Tuckaway latest course sale

The Morning Nine for Monday, January 27, 2014

    Feeling a bit chilly? Warm up to golf with the latest edition of the Morning Nine:

    1. Add Tuckaway Golf Course in Crete to the list of courses that have been sold or put up for sale recently. Tuckaway, around the corner from the for-sale Balmoral Woods layout, also in Crete, was sold by the owning family for about $1.2 million, a source close to the family tells Illinois Golfer.
    Tuckaway, a John Ellis design that opened in 1960, will remain open. That’s in contrast to Woodbine, the Homer Glen layout that has been sold to the village and will close after this season to become a park, the clubhouse becoming the village hall. But like Woodbine, it’s a course that won’t beat you up. At 6,225 yards from the tips, it’s a place to learn how to play. It’s good news for beginners and seniors that it will stay open.

    2. In case you were wondering, Balmoral Woods will be open for business as well while the Mortell family has it for sale – and presumably after.

    3. Will there be more turmoil in the Chicago area golf business? The guess is yes, if only because rounds played have slid for over a decade now. It’s a difficult business locally and nationally. Cog Hill’s famed Dubsdread course only has handful of people on it at any given time some weekdays in the shoulder season, and that’s the best public layout in the area. If Dubs isn’t full, imagine how it is on other courses.

    4. The most sensible words from the PGA Merchandise Show’s State of the Game Forum in Orlando came from former USGA executive director David Fay: “We have suffered from real fallacies — fallacies of numbers. We don’t have 25-26 million golfers. I think that’s a myth. I think the real number is somewhere around 15 million golfers. And we have too many golf courses … out there that are under utilized. Let’s talk about 15 million golfers and let’s see what they (course owners) can do with these courses.”

    5. TaylorMade is planning to sell clubs and balls (more like oversize whiffle balls than golf balls) that don’t hew to USGA rules. Some people think this is a bad thing. Wrong. Anything that gets people to play golf, or some form thereof, and hook them on the game, is a good thing. Eventually, many will come around to buying “real” clubs that conform to the rules – and TaylorMade might make a second sale.

    6. It’s Phoenix Open week, so get ready for hooting and hollering on the famous par-3 16th – but no more caddie races, which have been banned by the fun police – plus announcements of six-figure crowds given by television announcers with straight faces. The aerial shots don’t show any more people than pile into a U.S. Open, and that’s rarely more than 45,000, so who are the people in Phoenix kidding?

    7. Back-to-back double bogeys and a slew of other bogeys for Tiger Woods en route to his 79 at Torrey Pines South on Saturday. If you’ve always wanted to play like Woods, now you can.

    8. Checked the Winter Olympics schedule and found sliding and ditching on it. Wait, that’s the traffic report. Enough with the deep freeze, already. When it’s too cold to go to a dome to practice, it’s just too cold.

    9. Finally, kudos to Jessica Korda from recovering from a shank – it pains us to write the word – on Saturday to win the LPGA’s season-opening tournament on Sunday. Guess that makes Saturday’s gaffe shanks for the memory.

    – Tim Cronin

For Sale: Balmoral Woods

The Morning Nine for Monday, January 20, 2014

                              Writing from Chicago

    News and views for the third Monday in January, and buddy, can you spare $1.5 million?    

