Illinois

Golfing in Illinois

Published

1 year ago

August 21, 2024

Today’s story is the answer to the August 2024 puzzler.

The suburbs north and west of Chicago contain golf courses—lots of them. At least ten courses dot the landscape in the Landsat 8 image above, captured by the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on June 14, 2024. The image below shows a broader view of the same image, with dozens of courses visible.

The short grasses in the fairways appear as the caterpillar-shaped light-green features flanked by the darker greens of the rough—often tall fescue or other grass varieties that are allowed to grow to a greater height. In satellite imagery, many courses are speckled with bright and dark patches, the water and sand hazards that golfers avoid.

Despite the large number of golf courses in this part of Cook County and in the region more broadly, other U.S. metro areas have an even higher density of courses per capita. The Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island area in southwestern Florida ranks especially high, according to one analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Florida is also the state with the most golf courses in total (1,262), according to the National Golf Foundation. That’s 31 percent more than California, the state with the second-most courses. Outside the U.S., only three countries have more than the state of Florida: Japan, the United Kingdom, and Canada.

But there’s one other way this part of Illinois stands out that golfers will appreciate. It’s home to the village of Golf, a small community of 160 households west of Glen View Club, one of the oldest 18-hole courses in the United States. The local train station—and later the village—were named Golf, in part because Albert Earling, a member of Glen View Club and the president of the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad company, had the company establish a special train station where he could unhitch his private train car from trains going north before hitting the greens, according to Golf Magazine.

Though numbers have declined in recent decades, the U.S. still had around 16,000 golf courses as of 2024, or about 42 percent of the world’s total. The game requires a large amount of space compared to other sports—about five times more per player than doubles tennis and 37 times more per player than basketball.

All those golf courses cover about 2 million acres, or less than 0.1 percent of the U.S. land surface area. That’s still an area larger than the state of Delaware and more than all the land used to raise Christmas trees, according to an analysis of U.S. land use conducted by Bloomberg. For comparison, the amount of land devoted to feeding livestock, the largest use of land in the U.S., spanned 781 million acres, or 41 percent of the contiguous U.S., the analysis concluded. The analysis was based, in part, on the National Land Cover Database, which is built on satellite observations from the Landsat program, a series of Earth-observing missions jointly managed by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey.

NASA and the sport of golf have intersected in intriguing ways over the decades. NASA’s honing of an innovative type of threading technology in the 1980s to make screws on the International Space Station extra resistant to vibration eventually led to a sporting goods company achieving the lowest-ever center of gravity in a golf club, NASA Spinoff reported.

A famous connection to the game came in 1971, when astronaut Alan Shepherd attached a 6-iron head to a tool designed to pick up lunar rock samples and hit two golf balls from the surface of the Moon. Shepherd shanked the first shot into a nearby crater but hit the second ball more solidly, propelling it “miles and miles and miles,” the astronaut joked at the time. Three decades later, image restoration by science writer Andy Saunders worked out the exact distances that each of Shepherd’s “moon shots” flew: 24 yards (22 meters) for ball number 1 and 40 yards (37 meters) for ball number 2, Saunders reported in a story for the United States Golf Association.

How far could a golfer theoretically hit a golf ball on the Moon if they were unencumbered by a space suit, like Shepherd was? “If 2016 PGA champion and space enthusiast Jimmy Walker replicated his Earthbound ball speed of 185 miles per hour on the Moon, and used a club that would ensure a 45 degree launch angle, it would travel 2.62 miles (4,611 yards) and stay in the air for more than one minute,” Saunders wrote. “Literally, ‘miles and miles and miles…’.”

NASA Earth Observatory images by Wanmei Liang, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Adam Voiland.

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Illinois

Illinois’ ceiling was on display in St. Louis

Published

4 hours ago

December 26, 2025

Press Room

Illinois’ ceiling was on display in St. Louis

For the past several seasons, Illinois has had “as high of a ceiling” as virtually any program in the nation.

The full height of that ceiling was on display in St. Louis last night. Not just offensively, but defensively as well.

The historic whooping of rival Missouri showed the Illinois fanbase the true potential of this year’s roster, which felt much needed after a disappointing loss to Nebraska at home a week prior.

On offense, Illinois looked like the juggernaut that we’ve grown accustomed to seeing over the past half-decade or so. 91 points, 15 made threes, 20 assists, and full control over the rebounding battle helped keep the Illini in control over the Tigers all night.

Keaton Wagler continued his sensational freshman campaign, posting 22 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 assists. Tomislav Ivisic and Andrej Stojakovic combined for 30 points and 5 made threes. Star senior Kylan Boswell was relatively quiet, but the rest of the Illini supporting cast stepped up. That’s the beauty of a deep and absurdly talented roster.

