Saturday
Dec312011
Happy New Year and eagles to all!
Saturday, December 31, 2011 at 7:43PM
Writing from Chicago
Sunday, January 1, 2012
The celestial odometer has clicked once more, albeit not nearly as dramatically as in the big rollover of 1999-2000. However, it's always good to see the ball drop atop No. 1 Times Square and another year come around, for, as Joe Jemsek used to say when greeting customers, "That means I'm around too." Happy New Year to all!
And here we are for another year; a bigger year, potentially, filled with new ideas and culminating, as far as Chicago golf fans are concerned, with the Ryder Cup at Medinah Country Club at September's end.
There is much to contemplate before that, including the question of where in Chicagoland the 2013 BMW Championship (a.k.a. the Western Open) will be played. That answer was expected by Thanksgiving and has yet to be revealed.
The world season – and didn't it just end a few minutes ago? – commences at the posh Kapalua Resort's Plantation Course this week. (Your Chicago connection there, incidentally, is Mike Jones, the former Cantigny professional who is Kapalua's GM and director of golf.) Locally, the Eskimo Open takes place at Cog Hill on Sunday next. Born at Glenwoodie on the day of the 1963 NFL Championship Game, when a big group gathered to watch the blacked-out game via NBC's South Bend station, found the antenna didn't pick up the signal, and went out to play a few holes in the frigid air instead, the Eskimo Open has become a Chicago tradition. And this year's long-range forecast is favorable. It's supposed to reach 36 degrees on the 8th.
But before the first ball is struck, either in anger or humor, some housekeeping. Len Ziehm, the sage whose fine writing has graced the pages of the Sun-Times since Marshall Field V owned the place, has revamped his website (http://lenziehmongolf.com/). Our Hero hasn't been around since the Foulis Brothers were inventing little details of the game such as the flagstick at Chicago Golf, but he is rumored to have a copy of the patent. His site, which offers news, commentary and travel sagas, is worth checking out. Even more hard news is presented by Rory Spears, a radio maven-turned-webber, via http://spears.golfersongolf.com/, an adjunct of the Golfers on Golf radio program. Spears is on the road checking out courses nearly as much as Ziehm. You'll want to read him as well.
When news is broken by one of us, we'll try and let everyone know. Ziehm kiddingly called us "The Big Three," but Spears and I know Ziehm is the Big Kahuna in this three-ball. We'll just draft in his wake and hope to pick up a scrap or two. Those sites are linked permanently on the right side of the home page, along with a handful of others you may find useful, or at least entertaining. Here are the three of us at a recent get-together at the White Pines Golf Dome, where Mike Munro, another of the Golfers on Golf quartet, holds court daily.
From left: Len Ziehm, Tim Cronin, Rory Spears
Eagles to all in 2012!
– Tim Cronin
Sunday, January 1, 2012
The celestial odometer has clicked once more, albeit not nearly as dramatically as in the big rollover of 1999-2000. However, it's always good to see the ball drop atop No. 1 Times Square and another year come around, for, as Joe Jemsek used to say when greeting customers, "That means I'm around too." Happy New Year to all!
And here we are for another year; a bigger year, potentially, filled with new ideas and culminating, as far as Chicago golf fans are concerned, with the Ryder Cup at Medinah Country Club at September's end.
There is much to contemplate before that, including the question of where in Chicagoland the 2013 BMW Championship (a.k.a. the Western Open) will be played. That answer was expected by Thanksgiving and has yet to be revealed.
The world season – and didn't it just end a few minutes ago? – commences at the posh Kapalua Resort's Plantation Course this week. (Your Chicago connection there, incidentally, is Mike Jones, the former Cantigny professional who is Kapalua's GM and director of golf.) Locally, the Eskimo Open takes place at Cog Hill on Sunday next. Born at Glenwoodie on the day of the 1963 NFL Championship Game, when a big group gathered to watch the blacked-out game via NBC's South Bend station, found the antenna didn't pick up the signal, and went out to play a few holes in the frigid air instead, the Eskimo Open has become a Chicago tradition. And this year's long-range forecast is favorable. It's supposed to reach 36 degrees on the 8th.
But before the first ball is struck, either in anger or humor, some housekeeping. Len Ziehm, the sage whose fine writing has graced the pages of the Sun-Times since Marshall Field V owned the place, has revamped his website (http://lenziehmongolf.com/). Our Hero hasn't been around since the Foulis Brothers were inventing little details of the game such as the flagstick at Chicago Golf, but he is rumored to have a copy of the patent. His site, which offers news, commentary and travel sagas, is worth checking out. Even more hard news is presented by Rory Spears, a radio maven-turned-webber, via http://spears.golfersongolf.com/, an adjunct of the Golfers on Golf radio program. Spears is on the road checking out courses nearly as much as Ziehm. You'll want to read him as well.
When news is broken by one of us, we'll try and let everyone know. Ziehm kiddingly called us "The Big Three," but Spears and I know Ziehm is the Big Kahuna in this three-ball. We'll just draft in his wake and hope to pick up a scrap or two. Those sites are linked permanently on the right side of the home page, along with a handful of others you may find useful, or at least entertaining. Here are the three of us at a recent get-together at the White Pines Golf Dome, where Mike Munro, another of the Golfers on Golf quartet, holds court daily.
From left: Len Ziehm, Tim Cronin, Rory Spears
Eagles to all in 2012!
– Tim Cronin
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