S P E C I A L    F O C U S

May Madness is the golf highlight for the month at the Winnetka Golf Club (WGC) and has been since the tourney started in 1994. The event is designed the program to give players from local high schools (New Trier High School and Loyola High School) the opportunity to begin the season with an organized competitive golf program. Since the 1940s, Winnetka Golf Club has been home to the highly successful New Trier High School golf teams.

"The idea is to provide competitive golf opportunities to prepare players for a full slate of summer tournaments and the fall high school season," says Steve Patterson, Winnetka Golf Club's PGA Head Professional, who developed May Madness.

"The junior high division created the opportunity for younger players to interact with the high school players and take note of their playing and practice routines. The girls program recently caught on as golf continues to become popular with girls."

Patterson stays actively involved in junior golf as he also serves as an assistant coach for the New Trier boys golf team and as tournament chairman for the American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) Chicago Junior held at Winnetka Golf Club.

Says Patterson: "When I came to Winnetka Golf Club in 1993 there wasn't much being offered competition-wise for junior golfers. The golf club already offered a full range of junior instructional programs in the summer, so in my first year I introduced a few competitive events.

"The problem with the summer competitive programs was that local players have so many playing opportunities that we suffered setting a schedule and getting players. So we decided to offer an after-school program in May to prepare the players for the summer schedule of local and national tournaments. In 2000, 75 players participated."

The success of the program can be judged by the fact that in the six years of May Madness, two participants have won the individual Illinois State High School Boys Championship and New Trier and Loyola have won the team championship a combined four times. Also, many players have gone on to play division one college golf.

The schedule includes a two-person team championship, par-3 championship, individual match-play event, and an individual stroke-play tournament. Player of the year winners from the boys and girls high school divisions are awarded exemptions into the AJGA Windy City Junior. Another feature of May Madness is a weekend golf trip. Past trips have included visits to courses such as Grand Geneva Resort in Wisconsin and the prestigious Dunes Club in New Buffalo, Michigan. •

May Madness players enjoy a weekend trip to the Dunes Club in New Buffalo, Michigan.

STEVE PATTERSON
is the PGA Head Golf Professional at the Winnetka Golf Club since 1993. Born and raised in Chariton, Iowa, Patterson won the 2000 Illinois PGA Bill Strausbaugh Award. He was a member of the 1996 and 1997 Illinois PGA Radix Cup team.

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