Aronimink approves hosting 2018 BMW

Writing from Chicago

Wednesday, March 4, 2018

As expected, Aronimink Golf Club, located in the posh Philadelphia suburb of Newtown Square, will host the 2018 BMW Championship. The deal, approved by the club’s membership today, locks in the next two out-of-town sites for the tournament. The 2016 BMW is a return visit to Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind., near Indianapolis.

The deal is part of the Western Golf Association’s push to expand and improve the Evans Scholars program, the caddies-to-college scholarship fund that has seen 10,000 students graduate since the first scholars entered school in 1930.

The WGA began partnering with the Golf Association of Philadelphia, which runs the J. Wood Platt Caddie Scholarship Trust, in 2003, with one Platt-Evans designee, Christian Smith of Llanerch Country Club, enrolled at Miami in Oxford, Ohio. The long-term plan is to build an Evans Scholars dorm at Penn State. The WGA already works with the Western Pennsylvania Golf Association, so adding the GAP for up to two Platt-Evans scholarships a year, at the start, was a natural.

Founded in 1896 and at its present site since 1926, Aronimink is one of the oldest clubs in the east. The Donald Ross-designed course has been in and out of the hosting business, most recently with Tiger Woods’ AT&T National in 2010 and 2011, won by Justin Rose and Nick Watney, respectively.

It first gained the public spotlight in 1962, when it hosted the PGA Championship, won by Gary Player. A U.S. Amateur (1977) and Senior PGA (2003) has also played through, and the club is angling to score another PGA Championship.

The Western Open has been been played east of the Midwest before, though barely. The 1948 Western was played at Brookfield Country Club in Buffalo, N.Y., while the 1959 edition was at the Pittsburgh Field Club. Crossing Pennsylvania is a first.

The 2017 tournament will be in the Chicago area at a site unknown.

The decision to offer Aronimink the 2018 BMW was first reported by www.csnphilly.com.

– Tim Cronin

Illinois Open expands to two courses

Writing from Rosemont, Illinois

Friday, February 27, 2015

It took about eight months, but the plan to expand the field in the Illinois Open is coming to fruition. This year's state championship will be played at Royal Melbourne Country Club and Hawthorn Woods Country Club, Illinois PGA executive director Michael Miller announced at the Chicago Golf Show.

Using two courses will allow 258 players to start, rather than the standard 156, with the top 70 and those tied moving to the final round in the 54-hole tournament. It's been top 50 and ties in recent years, with 57 making the cut last year at the Glen Club.

"Both of these changes are first in the history of the event," Miller said. "We feel confident the field expansion will lead to increased qualifier registration and allow us to grow the championship to the next level."

Which is to say, a $100,000 purse. That's been a long-term goal, and was reached from 1998 to 2003, when Mike Small snagged the first of his four titles, but the purse has dropped to between $75,000 and $85,000 subsequently. Last year, the pro purse was $57,337, with the rest of the purse devoted to gift certificates for the amateurs – and there were 25 of them – making the final round.

The first two rounds will be played at the two KemperSports-operated clubs, with half the field playing one or the other on Mon., July 20, then going to the other course on Tuesday. On Wed., July 22, the final round tees off at Royal Melbourne.

The two layouts are only a few miles apart, with Royal Melbourne in Long Grove and Hawthorn Woods in, of all places, Hawthorn Woods.

Royal Melbourne, which hosted a pair of Illinois PGA Championships early in the century, is a 1992 Greg Norman design. Hawthorn Woods, a product of the Arnold Palmer Design Co., opened in 2006 and hosted the Illinois Open from 2008-11.

The first of seven qualifiers open to Illinois residents is June 4 at Royal Hawk Country Club in St. Charles.

– Tim Cronin

2018 BMW to Philadephia's Aronimink

Writing from Chicago

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Out-of-the-box thinking has made the BMW Championship a bigger money maker for the Western Golf Association than it ever was as the Western Open.

Playing in Denver? Nobody in the Chicago area except a few people at WGA headquarters in Golf saw that coming, but last year’s tournament at Cherry Hills Country Club raised about $3.3 million for the Evans Scholars Foundation.

