2006 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

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Out to Get it RightAs the pros will tell you, course setup for a major is no laughing matter.

A Fan’s Guide to the PGA

Special SectionThe Illinois PGA will be busy during the week at Medinah—and the rest of the year, too.

A Presidential HomecomingRoger Warren, the president of the PGA, returns home and brings a major championship with him.

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What’s InsideWhat’s InsideOut to Get it RightAs the pros will tell you, course setup for a major is no laughing matter.

A Fan’s Guide to the PGA

Special SectionThe Illinois PGA will be busy during the week at Medinah—and the rest of the year, too.

A Presidential HomecomingRoger Warren, the president of the PGA, returns home and brings a major championship with him.

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2006 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

By Tim Cronin

The laboratory experiment underthe sun at the big west suburban clubwas by no means harmful, except per-haps to the ego of some golfers. Whilesome might have thought him a madscientist, the director of the experi-ment, missing a chance for a photoopportunity, wasn’t even wearing awhite smock.

Instead, not at all mad and most ofall methodical, Kerry Haigh lookedlike the rest of the group, dressed in

golf togs. But appearancesdeceived. Haigh, the only onewithout a set of clubs, was mak-ing plans for this year’s PGAChampionship. He was watching care-fully the control group on Medinah’sNo. 3 Course, making mental notesabout precisely how he, in his role asthe PGA of America’s managing direc-tor of competitions, would set up thegolf course for the competition thatthen was nearly 13 months away.

This brought him an enthusiasticgroup of volunteers.

What was Haigh looking for? A fairtest, especially on the greens. AtMedinah, where the greens swing andsway like a hula dancer, the greenspeed cannot be set on infinity. Onthis day, Haigh was seeking a set ofhole locations on each green.

I t was last July 22, a typically warm summer dayin the Chicago area, when the members ofMedinah Country Club and selected guests

found themselves as human guinea pigs.

30 CHICAGO D ISTR ICT GOLFER

Out to Get it

RIGHTAfter slick greens at the Masters, a demanding U.S. Open test and a hard andfast British Open, it’s Kerry Haigh’s turn atcourse setup at the season’s final major.

Editor’s Note: The 88th PGA Championship will be Aug. 17-20 at MedinahCountry Club. This is the third in a series of articles related to the club and thechampionship.

Kerry Haigh (far right) oversees coursesetup for the PGA of America’s signa-ture events, among them the PGAChampionship and the Ryder Cup.

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“It’s a balance,” Haigh explained.“As you get quicker, you can lose holelocations.”

Haigh needed more, not fewer, suchdestinations, and so he experimentedwith different green speeds. Thanks tothe magic of modern mowers, he wasable to have greens running fromStimpmeter readings of just over 11 to

about 121⁄2. An 11 is pretty quick forthe country club set, and at 121⁄2, you’removing into the ultra-fast range; anideal practice setting for somethingthis slick would be the linoleum floorin your parents’ 1960s kitchen.

But championship-fast greens mayalso take portions of Medinah’sgreens, such as the front of the multi-

tiered par-5 10th, out of play. That’swhat Haigh wanted to inspect andwhy he was at Medinah a year early,rather than simply showing up a fewdays before the PGA and rolling thedice. Haigh, meticulous in his prepara-tion, prefers planning to chance.

“Since 1993, I’ve been coming in ayear ahead,” Haigh explained. “I let the

architectureof the coursedictate whatwe’ll do, andthat’s part of the fun of it. This obvious-ly is a great old traditional golf course,and it has adapted to technology.”

Part of Haigh’s inspection was tomake sure the new fairway and rough

lines, therefurbishingof TomBendelow’s

original work undertaken by golfcourse architect Rees Jones earlier inthe decade, would work for the PGA.Part of it, in conjunction with club andother PGA officials, including tourna-

ment director Michael Belot, was to sit-uate everything from television towersto grandstands to corporate tents,making sure that, short of a waywardshot more common to a media outingthan a top-rank professional, all themodern trappings of big-time golfwould be out of play.

