HARTFORD – Standing on the 18th tee box at Erin Hills, you face east, and the Basilica of Holy Hill rises above the old clubhouse. It’s a truly "made for TV" view, especially when you consider that our national championship will be wrapped up on that hole in mid-June of 2017.
Much of the promise of Erin Hills as a U.S. Open venue has been not just about the golf course, but the number of spectators it can hold, the potential for 360-degree viewing areas between multiple green complexes, and scenery on its nearly 300 acres of glacier-cut topography.
While Erin Hills may be made for high-definition with the rippling fescue, it’s a grand stage for the "regular" player, too.
You don’t get "lost" in the view, necessarily, even though you will want to take pictures all day long.
It’s just that it feels big and important (just look at this view from the tee down toward the redesigned green.
It is one of this country’s great golf stages that the public can access, and if you play the right tees it allows you feel like you belong on it, too.
Jim Owczarski is an award-winning sports journalist and comes to Milwaukee by way of the Chicago Sun-Times Media Network.
A three-year Wisconsin resident who has considered Milwaukee a second home for the better part of seven years, he brings to the market experience covering nearly all major and college sports.
To this point in his career, he has been awarded six national Associated Press Sports Editors awards for investigative reporting, feature writing, breaking news and projects. He is also a four-time nominee for the prestigious Peter J. Lisagor Awards for Exemplary Journalism, presented by the Chicago Headline Club, and is a two-time winner for Best Sports Story. He has also won numerous other Illinois Press Association, Illinois Associated Press and Northern Illinois Newspaper Association awards.
Jim's career started in earnest as a North Central College (Naperville, Ill.) senior in 2002 when he received a Richter Fellowship to cover the Chicago White Sox in spring training. He was hired by the Naperville Sun in 2003 and moved on to the Aurora Beacon News in 2007 before joining OnMilwaukee.com.
In that time, he has covered the events, news and personalities that make up the PGA Tour, LPGA Tour, Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Hockey League, NCAA football, baseball and men's and women's basketball as well as boxing, mixed martial arts and various U.S. Olympic teams.
Golf aficionados who venture into Illinois have also read Jim in GOLF Chicago Magazine as well as the Chicago District Golfer and Illinois Golfer magazines.
