BY: RORY SPEARS GOLFERSONGOLF.COM ASSISTANT EDITOR AND LEAD WRITER

THE NEW TITLEIST 915 DRIVER IS COMING IN NOVEMBER.

LOOKING FOR MORE FROM YOUR DRIVER, try the new Titleist 915 coming in November.

If your in need for more from your driver, the news coming from Titleist is goodfor you as the new 915 Driver is on it’s way. Even better news is it’s not coming alone either. 915 fairway woods, a new hybrid club and more from custom putter designer Scotty Cameron.

The word coming from the touring PGA professionals is good from those who play Titleist. Back in July, Titleist staff players were introduced to the new driver. A good majority of them wasted no time putting the driver in play that week.

Titleist sales representative Kent Sands, works a demo day at the White Pines Golf Dome earlier this year.

Kent Sands one of the Chicago area sales staff for Titleist first tried the new 915 Driver at a company sales meeting at Pinehurst.

While Sands said the previous Titleist drivers are good clubs, this new 915 allows the golfer to feel an immediate improvement. More bang for the buck it appears.

Sands said he could, “feel the pop” from the new 915, and that the ball just explodes off the clubface. That’s good news for everyone who could use a few more yards off the tee box.

The 915 fairway wood and the new Hybrid club will join the 915 driver, as part of the release this November. If you order your clubs quickly, you could have them in time for the holidays.

Click here to hear the interview with Kent Sands on the new Titleist 915 driver, fairway woods, and the new Hybrid club. Plus what’s up with Scotty Cameron and the new putter he is adding to his custom putter line.

Earlier this year Titleist/FootJoy released the latest in golf shoes called DNA. The DNA shoe is reported to be one of the most comfortable golf shoes ever created. Golfers that have purchased them report the shoes feeling broke in on the first day they wear them. In fact some golfers that reported constant problems with blisters until they break in a new pair of golf shoes, have said these are the first pair of golf shoes where they did not experience that problem.

Contrary to some stories in the media that purchases of golf accessories are down for this year, the new DNA golf shoes have been hard for proshops to keep in stock. At one point this summer the wait time was 60-90 days, if one had to order their pair of DNA’s.

For more information please visit both the Titleist.com and FootJoy.com websites for more information.

BY: RORY SPEARS ASST. EDITOR AND LEAD WRITER

The home of the 2014 U.S. Open’s for both the men and the women has now reopened for play. One week after the conclusion of the women’s open, the course was shut down to have it’s greens redone.

After being closed for about 2 1/2 months, the famed Donald Ross masterpiece is now ready for play. Since the general public can’t play many of the top courses that host major golf championships, there is always demand right after a championship to come and play. You have to give credit to Pinehurst to shut down in the face of large demand for access, to upgrade the golf course.

Jack Bickart is the Vice President of Sales for the Pinehurst resort.

It made for some challenging times for Pinehurst’s VP of Sales Jack Bickart and his staff. But they convinced many of the golfers who wanted to come play right away after the opens had ended, to come down this fall or winter to play.

As a result it has become hard to get a tee time in the weeks ahead on the No.2 course.

“We don’t have many tee times left in September and October for course two,” said Bickart. “This fall and winter look to be very busy for us.”

The fall is one of the best times of year to visit Pinehurst, the weather is nice and fall colors add to the beauty of the Pinehurst area. Since the end of the U.S. Opens the resort has added another golf course to it’s portfolio. Yes, Pinehurst is no longer just an eight course resort.

Pinehurst added the course previously known as Pinehurst National, a Jack Nicklaus signature design golf course. The course is a just a few minutes away from the main Carolina Hotel and main clubhouse by courses 1-5. Pinehurst National is now known as Pinehurst No.9. It is the first Nicklaus course to be part of the Pinehurst Resort.

Bickart suggests spending some time on the Pinehurst website, Pinehurst.com to see all the resort has to offer, and more information on all of the resorts golf courses. The resort has different packages you can pick from, and Bickart talks about that in his interview with Golfers on Golf that can be heard below.

