PGA Tour winner and Illinois alumnus Nick Hardy, who got his start playing Illinois Junior Golf Association (IJGA) events, recently conducted a 90-minute golf clinic for several dozen IJGA members. The event took place Sept. 21 at Anetsberger Golf Course, a nine-hole par-3 layout in Hardy’s native Northbrook, where he told the youngsters he has 12 holes in one!
“The IJGA is grateful and honored that Nick would take time out of his busy schedule to come back to help IJGA youngsters improve their games,” said IPGA President John Buckley.
Hardy, 29, who struggled on Tour this year, said he began working with well-known instructor Sean Foley in April after three years with Australia-based coach Gary Barter.
“I’m really just trying to get [the club] in positions that I was when I’ve grown up in the game,” said Hardy, the 2016 Illinois State Amateur Championship winner.
Martha Kuwahara, who led Glenbrook North to three state championships, recently announced that she will play golf for Michigan.
Comings and Goings
• Sand Valley Resort will open its sixth course next year, the wonderous 12-hole Commons. It’s the first solo design by Jim Craig, a longtime associate of Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore, who designed the original Sand Valley course.
• Grand Geneva Resort & Spa in Lake Geneva – home of The Brute and the Highlands 18-hole layouts - will introduce a new 11-hole short course next season called the Wee Nip. Holes average 90 yards. “The Wee Nip will encourage casual play, making it perfect for novice golfers and players of all ages,” said resort managing director Skip Harless.
• Harbor Shores, the Benton Harbor, Michigan resort, opened its new Wee Course, a nine-hole pitch-and-putt designed by two-time KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship winner Colin Montgomerie. Holes range from 20 to 80 yards and kids play for free. There is also an 18-hole putting course.
• Village Green Golf Course in Mundelein closed for the last time Sept. 9, as the local school district will replace it with athletic fields. Village Green was operated for 20 years by Mundelein-based GolfVisions Management.
• The Evans at Canal Shores in Evanston will record 25,000 rounds in its first season following its dramatic $6.1 million transformation by Park Ridge-based golf course architect Todd Quitno. The course serves as a caddie training site for the Western Golf Association, a First Tee – Greater Chicago facility, a youth instructional site for The Golf Practice and a hub for CDGA Sunshine Programs.
• Quitno will lead a renovation of Merit Club in Libertyville this fall. Plans include new bunkering, fairway contouring and green surrounds along with irrigation… Ray Hearn will renovate the 18-hole Pottawatomie Country Club in Michigan City, Indiana.
The Giving Game
The 2026 Presidents Cup, which launched general admission ticket sales after Labor Day, announced $250,000 donations to both the First Tee – Greater Chicago and the Crisis Recovery Center in Wheaton. Practice round tickets are $50 and competition rounds range from $100-155, plus taxes and fees.
Illinois PGA professionals raised $640,000 at their annual Birdies for Charity event, bringing their 15-year total to more than $5 million. —Barry Cronin