Done and done.But Haigh was most interested in

how the greens were running. Heknows that, even if everything elsegoes right, greens that are too fast canmake a mockery of the game. That wasthe case on the seventh green atShinnecock Hills in the final round ofthe 2004 U.S. Open. After every fewgroups in the afternoon, the green hadto be watered, not so much to keep italive, but to keep it from turning todust.

“I think they understand and setthe golf course up very well,” JeffSluman, who captured the 1988 PGAat Oak Tree Golf Club in Oklahoma,said of the philosophy brought to lifeby Haigh. “They’re not as concernedabout protecting par there as reward-ing excellently struck shots. I thinkthat’s great. You don’t see 20 underwin a PGA. You rarely see double fig-ures. But you see well-struck shotsrewarded, and I think that’s fine in ourday and age. They’re tucking pins,making greens firmer, narrowing fair-ways, the roughs are high.

“I don’t see anything wrong with aguy driving it down the middle andhitting a good iron shot. He doesn’thave to hit it to 5 feet, but he should beable to get rewarded at 15 or 20 feet.”

That’s become a trend. The PGAmay be last on the calendar, but it’scloser to first in the category of coursesetup matching course quality. Andthat is Haigh’s doing.

Not bad for a 47-year-oldEnglishman who began his golf careersetting up courses on the LadiesEuropean Tour.

He soon arrived in America withthe LPGA and was working forKemper Sports when the PGAChampionship arrived at KemperLakes in 1989. He helped set up the

32 WWW.CDGA.ORG

WHAT: 88th PGA Championship

WHEN: Aug. 17-20

WHERE: Medinah Country Club (No. 3 Course)

FIELD: 156 players

DEFENDING CHAMPION: Phil Mickelson

PURSE: To be announced ($6.5 million in 2005)

RECORD 72-HOLE SCORE: 265 (15 under par) by David Toms, 2001 at AtlantaAthletic Club

RECORD 18-HOLE SCORE: 63 by nine players, most recently by Thomas Bjorn, thirdround in 2005 at Baltusrol Golf Club

FORMAT: 72 holes stroke play. If there is a tie after 72 holes,there will be a three-hole playoff with the total scoredeciding the winner. If players are tied for the lead afterthis playoff, play will continue on a hole-by-hole basis.

TELEVISION: Aug. 17, TNT, noon-6 p.m.; Aug. 18, TNT, noon-6 p.m.;Aug. 19, TNT, 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m., CBS, 1-6 p.m.; Aug. 20, TNT, 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m., CBS, 1-6 p.m.

FUTURE SITES: 2007 at Southern Hills Country Club, Tulsa, Okla.;2008 at Oakland Hills Country Club (South Course),Birmingham, Mich.; 2009 at Hazeltine National Golf Club, Chaska, Minn.; 2010 at Whistling Straits (Straits Course), Kohler, Wis.; 2011 atAtlanta Athletic Club (Highlands Course),Duluth, Ga.; 2012 at Kiawah Island (OceanCourse), Kiawah, S.C.

88TH PGA CHAMPIONSHIP. . . AT A GLANCE

PAR YARDAGE

1 4 4342 3 1913 4 4144 4 4635 5 5376 4 4747 5 5878 3 2049 4 435

36 3,739

PAR YARDAGE

10 5 57911 4 43812 4 47113 3 24414 5 60515 4 39216 4 45317 3 19718 4 443

36 3,822

72 7,561

BY THE NUMBERS

golf course with other officials fromthe PGA of America, who wereimpressed with Haigh’s work. Theorganization soon hired him, and by1993 Haigh was in charge of tourna-ment setups, with the crown jewelbeing the PGA Championship. It wasthen that he commenced his year-ahead experimentation.

“You always feel a lot better pre-pared when you come in and see thegolf course,” Haigh explained. “Andbecause of the changes since 1999,we’ve lost some hole locations.”