There are only six courses that have already or are scheduled to host a U.S. Open that the public can play. Why not make the trip to Pinehurst and play of them, and maybe the best of the almost 400 courses that famed architect Donald Ross designed here in America.

Click here to hear our interview with Jack Bickart, Pinehurst’s VP of Sales.

Please visit Pinehurst.com to learn more about the resort known as the home of American Golf.

BY: RORY SPEARS ASSISTANT EDITOR, AND LEAD WRITER

Olympia Fields Country Club home of the 2015 U.S. Amateur, and this weekend the Fighting Illini Invitational.

Starting today at the Olympia Fields Country Club, the top powers in NCAA golf will meet for the title of the Fighting Illini Golf Invitational.

This tournament is regarded by many who follow college golf, as the top NCAA men’s college golf invitational during the fall season.

This tournament put on by the University of Illinois, and the members of the Olympia Fields Country Club is run in a 5-star manner. This is the ninth year of the event and each year it gets better. The demand Illinois golf coach Mike Small receives to be invited grows every year. The requests from top ranked programs continues as well.

The 54 hole event starts today at 9 AM, with round 2 on Saturday teeing at 9 AM. On Sunday the final round tees off at 8 AM.  There are 15 teams in the tournament, 5 of them are in the top 10 in the country. Ten of the schools are in the top 25. The play will be conducted on the clubs North Course that has hosted two U.S. Open’s, two PGA Championships, five Western Opens, a U.S. Senior Open and the 2015 U.S Amateur Championship.

“It’s been a great event since it started, but it’s starting to own it’s own time,” said Small. “I think the publications of college golf around the country point to the tournament as of the seasons best. It’s got good teams through the entire field. It’s a great opportunity to come in and play a great golf course-a world class golf course. the U.S. Amateur is here next summer and it’s hosted U.S. Opens. To play a top college field early in the season helps the players and the coaches get to know each other a little bit better and helps the process of getting better throughout the year.”

No.6 Illinois will be missing Junior Thomas Detry as he competes for his country of Belgium at the World Amateur Team Championship. Illinois will be lead by Senior Brian Campbell, and Junior Charlie Danielson. Three Freshman will play this weekend for Illinois, including Nick Hardy, Dylan Meyer, and Spencer Reed.

The rest of the field includes co-number 1’s, including two-time NCAA defending champion Alabama and Oklahoma State. Others include #4 Texas, #7 Stanford, #11 Oklahoma, #17 Florida State, #19 Texas A&M, # 21 Arkansas, # 23 Virginia Tech, Baylor and Colorado both received votes to be in the preseason top 25. Alabama is the defending champion.

Admission to the event is free. High school golfers that are considering playing golf in college, should strongly consider attending. Admission is free on all days.

BY: RORY SPEARS

The clubhouse at Arlington Lakes Golf Club.

As I wrote in Chicagoland Golf last month, golf is moving forward regardless of what some media stories might suggest.

The Arlington Heights Park District is one of the latest park districts in the Chicagoland area to do some renovation work on the their golf course. the board recently decided to have Lake in the Hills based architect Mike Benkusky lead the project and submit a master plan.

That plan was recently shared with Golfers on Golf and calls for the elimination of many bunkers, the redoing and relocation of some greens, and the rerouting of the golf course.

Benkusky’s plans include, changing the routing of the golf course. The routing change would allow the implementation of a three-hole loop near the clubhouse.

Architect Mike Benkusky stands on the current 9th green, that would become the 18th green, under his new plan.

The current plan that Benkusky has submitted to the park board would make the current 9th hole, the new 18th hole. One of the major concerns about the golf course is the green complex on the 9th hole.

“Anytime I am out here at the course and someone finds out what I’m doing here, the first thing they ask is if I am fixing the 9th hole,” said Benkusky. “I promise them that, that is one of the first things on the to-do list.”

