Writing from Chicago
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Golf in 2012 – roughly the 555th for the game since the Scottish government thought it wise to prohibit it, lest it interfere with military training for a battle with England – featured upsets on the course and upsetting news about courses Old and newer, bold investments, and new people on top on the game, both globally and locally.
Rory McIlroy rose to the top of the men’s world ranking, supplanting fellow royal subject Luke Donald, Chicago’s very own Ryder Cup member. Among other triumphs, McIlroy won the PGA Championship and followed it up less then a month later by capturing back-to-back PGA Tour playoff tests, the second of them the BMW Championship – a.k.a. the Western Open of yore – which played to boffo box office at Crooked Stick Golf Club near Indianapolis.
Then the duo, joined by their European cohorts, staged the greatest rally in the history of the Ryder Cup, dazzling the Europeans and their backers among the throng of 55,000 on the final day at Medinah No. 3, a victory for the ages that was aided and abetted by American players folding like road maps in the final six holes.
The rousing comeback assured that Medinah, often criticized for having made too many changes and usually having too much rough, was finally considered in a positive way by the national and international critics. With Rees Jones’ changes and Augustaesque rough, the course was set up for drama. And drama there was.
The Ryder Cup, captured 14 1/2-13 1/3 by the European team – including McIlroy, who dusted ---- after arriving at Medinah with minutes to spare – is easily Illinois Golfer’s choice for tournament of the year. Had the American team cruised to victory on Sunday, as everyone but a handful of Europeans expected with the sun came up, it would have been a Ryder Cup to look up in the record books. Instead, it became one of legend, a tale to be told and retold as long as the game is played.
Historic and dramatic as it was, it was hardly the only significant happening in state golf this year. Herewith, the highlights:
Person of the Year
Jim McWethy, owner of Mistwood Golf Club and McQ’s Golf Dome. McWethy, a successful businessman away from the golf course, pushed more chips to the center of the table than anyone since Frank Jemsek signed the check for the 2008 renovation of Cog Hill’s Dubsdread course.
In fact, McWethy spent $6 million on Mistwood’s renovation to bring out the links aspect of it, $800,000 more than Jemsek’s redo of Dubsdread. And that counts neither the planned clubhouse, which could cost as much or more than what’s been spent on the course and the infrastructure under it that wasn’t put in when the course opened in 1998, nor his purchase of the Bolingbrook Golf Dome, which is now known as McQ’s Golf Dome and features a top-flight restaurant.
“I do not expect it’s going to be paying handsome rewards,” McWethy told Illinois Golfer when unveiling the plan for the course and clubhouse. “I just want rewards for it. ... We should be on the short list of the best (Chicago-area) courses.”
On top of that, he continued to bankroll the Illinois Women’s Open. But once that new clubhouse is built, you just know he’ll be looking for something larger to help fill out the calendar.
Player of the Year
Aside from Illinois coach Mike Small, it had been ages since a player from downstate Illinois – roughly south of Interstate 80 and west of Interstate 39 when golf is concerned – had won a state major open to professionals. That drought is over.
Country Club of Decatur head pro Steve Orrick won two in 2012, collecting the Illinois PGA championship at Stonewall Orchard in Grayslake, and following that with a victory in the 36-hole IPGA Players Championship at Eagle Ridge in October. What will he do for an encore?
Shot of the Year
Zach Johnson’s 193-yard bunker shot to within a foot of the cup on the second playoff hole in the John Deere Classic. It followed a double-bogey out of the same bunker on the 18th on the first playoff hole. Johnson, from nearby Cedar Rapids and a member of the JDC board, ended Steve Stricker’s run of three straight titles, joining the playoff with Troy Matteson by making birdies on three of the last six holes at TPC Deere Run.
Concept of the Year
Greg Martin, for Oak Meadows Golf Course. Martin is keeping much of Oak Meadows’ original routing, but taking the old Elmhurst Country Club’s course and making it a real test for the modern low-handicapper while keeping it playable for the duffer.
And the main reason for the renovation, construction for which is expected to start in the late fall, was to lessen the chance of flooding while improving water retention. Looks like a win-win-win-win.
