G O L F E R
JENNEA BONO/ARIZONA G.A.
Nicholas Losole III
transfer at Grand Canyon University and one of four players who shared medalist honors, in the match play final at Pinnacle Peak Country Club in Scottsdale, Ariz., with a birdie at the 19th hole.
Losole was born in Chicago; he and his family lived there until he was 10, when they moved to Arizona. He won two individual high school state titles for Notre Dame Prepatory High School in Scottsdale. Losole never led in the final until he made a 4-foot birdie putt at the opening hole of a sudden-death playoff, the par-5 first. He was 2 down through 13 holes and needed to win the par-5 18th in order to force extra holes; he did that by reaching a greenside bunker in two and then hitting his third shot to 18 inches. During his freshman season at Northwestern, Losole played 20 rounds and had one top-20 finish (tied for 15th at the Navy Fall Classic). In February, he went 3-1 to help the Wildcats win the Big Ten Match Play Championship.
W W W. C D G A . O R G
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» NEWS AND NOTES Harbor Shores opens its doors
SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST. With the summer golf season coming to an end, the Willow Crest Golf Club is offering one of the best reasons to keep the clubs swinging. Various golf specials including two rounds of golf for the price of one, Nike® exclusive golf shirt with round of golf and many more! Call 630-850-5515 or visit willowcrestgolf.com for more information.
Willow Crest Golf Club 3500 Midwest Road Oak Brook, IL 60523 Golf Shop: 630-850-5515 Tee Times: 630-850-5530 www.willowcrestgolf.com
12 | C H I C A G O D I S T R I C T G O L F E R
PHOTO BY NILE YOUNG
BENTON HARBOR, MICH., lost its biggest golf event when the Western Golf Association pulled the Western Amateur out of Point O’ Woods Golf and Country Club after a 38-year run and moved it to Chicago on a long-range basis. The Michigan city, though, didn’t need much time in gaining prominence in the golf world again. The Golf Club at Harbor Shores, a Jack Nicklaus signature design, celebrated its grand opening on Aug. 10 with the Champions for Change Challenge. It featured Nicklaus, Johnny Miller, Arnold Palmer and Tom Watson competing in a scramble skins format, and that big kickoff won’t be the end of the good times.
The seventh hole at The Golf Club at Harbor Shores
Already Harbor Shores has been named the site of the 2012 and 2014 Senior PGA Championships. “Jack definitely helped (get the big tourneys), but he wasn’t the catalyst,” said Mark Hesemann, managing director of the 530-acre resort. “Kemper (Sports, operator of the facility) has connections.” Nicklaus has designed more than 300 courses around the world, but this one has a feature like no other. The three-tier green at the 10th hole measures 10,500 square feet—the largest in the Nicklaus portfolio. Each of the 18 holes honors one of Nicklaus’ major championship victories.
Harbor Shores also represented a big boost for the economy in the financially challenged Benton Harbor-St. Joseph area, which is about 100 miles east of Chicago. The course, built on land that had contained long-closed foundaries, is Nicklaus’ only course on the shores of Lake Michigan. “It’s more than just a golf course,” said head professional Ross Smith. “It’s a catalyst for economic development.” A residential community that will feature nearly 800 homes is also being developed around the facility, creating many much-needed jobs in the area. —Len Ziehm
» CDGA UPDATE Member offers for Pebble Beach, Prestwick and Inverness TWO SPECIAL OFFERS available only to CDGA Members are now
available. The CDGA Fall Golf Excursion returns to Pebble Beach Nov. 4-7. With three nights' accommodations at the Lodge and rounds at Pebble Beach Golf Links, Spanish Bay and Spyglass Hill, this trip is not one to be missed. For more information, visit www.cdga.org. Spots are still available for September CDGA Member Days at Prestwick Country Club, Sept. 22, and Inverness Golf Club, Sept. 27. Players will have the opportunity to play these prestigious private layouts while benefiting the Sunshine Through Golf Foundation. For more information, visit www.cdga.org/memberdays.asp.
W W W. C D G A . O R G
THE PERFECT GAME STARTS WITH The inspiring courses of Alabama’s beautiful Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail are quickly becoming legendary, which is why you shouldn’t go another season without playing at least one of them. With a deal like this, there is simply no excuse not to. Choose your fall special and book today! To learn more, please call 1.800.949.4444 or visit us on the web at rtjgolf.com. facebook.com/rtjgolf
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*Offers available at 9 Trail locations.
* Specials do not include lodging. Valid September 1, 2010–November 14, 2010. Two-day package: Ross Bridge available at rack rate. Three-day package: Ross Bridge available at 20% off rack rate. Specials cannot be combined with other discounts. Specials do not include play at Lakewood Golf Club. In order to reserve a tee time at Lakewood Golf Club, a corresponding room night at the Grand Hotel Marriott is required. There is a $10 surcharge for each round on the Judge at Capitol Hill. Juniors ages 17 and under play for 50% of rack rate ($40 for 18 holes at Lakewood G.C.). Reservations must be arranged at least 7 days prior to arrival. Some restrictions may apply. Offers subject to change.
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» TOURNAMENT UPDATE FEATURED COURSE
Rockford Country Club
COURTESY ROCKFORD C.C.
INCORPORATED IN 1899 after a fortuitous ride down the Rock River by William Talcott and his son, Rockford Country Club sits on 80 acres of riverfront property on the north side of Rockford. Originally opened with 86 full members paying $15 annually, the club now boasts a membership of more than 300. The course is just 5,674 yards from the forward tees, but that stretches to 6,673 yards from the back set of markers, with a 72.5 course and 132 Slope rating from that distance. One hole players will not forget is the par-4 fifth hole. Players will make the choice that could save them par or place a crooked number on the scorecard. The left side of the fairway is flat but with out of bounds just a few short yards away. The right side of the fairway rolls, due to a nearby gully. Out of bounds continues to menace players on the left as they play their approach shot into a green protected by three bunkers. With the course’s location on the river, several holes offer excellent views, including the par-3 sixth hole, the club’s signature hole with a 90-foot elevation drop from tee to green. USGA MEN’S STATE TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
FEATURED PLAYER
High hopes for Illinois entry
Glenn Przybylski, Frankfort
COMING OFF THE STATE’S best finish, a third place at Country Club of St.
•Started playing: At age 10. I picked it up because my brother was playing. •Favorite tournament: Any USGA event I qualify for. •Favorite golf moment: Would have to say when my wife made her holein-one at Tarpon Woods Country Club in Florida. I’ve been playing 33 Glenn Przybylski years and never had one. •If you could play anywhere: Carnoustie. •Dream foursome: Phil Mickelson, my wife, Joyce, and my great uncle, Gene. •Final thoughts on the game: Through golf I’ve met a lot of great people, and I just enjoy the competition out there.
Albans in Missouri last year, the 2010 Illinois State Team looks to bring home the hardware at the 9th USGA Men’s State Team Championship, to be played Sept. 14-16 at Mayacama Golf Club in Santa Rosa, Calif. This year’s Illinois entry consists of the past three CDGA Players of the Year: 2009 U.S. Amateur Public Links champion Brad Benjamin of Rockford, 2008 U.S. Mid-Amateur runner-up Todd Mitchell of Bloomington and two-time Illinois State Mid-Amateur champion John Ehrgott of Peoria. Last year, the team of Mitchell, Ehrgott and Carlos Sainz, Jr. tallied a three-round score of 422 to finish five strokes behind the champion, Pennsylvania, with Kansas finishing second. The USGA Men’s State Team is a biennial event open to teams of amateurs from each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Teams are selected by state or regional golf associations based off of performance over the previous year. This will be the only back-to-back year the championship will be held, as the USGA moves from having the Men’s and Women’s State events in the same year to holding the events in alternating seasons.
