June 2010 Archives
LPGA Tour star Natalie Gulbis...
She was in Wheaton at Cantigny Golf for Benedictine University's President's Invitational Golf Outing.
Gulbis admitted players really don't hear about tournaments until they become official, but said coming back to the Chicago market is important.
"It would be a natural fit because we had so much success here when the Solheim Cup was here and we had such great galleries," she said. "We also had a lot of support when we had the Kellogg-Keebler in Aurora."
"Chicago is a huge sports tow, I mean, a huge sports town, and for us not to have an event here is really disappointing."
Rich Harvest Farms owner Jerry Rich and LPGA Tour commish Michael Whan are working on bringing a unique, "elite" event to the area as well - which is something Gulbis says the LPGA can do.
"Whatever they want, really. Every city and every golf course is unique and that's what makes the LPGA Tour so special -- we don't have to have a cookie-cutter event.
"That's what great about having Mike Whan now as our commissioner is he wants to do whatever is going to be best for the city and really what the demand is. Who knows. I just hope we come back, I don't care what form it is."
well, it did matter. It may not any more, but whatever - what a tremendous exhibition of sport at Wimbledon when John Isner finally bested Nicolas Mahut in a 3-day, 11-hour match.
This match made me actually pay attention to this tournament for the first time, in well, ever. I couldn't tell you if it was great tennis. I have no idea. But what I do know is it was extremely entertaining and made me actually want to watch that sport. Good for them, and good for tennis.
The 70-68 final is a mind-boggling final score, especially since the Detroit Pistons and Indiana Pacers weren't involved.
Now the tournament will drop back into obscurity, at least here in America. Don't be sad about it - I'm sure something like the Isner-Mahut match will happen at least one more time during my lifetime.
according to this post-US Open notebook, "Steve Stricker said the best course he played outside of a golf tournament was in Chicago. It made such an impression he couldn't remember the name of it except that it had "Lakes" in the name (and it wasn't Kemper Lakes)."
So if it's not Kemper Lakes, what course was it?
There's Crystal Lake Country Club
Fox Lake Country Club
Glendale Lakes Golf Club
Indian Lakes Resort
Ruth Lake Country Club
Silver Lake Country Club
Lake Barrington Shores Golf Club
Lake Bluff Golf Club
Lake Carroll Golf Club
Lake of the Woods Golf Club
Lake Shore Golf Club
Lakeside Country Club
Lakeview Country Club
and The Lakewood
Anyone know? Or have we missed one?
Here we are at the end of June, and believe it or not, just about two months before the 2010-2011 IHSA school year begins.
In that time, the area's biggest basketball star - and one of the nation's top uncommitted talents - Ryan Boatright, will try to narrow down his college choices.
"Boat" gained fame with a verbal committment to USC as an 8th grader, but now he's going to take advantage of the recruiting process by utilizing all five of his allowed college visits.
Expect the senior to try to make a decision before his senior season, which leaves us just about five months. Of course, he could be wowed by a coach and campus and commit before then, but until that happens expect this to be one of the hottest topics around not only Aurora and Illinois, but the country.
what Waubonsie Valley alumnus Michael Bowden is thinking down at Triple A Pawtucket...
Bowden watched as younger teammate and fellow starter Felix Doubront was called up to make his major league debut against the Dodgers on Friday.
Doubront will be the first Boston rookie to make his debut as a starter since Bowden beat the White Sox back in August, 2008.
Bowden, who struggled during the early part of the season after rebuilding his mechanics, but is now trending in a positive direction, but he has to be wondering what exactly the Red Sox are doing with him.
Believe it or not, he's already in his sixth professional season, but he won't be able to gain any freedom via the Rule 5 draft because he's on the 40-man roster. Yet he can't find a foothold in Boston, either as a starter or in the bullpen.
His trade value has dropped significantly over the last three seasons. Once regarded as one of baseball's pitching prospects, he was often bandied about in trade rumors for the likes of Johan Santana.
Now, at 23, he is no longer regarded as one of the top prospects within the Boston organization itself.
I'm sure at one point Bowden wanted to call himself a Red Sox - but now you have to think he'll gladly take a trade just to get a legit shot at sticking in the big leagues.
Check out today's The Front Nine where I talk about this year's featured stay-and-play gold destination: Destination Kohler in Wisconsin
As you know, we can't fit everything into print, so here are some extra goodies for those of you wanting to know more about the greatest public stay-and-play facility in the Midwest - if not the country.
Read on for more on Destination Kohler and my recommendation to stay-and-play at The Wild Rock Golf Club at the Wilderness Resort in Wisconsin Dells.
Members of the media recently caught up with Steve Stricker, a U of I alumnus and Wisconsin native/resident who was in Silvis, Ill. to talk about defending his John Deere Classic title July 8-11.
(for more information on the tournament and to buy tickets, click here).
Steve, always affable, had a lot to say, including some interesting things about the PGA Tour players deciding on a "designation" system for struggling tournaments. What that means is the tour will pick 3-6 struggling tourneys and mandate the top players in the world to play at least one of those events the next year.
As a member of the Player Advisory Council, Stricker had a lot to say on that topic:
"That will happen. They are going to pick a series of three to six events...And I don't know what the three or six tournaments are that they are going to pick, but they will come to maybe the Top-50 players from the previous FedExCup year and ask them to add another tournament to their schedule from this list, and that will happen."
