Play golf for a great cause at the spectacular Stonebridge Country Club as the Max Lacewell Foundation will host The Max Lacewell Foundation “Best Day Evuh” Celebrity Golf Tournament on Monday, June 11th, 2012. This is the first annual golf tournament to raise funds and awareness for DIPG (Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma), which is a highly aggressive and difficult to treat brain tumor that is found at the base of the brain. All proceeds from ths Max Lacewell Foundation “Best Day Evuh” Celebrity Golf Tournament will benefit the establishment of the Max Lacewell Research Scholarship at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

Designed by Tom Fazio, Stonebridge Country Club is an elite private golf course located in west suburban Aurora that has hosted a number of professional tournaments including the Ameritech Senior Open and the LPGA Kellogg-Keebler Classic. A challenging day of golf will be capped off with a cocktail reception, silent auction, and a gourmet BBQ awards dinner.

Help support research for this heart-breaking disease by participating in this special event. To learn more and register for the Max Lacewell Foundation “Best Day Evuh” Celebrity Golf Tournament, visit the event website or contact David Lacewell, david@maxlacewell.org.

Title: Max Lacewell Foundation “Best Day Evuh” Celebrity Golf Tournament
Location: Aurora
Link out: Click here
Description:
Date: 2012-06-11

Stonebridge Country Club
2705 Stonebridge Blvd
Aurora, IL, 60502
(630) 820-8887

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Grab a partner and compete against the best competition in the western suburbs for cash prizes and the champions’ trophy in the Memorial Day 2-Person Better Ball event at the Village Greens of Woodridge. This popular 18-hole, 2-person better ball golf tournament is played at 90% of each players’ handicap. Net division will determine the overall champion, but there will be payouts in both the net and gross divisions. There’s also an optional skins game that also features a cash payout. The entry fee is $70 per team plus greens fees. 100% of the entry fees will be returned in payouts to winners. Get in on the fun this Memorial Day at the Village Greens of Woodridge.

Visit the Village Greens of Woodridge website for more information.

Title: Memorial Day 2-Person Better Ball
Location: Woodridge
Link out: Click here
Description:
Date: 2012-05-28

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Built in the late 1920′s, Silver Lake Country Club in south suburban Orland Park boasts 3 golf courses and 45 holes of golf. In 1958, the original Silver Lake clubhouse was lost to fire and subsequently rebuilt. Despite all of its history over the past 80+ years, the one thing Silver Lake Country Club always lacked was a driving range… until now.

On Monday, May 7th, the course proudly anounced the opening of their highly anticipated golf driving range with a ribbon cutting celebration scheduled for Friday, May 11. The festivities were scheduled to include representatives from TaylorMade and Aldila along with former World Long Drive Champion Joe Hajduch.

Silver Lake Country Club features two 18-hole golf courses in Orland Park and one nine-hole course. The North Course plays close to 7,000 yards from the back tees and the tree-lined fairways require both distance and accuracy off the tee.

The South Course at Silver Lake is significantly shorter in distance but offers many more hazards – both sand and water. Groundskeepers recently refurbished the greens and fairways while renovating many bunkers on the course as well.

The executive nine-hole golf course at Silver Lake is called Rolling Hills for obvious reasons. Elevation changes are the norm on this beautiful design that features seven par 3′s and two par 4s. This course is a great place to learn the game or sharpen your short-game skills.

Silver Lake Country Club
14700 South 82nd Avenue
Orland Park, IL
(708) 349-6940

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Last month video game company EA Sports released the latest installment of its annual video game series which it has been producing since 1986. Originally called PGA Tour golf, the game’s title changed in 1998 with an endorsement from Tiger Woods.

This year’s game is titled Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13, but a special version of the game is called Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13: The Masters Collector’s Edition. This version of the game comes with a “Masters-like feel” as soon as you pop the disc into your Playstation 3 or XBOX 360.

I played the regular demo for Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 and it felt like a normal tournament atmosphere, yet was very exciting. I currently have the Collector’s Edition and the first thing you’ll notice is the signature Masters theme song that plays with a picture of Augusta National’s famous “Golden Bell” in the background.

