The par-3 17th hole at Medinah is 193 yards. Photo copyright Medinah Country Club/Nick Novelli

We tell you what Medinah is doing to prepare for "the biggest golf event ever in Illinois"

There are still a few months before the 39th Ryder Cup matches take over Medinah Country Club and put the Chicago area at the forefront of international sports. Big events like this one don’t just happen, though. Tons of work, by literally thousands of people, is required before the first ball is struck.

The Ryder Cup runs from September 25–30, and many of the preparations—though by no means all—have already been completed. There has been a ticket drawing, a promotional tour by captains Davis Love III of the United States and Jose Maria Olazabal of Europe, a sale of corporate hospitality options and the recruitment of volunteers.

Eventually 75 corporate chalets, accounting for about two million square feet of flooring, will be constructed on the Medinah premises. The grounds will also include 15 video boards and 650 televisions. All of this gear will have to be in place before the food and beverages are brought in. Over 250 companies have committed to some form of the corporate hospitality offerings already.

Event director Michael Belot, no stranger to massive golf events, has been based at Medinah for more than a year to tend to the countless details required for such a project and he has five staffers under his
supervision there. Now in his 10th year working for the PGA of America, Belot was tournament director for the 2006 PGA Championship, the last big event staged at Medinah. The Ryder Cup, though, is a different animal.

Medinah hosted three U.S. Opens before taking on the PGA Championships of both 1999 and 2006. Those were big deals, but Belot is confident this Ryder Cup “will stand out as Medinah’s crown jewel. It’ll be the biggest golf event ever in Illinois.’’

Don Larson, Medinah’s chairman for the event, is in charge of matters on the club’s end, and Curtis Tyrrell, the course superintendent, has the delicate job of getting the famed No. 3 course in peak condition for the extravaganza. Long before he even began putting finishing touches on the course, Tyrrell was involved prominently in a $1.5 million greens renovation to prepare the facility specifically for the big days ahead in September.

Michael Miller, executive director of the Illinois section of the PGA of America (IPGA), is overseeing the efforts of his members, who will perform a variety of duties before and during the competition. Miller said his staff is 50 percent busier this season just because of Ryder Cup demands. Over 300 IPGA members are volunteering their services in one way or another. And then there’s the PGA of America staff that is really in charge of the whole thing. It operates under the direction of executive director Joe Steranka from its headquarters in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

Following the kickoff events held over the last year, more promotional features are forthcoming. There will be a Bears vs. Packers golf match at Medinah, a Youth Skills Challenge, a Junior Ryder Cup competition, an international pep rally called Bagpipes & Blues at the Field Museum and an outdoor art exhibit dubbed Tartan Art on the Avenue. All are directly connected to this Ryder Cup. In addition to the work of about 50 local artists, the Tartan Art on the Avenue exhibit will include a classic piece of artwork by the famed LeRoy Nieman: a five-foot golf ball that will be on display throughout the Chicago area from September 13 through October 10. The art exhibit and Bagpipes & Blues are part of an official fundraising campaign benefiting Ronald McDonald Children’s Charities of Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana, as well as the Illinois PGA Foundation.

As you can see, the 24 players who will compete in the emotion-charged competition are but a small part of the overall event. Still, in the end, they will be the show, and patriotism will abound.

The 75 corporate hospitality tents are more than organizers originally envisioned. They thought 53 would be enough, but this is, after all, Chicago, a city that has long supported big-time sports events. The original ticket sale assured galleries of 40,000 per day at the Ryder Cup.
Helping those 40,000 get around the premises will be 4,000 volunteers, who will perform a variety of duties when the matches are in progress. Lake Park High School, located across the street from Medinah, will shut down during the competition. The parking and concessions operations will be run from the school, and it will benefit in a big way from the closing. In exchange for use of its facilities, Lake Park High School will receive enough financial compensation to complete the installation of a turf field on its West campus, a boon for the football program, marching band and other athletic events.

The global significance of the Ryder Cup might also surprise you. Television feeds from the Ryder Cup will go to 200 countries (or more than half a billion households), including such remote locales as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Chad, Djibouti, Mauritania, Rwanda, Tongo and Yemen. CG