Those were few in number, but withseven greens at Medinah No. 3 rebuiltby Jones following the 1999 PGA,Haigh wanted to be doubly sure hehad four good tests on each green,plus three more positions for practicerounds. Thanks to Jones’ remodelingand course superintendent TomLively, mission accomplished.

Unless Mother Nature throws acurve ball at the area in the days and

weeks leading up to the PGA, Haighalso won’t have to deal with a recur-rence of 1999’s poor green conditions,caused by a mixture of high heat andhumidity and contaminants that infil-trated the water. The latter, which didmore harm the more the course waswatered to combat the tropical condi-tions, was finally discovered throughthorough testing of the club’s sprin-kling systems.

As might be suspected, Jones’ reno-vation coincided with a wholesalereplacement of the watering system onNo. 3, including a double-line fairwaysystem that will keep the rough deep,even in the heat of August, when grassgrows very slowly.

All of the above, from the planningto the weather, had Haigh feelingupbeat during a visit to Medinah thisspring.

“The weather has been fairly kindto us, and the golf course has winteredvery well indeed,” Haigh said. “We’re

doing all the things ergonomically wehad planned to do.”

Last year’s tests gave Haigh a wealthof information about how he wantedto set up the course for the PGAChampionship, but where he sets theneedle regarding green speed won’t bedetermined until just before the eventcommences.

“That allows us, based on weather,to adjust accordingly,” explainedHaigh.

Haigh may have some critics, butconsider this from Tiger Woods lastyear, after Phil Mickelson won the PGAChampionship at Baltusrol Golf Clubin New Jersey.

“Why can’t all the championshipsbe this way?,” he asked. The PGA getsit right.”

Tim Cronin, golf writer for The DailySouthtown, is the author of “The Spiritof Medinah,” the club’s 75th anniversarybook.

JULY/AUGUST 2006 33

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A Fan‘s Guide to the PGA Do’s and Don’ts

34 CHICAGO D ISTR ICT GOLFER

DON’T bring your cell phone with you.

Spectators may not bring cell phones onto

the grounds, and security will be checking

bags and purses at the entrances. And

speaking of security, leave additional time

for waiting and lines.

DO wear comfortable shoes. Chances

are you are going to do a fair amount of

walking or be on your feet for much of

the day.

DON’T interrupt a player or his caddie

during the round. Autographs are not to

be requested until a player has finished

his round and signed his scorecard.

DO be aware of your surroundings.You may think your conversation does-

n’t carry to where players can hear you,

but you’d be surprised how far noise

carries.

DON’T even think about bringing a

camera once the tournament starts. Leave

the photography to the professionals.

DO heed weather advisories without

delay. If a thunderstorm is approaching

and weather warning signs are posted,

metal bleachers are not the place to be.

DON’T leave one green and head to

the next hole until all

the players in the

group have finished.

This is distracting to

the players.

Phil MickelsonChampion, 2005

LEGEND

3 - East Branch Forest Preserve (General Public Red Lot)

4 - Medinah Metra Train Station (Shuttle for Metra Passengers)

2 - Harper College (General Public Yellow Lot)

- Parking Lot Extrances

1 - Arlington Park Racetrack (General Public Yellow Lot)

NORTH

There’s more at stake at the PGA

Championship than a name on a trophy, a

seven-figure check and a place in history.

The PGA Championship also ends a two-

year period in which players accumulate

points (based on top-10 finishes in official

PGA Tour events) toward selection to the

2006 U.S. Ryder Cup team. Following the

PGA, the 10 leading point-earners become

automatic selections; Tom Lehman, the U.S.

captain, will announce two additional at-

large selections on Monday, Aug. 21.

The 35th Ryder Cup, a biennial event

featuring a U.S. team of men professionals

against a team from Europe, will be played

Sept. 22-24 at The K Club in Straffan,

County Kildare, Ireland.

What ThisMeans

There are three designatedparking areas for spectators.