14 | C H I C A G O D I S T R I C T G O L F E R
W W W. C D G A . O R G
MADE IN CHICAGO
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CLUB CORNER
» CLUB CORNER Control ball flight by selecting the proper shaft player’s control that affect ball flight—club head, shaft, golf ball, grip, and the swing itself. All have a major impact on flight. Among the five playercontrolled variables, swing and shaft are arguably the most vital to controlling ball flight. Because players have different swings and skill levels, it is the shaft that can have the most immediate and profound impact on a player’s ability to control flight. In discussing driver shafts, graphite plays a major role. Graphite driver shafts come in hundreds of forms, each of them different, and shaft flex seems to be the most common variable. More often than not, players refer to drivers by both loft and flex. “I play a 9.5 stiff,” or “I play a 10.5 regular,” they say. However, the reality in referring to flex is that there is no standard in the industry for flex from manufacturer to manufacturer. One manufacturer’s stiff is another’s regular, and an extra stiff from one company can be equivalent to a regular in yet another. In addition to varying flexes, bend profiles vary as well. Bend profiles refer to how a shaft reacts under load. Is it flexing in the tip or the butt section of the shaft? How much torque does that shaft have and how does it affect spin and launch angle? Any
THERE ARE FIVE THINGS WITHIN EACH
experienced club fitter can give a player a 12-degree driver with a regular flex shaft that will fly lower than a 9.5 degree stiff. This is why knowledgeable fitters think in terms of spin, launch angle and ball speed as well as shaft frequency, bend profile, and shaft weight rather than fitting based upon a stated flex. Generally, heavier shafts, regardless of flex, will produce lower ball flight. Shaft weight also is critical in a player’s ability to maintain a consistent swing plane and to strike the center of the club face. So, it is essential a player is properly fit for weight. Lower torque shafts generally are more effective for players who produce a significant load. Shafts with softer tips (more torque) produce a higher launch and more backspin than shafts with stiffer tips and softer butt sections. In order to obtain the correct shaft for a driver, players should test many different combinations. Hands-on testing is the only way to get a correctly fitted shaft for a particular swing. For more information, call Club Champion at 630-654-8887 or visit online at www.clubchampiongolf.com. —Joseph Jung
NBELIEVABLE.
SEPTEMBER 2010
C H I C A G O D I S T R I C T G O L F E R | 15
FACILITY FOCUS
Pontiac Elks Country Club
TIMECAPSULE
Modern touches aside, Pontiac Elks wouldn’t be the same without a rich history that encompasses nearly a century By Tim Cronin
ravel Route 66 from its start in downtown Chicago, as some vagabond golfers are inclined to do, and 99 miles along, a visitor will come across Pontiac, the seat of Livingston County. It’s a quiet town these days, with just under 12,000 residents. The two big industries are a Caterpillar tractor plant and a branch of the state prison system. Meander west of old Route 66, a couple of miles on Route 116, then make a right on Elks Club Road, and the somewhat unexpected discovery is a golf course caught in a time capsule as lasting as memories of the highway about which Bobby Troup penned his tune.
T
16 | C H I C A G O D I S T R I C T G O L F E R
Pontiac Elks Country Club, lodge No. 1019 in the Elks roster, looks today just about as it did when it was expanded from nine to 18 holes almost 40 years ago. Stand on the first tee and gaze down the 400 yards of bentgrass leading across Turtle Creek to the vexing green and a player would not look out of place wearing plaid polyster pants. What we have in Pontiac Elks is a golf course with five holes remaining from Tom Bendelow’s original 1919 routing, and 13 from Larry Packard’s 1973 plan, which took two years to complete—and almost didn’t happen. Pontiac Elks is a survivor. It has made it from then to now thanks to the generosity of a member who left the
PHOTOS BY BETH CORBIN/CDGA
Not far from iconic Route 66 is Pontiac Elks, a legend in its own right.
club a large bequest in his will, from savvy salesmanship and, in these days of a sluggish economy and less time to play than ever, from a membership and clientele that really embraces their golf course. Lodge member Mark Cordani does more than that. A 20-year member, he mows fairways three days a week and works as a starter on Saturday morning. More recently, he’s dug up the lost history of what began as Pontiac Golf and Country Club. The visit of Bendelow, one of golf’s most prolific architects, came in 1919, but it wasn’t until July 1921 that the course opened. “He was described as a landscape architect in the Pontiac Leader,” Cordani said. “The first hole was the same one we have now, but there was a par-6 ninth hole.” The country club made it through World War II, but barely. The Elks took W W W. C D G A . O R G
FACTS AND FIGURES: ADDRESS: 459 Elks Club Rd. (off Route
116), Pontiac, IL 61764 PHONE: 815-842-1249
Web site: www.pontiacelks.com GREEN FEES: Range from $20 to walk,
18 holes weekdays, to $36 to ride 18 weekends. CDGA TOURNAMENT: Illinois State
Mid-Amateur Qualifier.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: SIGNATURE HOLE: The par-4 first hole
has Turtle Creek running down the left side before crossing 25 yards in front of the green, plus big oaks hug the fairway. Par is a great way to start the day. WHERE A BOGEY GOLFER CAN MAKE BIRDIE: The par-5 third hole is
only 479 yards from the white tees. “Two average shots will put you within 100 yards of the green,” says longtime member Mark Cordani. “Just stay away from the big tree (to the right) and the big bunker.” WHERE A SCRATCH PLAYER FIGHTS FOR PAR: Two of the four par
3s are at least 210 yards from the white tees, and another is 176 yards. Don’t be bashful; go ahead and pull out the hybrid. EXTRA BALL INDEX (ON A 1-TO-10 SCALE): 4. There’s water on
11 holes, 12 if you hook your approach on the par-4 10th into the Vermillion River. LOCAL KNOWLEDGE: The push-up greens slope from back to front in order to facilitate drainage. They’re also reasonably quick early in the summer, getting up to 10 on the Stimpmeter. But in the heat of late summer, they’re much slower. It’s possible to leave a putt above the hole.