The regular edition features some of the top golf courses in the world including, Augusta National, Pebble Beach and St. Andrews. One of the cool course additions is the addition of Crooked Stick Golf Club in Indianapolis which is where John Daly came from relative obscurity to win the first of his two majors (the other win coming at The 1995 Open Championship at St. Andrews).

A Chicago course hasn’t been included in a Tiger Woods video game since 2009 when Cog Hill Golf & Country Club was featured in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10, which was considered by many to be the greatest Tiger Woods game of all-time until the release of this year’s version. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 has received outstanding critical response so far, drawing comparison with the wildly popular Madden NFL brand, also produced by EA Sports.

Many consider Madden NFL 2004 as the greatest home console based sports game of all-time, featuring Michael Vick on the cover. However, this year’s Tiger Woods video game might just match the 2004 version of Madden.

Although Augusta National was featured in last year’s Tiger Woods PGA Tour game, it did not have that true Masters feel. The Collector’s Edition even features a special green jacket champions’ ceremony for the first time. The Masters has been the most demanded feature in the history of the EA Sports golfing franchise and for good reason.

As a fan, it is very exciting to see Augusta in the game because it is one of the most beautiful places on earth and is one of the best golf courses around. The addition of another great course, such as Pine Valley in New Jersey would be a real treat for golf and sports gaming fans.

It would also be nice to have a Ryder Cup version of the game, especially considering its close proximity to Chicago this year at Medinah Country Club. The Ryder Cup was the headline feature in Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 which featured Rory Mcilroy on the cover and introduced the gorgeous Celtic Manor Golf Club to video game golf.

However, I feel that Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 is the total package. The swing mechanics are pure and very realistic. I honestly almost drooled when I saw how realistic the swings looked and felt really excited when I was playing on Augusta’s world class practice facility.

The Augusta practice facility in the game is beautiful and looks like you are there practicing for the big tournament. There is also an online mode called “Country Clubs” which I also found interesting. This mode allows you to create your own Country Club and invite your friends to join your Club.

Once all friends are invited, then that’s where the fun starts. You can compete in tournaments with other Country Clubs and see who has the best Country Club in the game. This game is a must have and is one of the best sports games I have ever played. So go pick up Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 in regular or collector’s edition!

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Could a local Chicago golf course potentially rise from the ashes due to the slow housing market? According to a recent Patch report, the land in west suburban LaGrange on which the Timber Trails Country Club used to sit is now part of a proposed nine-hole golf course.

Opened in 1931 and closed in 2004, Timber Trails Country Club was a rolling Robert B. Harris design that originally featured 18 holes. The course and 45-acre property was purchased by the Anderson family in the mid-1960s and sold for $45 million for real estate development.

Since the sale, a handful of single-family homes and townhomes have been built, but the great majority of the 45 acres sits unused. There’s now a proposal for the undeveloped western half of the property for a new nine-hole golf course.

The group behind the proposal includes local Western Springs residents and representatives of Jemsek Golf, which currently manages Cog Hill Golf & Country Club in Lemont, Pine Meadow in Mundelein and St. Andrews in West Chicago.

Jemsek Golf Design has developed a concept design for a 3000-yard, par-35 course, including a driving range. The residents used legendary nine-hole Pottawatomie Golf Course in St. Charles as a template for what could be created on the now vacant parcel of land. Designed by the prolific golf course architect Robert Trent Jones, Sr., Pottawatomie has been ranked among the best nine-hole golf courses in the nation by Golf World Magazine.

The local development group is hopeful that the addition of the Jemsek name to the process will help attract investors and win over PNC Bank, who currently owns the property. Let’s hope these local residents can help bring some of the magic that once was Timber Trails Country Club.

Timber Trails Country Club (Closed in 2004)
11350 W Plainfield Rd
La Grange, Illinois 60525

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Marengo Ridge Golf Club
Sunday May 6th – After 2:00
18 Holes w/cart – 2 for $40

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Boiler up at The 19th Annual Purdue Club of Chicago Annual Golf Outing on Friday, June 8, 2012, at Ruffled Feathers Golf Club in Lemont, Illinois. Enjoy a full day of activities with Chicago Boilermakers, including breakfast, lunch, door prizes, drinks, appetizers, happy hour and golf. Proceeds from the Purdue Club of Chicago Annual Golf Outing help to fund the PCC scholarship, which is awarded each year to a Chicago area high school senior planning to attend Purdue University.

