Chicago’s Premier Multimedia Golf Source & Authority April 2018, Vol. 22 No. 2 Junior Golf Nine, Dine and Wine Royal Fox Reborn Dave Pelz’ Short Game Advisor GOLFChicagoMagazine.com Stacy Lewis Get your tickets today! Michelle 2018 KPMG Wie Women’s PGA Championship Kemper Lakes G.C. Kildeer, Illnois June 26 – July 1, 2018 KPMGWomensPGA.com Inspire Greatness Danielle Kang 2017 Champion Media sponsor of April 2018 Vol. 22 No. 2 Dave OPENING SHOT and contents Tim Features The crocus may or may not have bloomed in your backyard, but spring is here. That mountain of snow has melted. The sun is higher in the sky. Thunder Junior Golf: The Game’s Future occasionally rumbles. You may have even hit the links on a reasonably warm – Why and how the kids will lead the way. 14 Departments above 45 degrees – day. The key indicator is on the television screen. Golf’s on the telly 24/7, but for Royal Fox Reborn 5 Opening Shot those of a certain age, the annual transmissions from Augusta, Georgia – off New owner makes big changes. 20 the television map for the other 51 weeks of the year – mean earth still follows Nine, Dine and Wine 6 The Good Stuff a proper orbit and warmer days are ahead. 22 How to make the time before and after sunset count. Amen (corner) to that. 8 Sweet Home Chicago The Masters is the one tournament that we can’t get enough of, and perhaps News From Here And the limited hours on the air – even the five hours on Sunday seem to go by in There seconds – is why. Few will watch all of the 12 Instruction U.S. Open across four Dave Pelz On Downhill days, or even a regu- Wedges lar tournament on the circuit, which might 24 Fitness Edge cover 12 or 14 hours, Don Morris but the Masters? We’re glued to the set, and 25 GOLFChicago Map and often have the iPad with one of the extra Directory channels that Augusta offers. Who can resist 41 On The Corkscrews watching action at Stephen Hawk Amen Corner all day? It’s a magical place, 34 Final Putt Augusta National. It Neal Kotlarek And The changes every year, Visit our Cover: Cog Hill’s PGA Jr. League team from 2017 exemplifies the fun to be had in junior golf. Kicked Bucket (Photo: Mike Schoaf / Southwest PGA) sometimes subtly, occa- GOLFChicago sionally outrageously, as when Hootie Johnson Magazine SUBSCRIBE TO Chicago’s Premier Multimedia Golf Source & Authority turned into Johnny Fan Page Founder: Bill Daniels Editorial inquiries should be directed to: Appleseed and planted pine trees everywhere but downtown Aiken to toughen Tim Cronin GOLFCHICAGO Publisher: Dave Weretka [email protected] the course. But the place is always green, manicured more perfectly than a on facebook. Editor: Tim Cronin PO Box 541 Free Golf* with Your Worth, IL 60482 Hollywood star, and always ready for its close-up. Art Director: Stephen Hawk Business Offices It’s also a different place. Fans can’t bring in cell phones, so there’s no Paid Subscription 3701 Juniper Avenue Senior Writers: Neal Kotlarek and Todd Mrowice Joliet, IL 60431 chance of a buzz, unless you hit the concession stands with the 1980s prices for Chicago’s Premier 815-741-8005 Instructional Staff: Scott Hogan, Andy Mickelson, [email protected] the $4 beers. There’s also no official course rating for the layout, and the green Dave Pelz, Andrew Ogata, John Platt, and Carl Rabito Multimedia Golf Source & jackets never announce Stimpmeter speeds for the roly-poly greens. (Upon the Authority Delivered To Your Editorial Contributors: Stephen Hawk, Rory Hughes, switch from bermuda to bent a generation ago, they ran 18, which is equivalent Door Six Times A Year Dave Lockhart, Greg Martin, and John Morrissett © Copyright 2018 Photography: GOLFChicago Staff and Group 27 to infinity, a member whispered to someone sworn to secrecy.) Visit Augusta National is treated with more reverence than it should be – did you www.GOLFChicagoMagazine.com Advertising and Marketing inquiries should be know it’s a for-profit company following a bankruptcy way back? – but it’s earned for details directed to: Dave Weretka a special place in golf. 815-741-8005 [email protected] Even when the azaleas bloom early. 