Suleyman Girit, District 2420 Foundation Chair from Istanbul exchanges flags with Wendy
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Prospect Heights Mayor Nick Helmer and Wendy
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Golf historian Charlie Toss and Wendy
 
We certainly had a full agenda today!
 
Let's start with the guests.  We had Mayor Nick Helmer of Prospect Heights as well as Prospect Heights City Manager (and Wheeling club member) Bill Balling in attendance.  We also welcomed Marc Heidcamp, golf pro at Old Orchard and Charlie Tawse, Marc's long time friend, mentor and golf historian.   But the award for Guest Who Traveled the Farthest goes to Suleyman Girit who comes to us via his club in Istanbul, Turkey.  Suleyman is also the Foundation Chair for District 2420.
 
Bill Balling gave a short account of his just-completed trip to Guatemala with the Wheeling and Buffalo Grove clubs.  They worked on improving the safety at a high school clubs in our area have been sponsoring. 
 
Alex talked about a volunteer opportunity at the Library where people help others improve their spoken English.  The volunteer meets with their person once a week for an hour and just talk.  It's a very low pressure environment designed to help the person learning English to improve their skills. 
 
Mayor Helmer gave a state of the city talk, summarizing the progress Prospect Heights has made over the past four years and where he plans to lead over the next four years.  One major accomplishment was improving contentious relations with Wheeling.  Working together, the city and village were able to address the chronic flooding along the Des Plaines River by building a levy.  The two also resolved a long-standing dispute over revenue sharing at the Chicago Executive Airport.
 
The City has also taken steps to put the former 'Arena Property' to use.  They recently sold off a portion of the 15 acres and have proposals for much of the remaining land.  Recently installed welcome signs along the main roads will give visitors a better sense that they are in Prospect Heights.
 
Despite the successful Ultra Foods occupying the long vacant Dominick's location, there are still 87 vacant stores and officers in the City.  The Mayor intends to use the newly complete comprehensive plan to fill them.  He also wants to improve the area near the train station and establish a successful farmers market. 
 
Our main speaker today was Charlie Towes.  Charlie is a longtime golf pro, PGA Tour player and golf historian.  He shared with us how golf developed in Scotland.  Where bored shepherds would see who could hit a rock with a stick the farthest (eventually how many whacks it took to reach a target, eventually a rabbit hole).  Charlie told us that the word caddy came from cadet, the young men Mary Queen of Scots used to carry her clubs when she played.  
 
And he told us of Old Tom Morris and his son, Young Tom Morris.  The two dominated the early years of The Open, winning eight of the first twelve Opens between them.  When Young Tom won his third straight Open in 1870, he was able to claim permanent ownership of the Championship Belt.  Because there was no prize to offer in 1871, there was no tournament.  In 1872, Young Tom won again, earning a medal.  It was only in 1873 that the Claret Jug.