Author: lenz

The Landings will wow golfers with its numbers in Savannah

The Tom Fazio-designed Deer Creek was a tournament site on the International Network of Golf program.

 

 

SAVANNAH, Ga. – The International Network of Golf scheduled its Spring Forum at The Landings Golf & Athletic Club.  While it was a much different venue than the ones used in the past, the decision to go to The Landings was a good one for lots of reasons.

A key word in describing The Landings is that it’s different and that should – by all means– be taken in a good way.

Maybe the best way to describe The Landings is by the numbers.  They’re impressive.

There’s six golf courses, 31 tennis courts, 22 pickleball courts, eight Bocce courts, a 52,000-square foot fitness and wellness center, three outdoor swimming pools, four golf clubhouses, nine dining venues plus a food truck and a golf performance center.

With nine dining venues  The Landings can always put on a good food spread. (Joy Sarver Photos)

These numbers might interest you, too.

The Landings has 7,500 total members, and over 1,100 children under 18.  Ninety-two members are non-residents. The median age is between 65 and 66.  There’s 1,725 golf memberships.

“We are golf centric,’’ said director of marketing Gary Lorfano noting that the club on Skidaway Island hosts a $1 million event on the Korn Ferry Tour called the Club Car Open. Last year 180,000 rounds were played on The Landings courses with women accounting for 50 percent of the play.

The tee time policy is interesting.  Players sign up to play on a certain date, but club officials determine the course you play as well as the tee time. All six courses are open together only on Sundays, allowing for more time for maintenance procedures.

Water is a frequent factor on The Landings’ challenging Palmetto course.

Make no mistake, though.  The Landings vision is “to be the most desirable private residential golf, athletic and social club in the Southeast.’’

“We want our club to be indispensable in our members’ lives,’’ said Steven Freund, The Landings executive director.  “They must live there.  It’s not a must play there.  We come together because we love this game.’’

Two of The Landings courses, Marshwood and Magnolia, were designed by Arnold Palmer.  Two others, Palmetto and Oakridge, had Arthur Hills and Bill Bergin are co-designers.  Tom Fazio designed Deer Creek and Willard Byrd created Terrapin Point – a layout that will soon be renovated by Davis Love III.

Steven Freund, (left) executive director of The Landings, and Gary Lorfano (right), the membership, marketing and communications director, were among the speakers at the ING Spring Forum.

The Landings opened in 1972 with Branigan its original owner. Freund has been aboard for nearly 17 years and The Landings has come a long way since he arrived.

“At first we didn’t have money.  We had to deal with a real leadership issue.  We had to deal with organizational disfunction,’’ said Freund.

“I came from the luxury hotel world,’’ he said.  “We don’t want to turn into a resort.  We’re a private residential area that has touches of a resort. We’re addicted to golf.’’

After coming from Reynolds Lake Oconee, in Georgia, he’s built a staff that shares his passion for The Landings’ future.

“What we are can’t be our future, because we’ll die,’’ said Freund.  “We want to be the  most desirable, remarkable value for our members. Ten-fifteen years ago we were just thinking about survival.  Now we’re large, and we need to be more human.  Private clubs now can make a difference.  They should be a reward for a life well lived.’’

The Landings has 4,350 rooftops (which means homes) and a little over 8,000 residents, plus there’s a few non-members that swell Skidaway Island’s population to about 10,000.

Full club (golf) initiation fees in 2026 are $80,000.  It’s $40,000 for athletic initiation. Associate golf memberships start at $50,000 and national golf ones are $35,000.

For more information contact The Landings at www.LandingsClub.com or call 912-598-8050

International Network of Golf members turned out for the Durland Scramble at The Landings.

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Hardy makes it to the U.S. Open again

 

Northbrook’s Nick Hardy has had better seasons as a golf touring pro. The former Illinois star was a PGA Tour regular and even won a tournament – the Zurich Classic of New Orleans team event in 2023 – but he’s struggled this season on the Korn Ferry Tour.

