The Future of Jackson Park
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Illinois Golfer EveryEvery IllinoisIllinois publicpublic coursecourse inin ourour 600-facility600-facility guideguide IllinoisIllinois GolferGolfer Digital Edition April 2017 LastLast walks?walks? TheThe futurefuture ofof JacksonJackson ParkPark Page 2 • April 2017 • Illinois Golfer www.illinoisgolfer.net ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– The Buzz In This Issue –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– News –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– 2017 Preview: A very big year 5 D.A. was on point in P.R. 2016 Review: Study in contrasts 8 Masters Preview: A tradition altered 10 Just when you begin won- the Puerto Rico Open was played against the World Remembering two influential men 13 dering if it’s time to look for D.A. Match Play in Austin, Tex., but he gets something bet- Cover story: Jackson Park’s future 14 Points in the missing persons ter: a two-year exemption on the circuit. He’d lost his End of the line for Green Acres 19 Illinois Hall of Fame race begins 20 reports, he pops up with a good Tour card after last season’s 184th place finish in the Opinion showing. standings. Now, rather than scramble for spots here –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Such was the case for the and there, he can set his schedule again. Grill Room: Woods’ unfortunate end 4 Pekin pro with the up-and-down He also earned starts in the Players, the PGA Departments –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– game on Sun., March 26, when Championship, and next year’s Tournament of Cham- Toy Department 21 he fired a final-round 6-under- pions. College: Wildcats on the rise 22 par 66 and won the Puerto Rico D.A.Points The 40-year-old Illinois grad’s previous wins were Amateur: Race for the brown jacket 23 Around Illinois: A shrinking lineup 24 Open by two strokes with a total of 20-under 268. at Pebble Beach in 2011 – with pro-am partner Bill Mur- Tour Guide 26 He finished with a birdie to hold off two-time U.S. ray – and the 2013 Houston Open. In all three cases, Tournament Calendar / scoreboard 27 Open winner Retief Goosen, erstwhile U.S. Amateur he started strongly, with a 63 in the Crosby Clambake The Directory 29 champion Bryson DeChambeau and Bill Lunde, and 64s in Houston and Puerto Rico. but the key to his third PGA Tour title was a binge of MAPPING IT OUT: Cog Hill and Gleneagles five birdies in the first five holes. That earned Points a haven’t moved, but they need new stationary. So does Illinois Golfer cushion that became critical when he bogeyed three the Mid-Iron range. Previously listed as being in Lem- –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– of five holes beginning at the sixth. A par save on the ont, even though they were in adjacent unincorporated April 2017 Digital Edition • Vol. 3, No. 1 11th was followed by his needing to sink a five-footer to Cook County, the courses are now within the city limits –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– make par at the 12th. of Palos Park. That village annexed the property last Published monthly April through November, Later, after signing his scorecard and holding the year with the assent of the courses. For more on Cog with occasional special issues –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Hill, see page 3. trophy, Points said he was thinking, “If I can just make Publisher & Editor Tim Cronin this putt, I’ve got a chance to kind of get the momentum OLD RULES OR NEW?: The proposed new rules, –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– going back the other way.” encompassing everything from how to drop – an inch Join us online at www.illinoisgolfer.net Write us at P.O. Box 541, Worth, Illinois 60482 Down went the putt. Another followed on the 13th, from the ground, should you fancy that – to no longer E-mail us at [email protected] and Points was playing the way he wanted to again. being penalized if the ball moves at address – the Call us at (708) 638-1164 “Golf is like that, right?” he said. “You have highs Dustin Johnson Rule – don’t take effect until 2019, Follow us on Twitter: @illinoisgolfer –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– and lows and rarely do you just play every hole per- after time for public comment and fine-tuning. Display / classified advertising: But why not get a head start with your buddles? Call (708) 638-1164 for particulars. fect.” Illinois Golfer assumes no responsibility for unsolicited Points doesn’t get a Masters invitation, because Do as golf organizations, including the PGA Tour, do. materials or claims of advertisers. Caveat emptor. –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– © 2017 Illinois Golfer LLC, a unit of Cronin Multimedia The Cover A pair of pals play Jackson Park Golf Course on a sunny March afternoon. / Tim Cronin Page 3 • April 2017 • Illinois Golfer + www.illinoisgolfer.net ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Spring cleaning Rory Spears / GolfersOnGolf.com (left); Beverly Country Club (right) Improvement Department Winter, especially a snowless one, is the season for course improvements. At Cog Hill (left), every bunker on Dubsdread, in- cluding those on No. 18, is getting Augusta National-style sand, but not every bunker in the remodeling by Rees Jones will remain. He visited in the fall and suggest- ed elimination of some bunkers. How that will alter Dubsdread’s difficulty remains to be seen. At Beverly Country Club (right), a new tree removal plan includes chopping down trees that weren’t part of the original design, such as those standing in front of bunkers. Here, the first hole is being returned to the 1908 look. Invoke a local rule. Play them this year to see if they Par-3 Contest on Wednesday of Masters week. as both a golf tournament and a reunion. Where else work. If they don’t, let the USGA know at www.usga. That’s over with. The club announced in early could someone see Jack Fleck, conqueror of Ben Ho- org/rules, where they are eager to see what you think. March that all those non-Masters major winners were gan at the Olympic Club in the 1955 U.S. Open, tee it Might not be a bad idea to suggest a rule banning TV still welcome, but could no longer tee it up. up. We had the good fortune to do so a few years ago, replays of potential rules infractions the day after they For the most part, this isn’t the biggest deal in the and were delighted to know that he was still alive. (That happen as well. Call that the Lexi Thompson Rule. world, unless you were one of those winners and want- was his last appearance, in fact.) END OF ONE AUGUSTA ERA: It was as much a ed to waltz around Augusta once or twice during the And did it really hurt that a Steve Melnyk or Ian part of The Masters as the pimento cheese sandwich. week, cherishing what few others could experience. Baker Finch might play the par 3 and make a birdie or For decades, former major champions – even the guys But there’s an exception, and here Billy Payne two? We think not. who won the British Amateur and were never heard and Co. missed the point. The participation of those One of the former U.S. Amateur champions it af- from again – could play Augusta National Golf Club old champs in the Par-3 derby was the last on-course fects is Fred Ridley, the winner in 1975. Oh, wait, he’s during the practice rounds, plus take part in the annual vestige of Bobby Jones’ original notion of The Masters an Augusta National member. Never mind. Page 4 • April 2017 • Illinois Golfer www.illinoisgolfer.net ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– The Grill Room by Tim Cronin The end of singular brilliance he flame of greatness is fueled by ge- the Middle East and a start only a sucker would make that bet. nius and good fortune. in the Dubai Desert Classic, Woods won his third U.S. Open on a broken Sometimes, the flame goes out where he looked like an old leg in 2008, beating Rocco Mediate on the 19th prematurely, either by the diminution man climbing in and out of hole of a playoff. That, along with his 12-stroke Tof that genius or by bad luck. bunkers. A withdrawal the victory at the 1997 Masters and the 15-stroke For Tiger Woods, it’s more of the latter than next morning. He’s back on romp at the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, the former. We don’t see him winning again. the disabled list, including when he was the only player under par, can be Even in golf, there is a time when a player missing The Masters. counted as his hallmark achievements. Oh, and – great or less than great – can no longer make “I’ve had three back that grand slam he authored in 2000-01, an odys- Tiger Woods the shot that once was expected, or sink the putt surgeries,” Woods reminded sey from Pebble Beach to Augusta National. that once was assumed to disappear. a questioner on television a couple of weeks ago. What, though, will people remember? The Sam Snead had the longest career imagin- Therein lies the rub. The back is the most kid hugging his father after the triumph at Au- able, breaking into the big league of golf in fragile part of the body, especially when the knife, gusta in 1997? The fist pumps of joy? Four tro- 1936-37, when he was 24. He was still going in however well-meaning, has been stuck in it three phies on his coffee table? Or the post-midnight the 1980s, teaming with Don January to win the times. escapade with the fire hydrant on Thanksgiving 1982 Legends of Golf, three years after he bet- We wish Woods well, but since he re-injured night 2008, the first news of his serial infidelity tered his age by a stroke in the final round of the his back at the Honda Classic in 2014 – follow- which cost him a marriage and broke up a family? Quad Cities Open at Oakwood Country Club.