    1. If you want to buy a golf course – and a good one – get in touch with the Mortell family. Balmoral Woods, the challenging, fun course in Crete the family has owned and cared for from the beginning, is for sale.
    The price: $1.5 million, down from the original $1.9 million. Crete’s off the beaten path unless you’re in the south suburbs. That’s helped keep the green fee down over the years, making Balmoral one of the most affordable top-grade courses, but it also means the sale price may not be as high as the quality of the course would warrant.
    Here’s what you’d get: Eighteen holes winding across hill and dale on 124 acres (110 owned, the rest on a long-term lease) designed in two stages, first by Arthur Davis and Ron Kirby in 1975, then expanded in 1977 by George Fazio and owner Don Mortell, that were converted from bluegrass to bentgrass about a decade ago. A 10,000 square-foot clubhouse with a banquet room for 160 sitting high on a hill in the northeast corner of the property. A range that’s not as close to the clubhouse as you’d like – probably the only logistical drawback considering the course was originally nine holes and the clubhouse was actually a hotel – now a senior citizen center – that sits between the current sixth green and seventh tee.
    You’d also get a steady clientele that isn’t as large as it once was – the problem for virtually every public course. More than one owner will tell you the dip that followed the attack on Sept. 11, 2001, never fully rebounded. In the sales listing on the Links Capital Advisors web site, this is noted: “Club needs new owner with aggressive marketing campaign to increase rounds and revenue.”
    One thing the Mortells haven’t done over the years is engage in the coupon chase that many other courses in the south suburbs and across the border in Lake County, Ind., go for. There are discount rates, but they’re not crazy. The belief is that the golf course should pay for itself, not be subsidized by bar and restaurant business.
    The next notation: “Club has positive cash flow.”
    But for how long? That’s the $1.5 million question.

    2. Balmoral is the site of the annual start to amateur tournament play each year, in the form of the Will County Amateur. Any new owner would be expected to continue that, including the traditional awarding of the Brown Jacket, one of Don Mortell’s old sport coats. A tradition unlike any other ... hey, is that phrase taken?

    3. Balmoral on the block follows the sale of private Bull Valley in Woodstock and public Chalet Hills in Cary to different parties in the last few months. Chalet Hills, a similar facility to Balmoral Woods, was offered for $2,150,000, which shows the old adage in real estate still applies: location, location, location. Bull Valley, well down in membership the last few years, was said to go for $1.55 million.

    4. Patrick Reed first came to our attention – almost everybody’s attention outside of his family – with a good showing in the John Deere Classic last year. A big start and diminutive wive Justine carrying his bag made for easy columns and fun feature stories. He followed that up with a win later in the year, and Sunday proved he wasn’t a one-hit wonder by hanging on to win the old Bob Hope Desert Classic – these days with an insurance company as the title sponsor and former president Bill Clinton schmoozing – in La Quinta and Palm Springs, Calif.
    And with his brother-in-law on the bag. Justine is pregnant, but once the girl they’re expecting is born, Justine returns to work.

    5. Memo to Phil Mickelson: Just because you can try a right-handed shot to get out from under a bush in the final round in the middle of the desert doesn’t mean you have to. Taking a penalty drop would have been less penalizing than the double-hit-creating triple-bogey 7 you fashioned en route to missing the title in Abu Dhabi. But hey, better there than Pinehurst, no?

    6. Memo to Rory McIlroy: When taking relief, take complete relief. No more standing on the hazard line while hitting a shot after dropping out of the hazard. That two-stroke penalty on Saturday put you in the same second-place boat with the aforementioned Lefty in Abu Dhabi, and gave the win to the one and only Pablo Larrazabal on Sunday.

    7. In case you were wondering, it’s official: The Illinois Open is back at The Glen Club this summer. Mark down July 21-23 on your calendar. Meanwhile, the WGA has strung together an intriguing list of local courses to host the Western Junior the next few years. It’s at Flossmoor Country Club this year (June 16-20), venerable Riverside Golf Club in 2015, Rich Harvest Farms in 2017, and Evanston Golf Club in 2018. The 2016 Junior is TBA. And this year’s soiree at Flossmoor is the 100th anniversary of the inaugural, held at Chicago Golf Club.

    8. Yes, that was a U.S. Open promo last night on Fox’ NFC Championship telecast. Fox’s USGA package starts in 2015, which means it will be televising the U.S. Amateur from Olympia Fields Country Club on Fox and cable network FS1. No word on commentators. How about Joe Buck and Greg Norman in the tower behind 18?

    9. Finally, the big circuit drops in – undoubtedly via hang-glider – to Torrey Pines this week. That means one E.T. Woods will be on the premises for his first start of 2014, and the official 2013-14 season. So will a certain P.A. Mickelson. How timely, what with no football and the return to network television, that being CBS. The public is invited to tune in.