Hardy, 30, survived the 36-hole cut in four of his six starts but his best finish was only a tie for 36th on the PGA’s alternate circuit, but good days may be returning. On Monday he qualified for the U.S. Open for the the fifth time thanks a tie for third in the final qualifier played at Springfield Country Club in Ohio.

Five berths in the 156-man finals at New York’s Shinnecock Hills in two weeks were on the line at Springfield. Hardy used that course as a road to his previous Opens and made a big splash in the tournament proper with a tie for 14th in 2022 at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass.

Hardy survived “Golf’s Longest Day’’ – when 10 final qualifiers are staged around the country — for the first time in 2015. This time he shot 65-68 to share third with PGA Tour veteran Billy Horschel and Northwestern alum Dylan Wu in the 36-hole competition. They were are 7-under-par 133. Neal Shipley, from Pittsburgh, and Zac Blair, of Orem, Utah, matched the day’s low scores at 8-under 132.

There were only nine Illinois-connected players in Monday’s final qualifiers.  Other than Hardy and Wu, only Andy Svoboda, the recently-crowned Illinois PGA Match Play champion, came close to surviving.  He was the second alternate in the elimination at Purchase, N.Y.

This year’s Open had 10,201 entries, one shy of the tournament record set in 2025. Most had to survive 108 local qualifiers — 18-hole eliminations held between April 20 and May 18 — to compete on Monday. Entrants had to either be professionals or have a handicap index that didn’t exceed 0.4 to enter the U.S. Open.

ILLINOIS PGA:  Vince India, a long-time Korn Ferry Tour member now working at North Shore Country Club in Glenview, won the Section’s Assistants Championship at Bryn Mawr, in Lincolnwood.  He tied the course record with an opening round 10-under-par 62 and finished the 36-hole competition at 18-under 126.

“It’s nice to play competitive golf,’’ said India, a two-time winner of the Illinois Open.  “The less golf I play, the more I appreciate it, and the more fun I have.  It was nice to play good golf for the first time in a long time.’’

India held off Briarwood’s Matthew Rion for the title with Conway Farm’s Crimson Callahan holding off defending champion Kyle Donovan, of Oak Park, in a playoff for the third and final berth in November’s PGA Professional Assistants Championship in Florida.

ILLINOIS WOMEN’S AMATEUR: Gracie Piar, of East Alton, won the 93rd annual championship by beating Naperville’s Lisa Copeland, an incoming freshman at University of Illinois, in a three-hole playoff at Elgin Country Club.

Piar, who played collegiately at California State Northridge, was an Illinois high school champion in 2021.  Her win qualified Piar for the U.S. Women’s Amateur at The Honors Course in Tennessee in August, and she plans to turn pro in September at the LPGA Qualifying School.

U.S. WOMEN’S OPEN:  Addie Dobson was the only Illinois qualifier for last week’s U.S. Women’s Open.  A resident of downstate Jacksonville and a senior at the University of Missouri, she missed the cut at Riviera in California.

 

These Pinehurst upgrades extend beyond the golf courses

Here’s what Pinehurst Resort’s next course looks like now. Pinehurst No. 11, under construction in the Pinehurst Sandmines  area, is scheduled to open in 2027. (Joy Sarver Photos)

PINEHURST, N.C. – It seems like every time you visit the Pinehurst Resort you find something new.  The resort’s leadership has never been reluctant to make improvements, but it’s gone beyond the norm this year.

With all due respect to the well-received Pinehurst No. 10 course, the most notable change this time is on the dining side.  There’s two new restaurants in operation.

The restaurants are different. Wiregrass, located in the main clubhouse at the resort, is fine dining at its best.  Station 21, located near No. 10 in the Pinehurst Sandmines, is more casual but definitely an interesting, fun place.

Wiregrass, with a unique farm-to-table cuisine, has been open only a month. A different farm from the area is selected each week, which leads to regularly changing menus.

Station 21, an upscale Southwestern grill, is just a few months older. Its name comes from the addition of the numbers of the two courses in the Sandmines.

Wiregrass (left) and Station 21 have greatly enhanced the dining options at Pinehurst.

