Remembering Lance Ten Broeck

Writing from Chicago

Tuesday, May 2, 2023

Lance Ten Broeck was one of the most complicated figures in the history of golf in Chicago.

A product of Chicago’s south side and Beverly Country Club, Ten Broeck was immensely talented. Yet he won only once on the PGA Tour – the 1984 Magnolia Classic, an alternate-field tournament played the same week as the Masters.

That could have been a springboard. But Ten Broeck never got the bounce.

Ten Broeck, 67, died Sunday of organ failure in West Palm Beach, Fla. His son Jonathan confirmed the news to Craig Dolch of the Palm Beach Post. He had dealt with growing health problems the last two years.

Lance Ten Broeck was as good a caddie as he was a player, working for Jesper Parnevik when his PGA Tour eligibility was all but gone, and eventually caddieing for Ernie Els on the Champions Tour.

“We lost a great friend of the game of golf yesterday, Lance Ten Broeck,” Els tweeted on Monday. “Lance spent his whole life around our great game as a player, a caddy, and a coach, for that matter. A True legend and most of the stories are true! Loved that man - RIP brother!”

The stories being true are why Ten Broeck didn’t fulfill the expectations friends and observers had for him after he graduated from Texas in 1977. The “Last Call Lance” nickname was hung on him in 1980 when he had to wait for a bartender to end his shift to get a ride back to his hotel during the Pensacola Open, but even before that, he burned the midnight oil at American Tour stops when it was barely midnight on Guam.

Ten Broeck made $790,347 in his PGA Tour career, finishing in the top 10 11 times. He made the cut 162 times in 355 starts, the most famous being the 2009 Texas Open. He was Parnevik’s caddie, but also entered to play under the provision of having more at least 150 cuts on the Tour, as he did every week Parnevik played.

As always he was well down the alternate list, but this time everyone above him either got in or was unavailable. He found out he could play after Parnevik putted out on Thursday morning, and within an hour, Ten Broeck had arranged to borrow spare clubs, a putter and balls, plus went down the street to a department store to buy a pair of slacks. As a caddie, he wore shorts.

Ten Broeck shot 71, then went out the next morning, shot 73, and jumped back on Parnevik’s bag for the last 13 holes of his round. Both missed the cut, but Ten Broeck beat his boss by two strokes.

“I guarantee you that will never happen again on the PGA Tour,” Parnevik told Dolch. “Nobody will ever caddie and play in the same event.”

When he was motivated, Ten Broeck could play amazing golf. At 56, he led the 2012 U.S. Senior Open at the halfway point, landing in an eventual tie for ninth place. Five years later, chasing a berth on the senior circuit, he fired a 62 in qualifying, missing matching his age by a year.

All of which drove Ten Broeck fans up the wall. If he could do things like that, plus take money from the pockets of peers in friendly games, why couldn’t he do it more often?

Said Ten Broeck in 2019, “I probably didn’t have enough confidence, but it’s hard to have confidence when you’re not playing well. And when I played badly, I didn’t want to play.”

With the family growing up in Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood – he was the youngest of eight children – Lance Ten Broeck starred at Brother Rice – though unknown to many in the state because the Catholic League wasn’t in the IHSA at the time. He then earned all-America honors at Texas, and came home to win the 1984 Illinois Open by three strokes at Flossmoor. He thus joined his older brother Rick, who had won it in 1973 and 1981, on the trophy.

Rick Ten Broeck is among a large number of surviving family members, along with Lance’s son Jonathan.

His friends on the circuit remembered him fondly.

“How I remember Lance,” tweeted Rick Fehr. “…he was kind and cared about everyone equally. Best epitaph, IMO. The world needs more peeps like him. Love to all his family.”

Bob Estes, another contemporary, added on Twitter, “I always enjoyed talking to him about golf, life or @TexasLonghorns sports. We’re gonna miss him on the @ChampionsTour."

A celebration of Lance Ten Broeck’s life will be held in mid-May, Jonathan Ten Broeck said.

– Tim Cronin

The Golf Show is back!

Writing from Chicago

Thursday, February 23, 2023

It was three years ago that golfers last filled one of the exhibition halls at the Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont. Talk of a mysterious plague-like ailment, COVID-19, was about as the Chicago Golf Show was held. Many people fist-pumped rather than shook hands.

Only a few days later, the world shut down for months.

Friday, the Chicago Golf Show returns for the first time since 2020. It was not held in 2021 because COVID still ruled the world, nor in 2022 because the usual run of exhibitors were reluctant to travel or be about in public. This year, show owner Tom Corcoran has lined up many of the old exhibitors and some now ones to make it worth his while to open the doors – and for golfers to attend.