Try this out: The old Western is moving east. Assuming the club’s membership approves, the 2018 BMW will be played at Aronimink Country Club in Newtown Square, Pa., in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Multiple news organizations in Philadelphia began reporting the news late Wednesday night.

A March 4 vote is expected to pass overwhelmingly.

Founded in 1896 and at its present site since 1926, Aronimink is one of the oldest clubs in the east. The Donald Ross-designed course has been in and out of the hosting business, most recently with Tiger Woods’ AT&T National in 2010 and 2011, won by Justin Rose and Nick Watney, respectively.

It first gained the public spotlight in 1962, when it hosted the PGA Championship, won by Gary Player. A U.S. Amateur (1977) and Senior PGA (2003) has also played through, and the club is angling to score another PGA Championship.

The Western Open has been been played east of the Midwest before, though barely. The 1948 Western was played at Brookfield Country Club in Buffalo, N.Y., while the 1959 edition was at the Pittsburgh Field Club. Crossing Pennsylvania is a first.

This year’s BMW, the third round of the PGA Tour’s playoff, is set for a return visit to Conway Farms Golf Club in Lake Forest, with the 2016 edition going back to Crooked Stick Golf Club in Carmel, Ind., in the northern suburbs of Indianapolis. The 2017 playing will be in the Chicago area at a site unknown.

The decision to offer Aronimink the 2018 BMW was first reported by www.csnphilly.com.

– Tim Cronin

Fourth year a charm for Tinley Park Golf Expo

    Writing from Tinley Park, Illinois
    Wednesday, February 4, 2015

    Ignore the snow on the ground. The first sign of golf is upon us. Spring is sure to follow.
    In 2012, the inaugural Tinley Park Golf Expo filled one side of the town’s convention center, and there were people lined up to get in when the doors opened. Not bad for openers.
    The Expo grew in 2013 and again last year.
    This year, the fourth edition of the Expo will fill everything but one of the center’s banquet rooms, with a record 117 exhibitors.
    “And next year we may use the north banquet hall,” co-owner Gregg Tengerstrom, the longtime head professional at nearby Silver Lake Country Club, reports. “That’s another 7,000 square feet.”
    That’s a good thing. For all those who say golf is a fading sport, what Tengerstrom and Joe Copeland have cooked up for the three-day run that commences at noon on Friday puts the lie to the assessment.
    There will be courses, tournaments – including this year’s U.S. Amateur, played at nearby Olympia Fields Country Club, with the Havemeyer Trophy on display – club manufacturers and sellers on the floor. Something for everybody is Tengerstrom’s goal.
    “We try and make sure we have activities,” said Tengerstrom, hoping for 10,000 attendees. “The difference in this show is the friendly atmosphere, the free parking, the free Wi-Fi.”
    Courses on hand include Balmoral Woods, Briar Ridge, Broken Arrow, Cog Hill, Foss Park, Gleneagles, Glenwoodie, Green Garden, Lincoln Oaks, Lincolnshire, Lost Marsh, Joliet Country Club, Mistwood, Old Oak, Ravisloe, Silver Lake and White Mountain, as well as a large number of out-of-town resorts. At the first Expo, Joliet was the only private club on hand. Now, Briar Ridge and Lincolnshire have joined, showing how hard it is for many private clubs to attract members today.
    Manufacturers include Mizuno, Ping, TaylorMade and Tour Edge.
    There are two places to swing clubs: the manufacturer’s area, where the above brands can be tried out, and the lesson area – Tengerstrom has that staffed with pros from the Swan Lake Resort and the area courses run by Billy Casper Golf. And for the kids, the First Tee of Greater Chicago has a skills challenge area and kids-only miniature golf course.
    Indeed, something for everybody.
    Admission is $5 on Friday (noon-9 p.m.) and $10 on Saturday (9 a.m.-7 p.m.) and Sunday (9 a.m.-4 p.m.).
    The Tinley Park Convention Center is at 183rd St. and Harlem Ave., just north of Interstate 80, in Tinley Park.
    – Tim Cronin

A tribute to Mike Spellman

Writing from Chicago

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

    Daily Herald reporter Mike Spellman, as accomplished a writer as you will find, and as giving a person as you will find, died Tuesday, one day before his 51st birthday. Spellman covered the Blackhawks, the Bears, horse racing and just about everything else for the Arlington Heights-based paper. He was especially lyrical when covering golf.
    I asked Mike to be a columnist when the print edition of Illinois Golfer was launched. Thanks to logistics, there hasn’t been a second issue, but the column he turned in for that first issue in April 2012 was a gem. Here it is, reprinted online, for you to enjoy again.
    Please remember Mike in your prayers.