4 GOLFChicagoMagazine.com April 2018 5 6 GOLFChicago THE GOOD STUFF Magazine.com Sun (Mountain) On A Rainy Day Have a leaky rain jacket? The Elite Rain Jacket from Sun Mountain may be the answer for stay-dry playability. Boasting a knit fabric Stuck On You, Er, Your Cart that features 20K waterproof and 30K breathability ratings, Sun This is for the golfer who has everything: A Mountain says it has more four-way golf towel with a magnetic corner that will, stretchability than anyone else’s as magnets are wont to do, stick to clubs, rain gear. There’s a two-year metal clubheads, golf cart posts, and so waterproof guarantee. 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Callaway is getting a lot of mileage Game-improvement is a manufacturer’s out of its Rogue driver and fairway metals, and with good reason. phrase for clubs for medium-and-up They employ 2017’s new development from the Epic driver, Jailbreak handicappers. Ping calls the G700 iron technology, which dampens the natural twist of the clubhead by the use series game-improvement, but the clubs of titanium bars behind the clubface to prevent it from deflecting. In the have the look of a club a Tour player Rogue, the bars are lighter but as effective. The clubface itself is of variable could wield. The hollow-bodied clubs thickness, and the driver is 460 cc, larger than the Epic. All this wizardry, move weight from the clubface to make plus options for a draw-friendly driver and the Sub Zero, with adjustable for more loft and easier shotmaking. The weights to lower spin rate in both the driver and fairway woods, has made standard set begins with the 4-iron and the clubs popular on the pro tours. runs through the sand wedge at 54 www.callawaygolf.com degrees, with the lofts for the “power $499.99 (driver), $299.99 (fairway woods) MSRP spec” set 1.5 to 2 degrees less. ping.com Prices vary from $160 to $175 per club depending on shaft. 7 April 2018 there. (The beach would be closed if So said Chicago Park District general superintendent the BMW Championship or a similar Mike Kelly when the revised routing was revealed to the tournament played through.) Down Memory Lane public this winter. He was upfront in noting that much of One thing that could push the the money for the course had to be raised, and that much project to happening – and some The First World Championship’ of the rest – including $25 million for a pair of critical industry insiders think it’s a 50-50 George S. May was never bashful. Sweet underpasses that would connect portions of the course – proposition at this point – is its Thus, when in 1943 the flamboyant impresario of Tam O’Shanter had not been allocated to the project in any budget. inclusion in the South Lakefront There is every likelihood, of course, that the $60 Framework Plan. The Obama decided golf needed a boost and arranged a 36-hole match between million cost will go up. Environmental issues, notably the Presidential Center, planned for a Harold “Jug” McSpaden and Sam Byrd, winners of the All-American Open Home relocation of a nature sanctuary, are still in question. So part of Jackson Park immediately at Tam and the Chicago Victory National at Beverly, respectively, he didn’t is the construction timetable. Kelly noted that once con- north of the golf course, is also in call it an exhibition. struction began, it would be at least 18 months. that plan. He called it the first World Championship. The project is already a year behind the envisioned “This is part of the Framework The winner – which turned out to be McSpaden – collected $1,000, schedule, and Jackson Park and South Shore remain Plan, and the Framework Plan will Chicago open in their original configurations as separate 18- and not be published until we’ve got a double what runner-up Byrd earned – but more important, May was 9-hole park district courses. consensus on golf,” Kelly said. “I pleased that 2,500 fans came out on an October weekend 75 years ago, “We did slow down and we have a better project for need the community’s support and spurning college and pro football turnstiles to watch his concoction. it,” Kelly said.