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Timothy J. Drzewinski , PGA
1/8
Medinah Country Club
54-Hole Private Facility
Positions
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PGA Interim Director of Golf
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PGA Head Golf Professional
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PGA Assistant Golf Professional
CHICAGO IS HOME
I am originally not from this area. However, over the years I have grown an appreciation for everything Chicago has to offer and met the love of my life right here in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago. I have grown roots to this area and do not intend on leaving. Chicago and Medinah will forever have a special place in my heart.
CONTINUE MOVING FORWARD
2024 - Unveiling of Course #3
2025 - Centennial Celebration
2026 - Presidents Cup
This is the place to be right now! My dedication to Medinah Country Club is unrivaled and I look forward to continuing the movement forward as we head into exciting times around Medinah.
STAFFING PROGRAMS
Medinah Country Club is a special place and it is all because of the people. The community that we have developed over the years is a network within itself and grows exponentially across the golf industry. Click on the PGA Internship/Apprentice Program on the right, which has made tremendous strides. Hiring individuals from all around the world and diversifying our community. This is the foundation to our organizational chart, as we provide them the opportunity to grow into different roles. This model creates a formal "succession" plan, which empowers our staff to prove themselves and allows us to hold everyone on our team accountable.
COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE
Communication is one of the many challenges many clubs face not only to the membership, but across departments. There was a major need to improve the golf department's communication to the membership and across all departments when I first came to the club and I have made it my mission to enhance this aspect of our operation. On the right hand side of this page, please click on the Tee To Green Communications campaign that I implemented in August of 2023 to help communicate all things tee to green related to golf at Medinah to our membership. Between departments, one specific example of enhancing communication are the Weekly Maintenance Schedules I share across departments to ensure everyone knows of golf course scheduling with events to help everyone put their own best foot forward for our members.
INSTITUTIONAL KNOWLEDGE
I have been employed at Medinah Country Club since 2018. With that said, I have had the unique opportunity to have a multitude of responsibilities learning all facets of the golf operation to the highest degree of detail. Being a part of the 2019 BMW Championship, to handling COVID operations, to becoming the Interim Director of Golf for the majority of the 2023 golf season, I have seen what makes this engine run and will continuously look to improve efficiency, service, cleanliness and the overall culture of being a part of the Medinah Country Club community.
PGA Professionals I Worked With
May 2018 - November 2018
May 2019 - Present
General Manager
Dave Schneider
Director of Golf
Marty DeAngelo
Head Golf Professional
Josh Upson
Brandon Moore
Teaching Professionals
Travis Johns
Rich Dukelow
Eva Rogers
Club Fitter
Sean McLeod
Assistant Golf Professionals
Michael Littlejohn
Carolyn Schaner
Nick Pace
Alex Sheehy
Tony Dechiara
Richard Webster
James Lentino
Outside Operations Manager
Bobby Jan
INTERIM DIRECTOR OF GOLF
In the midst of the 2023 golf season, our former Director of Golf, Marty DeAngelo left the club to pursue an opportunity at Grey Oaks Country Club. During this turnover, I assumed the role as Interim Director of Golf for the remainder of the 2023 golf season. This experience in itself has been enlightening and provided me with the exposure I needed to understand the role in more depth. A few details of areas I embraced are below.
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Club Governance - I led and represented the golf operation in all Board meetings, Golf Committee meetings and Leadership Team meetings.
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The Business - I monitored all major revenues and expenses including areas surrounding guest revenue, Monday Outing revenue, expenses in the golf operation and revenues out of The Shop. I worked closely with our CFO assisting him in forecasting.
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Budgeting - I worked through the budgeting process for 2024, which included the fiscal year change, operation expense budget, payroll and capital expenses for golf operations, GLC, The Shop and golf events.
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Calendar & Rules of Play - I worked closely with our Golf Chairman and was heavily involved in the design of the 2024 Golf Calendar and 2024 Rules of Play as it pertains to the membership.
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Communication - I developed and maintained strong communication tactics between departments and the membership.
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Monday Outings - Having led the facilitation of Monday Outings in the 2019 and 2020 season, I have created strong relationships with each group that uses Medinah Country Club for their Monday Outings. As this revenue driven aspect of our operation is directly related to budgeting, I have had to start preparing to sell these outings, dealing with the adversity of the unknowns of Course #3.
2018-2022 WORK EXPERIENCE
I have been employed at Medinah Country Club since the 2018 season. Since the start, I have been exposed to many different areas of the club. Over the years I have been able to grow through these experiences and have ultimately shaped my perspective on operations at this high-end, high-paced facility.
BANDITS
Bandits is the largest men's league that Medinah Country Club has to offer. Over the years, I was responsible for all communication, facilitation and organization of this league. This league takes place on Tuesday nights. It has been a great tool for new members to meet and interact with a large portion of the membership. There is a lot that goes into this league and I will go into more detail below.
