Mistwood Golf Club Prepares to Host WWGA National Amateur Championship this Summer By Brian Weis

Mistwood Golf Club Prepares to Host WWGA National Amateur Championship this Summer

Chicago's premier public facility hosts the 118th version of one of women's most prestigious amateur tournaments

By Brian Weis

Mistwood Golf Club, one of the Chicago area's top golf facilities, will host the 118th Women's Western Golf Association's (WWGA) National Amateur Championship June 25-30.

The WWGA event, one of the oldest and most prestigious women's amateur championships, has built a storied history through annually providing competition for 120 of the top-ranked amateur women from around the world.

Many of golf's greatest are past champions including Nancy Lopez, Patty Berg, Joanne Carner, Beth Daniel, Grace Park, Cristie Kerr, Louise Suggs, Kathy Whitworth, Mickey Wright, Babe Zaharias, Patricia Lesser, Brittany Lang, and Stacy Lewis.

"The Mistwood staff is eagerly anticipating the 118th Women's Western Amateur," Tournament Chairman Cece Durbin, WWGA's first vice-president, said. "The club has hosted numerous professional and amateur tournaments including 19 Illinois Women's Opens. The scenic course, which winds around two large quarry ponds, will provide a challenge to every player. The WWGA is excited to be at one of the best courses in the Chicago area."

For the past two decades Mistwood has been home to the top women's championship in Illinois - the Phil Kosin Illinois Women's Open. Mistwood Golf Club's owner, Jim McWethy, has been very passionate in his mission to bring high-level golf events to his facility, and has always been an advocate of women's golf.

An award-winning renovation in recent years was accomplished because McWethy wanted to create a destination experience for golfers from Chicago and throughout the Midwest. He is pleased that the world's top amateur women will see it this summer.

"Everything we have done with Mistwood in recent years has been in preparation to host prestigious events like the Women's Western Golf Association's National Amateur Championship," he said. "We are very excited to be working with the WWGA hosting the top women amateurs from around the World and believe all of the players will be impressed with the facilities."

The WWGA Amateur Championship is open to amateur female golfers with a USGA Handicap Index not to exceed 7.4. The format is match play following a 36-hole stroke play qualifier to determine the Championship Flight of 32.

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About: Brian Weis

Brian Weis is the mastermind behind GolfTrips.com, a vast network of golf travel and directory sites covering everything from the rolling fairways of Wisconsin to the sunbaked desert layouts of Arizona. If there’s a golf destination worth visiting, chances are, Brian has written about it, played it, or at the very least, found a way to justify a "business trip" there.

As a card-carrying member of the Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA), International Network of Golf (ING), Golf Travel Writers of America (GTWA), International Golf Travel Writers Association (IGTWA), and The Society of Hickory Golfers (SoHG), Brian has the credentials to prove that talking about golf is his full-time job. In 2016, his peers even handed him The Shaheen Cup, a prestigious award in golf travel writing—essentially the Masters green jacket for guys who don’t hit the range but still know where the best 19th holes are.

Brian’s love for golf goes way back. As a kid, he competed in junior and high school golf, only to realize that his dreams of a college golf scholarship had about the same odds as a 30-handicap making a hole-in-one. Instead, he took the more practical route—working on the West Bend Country Club grounds crew to fund his University of Wisconsin education. Little did he know that mowing greens and fixing divots would one day lead to a career writing about the best courses on the planet.

In 2004, Brian turned his golf passion into a business, launching GolfWisconsin.com. Three years later, he expanded his vision, and GolfTrips.com was born—a one-stop shop for golf travel junkies looking for their next tee time. Today, his empire spans all 50 states, and 20+ international destinations.

On the course, Brian is a weekend warrior who oscillates between a 5 and 9 handicap, depending on how much he's been traveling (or how generous he’s feeling with his scorecard). His signature move" A high, soft fade that his playing partners affectionately (or not-so-affectionately) call "The Weis Slice." But when he catches one clean, his 300+ yard drives remind everyone that while he may write about golf for a living, he can still send a ball into the next zip code with the best of them.

Whether he’s hunting down the best public courses, digging up hidden gems, or simply outdriving his buddies, Brian Weis is living proof that golf is more than a game—it’s a way of life.