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Mistwood’s sod bunkers offer unique perspective

Stacked sod-wall bunkers are rare at Chicago courses, but they won’t be as much a mystery after owner Jim McWethy reopens his Mistwood Golf Club course in Romeoville.

That will happen for the course’s members and permanent tee time holders on Saturday.

Michigan-based course architect Ray Hearn incorporated 19 such bunkers into his new design, and he admits that the new bunkers will overshadow the many other changes he made at the public facility that annually hosts the Illinois Women’s Open.

“Nothing comes close to the glory of these stacked sod-wall bunkers,” he said. “In Chicago you want to set yourself apart, and this alone will do it. There’s nothing like this at any other Chicago course.”

Hearn believes only two Chicago area courses have such bunkers on display. The most well-known, Conway Farms in Lake Forest, the site of the 2013 BMW Championship on the PGA Tour, has three such bunkers.

Overall, Hearn substantially toughened and lengthened the Mistwood course. The old version measured 6,701 yards, and the new one is 7,028 from the back tees, some of which won’t be used all that much. The slope increased from 140 to 144 and the rating from 73.0 to 74.7 when Chicago District Golf Associations officials made their visit to the new layout.

The course, which will open to the public in mid-June, will produce a new challenge for the Illinois Women’s Open entrants, who will compete in the traditional 54-hole competition July 25-27.

U.S. Open sectionals:

Village Links of Glen Ellyn will host Chicago’s sectional qualifier for the U.S. Open on Monday. The 48-man field will send its top finishers to the U.S. Open proper at Olympic Club in San Francisco, but the number of berths available hasn’t been determined yet.

PGA Tour players Tom Pernice and Tim Herron, and Illinois coach Mike Small are the biggest names in the Village Links field, but Burr Ridge’s Bennett Blakeman bears watching, too. He qualified for the 2010 U.S. Open as an amateur and the 2011 version as a professional.

Others in the field include Brad Benjamin, the 2009 U.S. Amateur Public Links champion, and four ex-Illinois Amateur winners — Gary March (1986), Zach Barlow (2008), Vince India (2010) and Brad Hopfinger (2011).

India will hit the first tee shot in the 36-hole elimination at 7 a.m. The second round begins at noon.

Switching stations:

The Golfers on Golf radio show begins its 15th season on June 3, but it will have a different time slot and be heard on two stations instead of one.

The new home base is WSBC 1240-AM and the show will be simulcast on WCFJ 1470-AM. It had been broadcast at 6 p.m. on Mondays on WJJG 1530-AM. Now it’ll be heard from 10-ll a.m. on Sundays.

Mike Munro, Ed Stevenson, Bill Berger and Rory Spears all return as the on-air talent for a 17-week run that will conclude Sept. 23.

Here and there:

Spain’s Carlota Ciganda, a former Arizona State golfer, won last week’s nearest sectional qualifier for next month’s U.S. Women’s Open at Wisconsin’s Blackwolf Run course by 11 shots. Only two from that sectional, held at Big Foot in Fontana, Wis., qualified to play at Blackwolf Run, with Purdue’s Junthima Gulyanamitta beating ex-Illinois Women’s Open champion Aimee Neff in a playoff for the second spot. ...

Medinah Patriot Day, a benefit for Illinois military families, will be held Tuesday over the club’s Nos. 1 and 3 courses.

... Kewanee’s Tom Miler added the CDGA Senior Amateur to his title collection this summer last week. He had previously won the Illinois State Public Links tourney. Taylorville’s Dave Ryan finished second in both.

Entry deadline is 5 p.m. Friday for the Illinois Open. All professionals and amateurs with handicaps of 10 or less are eligible to compete in one of the seven qualifying rounds for the July 16-18 tourney proper at The Glen Club in Glenview. ...

New management has decided to rename what was the Crystal Lake Golf Learning Center, located across the street from the Prairie Isle course. It’s now Fore Seasons Golf Learning Center. ... Chuck Mills, North Chicago High School’s first football coach, will join his players from the 1955 team at an outing June 8 at Glen Flora in Waukegan.

Lake Park HS prepares for Ryder Cup shutdown

How to volunteer for Ryder Cup duty

Lake Park High School is seeking 500 volunteers per day, ages 16 and older, to work Tuesday, Sept. 25, through Sunday, Sept. 30, as part of the Ryder Cup.

Free pass: Volunteers will earn a complimentary, one-day Ryder Cup pass by working either one 12-hour shift or two six-hour shifts through Lake Park High School.

The jobs: Volunteers will be working at on-site concession stands or off-site parking. Concession volunteers need to be 18 years or older. Parking volunteers must be 16 years or older.

Training: Each volunteer is required to participate in a short training session the week before the tournament and pass a security clearance. Alcohol servers must be 21 or older and participate in mandatory alcohol awareness training.

On the Web: For more information or to register to volunteer, <a href="http://w3.lphs.org/ryder_cup/index.html">visit Lake Park’s website</a> or call (630) 295-5402.

— Caitlin Swieca

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