We could talk at length about how special Illinois is on the offensive side of the ball. They look dominant as a full unit and have a number of stars that can give you an Earth-shattering individual performance on any given night. There’s a reason they’re ranked second in offensive efficiency on KenPom, Bart Torvik, and Haslametrics. The offense is simply that good.

The Illini defense on the other hand…hasn’t always fit the bill. Despite a solid defensive efficiency rating on metric sites like KenPom, I think it’s fair to say that the Illinois defense hadn’t passed the eye test until Monday night in St. Louis.

Camryn Crocker’s group did hold Tennessee to 62 points in Nashville, but it surrendered 23 offensive rebounds and gave the Volunteers more than enough opportunities to put up points. The team’s defensive performance against Tennessee wasn’t even in the same stratosphere as their effort against Missouri.

Missouri scored just 48 points. The Tigers shot 29% from the field and 27% from beyond the arc. They recorded 10 turnovers compared to just 6 assists. Illinois won the rebounding battle by 19. Missouri had 8 shots sent back at them.

You’d be a fool to expect Illinois to look like that every single outing. Illinois does have some great individual defenders in Kylan Boswell and Zvonimir Ivisic and the majority of the rotation can at least hold their own individually. The overall team defense hasn’t been up to par this year though.

JT Toppin went for 35 against the Illini. Labaron Philon had 24. Bruce Thornton put up 34. Pryce Sandfort posted a career-high 32. For a few minutes it looked like Missouri’s Anthony Robinson II was well on his way to a great scoring night, but Illinois eventually put him in check.

Letting a player go for a career-high isn’t necessarily the worst strategy in the world. It’s unlikely that one guy can beat your entire team, especially with the offensive firepower that Illinois possesses this season. When Illinois fans complain about an opposing player going nuclear, I think it has more to do with the frustration that comes from the self-inflicted mistakes that Illinois players have been making defensively rather than the agony that results from someone making a tough shot.

Everyone knows that the Illini defense can be better. Simple miscommunications, blown switches, and basic scouting report errors seem to have plagued the defensive unit in critical moments early on this season. That can be fixed. It definitely looked a whole lot better against Missouri.

Illinois has made an interesting adjustment on the defensive end this year. In Brad Underwood’s first eight years at the helm, Illinois ranked top-100 in the nation in defensive 3PA/FGA rate. They ranked top-40 each of the last six years and top-10 each of the last two years. They rank 177th so far this season.

Instead of defending the three-point line like their lives depend on it, Illinois has let opponents launch away. 35.9% of opponents’ points have come from threes this season, compared to just 27.0% last season.

Missouri launched 22 threes on Monday night, making just six. When they tried to drive the ball, Zvonimir Ivisic wreaked havoc in the paint. Illinois got some great defensive performances individually as well. Keaton Wagler stuck out to me personally.

With a handful of new players and a huge schematic adjustment like Illinois made this offseason, there were bound to be some growing pains as a defensive unit. A dominant performance against Missouri was a step in the right direction.

In order to win games late in March, a team needs both a great offense and a great defense. We know that Illinois has at least one of the two. In St. Louis, we saw a glimpse of the other begin to emerge.

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Illinois

Pedestrian dead after fatal train collision in Camp Point, Illinois

Published

16 hours ago

December 25, 2025

Press Room

Pedestrian dead after fatal train collision in Camp Point, Illinois

CAMP POINT, Ill. (WGEM) – A pedestrian was killed after being struck by a train in Camp Point Thursday afternoon.

An Amtrak train struck a pedestrian at the railroad crossing at North Ohio Street near East State Street, according to the Adams County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO).

The Adams County Coroner pronounced the pedestrian dead on the scene.

Illinois, South Ohio and West and East Jefferson streets in Camp Point were blocked off for the duration of the investigation.

The ACSO stated the coroner will release more information at a later time.

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Illinois

Central Illinois couple spends golden years serving others

Published

1 day ago

December 25, 2025

Press Room

Central Illinois couple spends golden years serving others

PEORIA (25News Now) – One Central Illinois couple is spending their golden years trying to make the world a better place.

Sandy and Phillip Anton have been volunteering at Midwest Food Bank since 2022. Sandy interacts with clients, helping them get checked in and pick out good food. Phillip is the one who operates the overhead door so that volunteers can load up the vehicles. Both of them are trained in other roles as well.

“We’ve been aware, through family and community connections, of the need, of food insecurity. We know the need is out there. We made a purposeful decision to focus our retirement on food insecurity,” Sandy said.

The food bank praised the couple for their skill at interacting with the community. The organization do much of their work with the help of volunteers like the Antons.

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