Reading the Green, Part IX

Here is part THREE of THREE contributions I have made to the local Pioneer Press newspaper. All three have also appeared in the Chicago Tribune's special insert, Trib Local.

Reading the Green, Part IX
By Chris Happ, PGA Assistant Golf Professional at the Winnetka Golf Club

By most accounts, it’s a painful, heartbreaking, silly and gut-wrenching game. If you Google the words “Why Play”, the popular search engine completes your query with a few suggestions, the second of which is “Golf”. To somebody who has never seen or heard of the sport, the laundry list of adjectives used to describe its nature begs the question: Why do you play golf?

The game cannot be perfected; it takes way too long to play; it can be very expensive; and, depending on where your first tee grows, the season is way too short. You always top the ball into the same pond, slice into the same bush and very consistently remain incredibly inconsistent. If golf were a person, there’s no chance we would be friends with it.

So the question remains: Why do people subject themselves to a game that is mostly cruel, only sometimes nice and forever dangling content in front of our face to see and smell but not grab hold of? For some, the answer is quite simple. Golf offers a front row seat to nature at its best while providing the deceived with some exercise to boot. Their immediate response is more an indication of their disinterest in trying to perfect a technique or attain expert status than anything else. Nonetheless, both are popular reasons why people at least begin to play the game.

There has to be a more complex reason though.

A couple hours before this question was en route to going largely unanswered and chalked up as a selfish idea brought on by a recent personal disagreement with the game, the answer hit. Of course, it came about as a result of another golfer’s slight misfortune.

New Trier junior Phillip Purcell, one of the Trevian’s brightest young stars, had just missed out on an opportunity to qualify and play as part of the six-man team travelling to the next weekend tournament. As he hopped in the cart for a ride back to the clubhouse after the sudden death playoff, I asked him if this opportunity would make him work harder to get into the top six players on the team or discourage him from working to improve.

“I always work hard,” Purcell said.

And with that simple, mature answer there was a little more clarity as to why people put up with the unfavorable ratio of peaks and valleys in golf.

Reading the Green, Part VI

Here is part TWO of THREE contributions I have made to the local Pioneer Press newspaper. All three have also appeared in the Chicago Tribune's special insert, Trib Local.

Reading The Green - Part VI.
by Chris Happ, PGA Assistant Professional at the Winnetka Golf Club

The inspirational poet and historian Maya Angelou has influenced millions of people with her words and actions, but when speaking about her role as a mentor she is quick to point out that people will forget what you said, and forget what you did, but people will never forget how you make them feel. Of course, it doesn’t take the resume or moral track record of a Maya Angelou to serve as a role model or mentor. Even from the back row of a concert or a bench on the driving range it is easy to see how the words and actions of a teacher or mentor can affect others.

“With the incredible number of young kids and young adults that walk through our doors on a daily basis, it is easy to see that our roles as golf professionals at Winnetka Golf Club extend way beyond the game itself,” says Matt Johnson, Director of Instruction at Winnetka Golf Club. “We are in a unique position that requires us to educate, coach and act in a way that teaches more than swing plane and ball position.”

Charlie Steinhoff, a member of the Winnetka Golf Club’s Elite travel team, has taken such a liking to Johnson and his instruction that he chose to spend Shadow Day, usually an opportunity for kids to follow their parents around at work, at Winnetka Golf Club learning about a golf professional’s daily routine. “Shadow Day is usually a busy day around the golf course,” says Johnson. “Honestly though, all of our instructors bring something to the table other than just golf instruction, and a lot of the junior golfers around here look up to that. That’s really important from a life and learning perspective.”

Another one of Winnetka Golf Club’s personable young professionals, Dan Leonard, coaches 3rd and 4th grade basketball over the winter months and can be seen in the bleachers at his players’ baseball games in the summer months. “It’s so important to show the kids that you care about more than just teaching them how to hold a golf club or roll in a three foot putt,” says Leonard. “By taking the time to develop relationships I think you can actually get kids to respond quicker to what you want them to do on the golf course.”

So the next time you send your Little Tiger Woods off to golf camp, basketball camp, or band camp consider how their instructors and mentors will be able to bring more to the table than just instruction.

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Reading the Green, Part III

Here is part one of three contributions I have made to the local Pioneer Press newspaper. All three have also appeared in the Chicago Tribune's special insert, Trib Local.

Reading The Green - Part III

By Chris Happ, PGA Assistant Golf Professional at the Winnetka Golf Club

March, April and May, the first three months of the golf season in the Midwest, are widely known as three of the most exciting months in all of sport. Rivalries are created during college basketball’s NCAA Tournament in March. April brings us the Masters and Opening Day in baseball stadiums across America. And May holds its own by providing sports fans with the always exciting NHL and NBA playoffs.

For local junior golfers Logan Joseph and Dana Gullen, the month of May is certainly known for driving rains and unpredictable temperatures, but it also gives them the opportunity to develop some rivalries of their own during the well-known May Madness tournament series created and hosted by Winnetka Golf Club.

Joseph, an 8th grade student planning on attending New Trier in the fall as a freshman, participates in Jr. May Madness, a program created for 7th and 8th graders planning on attending New Trier or Loyola for high school. “I like playing in May Madness because it helps me get back to playing and practicing after the winter,” says Joseph. “I also get to play against my friends and other kids who will be in other summer tournaments and high school tournaments.”

Originally created in 1995 as a way for Trevian and Rambler golfers to propel their timeless rivalry, May Madness has reached an unforeseen level of popularity with local junior golfers. In 2009, the program now offers a 36-hole stroke play event called the Winnetka Junior, which awards the winner a coveted exemption into a national event hosted by the American Junior Golf Association. Also, the tournament series includes a match play event, a 27-hole stroke play Junior Club Championship, and a season-long point race that grants the leader at the end of the series an exemption into the Chick Evans Junior Amateur Championship. There are also levels for 7th and 8th grade boys, and high school girls.

Gullen, a freshman on New Trier’s varsity girls’ golf team, says May Madness is unique because it helps her get back into playing shape before her summer tournament schedule takes off, but it also fills a void in the spring when tournament s tend to be few and far between. “If it weren’t for these tournaments, I would probably have a tough time finding time to practice and play in the spring,” says Gullen. “Plus I get to see if all my practice over the winter works during competition.”

Clearly, the pros aren’t the only ones who get to have all the fun during the spring. For more information visit the Winnetka Golf Club web site at www.winnetkagolfclub.com.