over in 1946, and the course’s public access stems from the deal struck by the private club and the lodge. “That’s part of the original charter,” said director of golf Ron Dohman. “The course will always be open to the public.” Of the approximately 20,000 SEPTEMBER 2010
annual rounds, about 60 percent are played by members. The other 40 percent, many of them in outings, are from the public, and for as little as $20 to walk on weekdays. That green helps keep the course going. “We love the course,” Elks club trustee Ron Yates said. “It’s a great track.” Yates speaks from the heart. By modern top-100 standards, Pontiac Elks is average. But for dollar value, and for those with a sense of history, the payoff is grand. “We get people coming up from Bloomington who can drive up, play and have a beer in less time than it takes to play there,” Yates confides. To see Pontiac Elks is to see a course caught in amber. The first five holes are Bendelow’s; there would be more, but condos sit on the location of the original second hole, a deal made so the club could afford to expand to 18 holes in the first place. Bendelow’s touches remain on the putting green and the second green, the back of which is not 15 yards from Route 116. That second green, like all but one other, bears a trademark of Robert Bruce Harris, Packard’s mentor. The edges of the greenside bunkers, almost always situated to the left front and/or right front of the putting surface, are about four yards from the rolling and heavily sloped greens. Harris, a believer in economical maintenance, specified room to run a gang mower between green and bunker to eliminate
expensive hand mowing. Packard followed that credo when tackling Pontiac Elks. “That’s the one complaint we get, that the bunkers are too far away,” Yates said. Packard did what he could with what had mostly been flat farmland. His best holes, from the 10th through 13th, are in a flood plain for the Vermillion River. The 10th is a severe and uncuttable dogleg to an elevated green. The 11th, a reachable par 5 for big hitters, has a massive cross bunker 40 yards from the green that from afar appears to be immediately in front of it. The 12th is a medium-length par 4 with a bunkered hill hiding the left side of the green, especially from that side of the fairway. Then comes a nifty par 3 nestled between two giant oak trees. Many of those holes almost didn’t get built. The lodge was sold on expanding to 18 by a group of members who came in with a grand plan. They would sell lots on adjacent land for a housing development, finance the expansion of the course routed around the houses, then give the course to the lodge. “They got about two-thirds done and then went bankrupt,” Dohman said. “Now the Elks were stuck for the rest of it. It happened that a person who was close to the club passed away and left it enough money to pay the mortgage.” Then there was a neighbor, believe it or not, who lived in a house close to the 18th green built by Packard. Too close, it turned out. It was so often pelted by golf balls, she filed suit and won a court order that forced the club to build a new 18th green, about 40 yards away from the house. Fronted by a big pond, Dohman calls the green “the only one that doesn’t fit the golf course.” The old green is now a practice green, complete with original bunker. And the house? “There’s a new owner,” Dohman said. “He built a gazebo and enjoys sitting and watching the play.” Getting his kicks, two miles west of Route 66. Tim Cronin is the golf writer for the Southtown Star. C H I C A G O D I S T R I C T G O L F E R | 17
Standing the test of
TIME
dgewood Valley isn’t Chicago’s best-known golf facility, but few facilities have the staying power of this private layout that is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2010. “We’re still a needle in a haystack,” said general manager Jon Bailey. “Our name is out there, but it’s still quite a place.” Indeed it is. Edgewood Valley’s longstanding motto has been “golf for golfers.” Its caddie program has sent 86 young bagtoters to college on Evans Scholarships, and this year one of Edgewood’s array
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Edgewood Valley has had plenty of momentous occasions to celebrate as it turns 100 By Len Ziehm
of good players, Bennett Blakeman, qualified for the U.S. Open. The club got its roots from some avid golfers at nearby LaGrange Country Club. They apparently didn’t care for LaGrange’s policy of not allowing play on Sundays, so they formed a club of their own on 43 acres that had been the site of an abandoned residential development. A nine-hole course was ready for play for 100 members in the spring of 1910 and the clubhouse was a converted barn in which roller skates had been manufactured. By 1920, the club was ready to expand, exercising an option to stretch to 83 acres; back then, that was consid-
ered enough for an 18-hole layout. The finished product measured 5,900 yards and played to a par ]of 70. While little information is available about the course’s creation, it must have been a good test because one of its members, Dewey Weber, beat the legendary Chick Evans en route to winning the CDGA Amateur title the first year the 18-hole course was open. Weber wasn’t the whole show at Edgewood Valley then, either. Another member, Gus Novotny, carded a 62 in the early 1920s, which stood as the record when that course was sold to a developer for $300,000 in 1924. The following year, club members
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PHOTOS BY BUZZ ORR/CDGA
Edgewood Valley Country Club opened its doors for the first time in the spring of 1910.
chose to move it to the 184-acre Willis Ward farm, land on which the current course is located. Like the original course, it’s officially located in LaGrange, but Bailey says parts of the property are in Burr Ridge, Indian Head Park, Countryside and Hodgkins. Construction began immediately after the land was acquired, with William Diddle the architect in charge. Diddle had designed several courses in his native Indiana, but Edgewood Valley was his first venture outside the Hoosier State. He would later design nearly 250 courses nationwide, including another prominent club in the Chicago suburbs: Sunset Ridge in Northbrook. In its early years the club was known as Edgewood Golf Club, but that name did not work. For one thing, there was a public course, and still is, by the same name on the north side of Chicago. There were also courses named Edgewater and Edgebrook. The new clubhouse also expanded the members’ horizons, and when the new course opened on May 1, 1926, it was called Edgewood Valley Country Club. The new course was much more challenging than the old one, and it SEPTEMBER 2010
had to undergo some changes following the construction of the Tri-State Tollway in the 1960s. Other alterations were made over the years and a 2005 renovation resulted in major changes to the bunkering. Still, Edgewood Valley remained a Bill Diddle design. In its present shape it measures 6,807 yards from the back tees and 5,662 from the front with par at 72. While Edgewood Valley rarely has been a major tournament venue, it has been the site of some significant competitions. Topping that list is the 2006 Illinois State Amateur Championship. That long-prestigious event had one of its most memorable stagings at Edgewood Valley when Rob Grube, then a student at Stanford, toured the 72 holes in 71-67-69-67, or 11 under par. None of the other contestants could even break par, and Grube’s best score of the week, those second- and fourth-round 67s, remain the competitive course record. “We’ve had members shoot 66 from the back tees and 65 from the white,” said Chuck Kletcke, the head professional for 14 seasons after three as an assistant at the club. “We also heard that another member, Art Huff, shot 63 back in the late 1960s. But we
can’t confirm that.” A young Tiger Woods also took a liking to the layout. He played it in a Western Junior in 1992 when he was 16 years old, and teamed up with Ernie Els in forming a youth team competition that was played at Edgewood Valley in 2006. Edgewood Valley has remained, first and foremost, a place for its members to play and one of them, Robert McCarthy, still is a regular player at age 93. He joined the club in 1955. While club members haven’t pushed for big events, they did make some splashes in honor of the centennial. A new members event, the Diddle Cup, was played on the Fourth of July and another new event, the Tournament of Champions, is on tap for Sept. 18. Denis Savard, the legendary hockey star, also brought his first celebrity charity event to Edgewood Valley in August. All of those events serve as lead-ins to the Sept. 25 Centennial Bash, the highlight of which will come when Corky DeWitt, age 96 and a member since 1944, will become the first woman given honorary membership to the club. Four men have been so honored previously. Len Ziehm is recently retired after a long career covering golf and other sports for the Chicago Sun-Times. C H I C A G O D I S T R I C T G O L F E R | 19
ILLINOIS
State Amateur
Slow out of the starting gate, Vince India then shifted his game into high gear and ran off with the Illinois State Amateur crown By Rich Skyzinski