ROSTER
The Bandits roster is made up every year and does not carry over season to season. An email is sent out to the membership for male members to sign up for Bandits each season. Their registration is then plugged into Golf Genius, which is where all of the communication stems from. Also, on the Bandits roster are week to week sign ups, which are done through the bandits@medinahcc.org email. It is important to be organized and on top of the roster as it was comprised of 269 members during the 2022 season.
ANNUAL FEES
The annual fee to be a Bandit in 2022 was $175. This annual fee covered weekly payouts, player of the year payouts, tee gifts and much more. The 2019 budget is down below, which lays out everything this annual fee covered during the 2019 season. The entry fee has not changed over the years, so operating budgets year in and year out have been done in similar fashions.
COMMUNICATION
Communication is the most essential skill needed to facilitate a league of this size. Three emails a week were sent out using the bandits@medinahcc.org email. These emails included sign up reminders, pairings and results. See below for a few examples of my communication to the Bandits.
WEEKLY EVENTS
Each week we had a nine hole team competition. In 2017, Medinah Country Club only needed to use nine of the fifty four holes on property. As the Bandits have grown over the past few seasons, we are now using eighteen holes on property and administering two separate competitions. Along with the format of the week, Bandits would compete in an optional $10 cash net and gross skins game. This money was collected at registration. Registration was set up in front of The Shop where the format was explained, tee gifts were handed out if needed, skins game cash was collected and starting hole and group information was provided.
FUNCTIONS
Every weekly event had dinner and drinks following play. Menus, times and locations were all discussed prior to the start of the season and adjusted based on member feedback. While the Bandits are eating and drinking, it was my responsibility to score the event and calculate the skins. Once this was completed, I would bring the results up to the function, get ridiculed as I was put on the clock, announced the winners and handed out the awards.
BANDITS CUP
The Bandits Cup is the Bandits season long, player of the year format. Each week I would award individuals an allocated amount of points based on where their team finished that week. See below for documentation regarding the most acclaimed award in the Bandits.
HIGHLIGHTS
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The total number of Bandits has increased over the years with 96 Bandits in 2017 and now 269 in the 2022 season.
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The total number of average Bandits weekly rounds has increased from 39 in 2017 to 113 in the 2022 season. See below for more information as it pertains to weekly rounds.
ADMINISTRATION
STAFFING
The Medinah Country Club golf operation has upwards of 55 employees in peak season. With this large of a staff, there is a lot of leg work that goes into assembling it year in and year out.
RECRUITING/ONBOARDING
At the end of August of the prior year is when the recruitment of our staff kicks into full swing. The first place we start is with PGA/PGM University Programs. With many college students heading back to school in August, the career-driven individuals will look to start their internship search for the following year as soon as they get back to school for their fall semesters. Being heavily involved in the PGA/PGM University Program myself, I have built strong relationships and a network with the directors from the schools that have accredited PGA/PGM Programs. Using the PGA Internship at Medinah Booklet, I send this out to each program and start setting up phone interviews with any interested candidates.
MENTORING/TRAINING
Once we have our staff in place and they begin to arrive for the season, mentoring and training are critical. The majority of our golf staff are PGA Interns/Apprentices who all aspire to have a career in golf. Setting and leading by example is of the utmost importance when shaping the career paths for these future leaders of our industry.
SUCCESSION PLAN
The succession plan that we have in place provides less turnover and more opportunity for our staff to grow within our operation versus using Medinah Country Club as a springboard to their next opportunity. The way we have our organizational chart setup provides our PGA Interns/Apprentices the chance to prove themselves and work their way up from outside operations to assisting in The Shop and working closely with the Professional Staff in tournament operations, merchandising, etc. I am constantly looking for ways to improve upon this. It is crucial for our department's morale.
TEE SHEET CONSTRUCTION
In 2018, we operated three golf courses using pen and paper tee sheets and one POS tee sheet that we manually had to bill through each round and transportation. The accounting disputes came flying in from all directions, we were constantly billing out transportation incorrectly due to operating processes. It was such an issue, that I was given the responsibility to handle these disputes. I took it upon myself to come up with a model that would improve the most important aspect to our day-to-day operation, tee sheet management. Over the offseason, we made the switch to MembersFirst where I was solely involved with constructing a lottery system for guest tee times, mobile site for our starters to be able to utilize when checking in individuals on the first tee and making our complex member structure communicate properly with the software.
POINT OF SALE CLUB-WIDE CHANGE
In 2019, we made a switch from UBS to Jonas POS Software. This change was a big project as it pertained to our merchandise, switching over SKUs, doing inventory and relearning and documenting SOPs for receiving inventory, processing special orders, etc.
