The courses of Lawsonia Golf in Green Lake Wisconsin. 3 hours from downtown Chicago. 36 holes and the new Langford Pub. Stay and play’s now available. Come play the courses the members of Chicago’s top private clubs head north to play. See Lawsonia.com or call the pro shop at (920)-294-3320.
BY: RORY SPEARS, ASSISTANT EDITOR AND LEAD WRITER
THE GOG BLOG IS BACK, sorry to have been away for several days. The site wasn’t allowing me to post while the new technical upgrades were being installed. Now with that behind us, I can start catching up.
Due to the run of tournaments and other things going on with Golfers on Golf radio, I have fallen a bit behind with columns and stories. Well the catch up is about to begin. Look for quite a few postings in the days ahead. By the end of the month the Gog Blog hits road for a nice fall golf road trip. I’ll hit the resorts and some of the back east private clubs. I’ll have plenty of great golf stories for you as the fall and winter seasons move along. What’s up with the New York courses, how and why they are getting the tournaments in the years ahead, that Chicago would like to have. More on that over the next 40 days.
This weekend one of the best college golf invitationals anywhere will tee off at Olympia Fields in the South suburbs. The Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Golf invitational tee’s off on Friday and runs through Sunday. Rounds start at 9 Am and admission is Free. All the top ranked teams are coming, including two-time defending national champion #1 Alabama. Illinois is #6. Come see the PGA Tour players of the future. Olympia Fields is home of the 2015 U.S. Amateur championship.
THE BMW is in the books for 2014, and Billy Horschel is your champion. He will defend at Conway Farms in Lake Forest come September of 2015. I hope you enjoyed the coverage of our BIG 3 partner Tim Cronin at Illinoisgolfer.net who was on site last week. Tim reports that the drive from Chicago’s south suburbs to Cherry Hills outside of Denver Colorado is just under 16 hours if you drive straight through, as he did.
This will be good to know because the BMW in the years ahead looks to have this schedule for future sites. 2015 Conway Farms, 2016 Crooked Stick GC, Carmel Indiana is likely, 2017 Conway Farms is likely, 2018 could go back to Colorado at either Cherry Hills or former PGA Tour venue Castle Pines. More coming up on the WGA shortly.
PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem spoke about the state of the PGA Tour at the Tour Championship in Atlanta. Sounds like schedule expansion and more golf course developments are on the horizon, stay tuned. Those comments coming right after an interview ran with Henrik Stenson saying that top players are burned out from too many events, and the world might not see them from November until March of 2015.
GOLFERS ON GOLF RADIO. We just wrapped up year three on WSBC AM 1240 and WCFJ AM 1470, then again now with the means to go on the road, Chicago’s favorite foursome would like to create a little winter radio programming. Stay tuned, like one former Chicago Cubs official once said, “were working on it.” Special thanks to producer Big Jon Vicc, and GM Mark Pinski for another great year. In 2012 we started with 16 shows, 2013 we had 20 shows, this year 21. With the BMW back in town, the show might be expanding yet again. So we hope, stay clicked in for details.
LINKS AND TEE’S ON LAKE AVE. IN ADDISON, a great place to play and practice. For more information see Addisonparks.org or call (630)-233-7275.
HAVE YOU BEEN OUT TO PLAY. I have, including a round at the recently renovated Wilmette Golf Club. What an improvement since my last round there years ago, next up is work on their driving range. Wilmette Golf Club on Lake Avenue in Wilmette, a Greg Martin renovation. (847)-256-9777 or visit golfwilmette.com.
THE BASEBALL schedule makers didn’t do the 2015 Encompass Championship any favors. After a record 8 days of no baseball in Chicago on either side of town in late June and early July, both teams are in town tournament week. Then during the 3 rounds of the championship, the Cubs and Sox meet for 3 games at Wrigley Field. It always seems to be all or nothing around here.
Startech Glass celebrating 25 years as one of Chicago’s leaders in the commercial glass industry. Startechglass.com or call (773)-745-0800, 1835 N. Major St. Chicago.
The new Chicagoland Golf is out in your local pro shop’s, pick up a copy today. The facts keep coming in about golf, and they tell the whole picture about the industry. That news and more in the current issue.
With the radio show over, Golfersongolf.com will be busy keeping the Chicago golfmarket up to speed all winter long about all the local golf news. Stay clicked in and plenty of time this fall to go play. Hit’em straight. RS