The 38th edition opens a three-day run Friday at noon, running until 6:30 p.m., with $7 adult admission (and $5 after 4 p.m., a.k.a. Happy Hour). Saturday (9 a.m.-6 p.m.) and Sunday (9 a.m.-4 p.m.) adult admission is $12. Youths from 12 to 15 are $4 each, kids 11 and under get in free.

All attendees can sign up for a free round of golf at a GolfVisions-operated course – there are 13 in the area – get a quick lesson from an Illinois PGA pro at the indoor driving range, and give Chicago’s Longest Putt a whirl, plus roam the aisles of exhibitors, including resorts, many local courses, sellers of gadgets and implements both practical and curious, or dive into used-club areas in search of that one weapon that will turn one’s game around. The booth count went past 100 a couple of weeks ago, and some vendors have been added since.

“Our vendors are going to have some really great deals that haven’t been available the last couple of years because of supply chain problems and low inventory,” Corcoran said.

The Chicago District Golf Association is the title sponsor of the show. Serious golfers will be able to renew their handicap at the CDGA booth.

Headliners on the main stage on Saturday and Sunday are CBS Sports golf broadcaster Colt Knost, who won the U.S. Amateur and U.S. Public Links in 2007, and Paige Spiranac, who played at San Diego State and on the LPGA’s Futures Tour.

“We look forward to welcoming both Paige Spiranac and Colt Knost to the 2023 Chicago Golf Show,” Corcoran said in a release. “Paige loves golf and we are confident our attendees will love her. Meanwhile, Colt is an up-and-coming young star of golf broadcast media.”

The main stage will offer a variety of pros and personalities over the three days. The schedule:

Friday

1 p.m., Nate Pakula, PXG club-fitter

2 p.m., Todd Sones, Sones Impact Golf, PGA pro

3 p.m., Kevin Weeks, Cog Hill G&CC, PGA pro

Saturday

10 a.m., Nate Pakula

11 a.m., Colt Knost, CBS Sports, former Tour player

12:30 p.m., John Platt, Mistwood GC, PGA pro, gives Dan Roan a lesson

2 p.m., Paige Spiranac, interviewed by Colt Knost

Sunday

10 a.m., Juan Espejo, PGA pro, on purposeful practice

11 a.m., Colt Knost, CBS Sports, former Tour player

Noon, Jim Miller, Kemper Lakes CG, PGA pro, with Emery Moorehead

2 p.m., Paige Spiranac, interviewed by Colt Knost

 – Tim Cronin

Clarke leaves Wilson

Reporting from Chicago

Monday, February 20, 2023

Tim Clarke is out as president of Wilson’s golf division. Clarke, who led Wilson’s return from the brink of irrelevancy to its traditional position in the sport as a respected equipment manufacturer, has left the Chicago-headquartered sports giant.

Clarke’s next stop is undetermined.

The only announcement Wilson made Monday was to note one of their putters ranked second in a poll.

Wilson, a leader in golf since the 1920s, was foundering when Clarke joined the sales department in the 1990s, the result of a succession of owners, notably Pepsi, with clumsy ideas on how to grow revenue. Most of those ideas failed to do that, also damaging a brand that was one of the big four in the persimmon-wood era, with MacGregor, Spalding and Acushnet-Titleist.

He took over as boss of the golf division late in 2006 and began to rebuild the brand, bringing back the Wilson Staff line of products, re-establishing alliances with club pros, and upgrading the quality. Wilson had been known for first-rate products before expanding into department store and off-course sporting-goods store sales with a lower-priced group of products that proved inferior to both their better products and the lower-cost lines of their competitors.

Clarke signed a handful of players to endorsement contracts, and one, Padraig Herrington, immediately paid off with a victory in the 2007 British Open, then repeated and added the PGA Championship in 2008.

The hard return to relevancy showed up in the bottom line. Wilson Golf became profitable again on a year-to-year basis. John Barba of the My Golf Spy website, which broke the news of Clarke’s departure on Monday, reported that at one point, when Wilson had been spiraling downhill, the golf division lost $15 million one year.

Barba reports Wilson global VP and research and development chief Bob Thurman will take over on an interim basis. Thurman has some 25 sports-equipment patents to his credit, including for golf ball dimple patterns.

Wilson isn’t back in the big four yet – that’s generally considered to be Titleist, TaylorMade, Callaway and Ping – but it’s closed the gap. Gary Woodland’s U.S. Open win in 2019 kept the brand’s streak of winning at least one major a decade since the 1920s alive. The sight of a Wilson bag on TV once again was as important.

This year, Clarke supervised the relaunch of Wilson’s Dynapower brand, created in 1956 and a top-seller in the business for years.

