Young golfers take top honors at national championship
High school golf coaches in the area should be rejoicing because we have some truly talented 11- to 13-year-old golfers on the rise in this area.
A team of eight boys and girls from the Prospect Heights Park District's Old Orchard Golf Course recently won the 2007 Traditions of Golf Challenge in Bloomington, Ind., triumphing over 10 other teams from around the country.
Prospect Heights recorded a score of 26 under par. The closest contender, West Palm Beach, Fla., had 19 under par while the third place team from Derby, Kan., finished at 18 under par.
"It was a well-orchestrated, fun, eventful time for them and they all had a blast," said Marc Heidkamp, coordinator for the "Hook A Kid on Golf" program at the Prospect Heights facility.
Members of the team were Zack Nauert, 12, Lauren Gierman, 11 and Nicole Gierman, 12, all of Prospect Heights; Jack Ferguson, 12, of Mount Prospect; Stephen Mazzoni, 13, of Wheeling; and Kevin Brawley, 13, Mike Taylor, 12, and Jack DeWalt, 12, all of Arlington Heights. They were coached by Heidkamp, as well as Mike Nauert and Mike Brawley.
The Traditions of Golf Challenge is an annual three-day event for those communities involved with "Hook A Kid on Golf," which has a local office in Sugar Grove. The event consists of a team mixer, contests, skill and rules instruction, special guest presentations and the actual tournament.
Unlike most other tournaments, each team is scored in three areas - their playing ability as demonstrated by a four-person scramble; their knowledge of golf's rules and history; and their mastery of proper golf etiquette.
Knowing what to do when a ball rolls out of bounds or lands in a lateral water hazard is just as important as hitting fairways and sinking birdie putts under this scoring system.
Each team and their coaches are supervised by on-course officials who determine their etiquette score on each hole. A player who makes noise when another is hitting a shot or fails to repair a ball mark detracts from his or her team score.
"We started using this program 10 years ago because we saw it as a great vehicle to introduce the game of golf to kids," explained Heidkamp. "It teaches behavior skills, etiquette and the history of the game, as well as how to hit the ball and we think that is wonderful."
This summer the Prospect Heights Park District had about 250 kids involved in its "Hook A Kid on Golf" clinics and leagues.
Celebrate school days:ŒRemember the old commercial showing the parents putting their children on the school bus and then popping the champagne corks and cheering?
That is the idea behind tonight's party at Bogie's Ale House (formerly The Loft), 303 E. Kensington Road. For a $10 admission charge parents can celebrate their kids' return to school or college with a pizza buffet, cash bar, dancing and an auction and proceeds will benefit, appropriately enough, the effort to move and preserve Mount Prospect's 1896 one-room Central School which is endangered.
Doors will open at 6 p.m. Music provided by a DJ will begin at 9:30 and go until midnight. You will also have the opportunity to participate in a silent auction for a wide variety of celebrity and author autographs and old school chairs which have been decorated by local artists and others.