Past Boiler attendees of the Golf Outing have included Matt Painter, Gene Keady, LeRoy Keyes, Chris Clopton, Matt Mitrione, Carson Cunningham, Brock Spack, Joe Odom, Jim Schwantz, Billy Dicken and Morgan Burke. Join the fun and make your reservation now for one of the most entertaining golf outings of the year at the spectacular Pete Dye designed Ruffled Feathers Golf Club in Lemont.

Title: Purdue Club of Chicago Annual Golf Outing
Location: Lemont
Link out: Click here
Description:
Date: 2012-06-08

Ruffled Feathers Golf Club
1 Pete Dye Drive
Lemont, IL
(630) 257-1000

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May 2012 is the month when the TPC-Sawgrass will host the world’s best golfers competing for the PGA Tour’s biggest purse of the year ($9.5 million). But during this same month of May, Paul Voykin, the most recent inductee into the Illinois Golf Hall of Fame, the man who saw grass grow at Briarwood Country Club for 47 years will merely be enjoying another 31 leisurely days of well-earned retirement.

After spending over 60 years working on the grounds of North American golf courses, being a member of the GCSAA for 52 years, and then keeping the job of maintaining the all the living grasses and flowers at Deerfield’s beautiful Briarwood Country Club for an amazing 47 years, Paul Voykin retired in 2008 as superintendent of Briarwood. Paul’s 80-year lifetime can be deemed truly international; he was born of Russian and Ukrainian parents in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, in a sod house. “That’s about as close to the sod as a greenskeeper can have as a background,” Voykin said. In fact, Paul has probably made as many famous quotes as Confucius, Will Rogers, or Yogi Berra. During the Depression, his father was a fisherman and a hunter, and they lived off the land. Sometimes, on good days, his dad would bring home a sturgeon, then other times they had nothing but homemade bread and a little lard to eat. As a teenager in high school, Paul’s guidance counselor recognized that every academic course that Paul liked related to the outdoors. Paul’s brother, Peter, was working at the Saskatoon Golf and Country Club, and Paul envied Peter’s job. The next season, the two of them decided to go to Jasper National Park in Jasper, Alberta, and work at the famous Jasper Park Golf Course. After working there for just a short time, the Voykin brothers sat in when Ben Hogan visited and gave a 45-minute talk at the Jasper caddy banquet and Ben’s words made the Voykins decide to go into the golf course business. Hogan said, “If you go into any aspect of the golf business, you’ll live your life like a millionaire, even though you’re not.”

From his experience as an apprentice greenskeeper at Jasper, Voykin emigrated to the United States and became assistant superintendent at Olympia Fields Country Club. Being in a different country and a slightly different climate, Voykin added to his experience through diligent observance. After Olympia Fields, Paul moved over to become superintendent at Calumet Country Club, and then onto the superintendent position at Briarwood in 1961. Along the way Paul became a U.S. citizen and achieved the praise-worthy monikers of ‘author’, ‘innovator’, and ‘character’– along with the descriptive adjectives ‘loyal’, ‘legendary’, and ‘infamous’. Despite not having the technical education that most superintendents have nowadays, Paul authored two lawn-care books, A Perfect Lawn the Easy Way (Rand McNally, 1969) and Ask the Lawn Expert (Macmillan, 1976), with the former selling more than 50,000 copies. As an innovator, way back in the 1960’s Voykin championed the idea of planting of native grasses and wildflowers in non-play areas to attract birds, butterflies, dragonflies, etc., and also the hiring of Hispanic workers. One of Voykin’s first hires, Moe Sanchez, worked for Paul for over 45 years, became his best friend, and still works at Briarwood today.

