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SeeSee Pgs.Pgs. 23-2423-24 IllinoisIllinois GolferGolfer Digital Edition April 2016 TheThe boldbold planplan forfor CanalCanal ShoresShores Page 2 • April 2016 • Illinois Golfer www.illinoisgolfer.net ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– The Buzz In This Issue –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– News –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Gary Planos remembered 5 Two domes look to rebuild Cover story: The plan for Canal Shores 6 2015 in review 10 The Masters: Why Augusta matters 12 The Evans Centennial: Chick in his own words 16 Will County Amateur Preview 22 Illinois Golfer Challenge on deck 23 Columns –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– The Grill Room: The bright side 4 Tim Cronin / Illinois Golfer Dome done The Bridgeview Sports Dome lies on the landscape weeks after a Dec. 28 storm took its toll. Departments –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– It was a few days after Christmas, and the weather Bridgeview mayor Steve Landek told the Daily South- Around Illinois: Springfield’s new brought no gifts. town. “We’ve done pretty well leasing that space, and tournament 25 A strong winter storm with heavy snow and high it makes more sense to put it close to the stadium, to Tour Guide 26 winds took down two of the Chicago area’s golf domes concentrate all our activities in that one area. We hope Tournament calendar / results 27 beginning the night of Dec. 28. to have it up by the fall of 2016.” They’re still down, but plans are afoot for replace- Bridgeview’s dome came down after a tear in the ments. fabric of the roof. It was decided to deflate the dome Illinois Golfer The skin of the Bridgeview Sports Dome in that before it could rip and fly away, which happened with a –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– southwest suburban suburb remains on the ground similar structure in the South Loop years ago. April 2016 and draped over the supports that once held it. The “It was going to close in 90 days anyway,” Landek Digital Edition • Vol. 2, No. 1 –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– softball and soccer leagues that played in it more often said. “We didn’t want to spend any more money to fix Published monthly April through October that golfers flipped wedges in it are on hold. it. We’re done. We decided this is the best course of –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– The Sports Zone Park dome just outside Aurora action.” Publisher & Editor Tim Cronin also came down – the third such collapse in 25 years. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Bridgeview’s now-deflated dome is located in a Join us online at www.illinoisgolfer.net Leagues there also had to scramble for new sites. corner of the village filled with light industry, and that Write us at P.O. Box 541, Worth, Illinois 60482 Owner Tom Clifford said he’ll be rebuilding on the will replace the dome. The new dome will be placed on E-mail us at [email protected] same site. In Bridgeview, there’s a different plan: A new part of Toyota Park’s parking lot, likely near the Fire’s Call us at (708) 638-1164 Follow us on Twitter: @illinoisgolfer dome at a new site, adjacent to Toyota Park, home of practice fields. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Display / classified advertising: the Fire soccer team. Sports Zone Park’s 75-foot dome came down at Call (708) 638-1164 for particulars. “There’s a demand for space, for soccer space,” midday. The employees on hand escaped injury. Illinois Golfer assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials or claims of advertisers. Caveat emptor. ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– On The Cover The adjacent Baha’i Temple looks over the seventh green at Canal Shores. / Tim Cronin © 2016 Illinois Golfer LLC, a unit of Cronin Multimedia Page 4 • April 2016 • Illinois Golfer www.illinoisgolfer.net ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– The Grill Room by Tim Cronin After a long winter, the season is at hand aybe it’s the music, the Dave Log- No, it’s the possibilities that creep into the gins melody that CBS has used for mind in the dead of winter, when only flickering about 35 years now. images from Kapalua or Pebble Beach remind Maybe it’s the considerable those of us with cabin fever that spring will Mpromotion on both CBS and ESPN. The familiar eventually come, and with it the joyful sweep of tune, the lovely vistas, the enchanting memories, a driver against the dew, that draws us back once 15 to 30 seconds at a time. again. Maybe it’s just that spring is finally here. That’s why thousands walk the aisles of the Whatever the reasons, the annual playing