THE BEER IS HERE-two local courses are selling their own brand of great beer-Aaah! _____________________________________________________________________
THE GOG BLOG by RORY SPEARS-Director of Content and Creation for Golfers on Golf. Follow Rory on Twitter @GogBlogGuy, and on Facebook-LinkedIn or Instagram. With Mike Munro at WCPT Am 820 Chicago.
THE BEER IS HERE both Cog Hill and Mistwood Golf Club are now selling their own beer.
I have tried both flavors at both courses and they get a tip of the cap or golf visor, both are great in my books. So grab a can or have some on tap, you can’t lose either way.
McWethy’s 100 is now on the beverage carts at Mistwood. Cog Hill does not have beverage carts, but the check the halfway house while your out on the courses.
THE BMW CHAMPIONSHIP-might have been one of the best tournaments most people didn’t see. Dustin Johnson with a great 45 foot birdie to force a playoff with Jon Rahm, and then Rahm sinking a 66 footer for birdie to win on the first playoff hole. Great stuff, but who saw it.
First up there were no fans allowed in to Olympia Fields, and then most of the local media weren’t allowed in either, and some media that were allowed in, you have to wonder how and why. Your’s truly wasn’t allowed in because some of my work includes radio, and radio people aren’t being allowed in to PGA Tour events at the moment. The attitude is that radio folks can live by doing things virtually, or via the proven failure Zoom video conferencing. Zoom has been a disaster for Major League Baseball I can attest to that. But then the PGA Tour has been discriminating against radio media for years, and that isn’t changing anytime soon. If only the tour would worry about it’s supportive media, half as much as they do about not playing at certain clubs, that don’t have certain types of members. Radio broadcasters do matter #RBM. Local Golf TV shows matter, local golf publications do matter. The local media outlets that support the Evans Scholars Foundation (ESF) and the WGA the other 51 weeks a year DO MATTER.
THE ILLINOIS GOLFER long time golf writer Tim Cronin called moving the BMW Championship in and out of town-Nonsense, and he suggested on Twitter that it’s time to have a yearly PGA Tour stop in Chicago, agreed. Now if that’s a plan that BMW doesn’t agree with, then the WGA should get another sponsor. Cronin also called for a rotation of top area courses in the Chicago to be the hosts and he has a point.
WHICH COULD BE-Olympia Fields North Course, Medinah 3, Cog Hill 4 (Dubs), Conway Farms, Kemper Lakes, and or, Butterfield.
NEXT YEAR THE BMW is at Caves Valley Golf Club a great facility, but it’s outside of Baltimore. Hopefully 2021 is the last year the Chicago PGA Tour stop moves to another city, unless there is a conflict with a major championship or a Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup in town (Medinah 2026?). After all the Western Golf Association (WGA) is based here in Glenview and for good reason.
DID THE USGA TAKE NOTICE…the U.S. Open is booked out for the next 8 years, but the United States Golf Association really owes Olympia Fields another U.S. Open. It’s been 17 years since the last one when Jim Furyk won in 2003. Unlike the 2003 open, this years BMW had some real rough, and it played tough. Dustin Johnson didn’t win but he played great, and he didn’t shoot 30 under par like week 1 of the playoffs in Boston.
BACK IN 2015 when Bryson DeChambeau won the U.S. Amateur at Olympia Fields, courses that were hosting the amateur normally got a U.S. Open within a few years later. Several courses did, but Olympia Fields did not. The U.S. Amateur isn’t an event that clubs make money off of, in fact the tab to host the amateur these days is up just shy of a million dollars. Clubs get less than 100K from the USGA for hosting, and have to find creative ways to make up the difference. The USGA does help in doing that. But for hosting the amateur-and usually losing money, clubs get a U.S. Open which is a profit maker for all parties involved. Why no recent U.S. Open at Olympia Fields, there is still for some reason, some sour grapes about a bill for security that Cook County demanded payment for after the 2003 championship.
Olympia Fields entered into a “partnership” with the PGA of America for several events going forward after the 2017 KPMG Women’s PGA championship. Then the PGA Championship got moved to May, and things kinda went down the dumper for OFCC and the PGA with the new timing of certain events, and how they would now fall on the calendar.
What happens next for Olympia Fields is a bit of a mystery, could the BMW return in 2022, the final year of the current deal. Maybe, but I’m not sure OFCC wants a tournament back all that quickly unless they will make a bunch of dollars. Because as you might have heard-money talks.
TOUGH WEEK FOR CHICAGO based Wilson Golf, it’s top three guns on the PGA Tour Kevin Streelman fell down to 32nd place just missing out, Gary Woodland and Brendan Steele just missed out as well. I hope Woodland gets rested up for his title defense at the U.S. Open now just a few weeks away.
GOLFERS ON GOLF RADIO hits 30 years. It was great having show founder Mike Munro back in-studio last Saturday. Munro founded Golfers on Golf Radio 30 years ago, and launched it at WJJG-AM 1530 in Berkley Illinois, just over the border from Elmhurst. With a studio that was a bedroom in an apartment building owned by Joe Gentile, the car salesman and the “Baron of Barrington” a nickname he earned from the late sportscaster Chet Coppeck.
GOG RADIO has grown a lot from those days, and to pull Munro off the golf course on a Saturday, or out of his restaurant The Green Street Grille in beautiful downtown Bensenville is no easy task. But for one weekend in this crazy year, we did it. Hopefully someday we can do it again.
SETTLERS HILL, I’m really impressed with the new plan that golf architect Greg Martin has for Settlers Hill in Batavia. His re-routing and relocation of a couple of par 3’s will really make that golf course one of the best in the area. A new clubhouse, new practice range, and three-hole short course for juniors will really add something.
Settlers Hill has some great elevation change that martin will take full advantage of, along with some currently unused wooded area’s. Settlers Hill will be closed for the renovation work in 2021, and likely until late June of 2022 before it reopens. It’s current clubhouse, the old barn will be used for special events. Hang on Chicago area golfers, another great golf course is emerging in the next two years.
The Gog Blog is back all week. Golfers on Golf Radio has three more shows in September, so stay tuned. RS