The other addition, the World Golf Hall of Fame, isn’t so new.  It opened on May 10, 2024, and that began its second presence in Pinehurst.  The original World Golf Hall of Fame opened in Pinehurst in 1974, then was relocated to St. Augustine, FL., in 1998.

St. Augustine’s version was bigger, but the new Pinehurst Hall is more high tech.  It’s a perfect fit for the area now that the United States Golf Association has its headquarters and equipment testing facilities in Pinehurst as well. More on the Hall later.

Pinehurst Resort dates back to 1895, and its walls are adorned with classic photographs reflecting golf’s most historic moments.

There’s nothing old about Pinehurst No. 10, though. It opened on April 3, 2024, in the Pinehurst Sandmines, a 900-acre off-site location from the resort in the town of Aberdeen.  No. 10 was the first new design at Pinehurst since the 1990s and the building time took only 16 months.

“Tom Doak (the course architect) was anxious to finish it,’’ said Bob Farren, Pinehurst’s director of golf course and grounds management. “(The building) had an unusual timeline.’’

The par-4 eighth hole is the signature hole at Pinehurst No. 10. A towering 25-foot high sand dune impacts the tee shot (above) and a variety of challenges j(below)  affect the shot to the green.

No. 10 will soon have some company, but Pinehurst No. 11 won’t be created so quickly.  The architectural team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw are designing this one.

“That opening will be in the spring of 2027,’’ said Farren. Both Nos. 10 and 11 have some holes built on what was The Pit – a popular course in its day, and its clubhouse is still standing.

“No. 10 exceeded our expectations, and our expectations are always high,’’ said Farren. “People love it.  Nothing in our other courses compares to it.  It’s on a so much bigger scale and there’s no residential pieces to it.’’

Both Nos. 10 and 11 are predominately walking courses.  As is the case with the restaurants, the two layouts have their differences.

“No. 10 has a big and bold scale,’’ said Farren. “No. 11 will be quaint and intimate.’’

You can’t see the construction work being done on No. 11 from the holes on No. 10, but you can walk to it.  The courses will share the same practice range and lodging is being constructed to serve both layouts.

The lodging will be aimed at attracting golf groups. Rather than a hotel Pinehurst Sandmines will have a rustic 26-room lodge, and there’ll also be an eight-bedroom cabin. Nine luxury cottages had already been  built around the Pinehurst No. 8 course. They opened in 2025.

So, what’s next for Pinehurst? There’ll be renovation for Pinehurst No. 9, a Jack Nicklaus signature course that had been the old Pinehurst National until  2019. And Pinehurst No. 2 – the famous Donald Ross design that has hosted the biggest tournaments – is getting some fine-tuning done on its teeing grounds in preparation for the return of the U.S. Opens in 2029.

The Coore-Crenshaw team made dramatic changes on No. 2 for the last, very historic, U.S. Open of  2014. That marked the first time both the men’s and women’s tournaments were held on the same course in the same year.

“That was a bit of a reach,’’ admitted Farren, “and it could have been a disaster.  We’re thrilled that we’ll be doing it again.’’

But, before that, Pinehurst will hosted the U.S. Women’s Amateur in 2027.

One  room in the World Golf Hall of Fame at Pinehurst spotlights the Science of Golf. This exhibit depicts how a putting green is constructed.

As for the World Golf Hall of Fame, it has a more modern look than the St. Augustine version, which shared space with two unique courses – the Slammer and Squire (co-designed by Sam Snead and Gene Sarazen) and The King and the Bear (co-designed by Arnold Palmer and Nicklaus).

At Pinehurst each Hall of Famer will have their own locker where meaningful items from their  personal lives and  careers in the game can are displayed.

The USGA plans to bring many of its artifacts to Pinehurst that couldn’t be moved to St. Augustine. Pinehurst’s Hall will also feature different players during the course of each year.  Payne Stewart is in the spotlight now through the end of 2026.

And, best of all, the upgrades won’t likely end any time soon.   Could there be a Pinehurst No. 12? Stay tuned.

