2013 Encompass Championship Preview: Leaderboard
MANY readers will remember the North Shore Country Club in Chicago from the 1933 US Open. Well maybe not.
The North Shore layout, which seriously does have a bit of a place in US golf history, is the scene of one of the three new events on the US Champions Tour this year, the 2013 Encompass Championship.
For those who don’t quite recall (it’s only 80 odd years), the North Shore US Open was the last occasion the event was won by an amateur.
The amateur, Johnny Goodman, defeated pro Ralph Guldahl by a stroke to win the event. Goodman’s victory was the eighth and last by an amateur and came four years after Bobby Jones won his fourth (and final) U.S. Open in 1930 during his Grand Slam year.
North Shore, designed by Harry S. Colt, Alister Mackenzie and Charles Allison, also has been host to the U .S. Amateur twice, in 1939 and 1983.
This week it will be the likes of Fred Couples, Bernhard Langer, Tom Lehman and Australians Steve Elkington and Peter Senior taking on a course renowned for its hard and fast greens.
“It’s been a while since we’ve had a Champions Tour event in Chicago,” Champions Tour player and nearby resident Chip Beck said on the eve of the event this week. “This is really good for the Chicagoland area. I couldn’t be happier. This is a great market for golf. They love golf here even if it is a short season.”
The Encompass Championship will be a pro-am style event with amateurs and celebrities playing with the pros for the first two of the three scheduled rounds.
“North Shore is a very good golf course,” Beck said. “Ample room off the tee on most of the holes, some pretty long par 3s. And the course has so much history. It goes back to the Bobby Jones era which is kind of nice.”
Presidents Cup captain Nick Price returns
The Encompass Championship also will mark the playing return of the captain of the International team in this year’s Presidents Cup, Nick Price.
Price has been sidelined since last year while recovering from torn ligaments in his left elbow but the South African does have some form in the area.
Among Price’s 18 US PGA Tour victories were a pair of Western Open titles in Chicago in 1993 and 1994.
Australian TV Coverage
Fox Sports Australian Coverage:
1st Round: Live, Saturday 2.30am – 4.30am; Replay, 5pm – 6.30pm. 2nd Round: Live, Sunday 5am – 7am. Final Round: Live, Monday 5am -7am.
2013 Encompass Championship Leaderboard
2013 Encompass Championship Leaderboard