“As we were developing this new series of distance-focused products for 2023, we were prepared to re-enter the adjustable driver category with truly innovative solutions, as well as launch a powerful new set of irons. This family of products truly represented the start of something,” Clarke said at the time. “When we considered naming for these products, we thought it was time to bring back a name that resembled power, and something that was synonymous with groundbreaking.”

Now, someone else will have to carry the Wilson name forward.

– Tim Cronin

Smith cashes in at Rich Harvest

By Tim Cronin

Writing from Sugar Grove, Illinois

Sunday, September 18, 2022

In the end, Cameron Smith’s victory in the LIV Golf Invitational in Sugar Grove was a matter of execution. When Dustin Johnson could make only pars on the last six holes and Peter Uihlein stumbled after closing to within two strokes, Smith ran in a six-footer for birdie on Rich Harvest Farms’ treacherous par-4 17th and stroked a 20-footer into the cup at the par-5 18th to wow the gallery and win by four strokes.

His total of 13-under-par 203, capped by Sunday’s 4-under 68, matched Branden Grace’s score at Pumpkin Ridge, both in aggregate and against par, for a par-72 layout on the LIV circuit. As records go, it’s modest, but one has to start somewhere.

Smith, on the other hand, is anything but starting. This is his second win in five starts, the other being the 150th Open Championship. The Old Course at St. Andrews and Rich Harvest will never be confused, and nor will the Claret Jug be mixed up with the slivery bauble LIV hands its winners, but $4 million for first is $4 million, plus the $41,666.66 he snagged for the Punch team being part of a three-way for third in the team standings. And Smith’s bomb at the last was the reason why the extra dough is in his account.

“I said to Sam, my caddie, we need to drain this one for the boys,” Smith said. “Yeah, it was nice to get that done because I know it means a lot for those boys, but also the team standings for the end-of-the-year event.”

The team championship may mean nothing to most people, but there will be $50 million up on offer for the top three teams at Doral in Miami at the end of October.

It’s also his third win in his last 14 starts, going back to his victory in the Players Championship. Add up his money on both the PGA Tour and LIV Golf in 2022 – and why not, since LIV is all about the dough – and Smith has won $15,162,063.66. Whether the money won in LIV is on top of the reported $125 million he received for signing or is applied against it like an advance on a book contract is unknown. Either way, the tag day for Mr. Smith has been cancelled.

“I think it was quite frustrating at the start of the day,” Smith said. “My warmup wasn't fantastic. I didn't feel like I was striking the ball as well as I had the first couple of days. I just kind of stuck in there. There was a couple of really poor shots off the tee that led to a couple of really soft bogeys on quite easy holes.”

Well, one bogey, actually, when things were still in doubt. Smith started the day two strokes ahead of Johnson and three up on Uihlein, but the lead was down to a stroke after his bogey on the sixth hole. Back-to-back birdies on the next two holes moved him three ahead of Johnson and four ahead of Uihlein, and from then on, it was catch him if you can.

“I think after that putt went in on 7 and then 8, I started to feel a little bit better about myself and kind of got the round going again,” Smith said.

Nobody could catch him. Johnson, who opened with a course-record 63 on Friday, went out in 1-over 37 with bogeys on the eighth and ninth holes and could do nothing to help his cause after birdies on the 10th and 12th holes.

“I was in a very good spot, just didn't get off to a great start, especially 8 and 9 kind of killed me,” Johnson said. “Especially hitting the fairway on 8, and then 9 I wasn't in a bad spot, just made two really bad bogeys there.”

Patrick Reed threatened for a time and settled for 68 and 5-under 211, but fan favorite Phil Mickelson, whose agitation to straighten out the PGA Tour, and then his exile after inflammatory comments about the LIV-backing Saudis set the new circuit back for a bit, closed with a 6-under 66 for 6-under 210 and a share of eighth place. It’s his best round since a 66 in last year’s WGC FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis, 39 rounds ago.

“I’ll take the momentum and go to Thailand and then go to Doral (where he won on the PGA Tour in 2009),” Mickelson said. He did not mention Saudi Arabia, the tournament in between, where lives crown prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, the deputy prime minister and economic boss – and thus overseer of the Public Investment Fund, which funds the LIV operation – who denies ordering the killing of journalist-critic Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. Said Mickelson of Salman and Co. to author Alan Shipnuck, “They’re scary (expletives). … have a horrible record on human rights.” Ir might be a good tournament for Mickelson to skip.

