October 03, 1998
When the Texas A&M men's golf team begins play in the Windon Memorial Classic on Monday near Chicago, the setting is sure to bring back many memories for Aggies head coach Bob Ellis.
The tournament is being played at North Shore Country Club in Glenview, Ill., where Ellis began his life-long love affair with golf as an 11-year-old caddy. He later ran the club's driving range as a high school student. The course played host to the 1933 U.S. Open and the 1939 and 1983 U.S. Amateers.
"I practically grew up on that golf course," Ellis said. "My brother, Ace, is still a member there. It was a neat feeling when I heard they decided to play this tournament there. It is truly a great golf course and it will bring back a lot of fond memories."
The tournament will consist of 36 holes on Monday and 18 on Tuesday for a total of 54 holes. Play begins at 7:30 a.m. each day.
In addition to A&M, the 12-team field includes No. 11-ranked Florida, No. 13 Minnesota, No. 19 Northwestern, No. 20 Texas, No. 21 Oklahoma, Stanford, Duke, Kent, Miami (Ohio), Northwestern, Tulsa and Wake Forest. Among the top individual players in the field are defending NCAA champion James McLean of Minnesota and Stanford's Joel Kribel, the 1998 NCAA runner-up.
Representing A&M will be junior Lee Reed, senior Matt Welch, senior Ryan Palmer, sophomore Casey Cronin and sophomore Ryan Tull. The Aggies are coming off an18th-place finish at the Tucker Intercollegiate Sept. 19 in Albuquerque.
"We had a good team meeting the other day and the players have been putting out good effort, better than at the start of the year," Ellis said. "Hopefully, that will start paying off for us."
The Windon Memorial Classic originally was called the Quintessence Classic, but was renamed after one of the tournament's founders upon his death in 1993. The tournament was last played in 1995, but was not held the past two years as Northwestern played host to the 1996 Ping/Golfweek Preview and the 1997 NCAA Championships.
Texas A&M was the co-champion in 1994 along with Minnesota, as the Aggies' Anthony Rodriguez won the individual title. Among the previous individual champions and runners-up are Stanford's Casey Martin and Tiger Woods.