o golfer knows what’s around the next corner. That’s one of the game’s endearing qualities. Just as the highest handicapper can put a shot into the hole from the next area code, the most talented players, on occasion, inexplicably lose the ability to hit a fairway as wide as Kansas. And so it was when the 80th Illinois State Amateur Championship made its first visit inside the Chicago city limits, to the historic grounds of Beverly Country Club, in mid-August. Vince India, a 21-year-old senior at the University of Iowa, got off to such an ugly start, it left his father and caddie, Dan, to suggest they settle for some lesser goals the rest of the day. “I just said, ‘Let’s try to have a good time. Let’s enjoy the day,’ ” Dan India recalled. What kickstarted his son was a cross-country par putt he had no business making. He was 4 over par after six holes of his first round, but when he drained a 50-foot par that covered virtually the entire breadth of the 16th green, it was as though a switch had been flipped. From there he progressively turned the event into his own personal highlight reel, and though he toyed with a couple of records he did not attain, he wound up lapping the field when 72 holes were in the books. His 10-under-par total of 274 was a distant seven strokes ahead of runners-up Bennett Blakeman of Burr Ridge, a 23-year-old graduate student, and Blake Johnson, a 41-yearold commercial real estate executive from Winnetka. A group of three, two-time champion Todd Mitchell, Clayton Parkhill and Andy Mickelson, tied for fourth place and completed a
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PHOTOS BY FRANK POLICH/CDGA
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short list of five players who were able to stay within 10 shots Johnson, who took note of his final-round 70 that included of the champion. what he considered a rare full house of three 2s and two 7s. “This is up there with the bigger wins,” said India, who was “And that takes some learning,” he continued, “to try to stay critical of his inability to play well down the stretch a month within yourself, and it’s especially frustrating when you’re not earlier at the CDGA Amateur, where he finished second. “I playing well. still have the U.S. Amateur, but this is a good wrap-up to the “The hardest thing for a working guy is that you have to summer and I hope it’ll kickstart my college season.” practice. If you come out and try to play with these guys Over the last 10 holes of his first round, India was 7 under without practicing as much as you need to, you’re asking for par and missed a couple of chances that could have turned his second-nine 30 into a once-in-a-lifetime LINOIS STA T E A MAMATEUR A T E U R | RA NKINGS 80THI LILLINOIS STATE CHAMPIONSHIP scorecard. He missed birdie putts of 4 and 12 feet, then ROUNDS lipped out at his last hole. “It was a lot of fun to watch Beverly Country Club | Aug. 10-12 | Par 36-35—71 | 6,960 yards 1 2 3 4 that,” said Dan India. POSITION PLAYER HOMETOWN 1 2 3 4 TOTAL “I don’t know what it was,” added Vince. “The first six 4 1 1 1 • Vince India Deerfield 68 67 69 70 274 holes, it felt weird being on a golf course. My swing T16 T9 T4 T2 Blake Johnson Winnetka 71 71 69 70 281 didn’t feel right. It was like a different person out there 1 2 T4 T2 • Bennett Blakeman Burr Ridge 65 72 74 70 281 playing the game, which was really strange. I’m 4 over T16 T14 T10 T4 • Todd Mitchell Bloomington 71 73 72 67 283 after six and then made 7 birdies on the last 10. I don’t 3 3 6 T4 Clayton Parkhill Champaign 67 71 74 71 283 think I’ve ever done something stupid like that before.” T30 T18 8 T4 Andy Mickelson Lockport 73 72 69 69 283 When he added the best score of the day in Round 2, T9 4 2 7 • Ravi Patel Evanston 70 69 69 78 286 a 4-under-par 67 that gave him the lead for good, the Roselle 66 75 72 74 287 2 T6 7 8 • Dan Stringfellow rout was on. His advantage grew to five shots as he T24 T9 3 T9 Eric Chun Evanston 72 70 68 78 288 played his last hole of the third round, and as he crossed under 87th Street for his final nine holes, he was T5 5 T10 T9 • Brad Hopfinger Lake Forest 69 71 76 72 288 comfortably clear by seven. T41 T23 T13 T9 Andrew Wyatt Lake Forest 74 72 71 71 288 “It was nice,” said India of his final-round stroll T9 T6 T15 T12 Chris Brant Edwardsville 70 71 77 71 289 around Beverly in which his lead grew to as many as T9 T18 T13 T12 • Luke Guthrie Quincy 70 75 72 72 289 eight shots. “On the back there was a point where I just T5 T9 9 T14 Andy Johnson Lake Bluff 69 73 73 75 290 wanted to obliterate the field, but I put it on cruise T16 T6 T10 T14 Brian Colbert Cary 71 70 75 74 290 control for the final five holes. Just tried to par in from T24 T18 T15 16 • Craig McDonnell Evergreen Park 72 73 73 73 291 there.” T24 T9 T15 T17 David Griffin Effingham 72 70 76 75 293 India’s victory also served as a heads-up that the T30 T29 T18 T17 Michael Davan Hoopeston 73 74 72 74 293 Hawkeyes could be a team to watch in the upcoming Samuel Chien Evanston 69 74 78 73 294 T5 13 T22 T19 season, which would be a rather dramatic departure T41 T23 T20 T19 John Wright Aurora 74 72 74 74 294 from their recent history. The last time Iowa had any measurable Big Ten T30 T18 T18 T21 Grant Whybark Morris 73 72 74 77 296 success was in 1992, when it won the team title and T5 T14 T22 T21 Brian Hickey Downers Grove 69 75 77 75 296 featured the conference championship medalist in T30 T23 T27 T21 Travis England Moline 73 73 76 74 296 Bradley Klapprott. But in the ensuing 19 seasons, the T9 T14 T22 T24 Jay Dempsey Glencoe 70 74 77 78 299 Hawkeyes have finished among the bottom three teams T16 T29 T27 T24 • Ryan Dorner Glenview 71 76 75 77 299 at the Big Ten Championship no fewer than 10 times. T41 T29 T33 26 Andrew Frame Manteno 74 73 78 75 300 But perhaps a turnaround is imminent. Iowa finished T9 T18 T31 T27 Adam Saban Lockport 70 75 79 77 301 second to Illinois last year, and a number of Hawkeyes T30 T29 T27 T27 Dylan Gergen Chicago 73 74 75 79 301 enjoyed successful summers and good weeks at Beverly, Hudson 75 71 75 81 302 T54 T23 T22 29 • Sean Dozier where three of them—India, Chris Brant and Brad T85 T23 T22 T30 Blake Biddle St. Charles 78 68 75 82 303 Hopfinger—occupied half of the top six places after 36 T30 T29 35 T30 Thomas O’Bryan Aurora 73 74 79 77 303 holes. (Hopfinger finished in a tie for ninth and Brant was T-12.) T24 T29 30 32 Jacob Schertz Byron 72 75 76 81 304 It was the second runner-up effort from Johnson, T9 T29 T33 33 Stephen Skurla Wheaton 70 77 78 80 305 who also was the next closest finisher when Ravi Patel, T30 T29 T31 T34 • Tom Portner Mount Vernon 73 74 77 83 307 now a Northwestern University senior, won in 2007. But Eric Burch Machesney Park 72 72 76 87 307 T24 T14 T20 T34 he recognizes his biggest liability: the fact that, as a T16 T23 36 Vince Antoniou North Barrington 71 75 81 WD working stiff, he’s trying to compete against a brigade of NOTES: college players who are able to practice virtually all day, • = Exempt from qualifying for the 2010 Illinois State Amateur every day. = A move up of 10 or more places = A move down of 10 or more places Top 15 finishers earn exemptions from qualifying for the 2011 Illinois State Amateur. “Eric (Chun) hit it 50 yards past me all day,” said SEPTEMBER 2010
C H I C A G O D I S T R I C T G O L F E R | 21
Blake Johnson
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trouble. . . . I made 20 birdies this week, but you throw in a few working-man doubles and a couple of desk-job threeputts and there you have it.” Johnson was especially proud of his final birdie: a 10-footer with eight feet of break at the dastardly par-3 17th. “Maybe one of the best putts I’ve ever made in my life,” he called it. Blakeman, who qualified for the U.S. Open earlier in the summer, was paired with India for the last 36 holes. “He just played too well,” said Blakeman. “I had 35 putts and then 33 today and that’s not going to challenge anyone.” Especially Vince India. ILLINOIS STATE AMATEUR RECAP PLAYER
ROUND 1
Blakeman, a graduate student at Loyola University Chicago, came within one shot of tying Beverly's course record, but India grabbed his share of attention by playing his final 10 holes at 7 under par and shooting a 30 on his second nine.
ROUND 2
CyberKnife Center of Chicago is a service of Elmhurst Memorial Hospital.
-6
Stringfellow
-5
Parkhill
-4
India
-3
Hickey
-2
A. Johnson
-2
Chien
-2
Hopfinger
-2
PLAYER
India's 5-under 67, the best round of the day, led a group of three University of Iowa players in the top six spots. Failing to advance were John Ehrgott, a two-time Illinois State Mid-Amateur champion, and Dave Ryan, the defending Illinois State Senior Amateur winner who bogeyed his final three holes to miss by one. ROUND 3
Elmhurst Memorial Hospital / Radiation Oncology Department 200 Berteau Avenue, Elmhurst, Illinois 60126 630-758-5588 / ChicagoCK.com
Blakeman
India
-7
Blakeman
-5
Parkhill
-4
Patel
-3
Hopfinger
-2
Colbert
-1
Brant
-1
Stringfellow
-1
PLAYER
India’s lead was just one after a bogey at the third, but by the time he reached the 18th his advantage had grown to five. Patel, the 2007 champion, stayed in contention with two great bunker shots: to 3 inches to save par at the par-3 10th and to 12 feet out of a fairway bunker at the 18th, where he made birdie.