    – Tim Cronin

    If you’re been there, you understand

    By Mike Spellman

    It happened to me at Wrigley Field as a kid.
    It happened again as a young teen at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
    And just a few years ago it returned again while on assignment at Augusta National.
    You know that feeling when you walk into a place and it absolutely overwhelms you and you can’t exactly explain why? All you know is that you’ve entered very, very sacred ground.
    For me, Wrigley had it the first time I emerged from the dark and dinge that is the lower concourse and there it was … the green. The field, the ivy, the scoreboard - I was hooked, and it didn’t matter that George Mitterwald and Steve Swisher were our catchers and we had about as good a chance of winning the division as Pat Paulson did of winning the presidency.
    At Indy, my three memories are of walking forever around the perimeter of the track on race day, hearing all the hubbub inside and dying to be a part of it. The second memory is ridiculous but here it is – a young couple holding a leash in front of them as they walked an invisible dog around the infield like it was no big deal. I don’t know why that sticks out, but it does.
    And finally, it was getting to our seats way up in pit row. Music playing, the cars lined up on the track, and across the way, a jam-packed double-decked grandstand that stretched for what seemed like miles down to Turn 4.
    Sandi Patty, “Back Home in Indiana,” the invocation, the anthem, the orders to start your engines, the balloons, the fireworks, the pace laps, the checkered flag … spectacle indeed.
    Want to guess what my next school project was on? That’s right, A.J. Foyt winning the 1977 Indianapolis 500.
    In mid-March of 2006, I remember my editor calling to set up a meeting.
    “We’re going to send you to the Masters,” he said.
    Thanks to smelling salts, I think I was only out for a couple of minutes. Kidding, but I remember hearing only every third or fourth word of what he was saying as my mind raced. And honestly, I don’t think my leg ever stopped twitching.
    Holy Majoley, I was going to the Masters.
    I was going to the tournament that had hooked me on the game. The same place where Jack Nicklaus won at age 46 and moved me to purchase a yellow golf shirt just like his (in a great move considering my age, I opted not to get the checkered pants as well). The same place where a dozen years later he made another run, at age 58, ending up finishing sixth in a remarkable performance.
    Can you tell I’m a Jack fan?
    Because of the late notice, there wasn’t a hotel room to be had anywhere near Augusta. Or anywhere in Georgia, for that matter, so I ended up booking a room in Columbia, S.C.
    It was a ridiculous drive, but I didn’t care because it was the Masters for crying out loud.
    I arrived in Columbia on Sunday afternoon and by the time 6 a.m. Monday rolled around, I had enough adrenaline flowing in me to clean and jerk a small building.
    After about an hour on the highway I exited at Washington Road, lined as far as you can see with cars, Waffle Houses, gas stations and cheap hotels, but that all ended with one quick right turn.
    And there it was – Augusta National.
    The big state trooper with the mirrored sunglasses, seeing that my parking pass was legit, surprised me with a friendly Johnny Carson-like golf swing, the follow-through of which directed me to the correct parking lot.
    I found my seat in the media center, dropped off my gear, and out I went.
    I almost felt guilty for walking on the most manicured grass I had ever seen, but I did anyway. And actually, it wasn’t really walking, more like floating as I visited ever corner of the rolling, tree-lined, immaculate course, including Amen.
    The highlight of a week that was an absolute blur came on Wednesday when Jack and his son Jackie stopped by the media center on what was the 20th anniversary of their amazing win.
    There I was standing a few feet away listening to the legend talk … it was happening again.