Arlington Lakes has been getting strong support from area golfers, as over 40,000 rounds get playe there. The club has been even busier this year, some feel that might have to do with the fact that the neighboring Mt. Prospect Park District golf course is closed until next summer for renovation.

The current layout is not quite 6,000 yards and with the new plan, the course could lose even a couple of hundred more yards. Benkusky’s goal is not to make Arlington Lakes longer and tougher, but more playable and more fun for golfers of all skill levels. When the project is complete, Benkusky hopes the course will attract even more juniors, seniors and beginners. Benkusky says, “it’s all about growing the game.”

Some trees like this one in the fairway, in front of a tee box will be removed.

The decay of the bunkers and problems with drainage, brought the park district to realize that some work had to be done.

With the hiring of Benkusky, the park district has looked at the bigger plan that he has brought to the board. There are more ways here to improve the golf course than originally planned. How many of those ideas get put into place, still remain to be decided.

Benkusky’s plan call for moving the first and tenth tee boxes being moved forward away from the clubhouse, to include a new and larger putting green. The park district might be making some changes around the clubhouse, and the extra space could be used for an outside dinning area.

The current putting green that is too small and to crowned, would become the site of the new ninth green.

The new master plan (L) as proposed by Benkusky, and the new scorecard with the proposed yardage changes.

Click here, to hear an interview with architect Mike Benkusky regarding the proposed renovations to Arlington Lakes golf course.

There are still meeting’s to be had with park board before anything becomes official, but that process will continue over the winter. The Arlington Hts. Park District operates the nine hole par three course at Nickol Knoll Park, but as of yet there are no plans to have Benkusky create an improvement plan for the course.

The Gog Blog will continue to follow this story.

The courses of Lawsonia Golf in Green Lake Wisconsin. 3 hours from downtown Chicago. 36 holes and the new Langford Pub. Stay and play’s now available. Come play the courses the members of Chicago’s top private clubs head north to play. See Lawsonia.com or call the pro shop at (920)-294-3320.

BY: RORY SPEARS, ASSISTANT EDITOR AND LEAD WRITER

THE GOG BLOG IS BACK, sorry to have been away for several days. The site wasn’t allowing me to post while the new technical upgrades were being installed. Now with that behind us, I can start catching up.

Due to the run of tournaments and other things going on with Golfers on Golf radio, I have fallen a bit behind with columns and stories. Well the catch up is about to begin. Look for quite a few postings in the days ahead. By the end of the month the Gog Blog hits road for a nice fall golf road trip. I’ll hit the resorts and some of the back east private clubs. I’ll have plenty of great golf stories for you as the fall and winter seasons move along. What’s up with the New York courses, how and why they are getting the tournaments in the years ahead, that Chicago would like to have. More on that over the next 40 days.

This weekend one of the best college golf invitationals anywhere will tee off at Olympia Fields in the South suburbs. The Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Golf invitational tee’s off on Friday and runs through Sunday. Rounds start at 9 Am and admission is Free. All the top ranked teams are coming, including two-time defending national champion #1 Alabama. Illinois is #6. Come see the PGA Tour players of the future. Olympia Fields is home of the 2015 U.S. Amateur championship.

THE BMW is in the books for 2014, and Billy Horschel is your champion. He will defend at Conway Farms in Lake Forest come September of 2015. I hope you enjoyed the coverage of our BIG 3 partner Tim Cronin at Illinoisgolfer.net who was on site last week. Tim reports that the drive from Chicago’s south suburbs to Cherry Hills outside of Denver Colorado is just under 16 hours if you drive straight through, as he did.

This will be good to know because the BMW in the years ahead looks to have this schedule for future sites. 2015 Conway Farms, 2016 Crooked Stick GC, Carmel Indiana is likely, 2017 Conway Farms is likely, 2018 could go back to Colorado at either Cherry Hills or former PGA Tour venue Castle Pines. More coming up on the WGA shortly.

