Tinley Park Golf Expo tees off local season

The Morning Nine for Monday, February 3, 2014

Writing from Chicago

    Golf can enlarge one’s vocabulary, and not just when someone in your group hits his third straight ball in the water. Here’s how: Ever hear the word “tributary” outside of the Masters, when CBS’s guys talk about the tributary of Rae’s Creek that runs through the 13th hole? Of course not.
    This week brings the traveling circus of the American tour to Pebble Beach, and that means the word is “felicitous.” As in Robert Louis Stevenson, that old 3-handicapper, calling Pebble Beach “The most felicitous meeting of land and sea in creation.” So if you ever need to use felicitous in a sentence, there you go. And here we go with the Morning Nine.

    1. So here it is the first Monday in February, there’s too much snow on the ground, it hasn’t been above freezing since Thanksgiving, more snow is on the way, the Super Bowl is over – it was over by halftime, come to think of it – and they could play the Winter Olympics in your driveway.
    What to do? Go to a golf show. The third Tinley Park Golf Expo at the town’s convention center begins a three-day run on Friday. New this year is an emphasis on junior golf, with lessons for kids provided by the First Tee of Chicago. There’s a hitting area for adults as well.
    Based on the list of exhibitors through Sunday, about two dozen courses, more of them local than regional resorts, will be represented. Several manufacturers will also be on hand, along with equipment sellers.
    The Tinley show runs from noon to 7 p.m. on Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. Go on Friday, when admission is just $5. It’s $10 on Saturday and Sunday. Parking’s free. The Tinley Park Convention Center is at Interstate 80 and Harlem Ave.
    Tinley’s show is the first of two in the Chicago area, the Chicago Golf Show in Rosemont  on Feb. 21-23 being the other.

    2. Cue the Augusta music: Kevin Stadler wins the Phoenix Open, will join dad Craig in the field for the Masters. And Craig says this will be his farewell appearance. He was waiting to for his boy to win to play just one more. Neat.

    3. Don’t know if there were really 189,000 people at the Phoenix Open on Saturday, but the aerial shots show there certainly was a throng on hand. And they were able to get in and out without a great hassle, unlike a certain football game in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The most impressive stat of the weekend wasn’t Stadler’s winning score, but this one: 200 suites encircling the par-3 16th hole, sold at $46,000 per. That’s $9.2 million in revenue, a boatload of it going to charity.

    4. The best and worst of golf television arrives this week. The best are the views of Pebble Beach – and the traditional aerial shot of Cypress Point – during the Crosby Clambake. The worst is Saturday’s telecast, three hours of inanity that features the quasi-celebrities who play in the amateur portion of the tournament.
    The problem is, nobody’s cared since Jack Lemmon died. Jim Nantz hamming it up with Larry Gatlin just doesn’t cut it.
    How about a three-hour show explaining why Pebble Beach is an architectural masterpiece, and how Cypress, which used to host a round of the tournament, is even better? Go into the risk-reward on the eighth, ninth and 10th holes along the cliffs. And come on the air before they play the fifth and sixth holes, for crying out loud. The golf course starts on No. 5.

    5. Maybe we shouldn’t feel bad about the lousy weather. Reporter and radio broadcaster Rory Spears, who never saw a golf course he didn’t want to play at least once, was in Pinehurst a few days ago, and was snowed out of a round on No. 2. That’s a long way to go to see a new site for the NHL’s Winter Classic.

    6. Kevin Streelman, the Winfield native, might as well have stayed in bed rather than play for the first time in a month. He tied for 53rd at 1-under-par 283 at Phoenix, making $14,284.80. His previous outing was a tie for third at Kapalua (worth $382,000).

    7. Streelman’s finish was better than that of D.A. Points. He missed the cut for the first time this year (and season), and hasn’t cracked the top 25 in six tournaments.

    8. Golf history department, division of “How crazy is this?” Lloyd Mangrum won the 1946 U.S. Open in a double-round playoff, surviving after he, Byron Nelson and Vic Ghezzi tied after 72 holes and after an 18-hole playoff. And survived is the proper word, for they played the last three holes of a playoff in a thunderstorm.
    Writers opined that Mangrum wasn’t concerned since he’d survived being wounded in the Battle of the Bulge. They didn’t have a 2-iron in their hands. What was USGA boss Joe Dey thinking?

    9. Finally, when does the Super Bowl start? A Seattle safety via a Denver miscue and two Seahawks field goals in the first quarter almost made the commercials interesting by comparison. Haven’t seen a favorite look so out of place since Tiger Woods in the Dubai Desert Classic, 18 hours earlier. But at least it wasn’t freezing.

    – Tim Cronin