U.S. Amateur Public Links Blog

Saturday, July 07, 2007

First Class Treatment

From limousine rides from the airport to having a personalized locker with a name tag from Cantigny, the contestants at the 2007 U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship are getting PGA Tour-type treatment this week from the host course. The clubhouse at Cantigny is unique in that it features locker room facilities replete with showers. That's not something a lot of daily-fee public courses offer. So each contestant has his own locker with a U.S. APL nameplate with their name and hometown inscribed into the tag. Players that needed ground transportation from the airport to the hotel were given limousine service, a little touch of class the Cantigny organizing committee decided to do over using vans driven by volunteers. Jim Sutherland, the general chairman for the APL, said it was actually more economical to hire a limousine company for those contestants who needed to be transported from O'Hare to Wheaton. Only one player will walk away with the APL trophy this week, but all 156 participants can walk away from Cantigny knowing they've been given first-class treatment at this national championship. David Shefter USGA Staff Writer

Posted By David Shefter At 5:11 PM •

Welcome To The APL Blog

Welcome to the official 2007 U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship blog. All week, we'll be filing little stories and anecdotes from the championship here at Cantigny Golf in Wheaton, Ill. Cantigny is a 27-hole facility located west of downtown Chicago. It is situated on the former estate of Col. Robert McCormick, the former publisher of the Chicago Tribune, who donated the 500-acre property to be used for recreation and leisure. Besides the golf course, the estate features two museums and 10 acres of botanical gardens. It is one beautiful piece of land. Today and tomorrow, the 156 contestants will be getting themselves acclimated to the course and conditions. The rough is up so accuracy off the tee is paramount to success.  The greens are expected to roll around 11 on the Stimpmeter. One cool thing the contestants who requested transportation from the airport received was a limousine ride to the championship hotel. And some of these limos were of the stretch variety, the kind you see Hollywood stars go to the Academy Awards in. The folks at Cantigny found it was more ecominical to hire a limousine company instead of using volunteers and vans. And hey, there's nothing like rolling into a national championship in style. It's little touches like this that make playing in a USGA championship special. Anyway, we'll be blogging all week, so if you have any suggestions or comments, please let us know. We're here for you. It should be a fun week. Hopefully the weather will cooperate. David Shefter USGA Staff Writer

Posted By David Shefter At 9:55 AM •