India
-9
Patel
-5
Chun
-3
B. Johnson
-2
Blakeman
-2
Parkhill
-1
Stringfellow Mickelson
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ILLINOIS
State Amateur STATE AMATEUR NOTEBOOK
A short highlight reel from Beverly s a longtime sports anchor with WGN-TV in Chicago, Dan Roan has introduced and shown highlights from all of the city’s celebrated sports stories over the past quarter-century. It would have been quite a kick had Roan, 57, the oldest player in the field, been able to add some personal highlights from the Illinois State Amateur, but whatever footage exists from the 36 holes he played at Beverly evidently settled on the cutting room floor. He wasn’t a contender to qualify for the final 36 after shooting 75-83. It was the first Illinois State Amateur for Roan, who estimates he had tried to qualify 10 times since the late 1970s. In fact, he believed he had fallen short again this year after his qualifier at Maple Meadows Golf Club in Wood Dale. “I was in a group at 71 and there were already nine players at 70 or better,” he explained. “We were not in. So you grin and bear it and go on to the next senior event. Then I got an e-mail from the CDGA that said we were in the field. It was very nice to get that e-mail.” (His qualifying site had
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not reached its alotted number of players, so he was notified after the fact.) After his opening round, Roan went to work and did not get on his way home until 1 a.m., which made for a short sleep that ended with a 6:00 wake-up call for his spot in one of the two opening groups in Round 2. “That’s not an excuse,” he said. “I hit some shots OK, hit some not so well. In all the events I’ve played before, I never had any nerves. But I’d have to tell you that I was nervous yesterday.” • The bounce-back effort of the week belonged to 19-year-old Blake Biddle of St. Charles, who, after opening with a birdieless 7-over-par 78, shaved 10 strokes off his score in Round 2 and passed 62 players. Among his four second-round birdies was one of just six 2s of the day at one of Beverly’s most difficult holes, the 209-yard 17th. “In the first round, everything went bad,” said Biddle, a freshman at the University of NevadaLas Vegas. “Everything was close but nothing
went in. In the second round I got off the tee really well. I scrapped it around, hit the center of just about every green, and made a few putts.” Though he trailed 84 players after his opening 18 holes, Biddle went out for the second round with a refocused determination. “I told myself I needed to shoot 68 or better to make the cut,” Biddle recalled after his third round. “But now I need to go back out and get back the four shots I just threw away.” • As the reigning club champion at Beverly, Craig McDonnell was awarded the host club’s one exemption from qualifying. The 50-year-old, a five-time Beverly club champion since 2000, acquitted himself nicely by making the 36-hole cut and finishing 16th, just one shot shy of gaining a 2011 exemption. “You still have to hit the shots,” he said. “The advantage here is knowing where to put it in the fairway so you can attack the pins. And there are certain putts you simply don’t want. Sometimes you’d rather have a 10- or 15-footer instead of a 6-footer that’s downhill or sidehill.” • Throughout his golf career, Mark Esposito, a 52-year-old financial consultant from
STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND CIRCULATION Required by 39 USC 3685 Title of Publication: Chicago District Golfer; Publication Number: 014-008; Date of filing: September 1, 2010; Frequency of issue: Varies; Number of issues published annually: 6; Annual subscription price: $15.00; Known office of publication: Chicago District Golf Association, Midwest Golf House, 11855 Archer Ave., Lemont, IL 60439; Publisher’s general business office: Chicago District Golf Association, Midwest Golf House, 11855 Archer Ave., Lemont, IL 60439; Publisher’s name and address: Robert Markionni, Chicago District Golf Association, Midwest Golf House, 11855 Archer Ave., Lemont, IL 60439 ; Editor: Rich Skyzinski, Turnstile Publishing, 1500 Park Center Drive, Orlando, Florida, 32835, Orange County; Managing Editor: Matt Baylor, Chicago District Golf Association, Midwest Golf House, 11855 Archer Ave., Lemont, IL 60439; Owner: Chicago District Golf Association, Midwest Golf House, 11855 Archer Ave., Lemont, IL 60439. Known bondholders, mortgages and other security holders: None; Extent of circulation (average number of copies during preceding 12 months): Total Number of Copies 60,526, Paid/Requested Outside-County Mail 59,977, Total Paid and/or Requested Circulation 59,977, Free Distribution Outside of the Mail 551, Total Free Distribution 551, Total Distribution 60,526, Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation 99.09%. Actual Number of Copies of Single Issue Published Nearest to Filing Date 59,563, Paid/Requested Outside-County Mail 59,012, Total Paid and/or Requested Circulation 59,012, Free Distribution Outside of the Mail 551, Total Free Distribution 551, Total Distribution 59,563, Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation 99.07%.
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Naperville, had holed 18 shots from 100 yards out or longer on par 4s or 5s. “But never a hole-in-one,” he chided. That drought came to an end in the opening round when he aced his third hole of the day, Beverly’s 165-yard 12th, with a 7-iron. “Hit about that far in front of the hole,” said Esposito, holding two fingers about three inches apart, “and it jumped right in.” Alas, the ace did not spur Esposito onto bigger and better things. Though he was 1 under through 12 holes, he finished with a turbulent six-hole stretch that included four bogeys and two doubles en route to a 7-over-par 78. “If I told you, no one would believe me,” said Esposito when asked about the disparity on his card. “I just played terribly.” • Notes: India was as low as 11 under par during his final nine holes, threatening to match the record of 13 under set by Jerry Haas at Mt. Hawley Country Club in Peoria in 1984. . . . Bloomington’s Todd Mitchell, a two-time champion, had the low score on the 36-hole final day, a 4-under 67 on his 32nd birthday. —Rich Skyzinski
SEPTEMBER 2010
Blake Biddle
C H I C A G O D I S T R I C T G O L F E R | 25
When Patricia Koch won the Evanston Golf Club women's championship this year, she ran her incredible record to 20 titles By Amy Parker
plaque adorns a tree at the 16th hole at Evanston Golf Club. Engraved on it are each of 17 years that Patricia Koch won the women’s club championship, and perhaps because that’s become such a formality, her wins in 2008 and ’09 still haven’t been added. If the club has been waiting to update the plaque one final time, so that it manages to include all her victories, that moment finally has arrived. When Koch, 76, won her most recent club championship in August, it was her 20th—and last. “I decided that if I win another, an even 20, I’ll retire from competition,” she said after this year’s opening round. That’s not a bad career for someone who took up the game rather late in life. After growing up in Minneapolis, she moved to Chicago in 1966 when her husband was transferred. After living in Naperville for six years, she was divorced,
PHOTOS BY FRANK POLICH
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moved to the Winnetka area and remarried. Finding herself married to an avid golfer, Koch, a mother of five, jumped on the chance to play a sport that had intrigued her. So, at age 35, she took lessons and began learning the game that would lead to an impressive amateur career with numerous wins spanning three decades. An athlete all her life, Koch played on sports teams, but her involvement in golf was limited to watching the pros play when the PGA Tour visited St. Paul. Thanks to a natural athletic ability, it was no surprise she took to golf. She was talented enough to take a 25 handicap and get it as low as 4. “I never set specific goals,” Koch said. “I just tried to lower my score and do the things that were necessary to get a lower handicap. It was a chance to get out and play something I’ve always wanted to play.” W W W. C D G A . O R G
Of all the club championships, one that stands out was her first in 1981, which, perhaps surprisingly, she did not win. Back then the format was match play and Koch was 4 down at one point during the final. By the time the match found its way to the 18th hole, Koch had managed to get it to all square. Then she hit her third shot, and with a splash it went into the water and ended her chance at victory. But Koch came back the next year, in 1982, and won. “Golf is something I can do that I’m good at,” she said. “A lot of people are artists or pianists or do a lot of other things, but I play golf. When I won my 10th I got to thinking, maybe I could keep this up.” When a plaque was made to commemorate Koch’s accomplishments, room was wisely left for more titles that have yet to be added.
