Archive

There wasn’t much movement in Chicago’s club professional ranks the past few years, but that’s not the case now. Already five well-established head pros have announced plans to move on. The move creating the most ripple effect was Mike Scully’s departure from Medinah immediate after the Ryder Cup.  He is now in charge at Desert Mountain, a Scottsdale, Ariz., resort that has five courses. Scully was also the vice president of the Illinois PGA, so his leaving the area after nearly 10 years created some adjustment in the section’s rotation of officers.  Chris Gumbach became the IPGA’s 25^th president at the Fall Annual Meeting. Gumbach, a member of the board of directors from 2007-12, succeeds Casey Brozek, who will continue on the board as honorary president. (more…)

Illinois PGA will have a different challenge if the section decides to keep its first major tourney of 2013 at Kemper Lakes. The club, which hosted the 1989 PGA Championship, the 1992 U.S. Women's Amateur and several Champions Tour stops before it became a private venue in 2009, has begun a renovation project. Taking small steps at first, the club approved Libertyville architect Rick Jacobson's plans to radically change the bunkering.  The original course had 199,000 square feet of bunkers.  When Jacobson's work is done it'll have 112,000. But the number of bunkers will probably increase from the present 63. (more…)

by Len Ziehm THE RECENT RYDER CUP may have seemed a downer after the collapse of the U.S. team in the Sunday matches, but – while being on site at Medinah every day – I found an uplifting story behind the scenes -- the reunion of the Sweeney brothers. Frank and Mary Sweeney, their parents, moved to a residence on Sunset Terrace – about 600 yards from the Medinah clubhouse – in 1962 and raised six children there. Their four boys – Frank, Phil, Pat and Brendan – were all Medinah caddies, and the Ryder Cup marked the first time they were all together since 2007. Their father passed away in March and their mother lives in Venice, FL. (more…)

CHESTERTON, Ind. – Tim Miles  Sr. tells me I’ve made golf history. He says I’m the first member of GolfVisions’ Player Pass program to play all of the 16  courses offered in this most innovative program, and I’ll tell you it wasn’t easy. Miles,  the GolfVisions president, started the Player Pass program two years ago and tweaked it for this season. GolfVisions is a course management firm that Miles founded under the name GreenVisions in 1989.  It presently oversees 11 courses in Illinois, two in Indiana, one in Michigan and two in Florida. Under the Player Pass program, you pay an annual fee to join, then get one free greens fee at each course plus other perks – the lowest fee the course offers for your playing partners, free range balls and discounts on meals and pro shop merchandise. (more…)