The Buffalo Grove Golf and Sports Center is open today until 10 Pm, rates start at just $11 for 30 minutes. Outdoor golf season is here, but if you wish to warm up inside before taking outside in the cool spring temps, the BG Golf & Sports Center is your place in Lake County to do it. Get that spring tune up lesson from a member of the professional staff. Located at 801 McHenry Road, call (847)-459-2321 or bgparks.org.

   BY: RORY SPEARS, Editor & Director of Content. Follow Rory on Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter @GogBlogGuy.

The temperature is going up to 75 here today, and the list of courses that are opening today is getting longer by the minute. Some might not be open until noon, but they will be open. While a couple courses were open over the weekend, several waited until today. So I will call today opening day.

The weather is so nice, that even BIG 3 partner Len Ziehm came home from the sunny south. But not before he hit a few spots along the way. Visit Lenziehmongolf.com to read about stops at Myrtle Beach, Reynolds Plantation and the French Lick Resort.

Golf courses as far north as Wisconsin have opened. The Bull at Pinehurst Farms just south of Kohler is one of the first to do so in the Dairyland State.

The list in Illinois is even longer. Shiloh in Zion has it’s 9 holes open. Settlers Hill, Tanna Farms, and Oak Grove are open. Foxford Hills has nine holes open, Whisper Creek and Orchard Valley are open. Blackberry Oaks with new GM Chad Johansen is open. Cog Hill is has courses 1 & 3 open. A few other clubs like Sportsman’s in Northbrook have opened their outdoor ranges.

It’s unfortunate that the 75 degrees is for today only. By tomorrow it’s back to a high of 49, but back into the low 50’s by Thursday. But the snow is mostly gone and and with overnight lows above freezing, that’s all we need for golf season to start. Even some of the area country clubs are getting close to opening. White Eagle in Naperville posted how they are taking the winter tarps off their greens today.

If you haven’t bought that new club or clubs do so quickly, it’s not too late to go inside and grab a tune up lesson from one of the local Illinois PGA professionals.

Addisonparks.org or Call 630-233-7275 Ext. 4 for information

ON THE PGA TOUR… Tiger Woods announced he will not play at Bay Hill, probably a smart move and he would only say he is hoping to be at Augusta for the Masters.

I expect him to play at Augusta, it’s major with a shorter field so that gives him a chance to be a little competitive.

JORDAN SPIETH who won his first PGA Tour title at the John Deere Classic, won his second yesterday at the Valspar Championship at the Innisbrook Resort in Florida. You can bet that more eyes will be on him now, as the Masters approaches.

Speaking of Innisbrook, it was great to see that the Salamander Golf Resort chain that owns Innisbrook has committed to a restoration of it’s famed Copperhead Course. When I was there in January, it was easy to tell the time had come for some upgrades. I expect next year the professionals will love the course even more than they do now. For more information, see our story from last Friday. Work starts in May and runs through October.

         (L) on Copperhead at Innisbrook, (R) the entrance to the Atlantic City Country Club.

From the weekend if you missed it. More great news on the renovation front came from another one of my stops last year Atlantic City. The Ottinger family that owns three courses in the Atlantic City area including the 117 year old Atlantic City Country Club, where term “birdie” was coined. Has started a renovation of it’s historic clubhouse and is doing more work on the course, see my story from the weekend for more details.

Starting this coming Sunday, the Gog Blog travels to Mississippi for four days on the links and I have more about the golf in that state over the days and weeks ahead. Stay clicked in.

YOU CAN STILL fill out your brackets tomorrow or Wednesday, so why not take advantage of the 75 degree weather today and go tee it. It’s opening day for outdoor golf season in the Chicago area, and the first tee is open. Pull the driver. RS.