Chicagoland Golf News

HILTON HEAD , SC - GolfUS.com, the premier online resource for discounted tee times and golf packages, has expanded its inventory to include gift certificates worth $25 and $50 that can be used toward purchases on its Web site.

Discounted tee times and golf packages are being offered for golf courses in Florida, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Kentucky. GolfUS.com has experienced considerable growth since shifting from an auction platform to a more traditional click and purchase format. On the new GolfUS.ocm, buyers will be able to purchase rounds of golf at hundreds of courses every week at discounted prices. 

The Chicago Park District Golf Courses will undergo $5.5 million worth of improvements under a new 15-year contract with Billy Casper Golf Management. The contract was approved by district board Wednesday, Dec. 10.

Currently, the Chicago Park District, which is the largest park district in the United States, includes six courses, two miniature golf courses, three driving ranges and three new learning centers. The renovation project will concentrate on better maintenance practices in addition to rebuilding some bunkers and tee boxes, with the overall aim of making these municipal facilities popular destinations for traveling golfers and city residents. The goal of Casper Golf is to increase use by up to ten percent. In 2007, there were 140.000 rounds of golf played on park district courses. 

MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica - The Pro-Am team representing Chicago's famous Medinah Country Club won the Third Annual Jamaica Invitational presented by Nike Golf. In a close second, was the team from Dupont Country Club, in Wilmington, Delaware. Dan Wilkins, Director of Golf at Laconia CC in NH, posted the low total score in the professional division. The 54-hole championship featured Pro-Am teams from the United States and Europe and was conducted on two of Jamaica's finest golf courses, Cinnamon Hill and The White Witch.

Nike Golf, the presenting sponsor of the event, provided product demos and prizes for all the winners, including full sets of their new Victory Red irons, iC Putters, and Dymo Drivers. Participants were offered a unique opportunity to sample the new Dymo Driver prior to its consumer release in February of 2009.  

KemperSports recently named Brian Carlson general manager of Royal Melbourne Country Club, a premier private club with an 18-hole Greg Norman designed golf course in Long Grove, Ill. Carlson brings to the position more than 13 years of management experience in the private club sector.

Carlson joins KemperSports after serving as general manager of the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club, a private club located in Corona del Mar, Calif. Previously, he was general manager of the University Club of Pasadena and clubhouse manager at the Newport Harbor Yacht Club in Newport Beach, Calif. 

Medinah Country Club is on the clock as the next U.S. Ryder Cup venue in 2012 and the club is wasting no time in preparing for golf's most passion-filled event. A group of 37 Medinah members and staff traveled to Louisville for this year's Ryder Cup to meet with their counterparts from Valhalla Golf Club and executives with the PGA of America.

"We're looking forward to infusing the 39th Ryder Cup with a unique Chicago flavor," said Bill Kamm, general chairman of the 2012 event. "We're already setting the groundwork for what we anticipate will be one of the greatest sporting events ever to hit the Chicago area." 

Benton Harbor, Mich. – New Zealand’s Danny Lee showed why he is among the world’s top-ranked amateurs Sunday, delivering a pair of 4 and 2 match play wins to claim the 2008 Western Amateur Championship at Point O’Woods Golf & Country Club in Benton Harbor, Mich.

Lee became the first winner since Bubba Dickerson in 2001 to take both medalist and match play honors, joining an elite group of dual winners that includes Phil Mickelson (1991), Scott Verplank (1985), Curtis Strange (1974) and Ben Crenshaw (1973). 

EAST MOLINE, Illinois - Twenty-nine of them have won tournaments in the last two years. Nine have major championships on their resumes, including Cedar Rapids' own Zach Johnson, winner of the 2007 Masters Tournament.

Fifty-one rank among the Top 100 money winners this year on the PGA Tour.

These players are among the sparkling group of pros who will compete this week at the 2008 John Deere Classic at Tournament Players Club Deere Run in Silvis, Ill. 

Already established as one of the premier online marketplaces to find great golf at unbelievable prices, GolfUS.com has re-launched, doing away with its auction platform in favor of an instant purchase format that allows golfers to buy golf rounds and other golf-related merchandise for as much as 50 percent off retail.

The "New" GolfUS.com will be "The Place to Save" for rounds of golf in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Arizona, Florida and Georgia. In addition to these renowned golf destinations, www.golfus.com is planning to expand, giving golfers across the country a great way to save on rounds of golf. The site currently features a little more than 150 golf courses.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Some of golf’s most influential leaders and members of the game’s most prominent associations converged on the nation’s capitol to celebrate a bipartisan Congressional resolution which declared April 16, 2008 as National Golf Day.

The golf leaders discussed the game’s impact on society, in particular its role to the U.S. economy.

The golf industry is the sports and entertainment worlds’ largest contributor to our economy, generating $76 billion in direct economic impact according to a recent study, the 2005 Golf Economy Report, commissioned by World Golf Foundation’s GOLF 20/20 initiative completed earlier this year and released at the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, Fla. 

 The Trophy Club has handed out its fair share of hardware in the past. Now it's time for the majestic Lebanon, In. offering to be on the receiving end of a deserving award.Since opening in the fall of 1998, the Trophy Club has handed out some of the most prestigious championships contested in the state of Indiana, hosting the Indianapolis Open, Indiana State Senior Open, Challenge Cup, Indiana State Open and Indiana Senior PGA Championship.