Paul ruffled some feathers when he gave a presentation in New York City during the 1972 U.S. Golf Association Green Section annual seminar entitled “Overgrooming is Overspending,” some colleagues believed Voykin was a bit ‘nuts’, but Paul insisted “I’m like Zorba the Greek. To keep your sanity you have to be a little crazy.” Another one of Voykin’s heroes is the Caddyshack protagonist, Carl Spackler, whose image Paul embraces rather than shuns. “I think they should have a statue of him (Spackler) in front of GCSAA headquarters,” Paul says. “And right next to it should be one of Old Tom Morris.”

Further quotes that have sprung from Paul’s lips are his advice to up-and-coming superintendents, “Come to work early and stay until dark”; how to keep a job for nearly 48 years, “by hard work, honesty, sacrifice, humor and a good relationship”; and, to potential wanna-be authors, “if Voykin can write a book, anybody can.”

A few years back Paul was asked about which innovations he felt were the most significant during his decades as superintendent. Paul replied that there were “three changes that took headaches away from the superintendent: the automatic irrigation system, lightweight fairway mowers with the ability to pick up the clippings, as well as changing black syringe hoses to red syringe hoses so crews can find them in the bushes (smiled and laughed).”
The membership of Briarwood had, and has, a great respect and fondness for Voykin. Says Sheldon Solow, president of Briarwood, “It starts with the fact that Paul is very, very good at what he does … he knows how to take care of a golf course, he knows how to grow grass …” Jeff Wagner, Briarwood’s greens chairman stated that he has been most impressed by a single fact — two-thirds of Briarwood’s greens are originals, 87 years old, and continue to be in perfect shape. Wagner said, “It’s testament to what Paul is, and does.” Bouncing back, Voykin said “They treat me like a million dollars, so I treat them like two million.”

Among his many honors, Voykin was named by Golfweek’s SuperNews as its 2003 Superintendent of the Year. At one time, there were four Voykin brothers — Paul, Peter, Rodney and Andy — working as superintendents in the Chicago area. All have passed on but Paul. In retirement Paul may now find more time to visit his five children and six grandchildren scattered across the country, but he basically prefers stay close to his ‘roots’ at Briarwood.

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Seven Bridges Golf Club in Woodridge hosts the second annual Naperville Christian Academy’s golf classic, Links for Learning, on Thursday, May 3. Be a part of this worthwhile event that helps benefit Naperville Christian Academy, a nonprofit and nondenominational classical Christian school that serves students in kindergartern through grade 12. Naperville Christian Academy’s golf classic will help supplement NCA’s scholarship program.

In addition to playing golf on the beautiful Seven Bridges Golf Course in Woodridge, you’ll have the chance to meet Chicago Bears Nick Roach and Desmond Clark. You’ll also receive dinner and participate in live and silent auctions with host and WGN TV weatherman Paul Konrad. You might even win a Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo (courtesy of South Chicago Dodge Jeep Chrysler) with a hole-in-one on the sixth hole.

A foursome round is $500, or $150 for an individual golfer. Golfers will arrive at noon May 3, for lunch and the shotgun start at 1 p.m. An awards reception will follow the end of play, and dinner begins at 7 p.m.

Visit the golf event auction website to view items for sale and register to bid, or text “NCA” to 424-543-3332 to register by cell phone.Visit the Links for Learning website to register now.

Seven Bridges Golf Club
1 Mulligan Dr
Woodridge, IL
(630) 964-7700

Title: Links for Learning
Location: Woodridge
Link out: Click here
Description:
Date: 2012-05-03

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Get ready for the first big test in the northern suburbs’ 2012 golf season at the Shepherd’s Crook Spring Classic on May 12th. Sign up today for this challenging 4-person scramble on a very tough Zion golf course. For only $65, you’ll be entered to win up to $1,000 in prizes, plus you’ll receive lunch, beverage, cart, green fees and a gift bag. Mark your calendar today, the deadline to register for the Shepherd’s Crook Spring Classic is Sunday, April 29th.

Shepherd’s Crook
Green Bay and Rte 173
Zion, IL
(847) 872-2080
http://www.shepherdscrook.org

Title: Shepherd’s Crook Spring Classic
Location: Zion
Link out: Click here
Description:
Date: 2012-05-12

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