Chicago’s Premier Multimedia Golf Source & Authority August 2019, Vol. 23 No. 5 PORTER MOSER ON GOLF, HOOPS, AND LIFE LANGFORD REDISCOVERED THE OTHER SIDE OF GOLF GOLFChicagoMagazine.com 25th Annual Phil Kosin TITO’S ILLINOIS WOMEN’S OPEN TEE TIME 1700 W. RENWICK ROAD • ROMEOVILLE, IL 60446 CONGRATULATIONS JESSICA PORVASNIK! THANK YOU TO THE 2019 SPONSORS Media sponsor of August 2019 Vol. 23 No. 5 Dave OPENING SHOT and contents Tim Features August brings the dog days, and not just because of Sirius’ position in the night sky. The GOLFChicago Interview The heat can be unbearable – it was for a time in July – and the cool of Visit our Departments Loyola’s Porter Moser on Golf, Hoops and Life 12 autumn and fall golf seems a million days off. (It isn’t.) GOLFChicago 5 Opening Shot To keep cool, we go old-school a bit this month, with Neal Kotlarek’s Langford, the Great Forgotten Architect look at one of the greats of American golf course architecture, William Magazine 16 Neal Kotlarek Explores the Work of Chicago’s Unknown Designer 6 The Good Stuff Todd Mrowice Prowls Boice Langford. We lost him in 1977, but he finally gets his due with induc- Fan Page The Other Side of Golf the Aisles tion to the Illinois Golf on facebook. Wherein We Find the Game in Unusual Forms and Places Hall of Fame in October. 18 8 Instruction Langford’s courses in Connie DeMattia’s Setup Illinois include Butterfield for Success and Ridgemoor coun- 10 Sweet Home Chicago try clubs, along with 21 On The Shelf Kankakee Elks, the A Singular Woman in Golf latter of which you can 25 GOLFChicago Map And play without knowing a Directory member. His best known Where to Play and How to course – built with long- Get There time associate Theodore J. Moreau – is Lawsonia’s 23 On The Corkscrews Links course in Green Stephen Hawk Explains Lake, Wis., which is Vino’s Terminology golf as pure as can be 30 Final Putt made by the hand of man. That’s where Neal first became acquainted with Tim Cronin on Nicole Jeray the genius from Chicago’s Austin neighborhood, and where his look at Cover and above: Porter Moser. Photo: Tom Yaam Photography and Loyola University Fighting the Good Fight Langford begins. For flavor, we bring back the words of the man himself, in a rare- ly-seen essay from The Chicago Evening Post of 1915, when Langford was Chicago’s Premier Multimedia Golf Source & Authority SUBSCRIBE TO just starting out. It’s as timely today as it was then. Founder: Bill Daniels Sales and Business Development GOLFCHICAGO Publisher: Dave Weretka Contact Andy Rees 312-451-1355 For something a bit lighter, we sent Neal to play miniature golf. He dis- Editor: Tim Cronin Editorial Inquiries covered parallels between the putt-putt game and Topgolf, putting it all Free Golf* with Your Art Director: Stephen Hawk Tim Cronin [email protected] under the umbrella of Entertainment Golf. Paid Subscription Senior Writers: Neal Kotlarek and Todd PO Box 541 Mrowice Worth, IL 60482 We’re also up to date with our cover story, an interview with golf nut Chicago’s Premier Business Offices Instructional Staff: Andy Mickelson, Andrew 3701 Juniper Avenue Porter Moser, who guided Loyola to the men’s Final Four last year. Moser Multimedia Golf Source & Ogata, and John Platt Joliet, IL 60431 815-741-8005 is not only a fine coach, but a fine storyteller. Authority Delivered To Your Editorial Contributors: Stephen Hawk, Rory Door Six Times A Year Hughes, Dave Lockhart, Greg Martin, and John © Copyright 2019 There’s also instruction from Connie DeMattia, Todd Mrowice’s Morrissett monthly look at the Good Stuff, a preview of the return of big-time golf Visit Photography: GOLFChicago Staff and Group 27 www.GOLFChicagoMagazine.com to Medinah Country Club in the form of the BMW Championship within Advertising and Marketing Inquiries for details Dave Weretka Sweet Home Chicago, and a few thoughts on this year’s Phil Kosin Illinois [email protected] 815-741-8005 Women’s Open in Final Putt. 4 GOLFChicagoMagazine.com August 2019 5 THE GOOD STUFF Step Forward in Style Brought to You by Long gone are the days of leather saddle shoes. The golf shoe game is advancing and are now an integral part of your performance and style. The new Under Armour Fade RST 2 kicks are the perfect Scotty Beams Us to Teryllium blend of style and comfort. The Molded US Rotational It’s been 22 years since the original Resistance combines spiked and spikeless for Scotty Cameron Teryllium-inserted TeI3 superior traction on all surfaces. hit the market and changed the putter $109.99 game. Starting