    – Tim Cronin

Mining for golf gold in Sand Valley

The Morning Nine for Monday, January 13, 2014

    Writing from Chicago
    Monday, January 13, 2014

    A trip around the world of golf on a reasonable Monday morning, one that doesn’t bring visions of polar bears on Michigan Avenue. We start, however, by looking to the northwest.

    1. Sand Valley may not be the most evocative name at first blush, but what Chicagoan Mike Keiser is planning to accomplish in west central Wisconsin will make the complex a household word among golfers who seek out the best. As he did at Bandon Dunes in Oregon and Cabot Links in Nova Scotia – and did first at the Dunes Club in New Buffalo, for those fortunate few who can play it – Keiser wants to create an unparalleled destination for golf.
    At Sand Valley, currently a Christmas tree farm on 1,500 acres of rolling land 18 miles south of Wisconsin Rapids, Keiser will have two of his three prerequisites for great golf: sandy soil and a lot of room for a golf architect to find the best holes. He will not have No. 3: an ocean, the wind the flows from it, and the views that inspire. Neither does Sand Hills in western Nebraska, and that non-Keiser club’s single course, while remote, is one of the best in the world.
    Sand Hills was designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, who have worked for Keiser at Bandon Dunes and Cabot Links, and have gotten the nod for the first course at Sand Valley.
    Coore and Crenshaw think alike, but are specialists. Coore leads the search for the proper routing, with Crenshaw’s say on green sites and the shape of green complexes taking precedent as a project moves along. They’re a perfect combination, whether it’s a new course or a touch-up of an old favorite, as the world will discover this June, when their restoration of Donald Ross’ Course No. 2 at Pinehurst hosts the U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open in back-to-back weeks.

    2. So where is Sand Valley, exactly? A little more than halfway to the Twin Cities, and so far off the beaten path you need to leave bread crumbs. It’s the inland version of Bandon, Ore., in that regard. But closer than Keiser’s installation in Tasmania. really. Chicago is 247 miles away – roughly the distance to Ann Arbor, Mich. – while the Twin Cities is 193 miles out. Sand Valley is 54 miles north of Wisconsin Dells and 167 miles from Milwaukee.
    What’s it near? Well, there’s the town of Nekoosa, 2,600 strong, about a mile to the west. Nobody’s heard of it except those who live there and those who stumble into – and out of – the Lure Bar and Grill, hard on the bank of Petenwell Lake, a wide spot on the Wisconsin River. There’s a bridge to Saratoga, a marina and ... the potential for growth, once Keiser’s latest oasis is up and running. He’d like to start with two courses and a clubhouse with hotel, and go from there. But as he told Rory Spears, the market for a short-season course is different from a place like Bandon, which is open year-round. Much will depend on the acceptance of the first course, which is why the selection of Coore and Crenshaw is key. They’re likely to hit a home run.

    3. Keiser has an ace in the hole with Sand Valley that doesn’t exist with his other sites. It will be just close enough to Erin Hills and Kohler’s four courses Blackwolf Run and Whistling Straits for well-heeled golf junkies to consider making a week of it and playing all of them. Fly into Milwaukee (or Wausau, 67 miles away). and go from there. Maybe he should invest in a helipad.

    4. Congrats to Ismael Perez, winner of Cog Hill’s Eskimo Open low net division with a 43 on January 5. Likewise, a tip o’ the toque to low net winner Randy Iatesia, who carded a 33. Actually, congratulations to all 35 who played nine holes for just surviving it in blizzard conditions, with snow coming in sideways and the big cold snap descending upon the area.

    5. Back to Bandon for a moment, or, to be accurate, a half-hour south of Bandon, which is to say, farther off the beaten path. There one will find the Knapp Ranch, perched on the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean, as does Bandon Dunes.
    And there, presuming the financing is firm, by 2016, one will find on a portion of that sand-dune strewn ranch Pacific Gales, fronted by Jim Haley of Highland, Ind., and designed by Chicago-area architect David Esler. His design calls for a double green for the ninth and 18th holes on a cliff overlooking the ocean. (Haley knew the area from working as a shaper on the first course at Bandon Dunes.)
    Esler’s best-known design around here is the 27 holes of Black Sheep Golf Club, an all-male enclave in the western boondocks. Anyone will be able to play Pacific Gales.

