GOLFERS ON GOLF RADIO contributor Len Ziehm joins Ed, Billy and Rory live this Saturday from PGA Village in Florida. GOG Radio 10 AM Saturday’s WCPT Am 820. _____________________________________________________________________
THE GOG BLOG by RORY SPEARS, Director of Content and Creation and host of Golfers on Golf. Follow Rory on Twitter @GogBlogGuy and LinkedIn or Facebook.
FOR THOSE OF YOU who have Sirius XM in your car, or via your phone. You can’t help but being able to enjoy certain channels, that are one band all day long through the end of May.
Channel 27 that was Deep Tracks, is now the Led Zeppelin Channel. It’s heaven, and not just a stairway to, but something to enjoy and get you pumped up on the way to the golf course. That is if you can get a rare tee-time these days, with twosomes only, UGH !
What I did hear was a deep-track from the album Led Zeppelin II, called “What is, and What Should Never Be.”
Which seems to be what our Illinois golf industry is currently suffering with. Granted, I feel sorry for the business owners who can’t open at all. Especially hair salons, since sooo many people now need a haircut. Golfers, I think the visor era is about to return, since many golfers can no longer fit all their hair, under a baseball style cap.
OUR GOLF COURSES do deserve a better shake than they are currently getting from the State of Illinois. It’s my understanding that the Allied Golf Group that consists of the Illinois PGA, the Chicago District Golf Association (CDGA), the Club Managers Association, and the Midwest Golf Course Superintendents Association, are still working with the governor and his staff to make revisions to what the current rules are. Many of those rules are “What Should Never Be.” But for now, they are “What is”.
APPARENTLY the Western Golf Association (WGA) has now joined the effort and is working hard to get caddies back on the course in Illinois, at least by June 1st. The Spears Plan, that I suggested weeks ago, would be fore-caddies on each side of the par 4 and par 5 holes. Each caddie would have their own rake for the day to rake bunkers on that hole. One caddie on Par 3 holes, by the green, to spot incoming shots and rake greenside bunkers. It would be a start until full walking caddies return.
WHAT WE DON’T KNOW IS, will golf be stuck with these current terms until June 1st, or the day after Memorial Day, or even next Monday on May 18th. Will another week, this week, of good compliance earn Illinois golf a few more privilege’s by next Monday.
I’m not sure every golf course can hold out another 3 weeks under these current terms. In the meantime, thousands of Illinois golf dollars, keep going to Wisconsin, Indiana, Missouri and other places, where foursome can play, and use golf carts or a caddie.
IT WAS TOUGH to hear that women’s golf is really taking a pounding in canceled tournaments for 2020. Mistwood announced that the Phil Kosin Illinois Women’s Open scheduled for mid-July was canceled. Both women’s event’s at the French Lick Resort, the Symetra Tournament on the Donald Ross Course, and the Senior LPGA Championship are off the schedule until 2021. Plus you can add the U.S. Senior Women’s Open, and a few Legends Tour events to the canceled list as well.
THE WGA and the Women’s Western Golf Association (WWGA) have their national junior boys and girls championships coming up here in town, come late June. Are those championships going to be, the next to go. Stay tuned, an announcement is expected shortly.
KEMPERSPORTS Management CEO Steve Skinner confirmed with us this past weekend during his Golfers on Golf Radio interview. That the Glen Club is not available for the Evans Scholars Invitational for the second week of September, due to the club being booked for corporate golf and multiple weddings. So the WGA and the Korn Ferry Tour are looking for another site for the tournament. Anybody in Chicago want to host a professional tournament that week ?
THE CITY OF CHICAGO stepped in at the last minute and wiped out some 160+ rounds of golf that were scheduled for that beautiful day last Thursday. When they re-closed Harborside International. Club officials were emailing groups on Wednesday night telling them not to show up on Thursday. With bad weather for Friday, you mean the city could not have waited one more day, to work in contrast with Governor Pritzker’s reopening provision.
IF YOU MISSED IT..the DuPage County opened up their 9-hole course Green Meadows yesterday in Westmont. So there are now a few more tee times available for golfers who are in need of them. See Dupagegolf.com for details on booking and the Covid-19 rules for playing golf on the DuPage County golf courses.
EAGLE RIDGE RESORT in Galena has been nominated in the Stella Awards for having the Best Midwest Resort Spa. Voting is now underway.
LANDSCAPES GOLF MANAGEMENT, a division of Landscapes Unlimited, LLC, has announced four new Midwest based clients, including Crystal Woods Golf Course in Woodstock Illinois. The course was originally designed by William Langford in 1950’s as a 9-hole par 37 golf course. In 1967 the course increased to 18 holes and a par of 72, under architect Charles Wagstaff, and reopened for play in 1969.
THE WEATHER wasn’t supposed to be great this week, but maybe that is changing a little bit for the better. So don’t give up on golf for this week just yet, get out and play. If you can actually get a tee time this week. The current restrictions did not even allow for courses to offer mom’s some free golf yesterday, as part of a promotion. That’s sad.
The Gog Blog returns all week long. RS