Around Rich Harvest

Johnson’s 4 Aces team, which includes Reed, Talor Gooch and Pat Perez, won the team title, each pocketing an extra $750,000 for the effort. Johnson, aware the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces won the league title on Sunday, said, “I think it's pretty cool because you don't get too teams named Aces that win on a Sunday too often. It came on my phone. I knew it. I was watching it all day.” … The gallery wasn’t announced, but appeared to be the equal of the 18,000 that LIV announced on Saturday. Adding in the 8,000 that Illinois Golfer estimated on Friday, and that’s 44,000 for three days for a tournament on a new and often-maligned series at a course on a two-lane road nearly 60 miles from the Loop. Course owner Jerry Rich and LIV supremo Greg Norman have to be tickled at the interest. It has been three years since a top-tier pro tournament open to the public, in the previous case the 2019 BMW Championship, has been in the Chicago area. … The BMW is at Olympia Fields next August. It was held there in 2020 but fans were barred because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr. Smith goes to the top

By Tim Cronin

Writing from Sugar Grove, Illinois

Saturday, September 17, 2022

If you are someone with a Claret Jug in your back pocket and the No. 3 world golf ranking in your wallet – along with the reported $125 million the LIV Golf group has shelled out for your services the next few years – you could probably take it easy on the golf course, not taking chances, not grinding, not worrying about anything but when the Dow Jones Industrial Average will rise again.

Cameron Smith is that someone, but he’s not thinking that way. Smith wants to earn his keep in the LIV Golf series, and Saturday at Rich Harvest Farms was an example of how he’s going about it.

How’s a windblown 4-under-par 68 for a 36-hole aggregate of 10-under 134 and a two-stroke lead sound? Smith accomplished that via five birdies against a solitary bogey and is two strokes ahead of Dustin Johnson with a round to play in the LIV Golf Invitational Chicago.

A large chunk of the gallery of 18,000 – a LIV series record, their group trumpeted – watched Smith, Johnson and Matthew Wolff traipse around Rich Harvest, and were rewarded at 4:49 p.m., when Smith dropped a seven-foot birdie putt on the devilish par-4 17th to move to 9-under and nudge Johnson out of the lead. Johnson’s 1-over 73 was his first over-par circuit in the larval LIV league, a mere five tournaments old, and 10 strokes over the course-record 63 he posted in the first round.

“We had a gusty, windy start,” Smith said. “Then it laid off a little bit and came up again at the end. It was quite tricky there guessing clubs. That’s when I made my bogey (on the 11th hole). If they leave the course be overnight I think it’ll be really fun tomorrow, firm and fast."

Smith’s effort was the second-best round of the day, trailing only Peter Uihlein, who paid no mind to a southwest breeze that gusted to 25 mph and was a steady 18 mph for hours. Uihlein fired a 6-under 66 to move into solo third at 7-under 137 and grab a spot in the final threesome with Smith and Johnson.

The shotgun start format – air horns, actually – had Uihlein opening on the fourth hole. He bogeyed the fifth, but a birdie on the par-4 eighth was critical in his view.

“That righted the ship,” Uihlein said. “After that, I played great. Steady, solid, hit some fairways, hit some greens, just took what the course gave me. I hit a bomb on 13 (one of his seven birdies), and kind of stole one there, but it was steady all the way.”

If anything, Smith was most impressed with the gallery. Friday’s first-round independent estimate of 8,000 was surpassed by 10 a.m., when 10,000 were already on hand. By 3 p.m., it was 18,000, according to a LIV staffer, and the only question was how everyone would fit onto the two-lane road after the round to get back to civilization.

“It’s a big walk out there, and the fans did it all day,” Smith said. “It was perfect.”

That shows Chicago’s golf fans, who last had a big-time tournament in town and open to the public three years ago, are starved for stars. The 2019 BMW Championship / Western Open at Medinah Country Club was a big hit. Then came the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2020 BMW at Olympia Fields was closed to the public unless you were watching through a fence on Vollmer Road.

Around Rich Harvest 

Greg Norman, the LIV commissioner whose original plan of a world golf circuit has come to reality almost 30 years later, was on hand Saturday, slapping players’ backs on the driving range and generally schmoozing his way around. He was absent on Friday, said to be in meetings elsewhere. For a TV deal, perhaps? … The YouTube audience was around 62,000 late in the round. The LIV telecasts in the U.S. are also on LIV’s website and DAZN, another online service. … Sunday’s start is 12:15 p.m., following a quartet of parachutists with the 18th fairway their target. Saturday, three of the four were on the mark. The fourth landed on the second fairway. … The 4 Aces, captained by Johnson, leads the Punch quartet, helmed by Smith, by a stroke. The top three teams split up $5 million of the combined $25 million purse, so even Marc Leishman, at even par individually, is playing for big bucks two ways in the final round.