Suburban courses join World's Largest Golf Outing to help wounded vets

Golfers across the suburbs and around the country will be teeing off Monday for a common cause: the Wounded Warrior Project and its mission of helping injured service members.

The "World's Largest Golf Outing" will take place at the more than 100 facilities managed by Billy Casper Golf in the United States, including 12 in the Chicago area. Among the courses hosting the event are Highland Woods in Hoffman Estates, Orchard Valley Golf Course in Aurora, Rob Roy Golf Course in Prospect Heights and Whisper Creek Golf Club in Huntley.

"Our members know about it, and they all want to help," said Denise Bilski, general manager of Highland Woods, which is one of six Cook County Forest Preserve courses participating. "Our numbers have grown each year, and this year we're anticipating 200 golfers. We're one of the largest outings locally and the only one that I know of that has to have two shotgun starts."

The outing takes place at 2 p.m. at most of the participating clubs, though at Highland Woods, shotgun starts will take place at 7 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Numbers are increasing at Whisper Creek's outing as well, General Manager Joe Bidrow said. This year, the outing has drawn the maximum 144 players.

"It's always a fun outing and draws a number of younger foursomes as well as our regular members," Bidrow said. "The whole cause of helping wounded warriors just captures the deep patriotism in all of us."

Whisper Creek is in Del Webb's Sun City Community and features a prairie-style feel, with protected wetlands, natural rock formations and cascading waterfalls.

Look for all of the outings to have their own military components to enhance the day. At Highland Woods, a Marine color guard will start each outing with a standard flag raising ceremony, while golfers will tee off amid toy tanks in each tee box.

Golfers also will have the chance to match their shots with PGA golf professional Johnny Mueller, a retired Marine and pro at the PGA Tour Superstore in Schaumburg. He'll be stationed at the 13th hole, as part of the "beat the pro" contest.

The World's Largest Golf Outing was created in 2011 by Peter Hill, CEO of Billy Casper Golf, whose vision was to have every course in their organization participate, creating the largest, one-day golf outing to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project.

Since its inception, the nationwide outing has raised more than $2 million for the organization, company officials say. To learn more or register to take part, visit www.worldslargestgolfouting.com.