The Landings makes this ING event even more special

Gary VanSickle (left) and me (right) are regulars when International Network of Golf executive director Mike Jamison puts on his popular Spring Forums. (Joy Sarver Photos)

 

SAVANNAH, GA. — Spring Forums were a fixture on the yearly calendar for the International Network of Golf starting in 1991. The first three were held in Hilton Head, S.C., and that’s not far from this week’s version in Savannah, Ga.

This Spring Forum is different from all the others, though.  The ING contingent gathered at the Thompson Hotel, beautifully located on the Savannah River. Welcoming events were held there on Monday, June 1, and most of the remaining activities in the three-day event are at The Landings Golf & Athletic Club, the premier private residential club in the southeastern United States.  It has six clubhouses, three restaurants, five swimming pools, three tennis complexes with 31 courts and  a 52,000 square foot wellness center.

And, not surprisingly, the golf facilities are top notch.  There’s a 3,000 square-foot Golf Performance Center and six championship golf courses there;

Needless to say, it’s going to be a lot of fun over the next two days.

Mike Jamison, the executive director of ING, has made the Forums special.  In addition to Georgia, they’ve been staged over the years in North and South Carolina, Michigan, Colorado, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Utah and Mississippi.

Innisbrook Resort, in Florida, was the site for our first appearance in 2011 and we haven’t missed one since. All bring back good memories, and this week’s will, too.

Opening night scenes from the welcoming reception at the Thompson Savannah Hyatt.

The history of this event is of historical interest, as it’s been held at popular facilities all around the country with date adjustments needed only occasionally.

Jamison made yearly stops from 1991 to 2019. Then the pandemic caused a shutdown for three years. Jamison revived the event with a Fall Forum in 2022 with Sebring, FL., hosting that year as well as in 2024 and 2025.

Valley Forge, in Pennsylvania, was the site in 2023.  The event was back in the spring that year, and now it’s a spring attraction again.

ING brings the golf industry and the sport’s media members together.  The Forums include presentations from golf industry leaders as well as social rounds mixing the participants from all walks of golf life.  Golf has benefitted greatly from these annual gatherings, and that’ll be the case again after the participants scatter when this one is over.

The Thompson, located on the Savannah River, is the headquarters hotel for the ING Spring Forum.

 

JDC’s defending champion is playing through some pain

Brian Campbell was the man in the spotlight at last year’s John Deere Classic. (Joy Sarver Photos)

Brian Campbell is a month away from defending his title in the John Deere Classic, but a lot has happened to the University of Illinois alum since his playoff win over Emiliano Grillo  last year at TPC Deere Run in downstate Silvis.

The win there was his first on the PGA Tour, at the 2025 Mexico Open, and it also came in a playoff.  Those two victories got Campbell into  two Masters tournaments, and he finished a solid tie for 24th at that first major championship of 2026. He also made the cut in the year’s second major, the PGA Championship, and is assured a spot in the third — this month’s U.S. Open on New York’s Shinnecock Hills course.

Campbell also got engaged this year and recently moved to Jacksonville, FL., all good things for the 33-year old who starred for the Illini from 2011-15.

Everthing, though, has not been going well for Campbell. He battled injuries that led to him missing four cuts and withdrawing in another tournament during a five-week stretch early in this season.  His strong finish at the Masters ended that down period, and he hasn’t missed a cut since – but the injury hasn’t gone away.

“My shoulder blade is out of place and pushed forward,’’ Campbell said during a visit to the Quad Cities for a discussion on this year’s JDC.  “It puts a lot of stress down my arm, so even gripping the club is an issue that I have to deal with.’’

At least it’s not the problem it once was.

“It’s come such a long way,’’ he said.  “Recently it’s just about getting used to playing.  It’s really hard to fix when I’m playing in tournaments, so the weeks off I have to really do what’s necessary.  The weeks that it feels good I push the pedal down and practice probably too  much.’’

Brian Campbell’s golf game was sharp, and that led to a celebration with fiance Kelsi McKee after he made  the John Deere Classic his second victory on the PGA Tour.

The health problems have been a subject for discussion between Campbell and Mike Small, his coach at Illinois.