EVENT REGISTRATIONS
Beginning in 2019, we decided that pen and paper registrations for events was not effective whatsoever. After a few meetings with Danza, we decided to take advantage of the Club Calendar on the Medinah website to have a home for all event registration information and conduct registrations online. This has been seamless over the years, and timestamps registrations giving us important information as it pertains to waitlists.
SCOREBOARDS
As part of the Professional Staff we needed to work together on the tournament operation. One of the main responsibilities I got asked to do time and time again were making the scorecards. With previous experience in mail merging and Microsoft Publisher at other facilities I was prepared. See below for some pictures of my work.
2019 BMW CHAMPIONSHIP
The 2019 BMW Championship was one of the coolest experiences I had the pleasure of enjoying in my career. The WGA came in and ran the tournament operation, but there were some tasks they delegated to the Medinah Country Club Staff that will be described below.
OUTINGS
I was responsible for facilitating all outings related to the BMW Championship. There was a total of four outings associated with the event. BMW Championship Media Day Outing, WGA Annual Board Meeting Outing, Caddies to College Outing, and Monday After Outing were the outings I facilitated related to the BMW Championship.
LOCKER ROOM
As boxes arrived for player's gear, we were responsible for receiving it and organizing it to allow vendor representatives to easily stock respective player lockers with gear they needed to compete. As players arrived we were responsible for directing them to their lockers and service. One main service was collecting laundry, tagging it and ensuring the cleaning service company had it arrive the next day. We were also there to help the locker room attendants with anything they may have needed help with.
DRIVING RANGE
Medinah Country Club Golf Staff's main responsibility was driving range operations. Everything from separating golf ball brands, cleaning balls, picking the range, setting the range and setting up the flag locations on the driving range was a broad spectrum of what we had to get done. Another aspect of the driving range operation was the Top Golf driving range that spectators enjoyed. We were responsible for cleaning that and restocking Top Golf with their balls every couple hours throughout the day.
PLAYER'S BAG ROOM
The Medinah Country Club Golf Staff was responsible for organizing and monitoring the player's bag room. Only caddies and players were allowed to carry bags away from this location. The WGA required that all bags were stored in this locked facility every night. Therefore, we needed to communicate this with the player caddies and move any bags left in the locker room to the player's bag room.
OUTINGS
One of my larger responsibilities since I started working at Medinah Country Club has been coordinating all outings for the club. Following my first year I was then given this responsibility when our Tournament Director moved on from Medinah Country Club. Accounting for approximately $1,750,000+ in annual revenue for the operation, this was a very important role that required a lot of communication, organization, delegation and time. With 39 outings ranging anywhere from 16 to 460 players in 2019, there were specific tasks that went into the facilitation of each and every one of them. See below for a snip bit of what goes into running one of the largest outings in the golf industry.
COSTCO OUTING
The Costco Outing is our largest outing every season. With approximately 460 players, this event requires a ton of planning, organization, delegation and preparation.
INITIAL MEETING
Following the completion of the outing contract, it was my responsibility to reach out to the group contact and schedule an initial meeting. In this meeting we went over all the logistics for the event. Our Catering Director also sat in on this meeting to go over anything not related to the golf side. Since there was a lot to go over, I used the event summary document attached above to make sure we covered all logistics regarding the outing. A completed event summary from the 2019 Costco Outing is also below.
BANQUET EVENT ORDER (BEO)
The BEO was very important as it outlined all F&B and Setup Departments responsibilities. As part of the logistics initial meeting it was important to make sure this document matched everything from a golf stand point. Times and locations were key as we needed all hands on deck for this outing. The BEO is attached below.
OUTSOURCING
An outing of this size required a lot of planning as we needed to accommodate for 460 players. Since our golf cart fleet is only big enough for around 380 players we did not have the resources. Therefore, we reached out to Club Car and rented 48 extra golf carts and borrowed a handful from our neighboring golf facility, Eaglewood Resort. This way we had enough carts for all players, staff, event staff and vendors. Another resource that we could not accommodate in house, were the rental sets. It was important that Costco communicated with their participants in order to give us an idea of how many rental sets were needed. From their registration forms they provided they needed 80 total sets. With only 25 rental sets on property we outsourced this using Clubhub. Knowing that there would be a few last minute rental set requests, we ended up ordering 90 rental sets from Clubhub and used as many of our own that we needed. Ultimately, in 2019, the Costco Outing used 109 rental sets.
COMMUNICATION
Communication was one of the most important skills when organizing events of this caliber. Constant emailing and phone calls to clear up details leading up to the event was something I underestimated. The day of the event, communication was even more important. Not only with the group contact, but with Medinah Country Club Staff in all departments.
STAFF DELEGATION
Delegation is a tool that I have been improving, mainly through my outing responsibility. The Costco Outing required a ton of staff delegating and I needed to plan it out to make sure all areas were covered. These areas included the bag drop, driving range, vendor registration, vendor operations, rental set operation, The Shop operations, tee gift organization, signage duties, golf cart staging area and much more. It was important that all areas were covered and we were as well prepared as we could be prior to participant arrival.