The Yellow Lot is northof Medinah, at Arlington ParkRacecourse, located near theintersection of Route 53 andEuclid Avenue.

The Red Lot is to thesouth, at East Branch ForestPreserve, just off Glen EllynRoad.

The Blue Lot is at HarperCollege, located on AlgonquinRoad, just east of Roselle Road.

Additionally, a shuttle will transport fans to and from theMedinah Metra Station.

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Vijay SinghChampion, 1998, 2004

88th PGA Championship General Parking Lots

1920 FLOSSMOORJock Hutchison of Glen-

view failed in sectional qualifying for the PGA

and made the field as an alternate after two sub-

sequent withdrawals. He won the 36-hole match

play final over J. Douglas Edgar, 1 up. Jim

Barnes, who won the first two PGAs, dropped the

first three holes in his second-round match and

was beaten by Clarence Hackney.

1925 OLYMPIA FIELDSWalter Hagen opened the

match-play final against Bill Melhorn with an

eagle-birdie start. He opened a 4-up lead

halfway through the scheduled 36-hole final

and was never seriously threatened. The

biggest upset came in the opening round when

two-time champion Gene Sarazen was

bounced by Jack Burke, 8 and 7.

1961OLYMPIA FIELDSIn one of golf’s great stretch

runs, Jerry Barber holed long putts over the

final three holes of regulation play—20 feet for

a birdie at the 16th hole, followed by a 40-

footer for par and a 60-foot birdie—to tie Don

January at 3-under-par 277. Barber shot a 67

in an 18-hole playoff and beat January by a

stroke.

1989 KEMPER LAKESMike Reid led or was tied

for the lead after each of the first three rounds. He

led until late on Sunday, when he hit it into the

water at the 16th and made bogey, then three-

putted the 17th for a double bogey. Payne Stewart

closed with a 5-under-par 31, keyed by four

birdies over the last five holes, to win by a stroke

over Reid, Curtis Strange and Andy Bean.

1999 MEDINAH Spain’s Sergio Garcia, at

19 the youngest player ever to play in a PGA

Championship, hit one of golf’s memorable

shots in the final round, escaping from a lie

nestled near the trunk of a tree with a curving

approach to the 16th green. He made up most

of a five-shot deficit against Tiger Woods, who

held on and won by a shot.

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Naturally, the abbrevia-

tion most commonly heard

at Medinah will be PGA.

But golfers and non-

golfers alike often confuse

the PGA Tour with the PGA of America.

The PGA Championship is conducted

by the PGA of America, whose head-

quarters is located just north of Palm

Beach, Fla. The PGA of America is a

national organization of approximately

28,000 club and teaching professionals—

the men and women trained to work with

golfers for the instruction and improvement

of the golf swing.

In contrast, most of the men’s profession-

al events televised each weekend are part

of the PGA Tour, which is located near

Jacksonville, Fla. The PGA Tour exists to

provide top pros a venue in which to earn

a living playing tournament golf. The

organization runs the PGA Tour, a lower-

level Nationwide Tour, and a Champions

Tour for players age 50 and older.

= If there were a Times Square of golf courses, itwould be this area smack in the middle ofMedinah’s No. 3 Course. Within a 75-yard radius,a spectator can see play at the tee or green of sixdifferent holes: 4 tee, 8 green, 9 tee, 11 green, 12tee and 15 tee. This is the prime viewing area, butlike Times Square, it’ll be jammed, so pick yourtimes wisely.

= Get to the grandstand behind the 16th green tocheck out viewing angles. From here you can see theplayers hit their approach shots and putt out at 16,and perhaps see all of the par-3 17th and the teeshots at 18. If you’re here on Sunday afternoon,chances are you’ll see how the PGA Championshipis won or lost.

= Without much effort, parts of four holes (the sixth, seventh, ninth and 10th)can be seen. If “grip it and rip it” is your kind of golf, the 10th tee is yourplace. It’s a par 5 and, for Tour players, that usually means trying to gethome in two.

