The Grill Room: The season begins

Friday, February 28, 2025

Writing from Chicago

Calendars are meant for parking up, and for some of us – and perhaps you as well – today is a red letter day on it.

Today is the opening day at the Chicago Golf Show in Rosemont.

There was a much smaller show in Tinley Park three weeks ago, but this is the big one. This is the one where you can get a mini-lesson from a PGA pro to fix – or start to fix – a swing flaw. It’s where you can smack a few balls with a new driver or 5-iron from a manufacturer. A literal test drive, as it were. Where you can wander the aisles and pick up brochures for golf resorts, or even buy year or two-year old club to fill that spot in your bag and your game.

This is the 40th show under than name since it was started by local pro Steve Sidari in a meeting room in Schaumburg in the early 1980s. From there, it moved to the gym at Harper College, thence to Rosemont, where it’s ensconced on the second floor of the Stephens Convention Center for a three-day run through Sunday. Only the COVID-19 pandemic stopped it for a couple of years.

Amng others, the show’s lesson stage will feature Kevin Weeks of Cog Hill on Friday at 4 p.m.; nationally-known teacher Hank Haney on Saturday and Sunday at 1:30 p.m.; Mistwood’s Andy Mickelson and Nicole Jeray on Saturday at 10 a.m.; Chris Oehlerking on Saturday at noon; and Mistwood’s John Platt on Sunday at noon.

Friday ($8 admission for adults), the show is open from noon-6 p.m.; Saturday ($13), from 9 a.m.-6 p.m.; Sunday ($13), from 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

Test your game against the pros

The Illinois PGA runs a season-long series of tournaments every year, but until now, only the Illinois Open and Illinois Senior Open has been open to non-members. This year, the IPGA is inaugurating an Open Series, six one-day tournaments open to section pros, non-affiliated pros and amateurs with a handicap index of 10.0 or less. In other words, open. And with prize money taken from the entry fees for the leading pros.

The idea is, there are so many players chasing the rainbow and pot of gold that is the PGA Tour, there’s a pent-up demand for places to play aside from the Dakota Tour and sundry operations in Florida and other points south.

Players can enter one or all. The first one, at White Eagle Golf Club on April 28, already has 19 players registered. Other sites are Flossmoor Golf Club (May 21), Hinsdale Golf Club (June 9), Elgin Country Club (July 14), Aurora Country Club (July 28) and Bull Valley Golf Club (Oct. 8).

Everything you need to know is at https://ilpga.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/ilpga25/schedule/illinoisopenseries/index.htm?display=champ

Dome sweet dome

It escaped our attention in the fall, but a Quebec-based company has a plan to build a connected group of four massive domes adjacent to U.S. 30 in Oswego, under which will be a large practice range and a nine-hole golf course.

The Megalodome concept has already been approved by the Oswego Village Board, but final approval and all the details await another appearance by the company, which is said to be arranging financing. There’s no word on the total cost, which would include a clubhouse adjacent to the domes.

Each of the four domes would be 100 yards wide, 300 yards long and 110 feet high, dwarfing any individual dome in the Chicago area. The three domes covering the course would each have room for a short par-4 of up to 280 yards and a pair of par-3 holes, with bunkers, ponds and artificial trees.

The (www.megalodomegolf.com) website shows concepts of the design. We’ll believe it when we see it.

– Tim Cronin