The Links and Tee’s Golf Facility on Lake Street in Addison. Year round golf, outdoor golf, range and mini-golf all-summer long. The Links & Tee’s Golf Dome all winter opening in November.  See Addisonparks.org or call (630)-233-7275. CASSY TULLY Art that was featured all last week in the merchandise tent at the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, see Cassytully.com. The Mt. Prospect Golf Club has reopened from a Dave Esler renovation and recaptured the classic golf era. See Mppd.org for details.      _____________________________________________________________________

    The Gog Blog by Rory Spears,Editor and Director of Content, Follow Rory on Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter @GogBlogGuy (L) with the Havemeyer U.S. Amateur Trophy at Olympia Fields. First round stroke play action for the field of 312 players starts today.

It’s the nation’s oldest golf tournament the U.S. Amateur Championship, and the 115th version of the amateur starts today at 7 AM on both courses at Olympia Fields.

The amateur is the 60th USGA Championship in Illinois, but sadly the final USGA event for the foreseeable future. It is the 12th U.S. Amateur Championship played in Illinois, the last one being in 1997 at Cog Hill when Matt Kuchar defeated Joel Kribel 2 & 1.

This is the Fifth USGA Championship to be played at Olympia Fields, most recently Olympia Fields hosted the USGA Junior Girls Championship in 2011.

Defending Champion Gunn Yang of Korea, who won last year’s championship at the Atlanta Athletic Club is now in the field. Yang defeated Corey Conners of Canada 2 & 1 in the championship match.

USGA President Tom O’Toole says that both the history of Olympia Fields and the quality of the facility, were factors in the USGA selecting the club to host the championship.

“The USGA has a policy that to accept invitations from clubs for a U.S. Amateur, they should be past or future U.S. Open sites,” said O’Toole. “With Olympia Fields hosting U.S. Opens in 1928 and again in 2003, add in the restoration of the South Course, having 36 holes at one location for 312 players to conduct the stroke play portion of the event, operationally that’s welcoming to our staff. Olympia Fields has a championship history, and we were excited to receive their invitation.”

According to Olympia Fields U.S. Amateur Chairman Dave Allard, Olympia Fields in recent years has rededicated itself to amateur golf.

“The club is very excited,” said Allard. “Our members have been working working very hard with fundraising, and will be serving as volunteers.”

One question remaining for Olympia Fields, is can a successful hosting of the U.S. Amateur lead to another U.S. Open. The club would love to host another says Allard, but Olympia Fields will now host the KPMG/LPGA Championship in 2017. That has led to speculation that the PGA of America will likely give the club a PGA Championship, before the club will be awarded a U.S. Open. But what happen’s if on Sunday night it’s been a great U.S. Amateur, well that is anyone’s guess.

Olympia Fields has a great history on and off the golf course. It was at one time the largest private facility in America, having four courses over 900 acres. Tom Bendelow who also designed all three courses at Medinah, designed the first three courses at Olympia Fields, with Willie Park designing the fourth course (the current North Course). Two of the courses were sold off in 1945 to pay off mounting debt after World War II.

Currently the club has two courses, the North and South. Both courses are used in the championship, but only the North Course will be used in the match play part of the championship. Mark Mungeam is the current North Course consulting architect for the club, and oversaw recent historical restorations on the course as well as the clubs improved range and practice facilities. Mungeam says the new restorations will factor in during the championship, including some newly added bunkers and tee’s.

Steve Smyers is the clubs South Course consulting architect. He oversaw the renovation of the course seven years ago. Smyers called the South Course before the renovation that added over 800 yards in length, “a pretty lady with a dirty face.”

The field of 312 players will begin play today. At the conclusion of stroke play on Tuesday, the field is cut to just 64 players. The first of match play on Wednesday will reduce the field to 32 players. On Thursday there will be two rounds of match play, and by days end there will be only 8 players remaining. The quarterfinal matches are on Friday, and the semi-final matches are Saturday. The two remaining finalists will play a 36 hole championship match on Sunday.

The North Course will be slightly altered for the championship. USGA Amateur Championship Director Ben Kimball will flip the nine’s except for holes 1 & 10. Those holes will play as 1 & 10, but 2-9 will play as championship 11-18, and holes 11-18 will play championship 2-9.

The U.S. Amateur Championship is open to all golfers who have a Handicap Index that does not exceed 2.4. The USGA excepted 7,047 entries this year, the record was set in 1999 when the USGA accepted 7,920.

The winner of the championship receives the following: 1. A Gold Medal and custody of the Havemeyer trophy for the following year. 2. An exemption from and sectional qualifying for the next U.S. Open. 3. An exemption for the next 10 U.S. Amateurs. 4.An exemption from qualifying for the next British Open. 5. A likely invitation to the Masters Tournament. A position on this years U.S. Walker Cup Team, should the player be an American.

TICKETS ARE $25 for daily grounds tickets. Weekly tickets are available as well for $80. Purchase them by going online at 2015usamateur.com.

IF YOUR GOING…Spectator Information.

Walking with the players is encouraged. Armless portable chairs are allowed. Fans can bring in 1-transparent portable bottle 24 oz. or less in size. There is free parking at Marion Catholic High School. Public transportation is available by train and you can use Metra to stop at the Olympia Fields station.

There is a security screening all attendee’s will pass through. Any bags must be of certain sizes, for guidelines visit the USGA website.

Fox Sports 1 will broadcast the amateur from Wednesday through Friday and the Fox Broadcast Network will broadcast on Saturday and Sunday. See local listings for times. For more information on broadcast times, stay clicked in here or visit USGA.org.

Tee-Times for some local and top rated players. First Monday time and followed by Tuesday time.

Daniel Stringfellow, Roselle 7 Am and Noon for North Course hole # 1 and South Course hole #10. Defending champion Gunn Yang 8:10 North #1 and South #10. todd Mitchell, Bloomington 8:50 North #1 and 1:50 South #10. Beau Hossler 12:20 North #1 and 7:20 South #10. Daniel Hudson, Western Springs 12:10 North #10 and 7:10 AM South #1. Doug Ghim or Arlington Hts., North #10 1:30, South #1 8:30. Nick Hardy, Northbrook, 7:20 South #10, and 12:20 North #1. Nathan Smith (winner of 2012 US Mid-Am at Conway Farms) 7:40 AM South #10, and North #1 12:40. Aaron Wise Western AM finalist 8:30 South #10 North #1 1:30. Charlie Danielson 12:30 South #1 and 7:30 North #10. Jordan Niebrugge 12:30 South #10 and 7:30 North #1. Illinois Open Champion from Lisle David Cooke 1:10 on South #10 and 8:10 North #1.

Click here to hear USGA Director of the U.S. Amateur Championship Ben Kimball’s remarks regarding the amateur from U.S.Amateur preview day at Olympia Fields.

The Gog Blog will have daily recaps everyday this week, stay clicked in for details and stories with top players.

USGA Senior Historian Michael Trostel joined Golfers on Golf Radio yesterday. To hear a replay of that interview, visit our past shows area, and click on yesterday show.