Aug. 16 you can get your hands on a modernized version called the T22. Available in Newport, Newport 2, and Fastback 1.5 models, these flat sticks have all of the qualities you’d expect from a Scotty. $599 Find Yourself with this Garmin Garmin leads the golf technology field in just about every category, and the new Approach G80 handheld shows exactly why. Garmin has combined a touchscreen GPS (pre-loaded with 41,000 courses) with a data-crunching launch monitor to make the ultimate device. Easily take this device from the range to the course. $499.99 Tour Edge Goes a Set Further Ping Glides into New Wedges The Iron- Ping has completely revamped its wedge line Wood with the new Glide 3.0 designs. They are higher is just one spinning and more forgiving, and have a softer of the many feel, which means they’re an upgrade over their achievements from predecessor. Multiple sole grinds available Batavia’s Tour Edge including a throwback Eye2 inspired design. Golf over the years, $160 and the new HL4 line gives the Iron-Wood Titleist Sees the an extra shot of overall Lighter Side playability. A thinner forged face pairs with a Titleist adds to the heavier sole, positioning uber-popular TS line the weight below the of drivers with a very ball for optimum launch. non-Titleist kind of club. The TS1 driver is one Available as a set Marvel at These Volvik Balls (from 18-degree 2 to thing more than others. Light, light, light. At only Just because the Avengers were in the Endgame 59-degree lob wedge) that doesn’t mean they can’t assemble again on a or individual clubs. 275 grams, this driver is designed for moderate course near you. Volvik takes its matte-finish, three- $80 steel, $90 graphite piece Vivid golf balls and gives them a super spin (per club). swing speeds to enjoy the Titleist experience with Spider-Man, Captain America, and Iron Man that faster swing speeds designs. Each pack includes four balls and a hat- have been hogging. clip ball marker. Hurry, they’ll be gone in a snap! $499.99 $24.99 6 GOLFChicagoMagazine.com August 2019 7 INSTRUCTION Setup for Success Connie DeMattia our address position involves your do) it is ideal to practice alignment to Yposture, weight distribution, the a target, and alignment dictates your width of stance, aiming and ball position. ball flight. This being stated, it is best Posture is critical in making a good to set the club face “square” or aiming golf swing. The most important thing down your starting line. Now set your here is to create a spine angle, a tilt to body perpendicular to the club face or the spine that you are able to maintain parallel to the line on which you want the throughout the swing. To do that you ball to start. The shoulder and forearm must be in balance, bent properly from alignment is more important than the the hips and with some flex in your knees. feet. Why? Because the hands and arms A good guideline for weight distri- are holding and directing the path of bution is if someone were to push you the club while the arms are attached to gently, either forward or backward, you the body in the shoulders. would be able to maintain your balance. Your hands will hang almost straight How to Position the Ball down, allowing you to sole the club to The position of the ball in relation to your the ground. Your weight should be dis- stance is one of the most important and tributed between the balls and heels of most overlooked fundamentals in golf. your feet and equally distributed between Your ball position determines to both feet. You should be able to tap your a great extent the direction in which heels and wiggle your toes. At this point you swing. If you play the ball too far you have counter-balanced your weight. forward, your shoulders will aim to the You should be able to draw a vertical left at address, and tend to swing to the line from the back of your shoulders left of your target line. If too far back Aiming Body and Clubface How to Position the Ball Impact through your knees to the balls of your in your stance, your shoulders will aim feet. Now you are in balance. right at address, and tend to swing to The width of your stance has a lot the right of your target line. to do with the length and shape of your Where is the ball positioned? This is swing. A good rule of thumb is that your very important, because it is not about stance with a mid-iron (6-iron), measured the position between your feet, but at the inside of your heels, should be the rather the position to the left shoulder! width of your shoulders.