Who’s Who

JULY/AUGUST 2006 35

Tiger WoodsChampion, 1999, 2000

Jerry BarberChampion, 1961

Payne StewartChampion, 1989

Where to Watch

The PGA inChicago

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Brett Melton has, by now, grown accustomed to the ques-tion.

The PGA professional at Green Garden Country Clubin Frankfort knows exactly what to expect when he mentionsthat he’s a member of the Illinois PGA.

“The first thing amateur golfers want to know is if I’ve metTiger Woods,” Melton said with a laugh. “Then they usually askfor a golf tip.”

Typical stuff.“There’s a public misconception of the PGA of America and

the PGA Tour,” said Michael Miller, executive director of theIllinois PGA. “We’re not the PGA Tour. We’re the local arm forthe PGA of America.

“People’s first response is always, ‘Aw geez, you must play onthe PGA Tour.’ We do have members who earlier in their career

may have played in Tour events, but their focus now is promot-ing the game at their own facilities. And our responsibilities atthe IPGA include funding all the tournaments and educationalprograms for all the club professionals in the area.”

Topping the list of priorities for the some 900 members ofIllinois PGA, whose boundaries stretch from the Wisconsinborder in the north to Champaign and Peoria in the south, isworking to get more people out on the course, particularly kids.

With that in mind, the IPGA hosted its first Play GolfAmerica day last year, an event held at Pine Meadow GolfClub in Mundelein that drew in excess of 500 participants.(This year it will be held at Cantigny Golf in Wheaton on theeve of PGA Championship Week.)

That figures to be quite a busy day because also on thatSunday, Aug. 13, in conjunction with the PGAChampionship, is the finals of the first-ever PGA Youth SkillsChallenge at Medinah Country Club, host of the 88th PGAChampionship.

Special Section 2006 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

• Immaculately conditioned bent grass greens, tees and fairways

• Sculptured bunkers

• Numerous lakes and stone laden creeks

• Global Positioning System(GPS)

2600 South Stone Creek Blvd. ❂ Urbana, IL 61802

(217) 367-3000 ❂ stonecreekgolfclub.com

• World-class driving range with five target greens

• Beautiful pro shop stocked with University of Illinois apparel

• Home course of the U of I golf teams

• Five-Star Restaurant (Kennedy’s at Stone Creek)

• Play and Stay programs available

By Mike Spellman

The Illinois PGA will be busy during the week of the PGA Championship—and the rest of the year, too.

JULY/AUGUST 2006 37

From mid-May to mid-June, more than 30 courses heldlocal qualifying competitions highlighting the driving, chip-ping and putting skills of players ages 6 to 17. Two regionalqualifiers on July 16 determine who advances to the finals onAug. 13 at Medinah.

“We viewed it as a way not only to get juniors involved inthe game, but also to showcase some of our own PGA mem-bers and what their role is at the local level,” said Miller, 43.“We’re proud to be the first PGA section to conduct a YouthSkills Challenge in conjunction with the PGAChampionship.”

All participants in the challenge will receive two free prac-tice round tickets to the PGA Championship, and those whoadvance to Medinah are in for VIP treatment.

The IPGA figures to have a heavy presence at Medinahthroughout the week of the championship. More than 250 ofits professionals have signed on to volunteer their time to helprun the final major of the season.

“Our primary role as the host section is to provide volunteerstaffing for the practice areas—the driving range, the puttinggreen,” Miller said. “We’re also in charge of escorting foreignmedia around the golf course for the week.”

If all that weren’t enough for Miller and his staff of five full-time employees based at The Glen Club in Glenview, theIPGA is scheduled to run 70 tournaments for its members ina six-month span between April and October

The keynote tournaments are its four majors: the IllinoisOpen at The Glen Club in the first week of August, the mem-bers-only PGA Section Championship at the end of August atStonewall Orchard Golf Club in Grayslake, the PGA MatchPlay Championship, which was held in May at Kemper LakesGolf Club in Kildeer, and the Eagle Ridge ClassicChampionship in Galena in October.