Chicago area’s two golf shows – two! – talking of The Masters has an impact far beyond the about the game, digging through remainder racks wisteria-entwined fence on Washington Road in for a club that might make the difference on that Augusta, Ga. unparrable hole, and generally anticipating the That, in fact, is the subject of our essay on start of the season in earnest. Page 12 of this issue. In 1962, in reference to the perfect timing But golf is more than The Masters. The big of The Masters on the calendar, Herbert Warren week in April – now expanded to eight days Wind put it this way: when the Drive, Chip and Putt competition for “It is held at a wonderful time of year, when youngsters is included – serves to whet the ap- practically every golfer, after a long hibernation, petite for the season that follows, for those who Tim Cronin / Illinois Golfer finds his fancy turning to thoughts of supinating watch the game and for those who play it. Rite of winter Golfers crowded the aisles of the left forearm or some other such crucial action For a select few, a winter in Florida or the area’s two golf shows (pictured, Tinley Park) this that will make the season at hand the big one he Arizona keeps one’s game in shape. For oth- winter. has been waiting for.” ers, there’s been a winter’s worth of trekking to the game in more subdued tones than the Tech- We hope this is your big season. golf domes to get a jump on things. For work- nicolor hues that obtain on the hillside behind ––––– ing stiffs living from paycheck to paycheck, the the quaint, rambling clubhouse. wo stories, encompassing the future and the dream is rekindled by the sight of Amen Corner The game is the thing. past, highlight this issue. On page 6 begins in high definition. (For those of us born a genera- It always has been. It must be, for one can theT tale of Jason Way’s quest to turn the old Peter tion earlier, even low definition worked.) find rapturous views elsewhere than golf cours- Jans course into a short-game showplace called If the panjandrums who rule Augusta had es. The Morton Arboretum or Skokie Botanic Canal Shores. On page 16 is a retelling of Chick never started their tournament and the Fruitlands Gardens can’t be beat for beauty, but nobody Evans’ winning the U.S. Open a century ago Nursery was still peddling flowers and fauna, keeps score there, except perhaps for bird-watch- – told in large part in his own words from stories the game would go on, albeit with the beauty of ers. unread for 100 years. Enjoy! Page 5 • April 2016 • Illinois Golfer www.illinoisgolfer.net ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Gary Planos • 1953-2016 ‘Not a finer person in the game of golf’ By Tim Cronin Hard work and imaginative thinking moved him ––––– up the ladder quickly. ary Planos almost always ended a con- “Westmoreland was my E ticket to Kapalua,” versation with a question. Planos said when the club celebrated its centen- “Do you need anything?” nial. Now, his legion of friends are ask- Planos stayed close to the Evans program. Ging why he died at 62, so many years too young. He was a WGA director, and was usually on hand Planos was found motionless Saturday, Mar. during the Western Open / BMW Championship, 26, at his home in Kapalua, Hawaii, by landscap- working either the practice range or visiting play- ers who came over to work on his lawn. The cause ers in the locker room, reminding them of the of death is believed to be a heart attack. beauty of the paradise he worked and lived in. That’s an additional shock, for Gary Planos Baseball great Joe Torre, who has a house on had the biggest heart in golf. As the senior vice the Kapalua property, would hang out with Planos president of the Kapalua resort facility and the during the tournament. On the turn of the millen- tournament director of the PGA Tour’s Tour- nium, he needed 15 rooms at the Ritz-Carlton for nament of Champions, Planos knew everyone Yankees pitcher Andy Pettite for New Year’s Eve. in golf, a tight family where egos are large and It couldn’t be done, execpt Planos did it. grudges are kept. Planos could always do it. Arranging rides Nobody ever had a bad word to say about on a whale-watching boat or something similarly Gary Planos. As word of his death spread on Sun- exotic were all part of his anything-is-possible day, kind words and memories of him came from Gary Planos mantra. Even after Kapalua outsourced resort and all corners of the game. tournament operations in 2011, Planos was the “There was not a finer person in the game Said Morgan Pressel, winner of the LPGA’s go-to guy for many. of golf,” Golf Channel producer Brandt Packer tournament at Kapalua in 2008, “My trips to Ka- “Gary is Kapalua,” Steve Stricker said then. wrote on Twitter Sunday.