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem spoke about the state of the PGA Tour at the Tour Championship in Atlanta. Sounds like schedule expansion and more golf course developments are on the horizon, stay tuned. Those comments coming right after an interview ran with Henrik Stenson saying that top players are burned out from too many events, and the world might not see them from November until March of 2015.

GOLFERS ON GOLF RADIO. We just wrapped up year three on WSBC AM 1240 and WCFJ AM 1470, then again now with the means to go on the road, Chicago’s favorite foursome would like to create a little winter radio programming. Stay tuned, like one former Chicago Cubs official once said, “were working on it.” Special thanks to producer Big Jon Vicc, and GM Mark Pinski for another great year. In 2012 we started with 16 shows, 2013 we had 20 shows, this year 21. With the BMW back in town, the show might be expanding yet again. So we hope, stay clicked in for details.

LINKS AND TEE’S ON LAKE AVE. IN ADDISON, a great place to play and practice. For more information see Addisonparks.org or call (630)-233-7275.

HAVE YOU BEEN OUT TO PLAY. I have, including a round at the recently renovated Wilmette Golf Club. What an improvement since my last round there years ago, next up is work on their driving range. Wilmette Golf Club on Lake Avenue in Wilmette, a Greg Martin renovation. (847)-256-9777 or visit golfwilmette.com.

THE BASEBALL schedule makers didn’t do the 2015 Encompass Championship any favors. After a record 8 days of no baseball in Chicago on either side of town in late June and early July, both teams are in town tournament week. Then during the 3 rounds of the championship, the Cubs and Sox meet for 3 games at Wrigley Field. It always seems to be all or nothing around here.

Startech Glass celebrating 25 years as one of Chicago’s leaders in the commercial glass industry. Startechglass.com or call (773)-745-0800, 1835 N. Major St. Chicago.

The new Chicagoland Golf is out in your local pro shop’s, pick up a copy today. The facts keep coming in about golf, and they tell the whole picture about the industry. That news and more in the current issue.

With the radio show over, Golfersongolf.com will be busy keeping the Chicago golfmarket up to speed all winter long about all the local golf news. Stay clicked in and plenty of time this fall to go play. Hit’em straight. RS

BY: RORY SPEARS

wgaesf.com

(CHERRY HILLS-COLO.) The Gog Blog is not out at the BMW Championship this year. BIG 3 partner Tim Cronin is there covering for the group.

You can read Tim’s BMW Championship 2014 preview at Illinoisgolfer.net.

BREAKING NEWS: Tim is reporting that the 2016 BMW Championship will return to Crooked Stick, that successfully held the championship in 2012. At this point the only way the tournament would not return there, is if the membership votes it down. See Illinoisgolfer.net with the details.

Rory McIlroy who won the BMW Championship at Crooked Stick in 2012, is among the early leaders this year.

The Gog Blog will have more coverage of the BMW from the home front, Tim Cronin will remain on site this entire week. Stay clicked in.

TEAM USA Ryder Cup Captain made his captains pick selections tonight in New York City.

First to be announced was Keegan Bradley, he was followed by Hunter Mahan and the final selection was Webb Simpson.

Chris Kirk that won the second PGA Tour Fed Ex Cup playoff event in Boston, was not selected. 2013 PGA Championship winner Jason Dufner is not yet healthy enough to play.

TEAM EUROPE Captain Paul McGinley made his captains picks earlier today. McGinley selected Stephen Gallacher, Ian Poulter, and Lee Westwood. The surprise here was leaving Luke Donald off the team. Donald has struggled of late and didn’t even qualify for this weeks BMW Championship at Cherry Hills outside of Denver.

McGinley said leaving Donald off the team was a “tough call”, but one he had to make with Donald struggling. His picks were made with captains instinct, McGinley told the media.

THE RYDER CUP, will be played at Gleneagles in Scotland, from September 23rd through September 28th.

TEAM ROSTERS are as follows.

TEAM USA. Captain Tom Watson, Hunter Mahan, Webb Simpson, Keegan Bradley, Rickie Fowler, Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk, Patrick Reed, Jordan Spieth, Zach Johnson, Matt Kuchar, Bubba Watson, Jimmy Walker.