“There’s a lot of stuff that we talked about,’’ said Campbell, “but at the end of the day he liked to say `The hay is in the barn.  You put in the work.  Now it’s time to go out there  and be an athlete and play.’’

It’s hard for Campbell to do that at times, but he’s qualified for every one of the PGA Tour’s signature events, where the paychecks are the biggest. The circuit is in the throes of change, though.

“They’re telling us those are going to go away,’’ he said. “No-cut events are going to go away, but it’s a good thing. We want to get back to normal tournament schedules. There’s a lot of changing, and there’s nothing I can touch on because nothing is set in stone, so we really don’t know what to expect. We’re kind of ready for anything. We trust where the tour is going and we’re just looking to be competitors out there at the end of the day.’’

While the talk of change spreads all through men’s golf, it isn’t a major topic for the JDC.

“We had a contract extension that keeps this event right here in the Quad Cities through 2030,’’ said tournament director Andrew Lehman.

This year’s tournament week is June 29 through July 5.  The last four days are for the tournament rounds but there are some notable side attractions.  Illinois men’s basketball coach Brad Underwood will be featured in the pro-am and Carrie Underwood gets the spotlight in the fourth year of the JDC’s Concerts on the Course series on the Fourth of July.

 

 

 

Illinois State Women’s Amateur moves to Elgin CC

 

Very few of the big Illinois golf tournaments have undergone as many recent changes as the Illinois State Women’s Amateur.

The downstate-based Illinois Women’s Golf Association conducted the tournament for 90 years, then passed it on to the Chicago District Golf Association in 2024. The tourney was played in a match play format through 2023, then the CDGA went to a three-day 54-hole stroke play format in 2024.

Last year the tourney champion was awarded an exemption into the U.S. Women’s Amateur for the first time and a separate division for players 25-and-over was added, creating an Illinois Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship as well.

This year’s 93rd championship will have a site change.  After four years at The Grove, in Long Grove, the tourney will be played at Elgin Country Club starting on Monday. Barrington’s Bridget Butler is the defending champion.

Butler helped Barrington to the Illinois 2A high school state championship in 2021 and was a member of four straight Mid-Suburban Conference championship teams before starting her college career at Stetson, in Florida.

Her win at last year’s State Am was noteworthy because Butler had gone 11 months without playing in a tournament.  She had transferred to Nebraska and had taken a redshirt season there but still posted a 4-under-par 212 winning score, three strokes better than Northbrook’s Alexis Myers and Rockford’s Kayla Sayyalinch. They tied for second and both will be back in the tournament next week. Myers is paired with Butler in the first round.

Tee times start at 8 a.m. each day and only the low 20 and ties will compete in the final round.

COLLEGE:  Illinois Wesleyan was the runner-up for the second straight year in the NCAA Division 3 finals. Wesleyan was edged by California’s Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in a sudden death playoff at Mission Inn Resort & Club in Florida. Palatine sophomore Pablo Carstro was the top Wesleyan player, finishing in a tie for seventh.

Northwestern’s men finished tied for eighth and Illinois tied for 11th in the NCAA’s Georgia Regional, so neither made it to the NCAA finals at Omni LaCosta, in California. Illinois’ Ryan Voois, though, was named one of three finalists for the Byron Nelson Award, given annually to college golf’s outstanding scholar-athlete. The winner will be announced June 15 and Illinois’ Jackson Buchanan was the first Illini winner last year.

HERE AND THERE:  Brandt Snedeker, captain of the U.S. Presidents Cup team, has named his first two assistant captains —  Keegan Bradley, the most recent U.S. Ryder Cup captain, and Jim Furyk, the winning U.S. captain in the Presidents Cup played at Montreal two years ago.

Hawthorn Woods member Jerry White won the 24th CDGA Senior Amateur on his home course, beating Bloomington’s Mike Henry in a sudden death playoff.

The 36th Thompson Cup matches, pitting the Illinois PGA’s top senior players against the top area amateurs, will be played at Chicago’s Ridge Country Club on Thursday (MAY 28). The IPGA Assistants Championship will be conducted at Bryn Mawr, in Lincolnwood, on Monday.

