THE KNOLLWOOD CLUB OF LAKE FOREST HAS BEEN ADDED TO THE WESTERN AMATEUR
ROTATION, AND WILL HOST THE 2016 CHAMPIONSHIP.

With the 2011 Western Amateur coming up next week, the Western Golf Association
(WGA) has announced another addition to the Western Amateur Championships
rotation with the addition of Knollwood CC in Lake Forest for the year 2016.

This year at Glenviews Northshore CC marks the third year of the seven year
plan originally announced in 2009. The addition of Knollwood will make the
rotation in the Chicago area now eight years.

Knollwood which in the past has hosted multiple USGA and PGA Championships,
will co-host with Conway Farms the USGA-Mid Amateur in 2012. Knollwood
will only host the first two rounds of stroke play, before the Mid-AM field is
reduced from 312 to 64 players for the match play part of the championship.

The club is fresh off a three year renovation project headed up by architect
Keith Foster, that saw the first year renovate everything from in front of the
tee boxes going forward. In 2010 phase two saw the tees and trees (removal) 
stage completed, and finally the upgrades to the driving range and short game
area finished this year.

"After we go to Beverly in 2014 and Rich Harvest Farms in 2015, Knollwood
will mark our return to the northshore area to hopefully start that cycle
again, " said Western Golf Association VP of Tournaments Vince Pellegrino.
"Knollwood being an Alison designed course and having hosted several
USGA and PGA Championship events, Knollwood is a great club to put
in the rotation. The club had a recent renovations to the greens, tees and
bunkers that looks tremendous. It will be a great test for the worlds best
amateurs."                                                                                                                                                                                  

KNOLLWOODS 174 YARD PAR 3 12TH HOLE                  THE 345 YARD PAR 4 13TH HOLE 

TO HEAR RORY'S INTERVIEWS WITH WGA VP OF TOURNAMENTS VINCE
PELLEGRINO AND ARCHITECT KEITH FOSTER CLICK HERE:

Download | Duration: 00:12:58

Foster talked about the restoration process for Knollwood and putting the
course back into better condition for the members and their guests, while
doing a layout that will be challenging for the 2012 USGA Mid-AM and now
the 2016 Western Amateur.

"What's so fantastic about Knollwood is that it's this great Colt and Alison
golf course, " Foster said. " Alison handled all the work for for Colt in the
United States from about 1922 to 1928 pre the (stock market) crash. He
produced about 20 golf courses, and his work was an obscurity. Nobody
knew much about him."

What made Colt and Alison's work so interesting was the size and scale
of the greens.

"The greens are generally these raised big bold pads with bunkers on
the inside of holes, instead of todays design where bunkers are on the
outsides of holes to frame." Foster said. " Alison had bunkers guarding
and protecting and set up on angles which is a cool look on a big scale.
When he was building these courses there weren't any trees on most
of his courses so these huge green and bunker complexes really stood
out because there was nothing else around it."

Foster went on to say that the original Knollwood green size over 18
holes was about 150,000 square feet, compared to the usual 90,000
on most Chicago area courses. Over the years and because of to
much tree planting, the greens had shrunk to 110,000 feet. As part
of the renovations Knollwoods greens are back to 150,000 square
feet. Tree removal was the first thing Foster noticed that needed to
be done to restore Knollwood to the original design, which was done
to help both the greens and add almost 300 yards of distance.

Knollwood pre renovation played to a back yardage of 6,946, where
now the course measures about 7,250. But some holes have had
the fairways lifted, so golfers won't be landing drives on downslopes
like in the past adding 30-50 yards to their distance. Now the upslope
areas have been moved back which will take some speed off the ball.

The Knollwood Club was opened in 1924, designed by H.S. Colt and
C.H. Alison. The club has hosted the 1956 USGA Amateur, the 1982
USGA Mid-Amateur and the 1986 PGA Cup Matches. It is now ready
for the 2012 USGA Mid-Amateur and the 2016 Western Amateur.