CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) -
The best golfers on the planet gather at the Medinah Country Club this week to battle it out for world supremacy. The Ryder Cup is a huge event, not only for golf, but for business as well.
The golf course will host 40,000 people a day, when the competition begins on Wednesday.
In terms of pumping money into the local economy, an anticipated $130 million will come to businesses in the Northwestern suburbs, through hotels, restaurants, limo companies and other golf courses hosting visiting athletes and spectators.
Medinah has set up a spectator gallery, practice putting green, and a village within a village near the first hole. That village included 77 tents worth of sponsors, called "chalets."
Celebrities and sports greats will play at Medinah Country Club Tuesday, before the Ryder Cup beings. People like Ernie Banks, Dan Hampton, Scottie Pippen, Bill Murray and Justin Timberlake will be there.
The Club was founded in 1924 by the Medinah Shriners. By the late 1920s, it had approximately 1,500 golfing and social members.
The Great Depression forced many members to quit, and the club struggled for many years. Only after World War II did the country club begin to surge again.
Medinah has three golf courses. But by far the crown jewel is course No. 3, which has hosted three U.S. Opens, two PGA Championships and now, the Ryder Cup.
The course has seen several re-designs over the years. Monday's version is nothing short of spectacular - beautiful trees, gorgeous green fairways, finely manicured greens.
No one has enjoyed the riches of Medinah more that Tiger Woods, winning the PGA in 1999 and again in 2006.
Medinah Country Club is the perfect setting for the Ryder Cup, where the prize is not measured in dollars and cents, but more for the love of the game, a pride in country and in team.
Hundreds of millions of golf fans worldwide will be watching on TV. Numbers in excess of 400 million, maybe even 600 million viewers are expected to watch the proceedings by the time they're all summed up on Sunday.