Carrie Underwood will be the featured performer at the John Deere Classic’s concert series on the Fourth of July.

 

 

 

BOOK REPORT: An All-Star contribution to baseball history

 

Randall Sullivan’s “The First All-Star Game’’ (Atlantic Monthly Press) is aptly named.  It is the story of the first baseball game between the stars of the National and American leagues that was played in 1933 at Chicago’s Comiskey Park.

(As you might guess we’re venturing away from golf again to spotlight some outstanding writing in other areas).

Sullivan focuses on just that first game, which was billed as “The Game of the Century.’’ It was to be a one-time thing as a highlight of the World’s Fair in Chicago but the game – as well as Sullivan’s book – have turned out to be much more than that.

Now known as the Mid-Summer Classic, this year’s 96th version of the annual game will be played July 14 with the Philadelphia Phillies hosting at Citizens Bank Park.

Sullivan certainly told the story of the first one, created by Arch Ward.  Ward was the sports editor of the Chicago Tribune, and had to convince the leaders of both the National and American leagues that such a game was a good idea.  Not everyone thought that way. The U.S. and the sport of baseball were at a crossroads at that time.

Chicago baseball needed an image improvement after one of its two teams, the White Sox, were caught in a gambling scandal involving the fixing of the 1919 World Series. The country was reeling from more than that, with Germany’s Adolph Hitler and Italy’s Benito Mussolini getting their nations poised for what would become World War II.

Thankfully, Sullivan wrote much more than a book about one baseball game.  His turned into an historical account of a critical period in American history, and baseball had some stars – most notably Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig – who gave the sport some needed positive attention.

Sullivan, in his 496-page masterpiece, covered the national news starting with an assasination attempt on President Franklin Delano Roosevelt before weaving in the tales of more than just Ruth and Gehrig on the baseball side.

The book found space for such divergent names as Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Al Capone, Charles Lindbergh, Bonnie & Clyde, Hack Wilson, Lefty Grove, Jimmy Foxx, Bill Dickey, Charley Gehringer, Gabby Hartnett, Carl Hubbell, Mel Ott and Frankie Frisch.  The list could go on and on.

I enjoy baseball, but am not a diehard fan.  Still, this was a hard book to put down. A few tidbits that were particularly interesting:

Connie Mack has always been considered one of the very best managers in baseball.  However, he had a losing record (3,731 wins against 3,948 losses in 53 seasons as a manager.  That record, according to Sullivan, should also include 76 games that ended in ties.

Babe Ruth was at the end of his playing career when he homered in the first All-Star Game, but he was still the sport’s most popular player. Ruth grew up an adopted orphan and was extremely popular with black players who weren’t allowed in the major leagues at that time.  There were plenty of exhibition games involving the top black teams, though, and Ruth was the most frequent participant among major leaguers.  According to Sullivan there was widespread speculation that Ruth was of mixed race.

Gehrig and Ruth with teammates on the Yankees with widely different personalities. According to this book they  didn’t talk to each other for two years after having a feud, but that ended on the day Gehrig was honored in an emotional tribute at Yankee Stadium after his playing career ended following a diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Gehrig told the crowd “I am the luckiest man on the face of the earth.’’ Then Ruth, reportedly sobbing, rushed forward to embrace him.

Ruth’s career didn’t end happily, either.  He badly wanted to finish it as manager of the Yankees but it didn’t happen.  Before the 1935 season started Ruth asked Yankee leaders Jacob Ruppert and Ed Barrow if Joe McCarthy would return as manager. They confirmed McCarthy would stay in that role, meaning Ruth wouldn’t get it.  “That’s all I wanted to hear,’’ said Ruth, who stormed out of the meeting and was given his release by the team. He passed away in 1948.

“The First All-Star Game’’ is an extremely well-researched book filled with considerable episodes of that era that had nothing to do with baseball.  A book well worth reading, sports fan or not.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NCAA hopes are on the line for Illini, NU golfers

 

The national championships in Division I college golf are on the line the next two weeks, and — in these parts, at least – it’s all about Illinois and Northwestern.

