Chicago’s Premier Multimedia Golf Source & Authority March 2019, Vol. 23 No. 1 Reynolds casts its spell Get a jump on spring Mistwood’s high-tech dome Instruction by Nicole Jeray GOLFChicagoMagazine.com Experience Ravisloe Country Club on your next golf trip THIS IS THE GOLF youyou deserve.deserve. •Rossy’s Roost Bar & Grill •Turf tee practice range •Short game practice range •Putting green •Golf Outings •Lessons/Golf Classes with our head golf professional •Fully stocked pro shop with top name brands •18-hole oasis of beauty and tranquility Ravisloe Country Club Where “The Beauty” and “The Beast” are one and the same. Great golf happens on great courses. And courses don’t get better than the ones on Alabama’s Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. With 11 locations, 26 courses 18231 S. Park Ave. | Homewood, IL 60430 and more than 400 championship holes, the toughest challenge may be deciding which one to play fi rst. At these rates, come play all the golf you deserve. ravisloe.com | 708.798.5600 » ENJOY UNLIMITED GOLF THIS SPRING, INCLUDING CART AND RANGE BALLS, STARTING AT $115 A DAY* « Choose your spring special and reserve a tee time today. Call 1.800.949.4444 or visit rtjgolf.com. facebook.com/rtjgolf twitter.com/rtjgolf *Offer valid March 20 – May 28, 2019. Specials cannot be combined with other discounts and must be paid in full and booked with Reservations at least 48 hours prior to play. Valid at Ross Bridge starting at $209 per person per day. Specials do not include play at Lakewood Golf Club. Specials do not include tax or lodging. Not valid with previously booked packages. There is a $10 surcharge for each round on the Judge at Capitol Hill. Some restrictions may apply. Offers subject to change. RTJ1154YouDeserveSPRING_GolfChicago.indd 1 1/30/19 12:35 PM Media sponsor of March 2019 Vol. 23 No. 1 Dave OPENING SHOT and contents Tim Features Maybe the ancients had it right, designating March 1 as New Year’s Day. Winter this year has been a heavyweight, punching hard and often like Joe Frazier, right in front of you, going for the kill instead of the clinch. Freezing Start Your Spring Practice Earlier Visit our Departments is no way to start a calendar, as anyone who visits Florida can tell you. 14 Neal Kotlarek Finds The Best Places Under Roof 5 Opening Shot But winter eventually punches itself out. The sun creeps higher in the GOLFChicago sky, Pebble Beach appears on the magic lantern, and blessedly, the robin Reynolds Lake Oconee Is Just Right 6 The Good Stuff Magazine gleefully sings its song. 18 Dan Vukelich’s Tempting Tour Of A Georgia Peach Todd Mrowice Surveys So does golf, with the seductive call of a siren, luring us back for another Fan Page The Best And Brightest Toptracer Makes an Impact at Mistwood series of go-rounds pursuing the impossibility of perfection. The advent of 8 Instruction on facebook. Neal Kotlarek On Space Age Tracking the golf dome – an invention on par with the wheel, to be sure – allows us to 24 Nicole Jeray On Practicing cheat the calendar, to gain months on nature and hit the ground, when it’s Like A Pro finally unfrozen, running. 10 Sweet Home Chicago A Season Preview And More 28 Destinations Summerlin Bids To Outshine Las Vegas 31 GOLFChicago Map And Directory 36 On The Shelf Doctors Of The Game 37 On The Corkscrews Stephen Hawk Pops The Cork 38 Final Putt Barry Cronin On The Oconee Hole 16 That’s where this opening issue of our 23rd season comes in. We take Canal Shores Land Grab you inside Chicago’s best practice areas, including the domes, with a long Of 2019 Cover: The Landing Holes 4 and 5 look at the revolutionary Toptracer Range installation at the Mistwood Golf Dome in Bolingbrook. No longer need one imagine how good that last strike was. Now, the arc drawn on the screen and the numbers on the chart tell the Chicago’s Premier Multimedia Golf Source & Authority SUBSCRIBE TO happy story – or of the need for improvement. Founder: Bill Daniels Sales and Business Development We also have a pair of travel stories featuring resorts for those who GOLFCHICAGO Publisher: Dave Weretka Contact Andy Reese 312-451-1355 Editor: Tim Cronin Editorial Inquiries believe they’re ready to go now, featuring Reynolds Lake Oconee in Art Director: Stephen