"Doesn’t it seem like the golf season used to start earlier?” a friend of mine asked me a couple of months ago. “Seems like it used to be warmer. We’d be able to play in April and May.”
“I’ve run Media Days for a lot of PGA Tour events around here in the month of May over the last couple of decades and I can remember a lot of cold, wet days,” I said. “Watching the weather with fingers crossed that we’d have a decent day when writers and TV people were coming out to talk to the defending champion and play golf. In the end I sorta concluded that you can’t count on consistently good golf weather in Chicago until mid-June. Then again, I might just be suffering PR guy PTSD.”
Many Chicago District golfers don’t care how bad the weather is. They’re mudders. Give ‘em a temperature somewhere in the 50s, a glimpse of sunshine, minimal wind and they’re ready to go. Mud? Just grab a pair of beat-up old golf shoes, preferably black, the color of mud. While most courses are closed, they know the ones that are open the way a thirsty public knew where to find a speakeasy during Prohibition.
To prove the point, starting March 15, CDGA members were allowed to begin submitting scores to calculate their handicaps for this year. As of the beginning of May, some 80,000 scores had been recorded. Regular weekend tee times at many courses started in mid-April, weather or not.
Meanwhile, starting April 5, the Illinois Junior Golf Association (IJGA) conducted four two-day, 36-hole weekend tournaments for members ages 12-18 with approximately 100 contestants (boys and girls in separate competitions) per event. “We’ve gotten very lucky with the weather this year,” said Matt Wennmaker, executive director of the IJGA. “We do shotgun starts so we can work around the weather. They’re trying to get in some reps before the summer season starts. They want to play college golf.”
The good news is that it’s finally June. Time for everyone – not just the mudders, the hard cores and the aspiring college players – to get out on the course. Casual golfers, your turn.
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As is obvious from our cover, this issue celebrates the U.S. Open, this year’s competition at Oakmont and a couple of others from way back.
First, we have Len Ziehm’s account of the 1975 U.S. Open at Medinah Country Club 50 years and numerous renovations of Course #3 ago. I asked a couple of pretty good golf aficionados who won the championship back in ’75. No idea. Which is why your servants here at Chicago District Golfer magazine provide a story herein that will stir the memories of our older members and inform younger members of a little Chicago golf history. Same goes for the Open that happened 70 years ago in 1955 at The Olympic Club in San Francisco. Wait, Ben Hogan lost to whom? Even our older readers might not know this one. Tim Cronin, one of our trusted historians, will let you know. Meanwhile, this month’s Final Word column by the inimitable Gary Van Sickle takes you on a trip through Oakmont’s estimable tournament history.
One of the many beauties of the U.S. Open is that it concludes on Father’s Day. This means that dads and granddads all over the United States can sit around and watch the final round without fear of interruption by…whoever might be inclined to interrupt. Playing golf in the morning. Watching golf in the afternoon. With impunity. No chores, no errands, no honey-do lists, no barbecuing (except willingly). Whoever thought of this at the USGA, way to go, boys. Now about that golf ball roll back…
Understandably, the John Deere Classic is a favorite among golf fans of the Quad Cities, who have supported it for the last half century. Turns out, it isn’t just a favorite among the fans but also of those who come to the community as part of the PGA Tour’s traveling circus. The tournament is coming up again this year during Fourth of July weekend and writer Doug Milne, who attended the event for 19 straight years as a PGA Tour media official, tells us why it’s so special to him.
Our other big story this month is about a country club you’ve likely never heard of. Lake Zurich Golf Club has been around almost as long as Chicago Golf Club but that’s where the similarity ends. Our guy David Sweet explains the hijinks, shenanigans and red coats favored by its members! Truly a tradition unlike any other.