Koch has displayed her talents outside of her home club. She also has won six club championships at The Landings in Savannah, Ga., where she and her husband reside about half the year. She also has made two holes-in-one, one in 2007 and one in ’09, and has shot her age or lower a handful of times.
“It was a chance to get out and play something I’ve always wanted to play.” —Patricia Koch
Patricia Koch
SEPTEMBER 2010
But now, Koch has found that age has begun to make its impact on her game. She she can’t hit the ball as far as she used to—“I have to hit two real good shots to reach some of these par 4s,” she says—and she has had some trouble with her left knee, which is scheduled to be replaced in December.
“I think the fact that I’m still playing at 76 and still with a decent handicap is not too bad,” said Koch, who still is solidly in single digits. “In the last couple years I’ve lost distance. It didn’t happen, though, until the last few years.” Though Koch says she’s highly competitive on the golf course but not in other aspects of her life, she has been particularly fond of the social aspects and the friendships the game has fostered throughout her career. She and her husband have traveled to all of the world’s top golf destinations, such as England, Scotland and Ireland, but also to lesser-known locales: Australia, Portugal, Spain, Germany and even the Czech Republic. “It’s been a great way to make friends and socialize and also because my husband and I both do it,” Koch said. “It’s been good for us to do together. It’s just been a very nice social thing, more so than winning the championships, being able to have friends through golf. I love that. You can play golf all your life if you want to.” Not only has Koch done that, but along the way she managed to craft a local legend. And eventually there will be a new and complete plaque at Evanston Golf Club to prove it. C H I C A G O D I S T R I C T G O L F E R | 27
W E S T E R N A M AT E U R
ONE-TWO PUNCH A week removed from winning one major amateur title, David Chung wasted no time grabbing another at the Western Amateur By Sean Martin
here was a Chicago-area player involved in the final match at the 2010 Western Amateur, though not in the capacity that local fans would have liked. Wilson Bowen of Winnetka, Ill., caddied for his Stanford University teammate, David Chung, in the final at Skokie Country Club in Glencoe. Bowen got a front-row seat for an impressive ballstriking display that netted Chung yet another prestigious amateur title.
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David Chung PHOTO BY DAVID BANKS/WGA
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BRAD BENJAMIN (T101)
Chung beat UCLA’s Gregor Main, 2 and 1, in the final, hitting 15 of 17 greens in regulation and 10 of 12 fairways to beat his Pac-10 rival. “The Western Amateur is definitely the biggest tournament I’ve won,” said Chung, who credited a recent lesson with Adam Schreiber, instructor to Anthony Kim, for his good play.
LUKE GUTHRIE (T32)
Main was something of a local favorite; his paternal grandparents were members at Skokie in the 1970s. Main had never seen the course, though. Any local knowledge may not have helped against Chung, who has quickly developed into one of the country’s top amateurs. Chung’s victory came one week after he won the prestigious Porter Cup near Niagara Falls, N.Y. Chung, a thirdteam All-American, also won the 2009 North and South. Bowen had competed in the Western Amateur himself but missed the 36-hole cut. He wasn’t the only player with local ties to exit early. No Illinois residents,
or players at Illinois universities, made the Sweet 16 this year, a stark contrast from the 2009 championship at Conway Farms when two players from Illinois, Percy’s Zach Barlow and Highland Park’s Kyle Kopsick, made the Sweet 16. Barlow lost in the final to Kent State’s John Hahn, who missed the 54-hole cut in his title defense. After 54 holes of stroke play at Skokie, Texas Christian University’s Tom Hoge and high school student Cheng-Tsung Pan shared medalist honors at 6-under 207. Pan also was medalist at the 2009 Western Amateur. Hinsdale’s Scott Rowe turned in the best performance by a player with ties to the Chicago District, narrowly missing a Sweet 16 berth for the second consecutive year. The 35-year-old shot 3-over 216 to miss a playoff for the final match-play spots by two shots. “I think I have five or six more years where I can make it in there,” Rowe said.
PHOTO BY DAVID BANKS/WGA
“It’s a grueling format, and the match-play element of it makes it mentally demanding. It’s an
endurance test.” — David Chung
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PHOTOS BY CHARLES CHERNEY
SCOTT LANGLEY (T38)
The fact that Rowe was even in contention to make match play is impressive in itself. While many of his college-aged opponents were playing practice rounds the day before the event, Rowe only came to the course during a break from his job as a banking associate at J.P. Morgan. Rowe went to work after his first round of stroke play, then went into the office before the second round, hitting just one practice ball before he teed off. He uttered a refrain you wouldn’t have heard from many other players in the Western field. “I’ve been fortunate to get a lot of work in this week,” Rowe said. Rowe was once one of these college phenoms. He was a three-time AllAmerican at Northwestern and two-time Big Ten Player of the Year. Rowe, who made the Sweet 16 at the 1994 and ’95 Western Ams, regained his amateur status in 2004 after a professional career that included a stint on the European Tour. Skokie Country Club, site of Gene Sarazen’s 1922 U.S. Open victory, made a tough tournament even tougher. Slick, undulating greens and U.S. Open-caliber rough challenged the best amateurs in the world, including some who had recently performed admirably in major championships. University of Illinois senior Scott SEPTEMBER 2010
BRAD HOPFINGER (T71)
Langley couldn’t reproduce his impressive form at the Western Amateur. Langley won the NCAA Championship and tied for 16th at the U.S. Open earlier this year, but came to historic Skokie off form. “I struggled with everything,” Langley said. “I was happy to make the 36-hole cut, the way I was playing.” Other players to make the 36-hole cut include the University of Illinois’ Chris DeForest (T-32), Luke Guthrie (T-32) and Mason Jacobs (T-40), Vince India (T44), of Deerfield and Chicago’s Maxwell Scodro (T-52). Another player who’d recently competed in a major championship, Northwestern’s Eric Chun, was unable to make the Western’s 36-hole cut. Chun, who missed the cut at the British Open, shot 74-76 at Skokie. Even Jin Jeong, the No. 1 player in the Golfweek/amateurgolf.com Rankings and recent low amateur at the British Open, couldn’t make the cut. He shot 75-76 for an early exit. The Western Amateur is often called the toughest test in amateur golf. The champion has to play eight rounds in five days to claim one of the world’s most prestigious amateur titles (one round of stroke play was canceled this year because of rain). The challenge makes the victory that much more rewarding. “It’s a grueling format, and the match-play element of it makes it men-
tally demanding,” Chung said. “It’s an endurance test.” Chung passed with flying colors. Sean Martin is a writer for Golfweek magazine in Orlando, Fla.
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Hank Haney, who has worked with golf’s No. 1 player, returns to Chicago and talks about the multitude of problems that affect the games of amateur golfers everywhere ank Haney is perhaps best known as being the instructor for Tiger Woods, a working relationship that came to end shortly after this year’s Masters. But Haney, who turned 55 in late August, long has been considered one of the country’s pre-eminent teachers of the golf swing. He was named the PGA of America’s teacher of the year in 1993 and has been a fixture on the national magazine lists of America’s best instructors for the better part of the last two decades. Haney, the 1976 CDGA Junior Match Play champion, recently visited Chicago to participate in a clinic organized and conducted by BMW, at which time Chicago District Golfer managed to chat with him briefly in order to get his thoughts on what ails most of his amateur pupils.