Coach Emily Fletcher’s NU women are the defending champion on the women’s side.  They won their first title last year at Omni LaCosta Resort in Carlsbad, Calif., and chase a repeat there beginning on Friday (MAY 22).

Fletcher’s team is in the finals for the fourth straight year, and standout Diana Lee has played on all four teams.  Last year’s scored a dramatic win over Stanford in the match play climax to the event.

While this year’s team made it back to LaCosta the Wildcats aren’t a good bet to repeat.  They finished fourth in the Michigan Regional — trailing Southern California, Ohio State and Duke – and that came after a 10th place finish in the 18-team Big Ten tournament.

The men will decide their national champion at LaCosta as soon as the women conclude theirs on May 27 but both the Illini and Wildcat men have to survive the 54-hole Georgia Regional, which concludes its three-day run on Wednesday, to get to LaCosta.  Illinois went in as the regional’s No. 2 seed and NU as No. 8.

U.S. OPEN:  The last of the three 18-hole local qualifiers in Illinois are over, and the last one – at Flossmoor Country Club – had a most unusual survivor.  Chicago’s Campbell Wolf shot a 1-under-par 71 to share medalist honors with amateur Dujuan Snyman of South Africa.

Wolf was born and raised in Pennsylvania but his game started getting good at not just one Illinois college but two.  He started at DePaul, saw improvement in two seasons with the Blue Demons and decided to transfer to East Tennessee State.  After two seasons there he opted to use his COVID season for a final year of college eligibility at Northern Illinois.

“I had a different college experience than most, but I wouldn’t change it,’’ said Wolf.  “I learned what it takes to play at the top levels of the sport, and it gave me confidence that I’d be able to do that.’’

So, Wolf stuck around Chicago and is now the director of events and an instructor at The Warehouse Golf Club in Burr Ridge. Now comes the hard part.  He has to survive one of the  36-hole final qualifiers to make it into the 156-man field for the Open proper June 18-21 at Shinnecock Hills, in New York.

PETER DE YOUNG: The long-time. tournament director of the Western Open has passed on in Pinehurst, N.C.  He was 78.

DeYoung directed the Western from 1977 to 1993. The PGA Tour event shifted from Butler National, in Oak Brook, to Cog Hill, in Lemont, during DeYoung’s time on the job.

He later had leadership roles with two other Chicago pro tour events — the Ameritech Senior Open on PGA Tour Champions and the LaSalle Bank Open on what is now the Korn Ferry Tour.  DeYoung also developed the Nike Winter Nationals junior event after moving to Pinehurst.

HERE AND THERE: Robert Dofflemyer, of Loves Park, won the first Chicago District Golf Association tournament of the season – the CDGA Mid-Amateur at Glen Flora, in Waukegan.  The CDGA’s second big event, the Senior Amateur, concludes its four-day run at Hawthorn Woods on Thursday (MAY 21).  The quarterfinals and semifinals are on Wednesday (TODAY) and the championship match on Thursday….The second event of the Illinois PGA’s Open Series will be played at Flossmoor on Wednesday (TODAY).

 

Svoboda gets his first big IPGA victory

Andy Svoboda (left) celebrates his victory in the Illinois PGA Match Play Championship with Mistwood’s Andy Mickelson. (Nick Novelli Photo)

The 108th PGA Championship – second of the year’s four major tournaments – tees off Thursday at Aronimink, in Pennsylvania, but the Illinois Section of the PGA crowned the first winner of its four majors last week and it was significant.

Andy Svoboda was an immediate contender since joining the IPGA in 2024 after being named head professional at Butler National, in Oak Brook. He was last year’s IPGA Player of the Year, but in his previous two seasons he had yet to win one of the local majors. He played in seven of them and had two runner-up finishes and was in the top three five times.

The winless streak ended in last week’s first major of 2026, the IPGA Match Play Championship at Butterfield, in Oak Brook. Svoboda, now representing Elevation Golf, held off four-time winner and defending champion Jim Billiter, of Ivanhoe Club, 2 and 1 in the title match.