    6. Matt Fitzpatrick left Northwestern before some people knew he was there. The Englishman won the U.S. Amateur last year, before classes started in Evanston, and as of Thursday, he’s out the door, going back to merry old England to play amateur golf and ... that’s it. No school, apparently, just amateur tournaments and appearances in the three majors he gained exemptions to by winning the U.S. Am: The Masters, the U.S. Open and the British Open.
    That makes us believe he’ll be like Johnny Manziel and be turning pro as soon as his final putt drops in the British – unless he waits to defend his title in the U.S. Am. Going pro, he’ll be able to ring up some healthy endorsements, and if he does well as a pro, he’ll be able to buy a school. The University of Phoenix, say.

    7. Want to learn how to play? Put down that copy of Golf Digest and hie yourself out to the White Pines Golf Dome on Thursday, where Illinois PGA pros will be giving free lessons from 5 to 9 p.m. These guys and gals know of what they speak.

    8. Condolences to the family and friends of Lee Milligan, the longtime pro at Barrington Hills Country Club. Milligan, 81, died last Monday in San Antonio, Texas, of complications from a spinal injury. A protege of Bill Erfurth at Lincolnshire Country Club in Crete, Milligan ran the shop at Barrington Hills through 2000. But his biggest claim to fame came when he was in Madison, Wis., and worked with a young lad at Nakoma Golf Club.
    Andy North grew up, stuck with Milligan, and won two U.S. Opens.
    “I’ve taken his advice to heart since I was 12 years old ... for 50 years,” North told the San Antonio Express-News. “He was one of the special people in my life.”

    9. Finally, it’s too bad Buddy Hackett’s not around any more. Golf Channel could station him at the 16th at Waialae Country Club, site of those four palm trees tilted just right, giving him a chance to say, “It’s the Big W!” every time. You’ve got to love a golf club where the members – especially the guy who was a fan of “It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” have a sense of humor.

    – Tim Cronin

Fitzpatrick leaves Northwestern

U.S. Amateur champion going back to England

    Writing from Chicago
    Thursday, January 9, 2014

    Just like that, the Matt Fitzpatrick era at Northwestern is over.
    The U.S. Amateur champion, coach Pat Goss’ most notable recruit since Luke Donald, is going back to England, effective the end of the fall semester.
    The news, first reported by Northwestern, came out of nowhere, Goss told Golfersongolf.com’s http://spears.golfersongolf.com/ Rory Spears:
    “I was surprised by the decision. All the feedback we got from Matt was he had a wonderful first quarter here. He loved the school, the city of Chicago, his teammates, the golf courses, practice. It was so overwhelmingly positive, when he called me to tell me he was going back, it caught me completely off guard.”
    “Matt just decided he has some real important golf opportunities as the U.S. Amateur champion and decided to focus on those opportunities.”
    Goss tried to put a good face on losing his top recruit, saying, “He’s a great kid and a great player. Even though he was here only one quarter, our players and our program benefitted from him being here.”
    Northwestern quoted Fitzpatrick: “I very much enjoyed my experience at Northwestern. The people, the school and the great city of Chicago all exceeded my expectations. Based on the opportunities I have right now from a golf perspective, I feel it is important to dedicate 100 percent of my time to the game and have decided to withdraw from university in the U.S.”
    The Englishman was expected to emulate countryman Donald, who fell in love with Chicago and still maintains his summer home here. Instead, it’s an NBA-style one semester and out.
    This would seem to indicate an early turn to professional as well. One can see Fitzpatrick playing in The Masters, U.S. Open and British Open as an amateur, piling up other amateur results, then turning pro in time for a go at the European Tour.
    During Northwestern’s fall season, Fitzpatrick tied for first at the Rod Myers Intercollegiate, hosted by Duke, in October, and grabbed two other top-20 placings.
    – Tim Cronin

On a day fit for Eskimos ...