VISAGE
Visage GPS is something that Medinah Country Club is beginning to get familiar with. Having prior knowledge to Visage GPS working at Ocean Reef Club and Roaring Fork Club, I was able to teach others and provide a service new to many eyes at the club. This also brought in a new revenue stream for outings as we now charge for services, where before it was not even used. For the Costco Outing I made a home screen and a few hole screens that would pop up at particular locations. Examples of those are below.
TOURNAMENT DOCUMENTATION
Once the pairings were sent to me four days prior to event, it was time to start setting it up in Event-Man. Setting this up a few days prior to the event allowed me to inform the Caddie Master our caddie needs and made it easier to deal with last minute changes in player names or groups. The day before the event it was time to print all tournament documentation. This included proxies, scorecards, scorecard backs, stickers to tag guest bags, cart signs, alpha sheets and any signage we were needed to make.
SETUP
It was important to have everything setup prior to the participants arriving. This included registration, hole signage, the golf cart staging area, bag drop, vendor registration and much more. I did not want anyone from the event seeing us setup. This required us to be finished setting up as much as possible four hours prior to the shotgun start time.
VENDORS
One of the most demanding aspects of outing operations was accommodating for the sponsored vendors on the golf courses. With roughly 60 different locations and 36 different vendors, a lot of logistics went into this aspect of the Costco event. Communicating with the Security Department, giving me clearance to open the back entrance to the club was key to bag drop operations as it directed vendor traffic through a different entrance. Providing Costco with arrival instructions and a vendor map, they then relayed this information with their vendors. Vendor documentation and signage is attached below.
PRE-SHOTGUN
As players arrived, it was a lot to manage. Being as prepared as possible allowed us to focus on last minute needs of the group. This is why planning was key to the overall success of the event. Having the cart staging area in one location in front of the clubhouse allowed us to stagger shotgun start times based on course pace of play and field size in each shotgun. It also allowed me to give announcements at three separate times without needing to move the PA system.
DURING PLAY
During play was time to get organized for players to finish and replenish any vendor needs. This is also when I would drive onto the golf course, audit the number of players on each course and charge the event.
POST-SHOTGUN
All hands on deck were required when participants started finishing. We had to account for all rental sets, distinguish carts based on where they were being returned to the next day, collect over one hundred scorecards, score the event for each course, provide a result sheet at their dinner function and hand out awards.
WRAP UP
This event was one of the biggest learning experiences I have ever had working in this industry. This event taught me many skills that I will be able to develop and use in different ways in my career. Some skills included time management, delegation, organization, communication, stress management and many more.
I led the facilitation of outings in the 2019 and 2020 seasons.
CLUB REPAIR
Club repair services for a membership of 1000+ members requires organization and prioritizing of tasks. Fortunately, we had the resources necessary to provide a great service for the membership. With Chicago Bills right down the road, any club repair that could not be handled in-house was done offsite. J&M Golf is our club repair materials vendor who would deliver any grips we needed overnight as they were local as well. Having these resources allows us to provide world-class service to our members and create an annual revenue stream for the operation upwards of $20,000+.
ILLINI WOMEN'S INVITATIONAL
The Illini Women's Invitational at Medinah is an event that started in 2018. Given the lead on this event since the inception of the event, I have had the pleasure of growing relationships with the University of Illinois coaching staff and have been a part of its continued growth.
SCOREBOARDS
Responsible for creating the scoreboards that would be on display was a task that I took a lot time working on and it showcased my Microsoft Publisher skills. Using the branding guidelines of all the schools for colors and fonts I then made some attractive scoreboards. One of the better scoreboards I made from scratch. See below for a picture and pdf of the scoreboard.
PIN SHEETS/MARKING THE COURSE
The University of Illinois coaches worked directly with me when it came to preparing the golf course for tournament play. This involved everything from dotting pin locations, marking the penalty areas/GUR, to setting tee locations. It was my task to use Event-Man to produce pin sheets that would then be provided to the contestants. Those are attached below.
RANGE SIGNS
Driving range setup was one of our main responsibilities. Creating range signs from scratch was one of our tasks. Those are attached below. Similar to the scoreboards, I used branding guidelines for fonts and colors of all the schools.
FLAGS
A nice touch to the event was displaying school flags around the back putting green and in front of the clubhouse (aside from 2023 when the front putting green was close). Pictures are in the slideshow below.
CART STAGING
Cart staging was important as we needed carts to get players to their starting holes, carts for coaches and carts for staff, volunteers and rules officials.
SCORING
Golfstat was responsible for scoring the event and collecting scorecards. From here it was my task to perform calligraphy and gather information on the scores from Golfstat Staff. See the picture below.
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