"They are going to pick the tournaments that need the help the most, and we'll go from there. But players will be asked to add another event."
Of course, here we are in U.S. Open week - where Stricker has to be one of the favorites to capture the title.
It would be his first, and he was asked if he feels like he's in the category of "best players to not win a major."
"I've always put a little extra emphasis on the majors. I try not to -- you know deep down, you try not to do anything different, but yeah, you do spend more time to try to get ready. Mentally it's always a little bit more stressful.
"You know, I guess if that tag was to be put on me, it's a little bit of an honor I guess. Yet it puts a little pressure on you that you need to go out and win one. That's the kind of guy that I am is try to deflect all of that and try to downplay it all and try to go about and do my own business, and that's what I'm going to try to do. I can't do anything different. I've been around long enough to understand what I do want to do and what I don't want to do, so I just go about my business and try to play as well as I can in these majors."
We'll have more on "Strick" on the JDC as we get closer to the event....
can be yours!
Here, you can see him working with Rodney Clayton, who recently played in the NCAA Division III national championship with his college squad at Monmouth.
Chad is one of the finer teachers around, so check him out here if want to learn more about his academy and his state-of-the-art putting studio.
After a wildly successful Solheim Cup at RHF in August, the tour and owner Jerry Rich decided to get together again to hold an as-yet-to-be-determined elite tournament.
Think along the lines of the Masters.
Said Rich: Those are the kind of great things we're working on, we're just not trying to bring another tournament to the Chicagoland area.
We want to do more than that. That's what Bobby Jones did with the Masters, and there's no reason why we can't do something that's as successful if not more successful than what he did at Augusta. If you put your sights high, you might as well put them very high.
has a sense of humor - and a little bit of dancing ability
Some kids just get it.
Kyle Cain does.
The south suburban native who recently finished up at New Hampton Prep in New Hampshire and was released from his commitment from Rhode Island, so he's a 'free agent' now...and was contacted by John Calipari at Kentucky.
That had to hook him, right?
Think again.
Cain told ESPNChicago.com: Any player would be excited that Kentucky would call them. I just know I'm not the type of player that Kentucky goes after.
I'm an emerging player. I can be a star in college in two or three years. Kentucky goes after McDonald's All-Americans every year. I'm a player who works hard for everything. It's not that they don't work hard, but I'm not their type.
Good for him for knowing himself, his game, and what college basketball means to him. I hope he finds success.
You just know the firestorm is coming after Gary Player said the following during a live chat at ESPN.com.
This in response to the question: Do you still think that players on the PGA tour are taking performance enhancing drugs?
Said Player: I don't think it I know it.
I know of a professor who told me had been putting golfer on beta blockers for years. Two golfers admitted to me personally they were taking HGH. I advised them to stop taking it.
Every day you read about different sports men and women who have been taking it. They did a test on 104 baseball players and 104 were positive. The Olympic Committee virtually said they are concerned about the Tour de France cyclists taking it.
I would say in my opinion that there are at least 70 percent of athletes today on PEDs. The thing that is worst is that numerous school children who are taking the PEDs for various sports to excel.
You only have to see the countries who have been found taking steroids at the Olympics. Recently Sylvester Stallone went into Australia and in customs he opened up his bag full of steroids and sent him back to America. Movie stars are taking it for roles in movies.
We live in a world where if you don't take it you are at a disadvantage because the rewards are so high.
The sad thing is when they perform well, you don't know if it is authentic. That is the sad thing. I've seen many athletes, skinny, and then all of a sudden they are built like Tarzan.
It's a very sad world that this has to be in sports. And in life in general.
We're down to one team left in the IHSA state baseball playoffs, so I thought it time to drop a couple of end-of-season thoughts....
- Aurora Christian will be a state finals contender in 2A next year. They have a tremendous four-man sophomore core that includes a true ace in lefty Bobby Kuntzendorf and a legit power hitter in Mitch Holtz (who will double as an above-average No. 2 pitcher). Brett Minta will be back as a senior - they'll just need to fill out the bottom of the order with a capable bat or two...
- Sandwich's Matt Morse will be drafted next week in the MLB Amateur Draft, but it won't be very high. Don't let that fool you when it comes to judging his talent - he's just been telling scouts he plans on going to college. When that happens, talent slips (see Milroy, Matt). If he made it known last year that he was willing to sign, some team would have given him a tough decision to make. Who knows, some club still might....
- I've never seen a better hitting team, top to bottom, than the 2010 Oswego Panthers. It's too bad they couldn't find two pitchers...
- Speaking of, I've only seen a handful of guys as good as Geneva pitcher Riley Perry. He's not overpowering. He doesn't have Grade A stuff. But the kid is just a horse and he'll find himself on a Division I team (or a minor league team) after his time at Oakton CC is up in a couple of years...
- Waubonsie Valley just continues to get it done in the very tough Upstate Eight Conference (which will feature Geneva & Batavia next year) but can't catch a break in the playoffs...
- Be on the lookout in the coming weeks for the annual Beacon News all-area teams...
The Sports Beacon
Rick Armstrong The dean of the Beacon News sports staff, Armstrong covers the boys basketball and Northern Illinois University beats along with general sports coverage.
Mike Knapp
A sports writer at the Beacon News for over eight years, Knapp is the Kane County Cougars beat writer.