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CDG: Most American players are apt to believe they can improve their game by walking into a discount golf store rather than spending time and money on lessons. Why do you think that belief is so widespread? Hank Haney: It’s hope. They hope they buy a game rather
than work at one. It’s also fun to experiment and try new clubs. But, and there’s no doubt about it, you’ve got to really work at the game if you’re going to get better, and getting some good lessons will really help. CDG: What’s the bigger problem for most golfers, not putting in the time to practice or not knowing how to practice? Haney: Not knowing how to practice is a bigger issue. If
you’re going to get better, you have to be able to diagnose your situation, then make a plan to fix it. That’s where most people have a problem with golf. Golf is so hard to understand. It’s so complicated. There’s so many moving parts. Not making a plan is where most people stumble. GETTY IMAGES
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Hank Haney
CDG: What’s the easiest tip you can provide to make an amateur’s practice session more productive? Haney: Have a specific plan going out. Know what you’re W W W. C D G A . O R G
CDG: How many strokes does the average player throw away by playing with clubs that haven’t been fitted for their game or their swing? Haney: Good question. Using clubs
that aren’t fitted properly really affects a player who is less or more than an average height because clubs are made for the average individual, and most people are in the 5-foot-7 to 5-foot-10 range. If you’re in that range, clubTiger Woods began working on his swing with Hank Haney in 2004, but six years later, fitting probably isn’t too big of a deal. Woods decided to go it alone. But if you’re over 6 feet or under 5foot-6, there’s a good chance you could improve if your clubs think about anything and expect to improve. But, if you are fitted properly. No matter what your height, getting clubs think of too many things, it’ll bog you down and you won’t fine-tuned for you will help you get more distance and be able to do a thing. improve your game. CDG: How many bad habits do players develop by picking up the game without learning the proper fundamentals first? Haney: Everybody has bad habits and they’re not easy to
change. I wish I could say that if you start like this you’ll never have a bad habit. But correcting bad habits is just part of golf. There’s no way to avoid that.
“You’ve got to think about something if you’re going to change your swing. You can’t go out and not think about anything and expect to improve.” — Hank Haney
CDG: The late Harvey Penick, a legendary instructor, wrote in his “Little Red Book” that most mistakes are made before the club is even swung. Do you agree with that? Haney: I do. Having the proper grip, stance, posture and
alignment are big, big issues if you’re to get the swing started in the right way. If you don’t have the right setup, you’ve got no chance to make a good swing. CDG: How many swing thoughts can a player focus on without risking information overload? Haney: I usually think a couple—one on the backswing, one
on the downswing. You’ve got to think about something if you’re going to change your swing. You can’t go out and not SEPTEMBER 2010
CDG: Which has been more important, the improving technology in equipment or in golf balls? Haney: Definitely the improvement in clubs. The ball issue
has been overdone. The ball goes further, no doubt about it, but how much further does it go for the average golfer? Now the equipment, especially the woods, are easier to hit. The driver is longer and you’ll hit it longer, too. The woods have created a big change, no doubt about it. CDG: Have players improved at an equal rate with the improvement in technology? Haney: I think so. Golf Digest is always pointing out that the
handicap of the average individual hasn’t gone down, but golf courses have gotten so much more difficult than they used to be. The greens are faster, the rough is tougher, the (bunkers) are deeper and courses are much longer. We have a lot of players leaving the game and beginners coming in, and that skewers what the average handicap is. Golf has a steep learning curve. As we get older, we get slower and less flexible. So, if your handicap stays the same, you’ve really improved. You’re fighting time, so in that way you’re improving if you’re just staying the same. CDG: Can a 25-handicapper sitting on the sofa, watching a televised tour event, actually learn anything from the super slow-motion replays of the world’s best players that they can then apply to their game? Haney: One thing you do see is people trying different
things when they go out to practice. Whether they can do it or not, they like to try. They like to experiment. (TV analyst) Peter Kostis does an incredible job of analyzing people’s swings. He keeps its simple. Watching that can help an average golfer and give him or her a chance to get better. C H I C A G O D I S T R I C T G O L F E R | 33
PHOTO BY JAMIE SQUIRE/GETTY IMAGES
going to work on. It’s a great idea to take some notes on how things went and what you worked on. That’ll give you a chance to improve the next time you go out.
DESTINATION
Wales
MAJOR
Addition
Hopeful of riding the attention devoted to this year’s Ryder Cup, Wales is working to be included as a top international golf destination
By Rich Skyzinski
ome golfers collect logoed balls. Others collect golf pencils, scorecards, bag tags or ball markers. Still others collect courses: sites selected for top-100 lists or those where major championships have been played. The newest addition to this last list of collectibles is the Twenty Ten
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Course at Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales, the site of the Ryder Cup to be played Oct. 1-3. (This year’s Ryder Cup also marks the start of the two-year countdown to 2012, when it visits the No. 3 Course at Medinah Country Club.) For decades, Americans have faithfully made the pilgrimage to the W W W. C D G A . O R G
PHOTOS COURTESY CELTIC MANOR RESORT
Top: The 14th hole at Celtic Manor’s Twenty Ten Course; and (bottom) the resort’s recently renovated Forum Spa. SEPTEMBER 2010
United Kingdom to enjoy links golf. They’ve toured Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland to play the kind of courses that, until the creation of Bandon Dunes, largely did not exist at home. England has been, to a far lesser degree, only a mild attraction. But with the Ryder Cup visiting Wales for the first time, that country is making a push to international golfers. The logical landing point for a Welsh golf trip is the Celtic Manor Resort, just 10 miles from the capital city of Cardiff (or a relatively easy twohour drive west from London) and a centerpiece of a 1,400-acre plot that houses three golf courses on site. The resort was the idea of Terry Matthews, the first Welsh billionaire; he made his fortune in the high-tech communications industry. Matthews’ connection to Celtic Manor goes back his entire lifetime—literally. One of the two hotels on site was formerly a maternity home where Matthews was born. He bought Celtic Manor in 1980 and promptly invested more than £100 million (158.6 million U.S. dollars) into a massive renovation. The result has been well received; Celtic Manor has been honored as the country’s best hotel and it has been voted the U.K.’s top conference hotel in four of the last five years. Consider the Ryder Cup the resort’s coming-out celebration. DAY 1
Provided you’ve slept on the overnight flight and still have some energy, tee it up on the Roman Road Course. This is a good way to open the trip. The course, previously the site of the European Tour’s Wales Open, is wide open in places and there are some fun shots to play, like the approach at the par-4 10th, which calls for a shot off a downhill lie and across a chasm. Though not nearly as difficult as the eighth at Pebble Beach, the rewards are similar; the pleasure of seeing your ball land safely on the green side of the divide is quite satisfying. Given the choice to walk or ride, take note: The course can be a bit of a hike with a golf bag on your shoulders. But the course also winds right in front C H I C A G O D I S T R I C T G O L F E R | 35
The clubhouse at the Twenty Ten Course will serve as a great vantage point for the 18th hole, where a shaved bank leading to the green of the par-5 is certain to get its share of action.
of the resort, so even if a golfer has only 12 or 13 holes in him, a perfect jumping-off spot has been provided. Afterward, if it’s a refreshment that’s needed, the right choice from Merlin's Bar, just off the main lobby, is bound to do the trick. The way to go is with the British burger. But be prepared. You never have seen such a monster. It’s stacked a good 5 or 6 inches high via a mountain of accompaniments: onion, cheese, bacon, cucumbers, tomato and what looks to be about quarter-head of lettuce, and it’s a job in itself just managing to get it in your hands. If you finish this, the only thing you’ll need is help getting up from the table. The attention-getting burger comes with an attention-getting price: £15, or about $23. Or a trip to the spa might be the tonic to work out the kinks from a transatlantic trip in coach class. The Forum Spa offers two pools, saunas, an expansive exercise room and 17 individually appointed treatment rooms. Mix-and-match packages are available that combine signature wraps, facials, massage treatments and baths. DAY 2
The Montgomerie Course, opened in 2007 and designed by the Scot that 36 | C H I C A G O D I S T R I C T G O L F E R
will captain this year’s European Ryder Cup team, winds up, around and through the countryside, a mix of dense woodland and open meadows. Like the Roman Road Course, this can be a bit of a strenuous hike for walkers, but players generally will hit every club in the bag and be faced with an assortment of fun shots. For those with an interest in history
among the findings on the Twenty Ten site was a Roman watch tower, a grave site that included a preserved soldier, villa foundations and a collection of pottery and kilns. DAY 3
Celtic Manor’s centerpiece is the Twenty Ten Course, constructed in 2008 specifically for the 2010 Ryder Cup.
