THE GOG BLOG SPEAKS OUT-PGA SHOW WEEK

   THE TINLEY PARK GOLF SHOW IS BACK IN 2020, Feb. 7-8-9 at the Tinley Park Convention Center. Friday admission is only $5.00 and the doors open at Noon. The weekend admission is $10.00. There will be contests, prizes and the 19th hole bar, where you can watch the PGA Tour action from Pebble Beach. You can order your tickets now at Tinleyparkconventioncenter.net. THE MISTWOOD GOLF DOME is your home for golf in the Chicago area’s winter months. It’s the home of Toptracer and you can enjoy great food and beverage in McWethy’s Sports Bar. It’s located on Rt.53 in Bolingbrook. McWethy’s is also a Blackhawks Bar, so watch the return of former Blackhawks Coach Joel Quenneville tomorrow night. (630)-739-7600 for more details.    ______________________________________________________________________

THE GOG BLOG by RORY SPEARS, Director of Content and Creation. Follow Rory on Twitter @GogBlogGuy, and on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. At the Arnold Palmer designed Mid-South Club in Southern Pines NC.

(Reporting from Southern Pines NC.)

Stop #2, on the winter golf road trip, that revolves around this weeks PGA Merchandise show, was the famed Pinehurst/Southern Pines area.

It’s always great to spend time here and if your in the golf media business, and you don’t talk about Pinehurst at least one day a year, you need a new job.

I’ll have more in the days ahead, about our five days here. Including a look at the renovated Pinehurst Resort Hotels the Holly Inn, and now the Manor Inn, now getting ready to open in full. I will have a close up story on the Cradle, Pinehurst’s nine hole par 3 course, that is 789 yards of pure fun. Our close-up on the Cradle runs later this coming week.

Pinehurst is about golf, and it’s here everywhere you look. While the Pinehurst Resort is the biggest one in town there are others. Including the late Peggy Kirk-Bell’s Pine Needles and Mid-Pines resort. That has been two courses, and now apparently three courses. The word is that the resort is acquiring the Southern Pines Country Club with the papers getting signed on February 1st. That would give the resort a third Donald Ross golf course. Pretty special. Details are now unfolding. Stay clicked in.

I DID KNOCK OFF the first course on my list of 20 courses to play in 2020, when I tee’d it up on Pinehurst #5. I have now played all 10 of the Pinehurst resort courses, and that alone is pretty special. If you enjoy golf, that’s a challenge you should take, and like they say in baseball after you hit a home run, touch’em all. It’s really fun to do. Pinehurst #2 gets most the attention and rightfully so, but Pinehurst has 9 other good golf courses. See Pinehurst.com.

IT’S SHOW TIME and the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando gets things rolling for the year ahead. The section professionals are here in force, the equipment companies are too, along with anyone who is someone that makes golf products. It starts at demo day on the range on Tuesday, where this year it’s only expected to be 57 degrees UGH. But it gets nice outside the next couple of days, when everyone goes inside to the Orange County Convention Center.

I’ll be posting as much as I can from the show, so stay clicked in. Finally there is an expected announcement as early as today, about an event coming to the Chicago area, and a golf club that has past history in hosting both the BMW Championship and the Western Open. I’m back tomorrow. RS

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About Rory Spears

Rory spent over 8 years growing up working at Rob Roy Golf Club in Prospect Hts.IL, then two years at Chevy Chase in Wheeling. He has covered golf in Chicago since 1986. Rory was one of the initial members of WSCR all-sports radio Chicago and covered golf there for 5 seasons, before moving on to work for ESPN/Sportsticker and ESPN Radio. In addition to hosting Golfers on Golf Radio on WCPT AM820 Chicago, he writes for both the Chicago District (CDGA) Magazine, and formerly Chicagoland Golf. Rory has played over 525 courses in 39 states, and rates golf courses. He does golf course management and communications consulting, within the golf industry.