Executive of the Year
John Kaczkowski, CEO of the Western Golf Association and Evans Scholars Foundation. First, Kaczkowski spearheaded the effort to broaden the WGA’s fundraising efforts for its caddies-to-college program by starting new programs. The Match Play Challenge, headed by Mike Keiser, raised $4.4 million in additional money for the Evans wing of the operation in 2011 (they’re still counting the 2012 contributions). And the Green Coat Gala, also begun in 2011, earned $350,000 the first time around and was sold out to the tune of $400,000, with Tom Watson the honoree, in 2012.
Then, Kaczkowski saw the one-year departure from Chicago because of the Ryder Cup pay off with huge galleries at Crooked Stick, the posh club in the northern suburbs of Indianapolis, for the BMW / Western. A glittering leader board – McIlroy, Mickelson, Westwood, Singh and Woods were all on the first page on Sunday afternoon – helped draw about 140,000 over the four tournament days, with more during the run-up. Even a late start on Saturday because of a torrential overnight downpour didn’t stop the crowds from coming. (A similar success was recorded at Bellerive, near St. Louis, in 2008. The circus hadn’t come to town there for years either.)
There were about 45,000 at Crooked Stick on Sunday, ignoring the Colts’ opener against the Bears in Chicago. In 2011, there were 49,000 at Cog Hill – for seven days.
Any wonder why the WGA is giving Conway Farms Golf Club, an equally posh and private layout in Lake Forest, a shot at hosting the Western this year and, unless this year is a complete bust, in 2015? And why the WGA will take its big show out of town in even-numbered years for the foreseeable future? It’s at Cherry Hills near Denver in 2014 and will probably encamp at Harding Park, the refurbished municipal course in San Francisco, in 2016.
Now Kaczkowski and the WGA crew face a big test: Making the BMW a big deal in Chicago in September, the way it was for decades as the Western Open in June and July.
Hail and Farewell
It was a tough year. We lost the following individuals, all of whom made golf a better game:
Chuck Chudek, 82, publisher of Chicagoland Golfer in the 1960s, Nov. 7.
Don Johnson, 77, retired head of the WGA and Evans Scholars, May 24.
Emil Lauter, 89, five-decade head of Skokie’s Pro Shop World of Golf, April 9.
Tom O’Connor, 70, longtime teaching pro and coach of St. Francis’ golf team, Dec. 9.
Nat Rosasco, 83, longtime CEO of clubmaker Northwestern Golf, Nov. 1.
Of that quintet, the contributions of Rosasco and Johnson were the most wide-reaching. Under Rosasco, Northwestern Golf was for decades the world’s largest golf equipment manufacturer, selling millions of clubs, individually and in sets, in off-course stores. Under Johnson, the WGA went from sometimes borrowing money to fund scholarships and using contributions to pay off the loans to running well in the black, and building an endowment from $1 million to well into right figures.
The Champions of 2012
BMW Championship / Western Open – Rory McIlroy
John Deere Classic – Zach Johnson
Western Amateur – Chris Williams
Western Junior – Adam Wood
Women’s Western Amateur – Ariya Jutanugarn
Women’s Western Junior – Chakansim "Fai" Khamborn
Illinois Open – Max Scodro
Illinois Women’s Open – a-Samantha Troyanovich
Illinois Senior Open – Jerry Vidovic
Illinois PGA Match Play – Curtis Malm
Illinois PGA – Steve Orrick
Illinois Players – Steve Orrick
Illinois Amateur – Quinn Prchal
Illinois Women’s Amateur – Elizabeth Szokol
Illinois Junior Amateur – Raymond Knoll
Illinois Junior Women’s Amateur – Connie Ellett
Illinois Senior Amateur – Tom Miler
Illinois Senior Women’s Amateur – Laura Carson
Illinois Public Links – Tom Miler
CDGA Championship – Michael Davan
CWDGA Championship – Samantha Postillion
U.S. Mid-Amateur – Nathan Smith
Symetra Tour Players Championship – Kristie Smith
Closed and for sale
Graystone Golf Course, Tinley Park. Opened in 1995, the widow of designer/owner Jim Gray plans to open a sod farm after years of declining golf revenue. The nine-hole course closed in October.
Finally...
Anytime Jim Furyk is ready to putt on the 17th hole, fine by me.
Birdies and eagles for 2013!
– Tim Cronin