Wheaton events create 'Summer of Golf' around new women's Open championship
With a historic event in the world of women's golf coming to town, Wheaton officials decided to make the most of it.
Instead of just allowing the Chicago Golf Club to host the inaugural U.S. Women's Senior Open from July 12 to 15 and leaving it at that, the city, library, park district and Arrowhead Golf Club are planning to turn this into the Summer of Golf.
Some of the events have come and gone, such as golf history trolley tours the first two weekends of July.
Some are ongoing, such as the display of golf-ball-shaped sculptures throughout town, in a project led by the fine and cultural arts commission and sponsored by local businesses; and an exhibit at the Wheaton Public Library that runs until the tournament concludes July 15.
But other events are still to come, such as a talk by women's golf pro Renee Powell and a golf history lecture by Nancy Flannery from the city's historic commission.
Here's a look at two events themed around the new championship.
Renee Powell talk
Ties to the history of golf run strong for Renee Powell.
The former Ladies Professional Golf Association tour participant is the daughter of William Powell, who founded Clearview Golf Club in East Canton, Ohio - the first golf course designed, built and owned by an African-American.
She was the second black to join the LPGA Tour and one of the first two American women named honorary members of the Royal and Ancient Club of St. Andrews in Scotland when it opened to women in 2015.
Powell left the LPGA after playing from 1967 to 1980 and is now a global golf ambassador. It's in that role that she'll appear from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Wheaton Public Library's large meeting room at 225 N. Cross St. To register, call (630) 868-7520 or visit www.wheatonlibrary.org.
"There's so much that I have to talk about throughout my entire life and my entire career," she said, "from the early days of my golf to a lot of things that are going on now."
Powell said she's excited to welcome the new Senior Women's Open, an event she said many of her peers feared would not come during their playing days. The championship is open to any female golfer 50 or older with a handicap index not exceeding 7.4. It plans to include 120 players.
"It's a new event," Powell said. "But it's an event that has a lot of names of the past in it."
Hosting Powell's talk at the request of the United States Golf Association is part of the library's efforts to support the new tournament, said Matt Binder, community engagement librarian. The library also is featuring a Summer of Golf exhibit, including artifacts such as handcrafted golf clubs and maps of former railroad lines between golf clubs in Wheaton.
"We really wanted to embrace this new and amazing" tournament, Binder said.
Golf history lecture
Nancy Flannery, chairwoman of Wheaton's historic commission, served as the docent for four rounds of golf history trolley tours July 1 and 8, and she'll be back with more stories of Wheaton's ties to the earlier days of golf during a lecture Aug. 15.
The free event is set for 1 p.m. at the Mary Lubko Center in Memorial Park, 208 W. Union Ave. To register, call (630) 665-1415.
Binder, the librarian, called Flannery the expert on golf history in Wheaton, the city where the mashie-niblick, or 7-iron, was invented and where the original patented golf tee was manufactured.
"She knows everything and all kinds of historic people," he said.