TEAM EUROPE. Captain Paul McGinley, Rory McIlroy, Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood, Thomas Bjorn, Jamie Donaldson,Victor Dubuisson, Stephen Gallacher, Sergio Garcia, Martin Kaymer, Graeme McDowell, Justin Rose, Henrik Stenson.

More coming up prior to the Ryder Cup, stay clicked in. By Rory Spears.

TAKE YOUR LATE SUMMER FALL GOLF TRIP TO LAWSONIA GOLF IN GREEN LAKE WISCONSIN. 36 HOLES NOW UNDER THE MANAGEMENT OF OLIPHANT GOLF. PLAY THE RESTORED LINKS COURSE BY CHICAGO ARCHITECT WILLIAM LANGFORD, AND THE WOODLANDS COURSE. TWO GREAT CLASSIC STYLES, VISIT THE NEWLY DESIGNED LANGFORD PUB. STAY AND PLAYS NOW AVAILABLE. PLAY THE COURSES THE MEMBERS OF CHICAGO’S TOP PRIVATE CLUBS HEAD NORTH TO PLAY, VISIT LAWSONIA.COM OR CALL (920)-294-3320.

BY: RORY SPEARS-LEAD WRITER & ASSISTANT EDITOR.

Happy Labor Day, it’s too bad the weather isn’t that great and the rain has been here. It’s gone for the moment but expected to return later.

If you’re still up for a game, there are plenty of courses that have deals running today. Jump on line or call the pro shop to find out more information.

We had a great show yesterday on week 20 of our 21 week Golfers on Golf Radio. The guest list was Kent Sands of Titleist on the new 915 driver and fairway woods due out in November. Look for a new Hybrid and putter from Scotty Cameron as well.

Roger Warren the President of Kiawah Island Resort in Charleston South Carolina joined us, Warren had some great thoughts on golf in general and the PGA of America where he was a past president.

Val Russell the Publisher of Chicagoland Golf jumped on for the last segment, the new issue of Chicagoland Golf is out. Visit your local pro shop, or golf retail store and pick up a copy. The last two issues of CG have really been a solid response to the negative publicity that golf received this summer.

Yes you read it right above when I said that yesterday was week 20 of 21 on the radio show. Boy this summer has flown by quickly, it’s hard to believe we have done 20 shows already. Including two live broadcasts at Mt. Prospect Golf Club and at Shepherd’s Crook in Zion.

This coming Sunday is our final radio show of 2014, as of now. More on that in the days ahead. On Sunday we have a great final show coming together. WGA VP, Vince Pellegrino joins us live from the BMW Championship at Cherry Hills in Colorado. From down in Florida Director of Golf Jim Hahn drops by from the World Golf Village, and the World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine Florida.

Plus some round table discussion to wrap up the radio run. Then as you did last winter, I hope your sights will turn to this website to keep you up to speed all winter long.

This week is renovation for me. I’ll be visiting Arlington Lakes in Arlington Hts. with architect Mike Benkusky who has landed the contract to upgrade the facility. Bunkers irrigation and more coming there.

Then over to Mt. Prospect and Glenview Park District Courses to see the progress by David Esler and Rick Jacobson. Fall is renovation season and I’ll be around at most of them to see the progress being made. Jacobson and his team will be working at Kemper Lakes Cc and Glen Oak CC this fall as well.

Greg Martin is working at Wedgewood GC in Joliet this fall along with Settlers Hill in Batavia, along with Rich Harvest Farms on the private side.

This afternoon the PGA Tour “PLAYOFFS” continue in Boston, and Tom Watson makes Ryder Cup Captain’s picks tomorrow stay tuned.

We have some summer left, go enjoy and then the fall golf season begins. One of the most beautiful times of the year to play. So Go Play.

The Gog Blog Returns this week, with the September Gog News Blog, stay clicked in. RS