Wisconsin has, indeed, become a destination for the biggest of golf tournaments, from U.S. Opens to PGA Championships and a Ryder Cup on the horizon.
But, Milwaukee hasn't had a regular pro golf tour stop since the PGA Tour's U.S. Bank Championship folded its tent in 2009.
That is changing, as Potawatomi Hotel & Casino and the Milwaukee County Parks are helping bring the Symetra Tour, the feeder tour of the LPGA Tour, to Brown Deer Park Golf Course sometime this summer.
The tour, which has helped groom players for the LPGA Tour since 1989, has had a longstanding history with the Potawatomi tribe, with affiliated tournaments in Michigan (the FireKeepers Casino Hotel Championship and Island Resort Championship), Indiana (the Four Winds Invitational in South Bend), and Kansas (Prairie Band Casino & Resort Charity Classic presented by Toyota).
Alumnae of the tour include LPGA Tour stars past and present, including Lorena Ochoa, o Martin, Grace Park and Vicky Hurst.
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.