Celtic Manor’s centerpiece is the Twenty Ten Course, constructed specifically for the 2010 Ryder Cup . . . and archeology, the Newport area is teeming with stories of discovery and countless stops that are within an hour drive can be made. When the Twenty Ten Course was being constructed, it was rerouted no fewer than 12 times because of historical finds. Wales was one of the last fortifications of the Roman Empire, and
If there is one spectacular aspect of this course, it is that it offers a virtually unlimited number of great viewing platforms. With a good pair of binoculars, a viewer can get to one strategic point on high ground and see play on all or parts of six holes. That is a bonus for an event such as the Ryder Cup, where spectator viewing often is hamW W W. C D G A . O R G
There is no shortage of great views from parts of the Twenty Ten Course.
pered by large crowds trying to follow a small number of players. The final three holes of the Twenty Ten were positioned alongside a hillside of the Usk Valley, creating a natural amphitheatre that might easily accommodate tens of thousands of spectators. The most memorable hole at the Twenty Ten is the par-4 15th, a sharp dogleg right. The hole can be played conventionally with a fairway wood and a short iron, but a gap in the trees of this crescent-shaped hole also makes this a potentially drivable hole for a long-hitting risk-taker. Expect this hole to be receive a great deal of attention at the Ryder Cup, especially in team matches. DAY 4
Most golfers don’t want to fly across the ocean without enjoying links golf, so a drive to Royal Porthcawl, located on the country’s southern coast, will satisfy these cravings. Long considered to be the best course in Wales, Royal Porthcawl was the site of the 1995 Walker Cup, an event that was noteworthy in at least two respects. The Great Britain & Ireland team, which included Padraig Harrington, defeated the U.S., 14-10, SEPTEMBER 2010
giving GB&I a then-unprecedented spurt of two wins in the span of three matches. In the final singles match on the first day, GB&I’s spirits were given a tremendous boost when Gary Wolstenholme pulled off an upset of Tiger Woods, 1 up, a match in which Woods hit two balls out of bounds, one at the par-5 fifth and one at the 18th that came to rest alongside the clubhouse. To say they don’t make clubs like Royal Porthcawl these days is an understatement. The club, site of six British Amateurs dating back to 1891, has had four head professionals in its history. The most notable quirk about the course is that it includes intersecting holes; a drive off the first tee used most often crosses the 18th fairway about 100 yards in front of the green. On the way back from Royal Porthcawl, a stop at the Penderyn Distillery is a pleasant diversion. It is the country’s only distillery, home to an award-winning single malt, other spirits and another rarity in the industry: a female distiller. Gillian Howell, 27, oversees the production of the United Kingdom’s fastest-growing whisky with 2009 sales growing by more than 50 percent. And by the time a first-time visitor to
Wales reaches Penderyn, there should be plenty of reason of offer a toast.
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GEMS OF THE CDGA
The 18th at Chalet Hills Golf Club Cary, Ill. layers see it as they play the ninth and 17th holes at Chalet Hills: Chalet Lake. Now they’ll see it on every shot of the par-5 18th. It’s there on the left and will be there when the final putt of the round finally has been made. “It’s an estetically good-looking hole and a good challenge,” said Chalet Hills professionl Brian Smith. “You can get in a huge amount of trouble, but you can make a low number. It’s an ultimate riskreward hole.” The last at the Ken Killian-designed course wraps around the lake, which affects the tee shot, the second shot and, if a player lays up, the third, too. From the back tees, a drive of some 275 yards is needed to get around the corner. That will set up going for the green in two, but there is little margin for error off the tee. “You need to get around the corner if you want to go for it in two,” Smith said. “It’s all about how much you want to bite off. You can take the safe route, but that limits your second-shot options.” The second shot can be less scary than the drive. A shot to the right of the green often will bounce off mounding and sling-shot onto the green. A layup will leave a pitch to a long green that connects with the ninth as a double green. A large bunker guards the left side. Killian, who designed PGA Championship site Kemper Lakes with Dick Nugent, calls Chalet Hills “the greatest course I have ever designed.” The course wanders through rolling hills lined by hardwoods with ponds and creeks on all but four holes. It’s likely the 18th will be the one that players remember, for better or worse.
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PAR 5
FRANK POLICH/CDGA
-Reid Hanley
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YARDS
TEE
494 474 430 367
Black Blue White Gold
RULES OF THE GAME By Genger Fahleson | Director, Rules Education, USGA
Experience: not always the best teacher Regardless of how long you’ve played the game, there’s a chance to learn something new enerally, we believe that a player who has competed at the game’s highest level for a long time does not compound mistakes that add penalty strokes to his scorecard. We would put Mark Calcavecchia in this category without much concern because he’s been a full-time member of the PGA Tour for nearly 30 years; there’s little he hasn’t seen in all those years. But proof that this presumption not always is the case was demonstrated at this year’s British Open, where Calcavecchia, a former champion, showed that anyone who plays the game can make an ill-fated decision that gets him into trouble with the Rules of Golf. Following a bogey-free second round at The Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland, Calcavecchia was alone in second place. But unfortunately for him, his spot among the leaders didn’t last long. Playing in the last group during the third round on Saturday, Calcavecchia started with three straight bogeys. He temporarily righted the ship with a par at the fourth hole, but it was at the par-5 fifth where Calcavecchia’s promising weekend began to unravel. His tee shot came to rest in a fairway bunker. After playing out sideways, into the fairway, his third shot was believed to have finished somewhere deep in a large gorse
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bush. Knowing that the ball might be lost, Calcavecchia properly played a provisional ball. After playing the provisional, he supposedly was told that his original ball had been found in the gorse, so he picked up the provisional ball and walked to the area where he thought his ball had been found. However, the ball that had been found was not his. The search for his ball continued for the five minutes allotted under the Rules. When that time period had expired without Calcavecchia finding his original ball, it became a lost ball. At this point, Calcavecchia
realized he had another problem. He normally would go and continue playing the hole with his provisional, which became his ball in play when the original ball was lost (Rule 27-2b), but the provisional had been picked up and was safely nestled in one of Calcavecchia’s back pockets. This episode required another visit to the rules book, where Rule 18-2a provided guidance. Since the original ball was lost, the provisional ball was in play. When Calcavecchia lifted the ball in play (provisional ball) without authority under the Rules, he incurred a penalty stroke and was required to replace it. Because he did not know the exact spot from where it was lifted, he properly dropped a ball as near as possible to the place where it had been (Rule 20-3b). From there, Calcavecchia continued play and eventually holed out and made a score of 9. This incident can teach all golfers a lesson as Calcavecchia could have softened the blow by proceeding on the side of caution in regard to the Rules. The lessons to be learned are, 1) a player should never touch a ball in play unless he is certain he is permitted to do so under the Rules, and 2) know the difference between a ball and the ball. It might have taken Calcavecchia many years to learn these lessons, but you can be certain he now knows both of them quite well. W W W. C D G A . O R G