Hawk Tim Cronin Georgia and Summerlin near Las Vegas. Each is less likely to have snow Free Golf* with Your [email protected] Paid Subscription Senior Writers: Neal Kotlarek and Todd PO Box 541 than your backyard. Mrowice Worth, IL 60482 If you’re not ready, LPGA veteran Nicole Jeray, now teaching at Chicago’s Premier Business Offices Instructional Staff: Andy Mickelson, Andrew 3701 Juniper Avenue Mistwood, has an innovative instructional feature on how to practice. Multimedia Golf Source & Ogata, and John Platt Joliet, IL 60431 We also have a look at new equipment in The Good Stuff, a review of Authority Delivered To Your 815-741-8005 Editorial Contributors: Stephen Hawk, Rory Billy Dettlaff’s “Doctors of the Game,” a thorough tome on the golf profes- Door Six Times A Year Hughes, Dave Lockhart, Greg Martin, and John © Copyright 2019 Morrissett sion, the latest news and notes from around the area, Stephen Hawk’s review Visit Photography: GOLFChicago Staff and Group 27 of what wine goes with a long winter’s night, and a provocative column by www.GOLFChicagoMagazine.com Advertising and Marketing Inquiries Barry Cronin on the bizarre battle for the 10th hole at Canal Shores, the for details Dave Weretka municipal short course winding through Evanston and Wilmette. [email protected] 815-741-8005 Put a log on the fire and enjoy. 4 GOLFChicagoMagazine.com March 2019 5 THE GOOD STUFF Wear Your Mojo Brought to You by Skechers golf shoe game is strong. 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No exception is the full- zip Scorpio jacket. With half-elastic cuffs Snake in the Fairway and a welt pocket on the side, this jacket The company that brought a CNC easily goes from on course to on a date. Feeling Exotic? precision-milled face to a driver now Lightweight and moisture-dispersing fabric. The EXS line is the latest addition to the debuts the same in its fairway metals Available in black and heather grey. A Winner from Wilson Tour Edge Exotics family. Adjustable with Cobra’s King F9 Speedback. $150.00 The latest launch from Wilson Staff is a game sole weights make up a Flight Tuning The sole weight structure lowers improvement iron that still maintains a sleek overall System and Rollface Technology creates the center of gravity by 10 percent look. The D7 combines technology and aesthetics straighter shots, even with off center and Cobra’s famous Baffler Rails from the award-winning FG Tour V6 and C300 combine for a lower center and contact. Available in 9.5 and 10.5 This is Big, Bertha irons. RE-AKT technology provides power where it’s degree adjustable heads and with faster club/ball speeds. Available in One of the most needed most, giving you superior distance. MCA Tensei CK Blue 2G stock shafts. adjustable 3-4 or 4-5 models. recognized names in golf Steel, $599.99; graphite, $699.99 $299.99 $269.0 0 equipment is packing a punch again with the Callaway Big Bertha hybrid. Revolutionary Jailbreak Technology incorporates two internal bars that stiffen the body, creating faster ball speed and longer distance. Available in hybrid numbers 3-8 with UST Mamiya Recoil ESX stock shafts. $269.99 6 GOLFChicagoMagazine.com March 2019 7 INSTRUCTION Practice Like a Pro Nicole Jeray ’ve watched many amateurs and even my faulty swing mechanic. Lots of thinking NO Mechanics – The Play Box with golf course scenarios. Chip or putt Iprofessionals beat balls mindlessly on the and rehearsing occurs here, and I’m not Thinking about mechanics while playing to one hole from one spot, working on a range. Hit and rake, hit and rake. There’s overly concerned with where the ball is golf leads to guided, inconsistent shots. certain mechanic or just grooving proper no purpose or goal except attempting to going. The Practice Box always consists In order to take mindful range practice to technique, again using an alignment rod find something that works, and more likely of alignment rods (or you can use golf the golf course, I weave playing golf into to ensure proper direction to my target. grooving bad swings. clubs). One on my ball line at my target, my practice sessions. This is done in the Later I will take three balls and chip to three If you want to be a better golfer, it’s and the other parallel to that at my feet.