    Writing from Chicago
    Monday, January 6, 2014

    No matter where you are in Illinois – or most of the country, for that matter, Kapalua excepted – it’s stupid cold. So while this winter hurricane plays through, let’s go around the area, for the golf news never stops coming:
    1. Over 130 players were scheduled to play in Sunday’s Eskimo Open at Cog Hill. Here’s hoping they had morning tee times, before the wind picked up and the bottom fell out. No word on scores. Who can write in below-zero wind chill?
    2. Mike Munro was pleased with the brisk business he was doing at the White Pines Golf Dome in mid-December, compared to the last two more mild winters. He should be really smiling now with Chicago in the deep freeze. In the past, his operation has gone gangbusters when it was frigid and the roads were clear. The same is probably true in Bolingbrook, where McQ’s, the dome and restaurant owned by Mistwood mogul Jim McWethy. The dome isn’t quite as long as White Pines’ facility, but hot food plus an off-track betting wing operated by Hawthorne Race Course are real pluses.
    3. Look for the Western Amateur to go back to Point O Woods Country Club, the Robert Trent Jones classic in Millburg, Mich., near Benton Harbor, in 2018 or 2019. The Western Am left the Point following the 2008 tournament, the club wanting a six-figure site fee to make up for declining attendance. But there’s been complete turnover on the club’s board, and the new crowd wants to show off a refurbished Point, which includes a new clubhouse overlooking the 18th green. The recent job posting for a new general manager notes the club’s interest. According to a highly-placed WGA official, talks between WGA and Point officials have been productive, but no deal’s been signed yet.
    Ideally, the club Chick Evans once called “the peerless Point” will take up a regular position in the Western Am rota. It’s at Beverly Country Club this year, Rich Harvest Links in Aurora in 2015, Knollwood Club in 2016, and Skokie Country Club in 2017. By the way, there’s no chance the Western Am would drop by Harbor Shores, the Kemper Sports-operated course in the heart of Benton Harbor that over Memorial Day weekend welcomes the Senior PGA Championship for the second time in three years.
    4. The WGA is also waiting on a multi-year renewal by BMW for the Western Open, so to speak. Everything was expected to be ready by the end of the year, but the final details are still being worked out. And while Conway Farms Golf Club is not yet a lock for 2015, that’s the leader in the clubhouse for the Chicago-area location. An additional fan entrance is expected to unclog the bottleneck spectators were stuck with in 2013.
    5. As noted in our year-end review, Woodbine Golf Course in Homer Glen will close at the end of the year, to be transformed into Homer Glen’s first park, the clubhouse to become the village hall until a new hall in built.
    That’s too bad for golfers, because Woodbine was the type of course the late Phil Kosin, impresario of the fondly-remembered Chicagoland Golf, always liked to see: the $25 golf course. It went beyond that price in recent years, but Woodbine, from the day it opened in 1988, has been a place where beginners could learn to play and not lose a dozen balls along the way. Unless you hit it into a pond, it was hard to lose a ball at all. And everyone was friendly.
    6. Illinois-born D.A. Points and Illinois-connected Bill Haas may be toward the bottom of the standings in the Tournament of Champions (29th and T21 entering the final round respectively), but they have two things going for them. They’re playing golf in Hawaii, and they’re warm. And the paycheck is a bonus.
    7. NBC / Golf Channel does a great job on golf, but really, enough with the matching Hawaiian shirts and the leis. That’s as much a cliche as tuxedos on boxing announcers, the notion being the sport needs to look classy. Just wear a jacket and tie, peacock on the breast pocket optional.
    8. Until Tournament of Champions co-leader Justin Spieth won the John Deere Classic last July, the best story of the week was the husband-wife player-caddie combination of Patrick and Justine Reed. That’s on hiatus for the nonce and for a great reason. Justine Reed is carrying a child instead of a bag. Justine is due to deliver a little girl on Memorial Day. But trouper that she is, she may be back on the bag in August, in advance of the PGA Championship.
    Meanwhile, her brother, Kessler Karain, who had a solid junior golf career, is doing the heavy lifting for Patrick Reed. So far, so good. Reed’s four strokes back entering the final round at Kapalua.
    9. It will get warmer. Here’s proof. There are only 95 days to The Masters. You can almost smell the flowers.
    – Tim Cronin