Monday, May 15, 2017

79. Midwest Trip (plus KY) May 15-19, 2017 (Part I)


Midwest Trip (plus KY) May 15-19, 2017 (Part I)

This is a Bucket List trip for sure…focusing heavily on PGA host sites.  I started the trip missing 17 former PGA sites (having hosted the event between 1920 and 1967) and eight of these are located in the contiguous Midwest states of IL, IN, MI, and OH…nine if one adds KY (abuts IN and OH for those who need help with geography).  The trip is designed to cover courses in a relatively tight geographic area, but will still require some 900 miles of driving.

My flight the morning of May 15 was uneventful and arrived early at Midway Airport in Chicago.

Flossmoor Country Club, May 15, 2017: Mondays are a tough day to schedule on trips such as these as many private clubs are closed for course maintenance on Mondays, so I (and others like me) often try to find resorts and public courses on our various bucket lists to fill Mondays.  Today, I was able to play Flossmoor CC, located about 30 miles south of downtown Chicago because I have had the pleasure of getting to know Greg O. over the past 5+ years.  Greg is a member of Flossmoor and he and his wife, Melissa have a home in Pinehurst.  Greg is another perfectly normal human being who simply desires to play all of the world’s 35,000 courses (at least that seems normal to me).  He also is a Golf Week panelist and has a superb eye for and understanding of golf architecture.  Also like me, he is fortunate to have a wonderful wife who generally supports his madness!

Flossmoor was founded in 1899 and it sits on the same site it has occupied for 118 years.  Not clear how many clubs/courses can make that claim (Brookline can make it going back to 1892-93 when it first constructed six holes after appropriating $50 for the task).  Originally named Homewood CC, the name was changed when a new train station (“Flossmoor”) opened near the club about 15 years later.  Its original design was by Herbert Tweedie.  In 1920, Flossmoor hosted the third PGA Championship won by Jock Hutchinson and three years later the US Amateur won by Max Marston.

Between 2006 and 2009 Flossmoor completed a major renovation (by Ray Hearn) while retaining some of its great historical features (especially dastardly greens).  It now plays to 7136 yards (up from 6110 yards in 1901).  In terms of Top 100’s, its only inclusion was on Golf Digest’s first lists…the 200 Toughest lists published in 1966 and 1967 (with no numerical delineation among the 200).

The golf course IMO is very very good.  It looks quite easy but has wonderful subtlety, mostly around the greens about half of which have severe slopes that need to be understood to score on this track.  For example, fully six greens slope from front to back (#1, 11, 12, 13, 17, and 18).  I cannot think of another course with as many greens sloping toward front to back.  And the angle of the slope on many of the greens (#3, 8, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18 in particular) can be fairly frightening when one ends up on the wrong side.  My advise is that if you are playing this track for the first time…keep the bets to a minimum…local knowledge is absolutely critical here.

The back nine, lying south of the clubhouse is blessed with far more interesting land than the front.  The front side is a bit on the flat side but the back has wonderful elevations and some beautifully rumpled fairways (especially #14). 

The course played fairly firm and fast even with fairways that had been punched a week earlier.  The greens were fairly quick, especially since they most likely had not been cut on Monday morning.  The course is built on a flood plain and therefore its bunkers are fairly shallow to minimize flooding in the bunkers.

In sum, a historic club, and a very very good course that is both fun and challenging, without beating up the golfer.  Worth playing…but not superb enough to be included in a USA Top 100 in my opinion…but there are lots of superb courses that fit that description.

After the round, Melissa joined us for a nice dinner out, at I got to my hotel early enough to deal with emails and keep you folks up to date (and perhaps bored). 

Tomorrow…Beverly Country Club in Chicago and Lost Dunes in southeastern Michigan.

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