“We had to juggle and reshuffle our schedule a little bit,but we didn’t eliminate any events because of the PGA,”explained Miller. “It just makes the month of August a littlebusier.”

Mike Spellman covers golf for The Daily Herald in ArlingtonHeights.

Instruction is an integralrole of the PGA of Americaand its local sections.

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By Tommy Braswell

That Roger Warren has played golf with Tiger Woods,Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, just to name a few super-stars, isn’t all that surprising for the reigning presi-

dent of the PGA of America. After all, presiding over theorganization that oversees the PGA Championship andRyder Cup should offer a few perks.

What might be more impressive to Chicago sports fansis that Warren also has played golf with legendary Bullsstar Michael Jordan and baseball’s Ken Harrelson, TomPacorek and Eric Soderholm, acquaintances he madewhile serving as director of golf at Seven Bridges GolfClub in Woodridge.

In fact, Jordan was “witness” to one of Warren’s shiningmoments. They both were playing Butler National GolfClub, albeit in separate groups on this particular day, whenWarren made the only hole-in-one of his career.

“The 13th hole is behind the fifth hole, and he was up onthe 13th tee and saw me hit my shot,” Warren remembered.“I was playing with my son (Michael) and the head golf pro-fessional, Bruce Patterson. They all go, ‘It went in! It wentin!’ Michael Jordan is standing there saying it didn’t go in.”

Warren said he went down to the green, picked the ballout of the cup and thrust his arms in the air to let Jordanknow it indeed was an ace, and Jordan returned the salute.

“He can put the needle in you,” Warren continued.“You’ve heard about him talking to people on the basketballcourt? He does the same thing on the golf course. He’s gota great needle. He takes it very well, too, because you canneedle him. He was fun to play with.”

Warren lived his entire life in Illinois before leavingSeven Bridges in 2003 to take over as director of golf atKiawah Island (S.C.) Golf Resort, site of the 1991 RyderCup. He took with him many notable credentials; SevenBridges had been named one of America’s 100 best golfshops by Golf Shop Operations magazine five times, and hewas the Illinois PGA Section’s merchandiser of the year forpublic facilities in 1992.

He grew up in DeKalb and, after graduating fromWestern Illinois University, took a teaching position at a jun-ior high school in Glen Ellyn. Like a lot of teachers, Warrentook on a summer job—at the Village Links in Glen Ellyn. Inthe summer of 1986, the director of golf position openedthere and Warren decided to apply. Even though he wasn’ta PGA member and the seven other candidates were,Warren got the job. But he realized that if he was going tohave any credibility as a golf professional, he needed tobecome a PGA member.

He achieved that goal in 1990, the beginning of a fasttrack to the organization’s highest position. In 2000, he waselected national secretary, a post that led to his present posi-tion with the PGA of America.

Although he’s firmly entrenched at Kiawah, where he isnow president of the entire resort, Warren is eagerly lookingforward to going home for this summer’s PGAChampionship at Medinah Country Club.

The 1999 PGA was played at Medinah, where TigerWoods beat Sergio Garcia by one shot on a memorable finalday, and the 2012 Ryder Cup is scheduled to be held at thestoried Chicago course.

“Playing Medinah is an example of the PGA’s commit-ment to take the PGA Championship to the country’s greatgolf courses,” Warren said. “Medinah No. 3 is my favoritegolf course. I love the old, traditional parkland courses. It’slike a cathedral of golf. It’s such a very, very special placeto play.”

Tommy Braswell covers golf for The Post and Courier inCharleston, S.C.

Roger Warren, the president of thePGA of America, returns home for theorganization’s biggest event.

A PresidentialHomecoming

Roger Warren

Medinah No. 3 is my favorite golf course. I love the old, traditional parkland courses.It’s like a cathedral of golf. It’s such a very,very special place to play.”

— Roger Warren

“2006 PGA CHAMPIONSHIP