THE SCHAUMBURG GOLF CLUB is your year-round golf facility. The newly improved simulators have new Top 100 and 2018-2020 Ryder Cup venues to offer you all winter long. So why not keep your game sharp in the off season, and figure out what clubs you might like to replace before you take it back outside. Great food and beverages right upstairs from Chandlers Chop House. Schaumburg Golf Club is located at 401 N. Roselle Road just minutes from Woodfield Mall. Take a break from holiday shopping and tee it up at the Schaumburg Golf Club, Schaumburggolf.com or (847)-885-9000.

Schaumburg Golf Club’s General Manager Jon Parson’s talks about winter golf at SGC.

THE GOG BLOG by RORY SPEARS, Director of Content and Creation. Follow Rory on Twitter @GogBlogGuy and on Linkedin and Facebook. In the broadcast booth at the 2016 Ryder Cup at Hazeltine CC, home of the 2019 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

POLITICS, it’s a funny little word, that at times has some big consequences.

First up is the farce going on at Canal Shores. The latest media outlet to take issue with what’s going on there, is the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board that took issue with a column, that ran within the last day or so.

The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) voted 5-4 in favor of paving over most of the Par 3, 10th hole at the Canal Shores Golf Course that sits on the border of Wilmette and Evanston. Why?, so that a developer can build a few houses on some land that doesn’t have an access road to the property in the first place. Something the developer knew, when he bought the land in the first place. But with big time politics involved and the whose-who involved, the vote doesn’t always go the way it should.

Can this still be stopped, you betcha. Will it? good question. Toni Preckwinkle the current Cook County Board President can stop it, but will she. The road that the developer wants will reportedly cost Cook County taxpayers some $700,000. Then the Cook County highway department gets to maintain it, for even more money. Who benefits here, just the developer looking to fatten the wallet, and maybe some political friends of the developer. Perhaps the land could be sold to the golf course and used to enhance the golf course and it’s facilities.  But then there is politics getting in the way.

The map showing the land issue at Canal Shores.

The Canal Shores issue might not seem like a big issue, but it could set a bad precedent here. If the MWRD gets away with this one, what’s the next golf course that gets the shaft, and I don’t mean a new TPT or Fujikura shafts either.

Toni, do the right thing here. Stop the paving of the 10th hole at Canal Shores, and do remember the golfers and the people who oppose this, are voters as well.

THE BIG BOONDOGGLE as written by our BIG 3 media partner Tim Cronin the publisher of the Illinois Golfer, is the proposed golf course on the lake front, that involves both the South Shore and Jackson Park courses. Don’t get me wrong the concept on lake front golf in Chicago isn’t bad, but the whole deal about where, and cost, doesn’t appear to make sense or cents here.

More than one person who has studied the project knows from a dollars and sense standpoint, it doesn’t make sense, and it will cost way too many dollars to build. The lake front golf course project that has been tied to a Barack Obama presidential library, might sound good on paper, but… The library is facing it own’s challenges, and now the word that the Illinois taxpayers could be on the hook for up to another $250 million for area infrastructure improvements around the proposed library is frightening in it’s own right. That is likely to draw it’s own set off it’s own set of protests, different from the current ones.

The renamed Mistwood Golf Dome is open for business, with McWethy’s Sports Bar, and Toptracer/Top Golf technology in it’s hitting bays. Mistwoodgolfdome.com

Even if you could build the new course, it would be tough to financially sustain it and draw enough golfers there to play. The initial cost estimates are far short of what the bill would end up being. It’s not a good location for any big time professional golf event. Talk of a BMW Championship being played there is just that, talk. With BMW possibly driving off into the sunset after Medinah come next August, would a new sponsor, even one based in Chicago, want to go there. Getting large crowds into and out of the lakefront is a mess, as I witnessed last night attending the Bears game. Imagine fighting traffic into the Soldier Field area to park, and potentially then having to be shuttled to the golf course further down south on the lakefront, and then back to the Soldier Field area.

Golf industry consultant Bill Daniels the founder of Golf Chicago Magazine, has had a handle on the proposed golf course for a while. His idea of bringing out local architects Greg Martin and Mike Benkusky for a reality look at the courses that are proposed for a redo, and getting their thoughts made real sense and made for a story this past summer in Chicago Tribune (Eric Zorn column).

It appears that there is even more now that meets the eye, on what the City of Chicago, the Chicago Park District and the State of Illinois could be on the hook for in terms of dollars, regarding the Obama Library, and any golf course that’s tied into that project.

With a new governor coming on board, and a new mayor taking over the City of Chicago next year, the political scene in Illinois could change. Let’s just hope if it does change the golf scene in Illinois, it’s for the better. RS