Tom Sacco of Downers Grove had a busy Sunday on the golf course(s).
Sacco won two tournaments in 20 minutes. The air traffic control supervisor first won the Zigfield Troy Open with a 3-over par 52-59–111 and then won the Woodridge Men`s Club Championship with a last round of 77, defeating Fran Marks in a playoff.
Sacco played in the Woodridge tournament early Sunday morning and then played in the ZTO that afternoon. A golf cart was ready to take him to his playoff next door at Village Greens of Woodridge as soon as he putted out on the final hole at the ZTO. Sacco parred the first hole of the playoff and made it back to Troy`s for the presentation.
— Golf Magazine has expanded its biennial course rankings to the 100 greatest courses, and three Chicago-area courses made the list. Medinah No. 3, which will play host to the 1990 U.S. Open, is rated 32d, Chicago Golf Club is 68th and Butler National is 76th among the honored 100. Golf Magazine`s rankings previously rated only the top 50 but expanded to 100 because of the recent growth of outstanding layouts.
The United States headed the list with 54 courses followed by the United Kingdom with 21. The magazine selected 58 panelists who evaluated 254 courses and graded them from A to F. The courses were then ranked according to average grade.
New Jersey`s Pine Valley, site of the Walker Cup matches, was ranked No. 1, replacing Scotland`s Muirfield as the greatest course in the world. Pebble Beach came in second followed by Scotland`s Muirfield, Cypress Point, Augusta National, Royal Melbourne in Australia, Royal County Down in Northern Ireland, Merion`s East Course, Ireland`s Ballybunion (Old) and the Old Course at St. Andrews.
Point O`Woods, a Midwest favorite, drew high marks but missed the top 100 because many panelists were not familiar with it.
— Former Illinois PGA president Terry Carlson will bring up an interesting resolution at the IPGA`s fall meeting. Carlson, head pro at Glen Oak, is trying to get more clubs to volunteer their courses for IPGA, CDGA and CWDGA events. The resolution is: ”Any golf course that has not hosted an Illinois PGA event or CDGA or CWDGA event in the last 10 years (1976-1986), that effective Jan. 1, 1986 those professionals and amateurs at that club may not be permitted to play in our (IPGA) events.”
”It`s not too much to ask to give up your golf course once in 10 years, but there are some that haven`t,” said Carlson, who refused to identify those clubs. ”They let their pros and members use our golf courses, but we can`t play an event on theirs.”
The proposed resolution met with mixed results at the IPGA Championship at Kemper Lakes, and its future is uncertain.
— Steve Benson, who shot 71-80–151 in the PGA Championship at Cherry Hills, thinks Kemper Lakes, which will host the 1989 PGA, compares very favorably with Cherry Hills.
”This course, without rough, is a lot tougher than Cherry Hills,” said Benson, who won the 1984 IPGA Championship at Kemper. ”This course is tough, and we aren`t even playing from the back tees. Wait until they grow rough and play back. It`ll really be tough.”
Doug Bauman of Pinecrest was understandably impressed with Butler National when he played in the Western Open and was just as impressed with Kemper.
”At Butler I had some real good holes and some real bad holes,” said Bauman, in his first year at the Huntley course. ”You forget how hard the golf courses these guys on tour play are. Kemper is more fair than Butler. It`s difficult to score low at both places, but at Butler you miss the green and you make six or seven. Here you`ve still got a chance to make par.”
— Kemper Lakes also got good reviews recently from Tom Watson, Calvin Peete, Peter Jacobsen and Patty Sheehan. The professional foursome played Kemper the Tuesday before the Western Open at a Ram Golf sales outing.
