With the British Open upon us, it won’t be long until the conclusion of yet another major championship golf season. In mid-July. Seemingly prematurely. Not long after the last putt drops at Royal Portrush, all the talk at the 3M Open and the Wyndham Championship will be about FedExCup points and those dizzying mathematical contingencies that make the eyelids flutter and the right hand reach for the TV remote.
Truth is, for North Americans who can’t watch The Open from Northern Ireland in the wee hours of the morning, the major championship golf season pretty much ended on Father’s Day, when the final putt dropped at the U.S. Open. Sure, you’ll check the leaderboard and maybe catch some “Live From The [British] Open” on its Golf Channel loop. But as for the total commitment you bring to the proceedings at Augusta National or Oakmont, impossible. Fortunately, the last groups should be live on NBC Sunday morning so viewers can witness at least a little bit of history at Royal Portrush. And there might even be time to sit down and watch the DVR’d version. In the meantime, check out Tom Mackin’s Final Word column for some Rory ruminations and a bit of a Northern Ireland travelogue for the golf-curious.
It’s all business, of course, and there’s nothing your servant scribe can do about it. The money-raining contrivance known as the FedExCup Playoffs simply must end before the NFL season begins, so the PGA Championship had to be moved to May from its long-time August dates. The Playoffs can produce great individual tournaments, as the BMW Championship has consistently demonstrated despite limited fields. The good news is the Ryder Cup is coming up Sept. 26-28, a “bigger-than-a-major” national team event that not even the NFL can overwhelm (Bears vs. Raiders in Vegas at 3:25 p.m. on the 28th. You’re welcome and go, Caleb!) So, dear reader, you’ll just have to enjoy playing golf for the rest of the season rather than watching major championships. Chicago has so much great private and public golf, that should be no problem.
Speaking of the BMW Championship, it’s administered by the Glenview-based Western Golf Association (WGA), which is guided by President & CEO John Kaczkowski, who is featured on this month’s cover with a group of Evans Scholar caddies. At heart, John is a humble, soft-spoken Wisconsin native, who was less than thrilled when we inquired about doing a story about him awhile back. He’s also very smart. He would cooperate only if the WGA was the focus of the story. I said, ‘John, I promise we won’t do a story about your favorite Netflix series and other such personal things. We’ll focus on the WGA.’” Which our writer, Ed Sherman, did an excellent job of, as always.
The WGA also conducts the Western Amateur (since 1899), one of the world’s premier amateur events, which is back at Skokie Country Club in Glencoe for the first time since 2017. Back then, the Sweet Sixteen included not only champion Norman Xiong and runner up Doc Redman, but a bevy of current tour winners, including Joaquin Niemann (LIV tour), Min Woo Lee, Cameron Champ and Northbrook’s Nick Hardy, all PGA Tour players. Check out Matt Harness, a regular in these pages, who covered the Western for several years and has written a love letter to the Amateur.
The Chicago District has been the incubating ground for golf equipment inventors and marketers over the years, including Wilson, TaylorMade, Tour Edge, Zero Friction, Bettinardi, Ram Golf and many more. A decade ago, Jason Hiland and friends came up with Sub 70 Golf, a unique company that focuses on fitting, manufacturing and selling clubs online direct to consumers. Veteran golf business scribe John Lombardo shares the evolution of the company.
And ever-reliable golf scribe Tim Cronin previews the 94th playing of the prestigious Illinois State Amateur at Stonebridge Country Club in Aurora. Over the years, Stonebridge has seen the superstar likes of Arnold Palmer, Michael Jordan and Annika Sorenstam – among many others - traverse its Tom Fazio-designed fairways. It’s great to have Stonebridge back in the championship mix again.
Oh, I don’t want to forget to mention that Charles Cherney’s photography is all over this magazine. Chuck, who had an exceptional career at the Chicago Tribune back in its halcyon days, loves to play golf and do golf photography. Chuck’s a great guy and a real treasure for Chicago District Golfer. I don’t acknowledge him enough.
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CLARIFICATION: Our Center Cut feature on Canyata Golf Club last month should have said that Mike Benkusky and Bob Lohmann co-designed the course.