“It was awesome to finally get a win in these majors,’’ said the 46-year old Svoboda, who had success on both the Korn Ferry and PGA tours before joining the club professional ranks. “I’d been close.  I’d been in the final a couple years ago and just couldn’t get it done.  I had to call a penalty on myself late in that match, which was unfortunate.’’

This time Svoboda stormed into the final with some dazzling performances. He was 8-under par through 15 holes in eliminating Jeff Kellen, of North Shore of Glenview, in the quarterfinals and 5-under through 17 holes in ousting Brian Carroll, of The Hawk in St. Charles, in the semifinals.

“I had an incredible week,’’ said Svoboda.  “I played some unbelievable golf and made a ton of birdies but had some tough matches, including those with Jeff and Brian.’’

ON TO ARONIMINK:  No Illinois PGA players will be among the 20 club professionals in the national PGA Championship teeing off Thursday, but that field does include Northwestern alums Luke Donald and David Lipsky  and Illinois alum Thomas Detry.

Detry is one of 11 LIV Tour players competing at Aronimink.  There’ll be 15 past champions including defender Scottie Scheffler in a field that includes players from 29 states and 26 countries.

HERE AND THERE: Illinois is the No. 2 seed and Northwestern is No. 8 in the NCAA regional hosted by the University of Georgia beginning on Monday (MAY 18). The top five teams advance to the NCAA finals at Omni LaCosta in California May 29-June 3.

Brandt Snedeker, who will captain the U.S. team in September’s Presidents Cup matches at Medinah, won his first PGA Tour event in eight seasons last Sunday at the Myrtle Beach Classic. Snedeker, 45, earned a berth in the PGA Championship with his win, and that changed his plans for this week.  He had planned to spend a few days at Medinah dealing with Presidents Cup issues but will be at Aronimink instead.

The 11th Chicago District Mid-Amateur will wrap up its three-day run today (WEDNESDAY, MAY 13) with the championship match at Glen Flora in Waukegan.

TPC Deere Run, again the site of Illinois’ only PGA Tour event in July, will host the NAIA college event this week. It concludes on Friday (MAY 15).

University of Illinois golfer Max Herendeen was named for the second straight year to Team USA for the Arnold Palmer Cup matches.  They’ll be played in Ireland in July.

 

 

 

BOOK(S) REPORT: Both Tiger, Rory get special attention this time

Gavin Newsham’s “Project Tiger” (left) and Alan Shipnuck’s “Rory”  provide a great one-two punch for golf readers.

 

Two books on prominent golfers — “Tiger Project’’ by Gavin Newsham and “RORY’’ by Alan Shipnuck – came out very close together earlier this year.  Both were somewhat updated when they were released, as Tiger Woods had since been involved in another auto-related catastrophe and Rory McIlroy was about to repeat as a Masters champion.

That didn’t really matter, as both books were well researched and pertinent to the golf world specifically and the much wider world of sports in general.  The books ideally should be read consecutively to be fully appreciated, with Tiger going first.

I wasn’t excited when “Project Tiger’’ arrived in the mail.  Another book on the brilliant golfer with serious personal issues, really?!

This one, though, was presented with a fresh perspective. Newsham’s creation (Diversion Books) detailed Woods’ upbringing and the cover promised “A searing indictment of Tiger Woods’ father.’’

That seemed a bit of a stretch to me, though the Woods had – to put it mildly — “a unique father-son relationship.’’ Earl Woods seemed to be wanting his son to be a world-changing savior even more than just a great golfer.

The early years of that project made for interesting reading, with the racial issues they  faced particularly poignant.  Newsham interviewed Tiger’s coaches, classmates, girlfriends and fellow competitors in describing how he was molded in those early years.

The McIlroy book made for more interesting reading, probably because the material in “Rory’’ (Avid Reader Press and Simon & Shuster) was fresher.  McIlroy is the next great golf star, and Shipnuck’s biography was was both interesting and revealing.

Here was a young boy growing up in Northern Ireland with a much different parenting style than Woods. Father Gerry had grown up in public housing in Belfast. He worked as the manager of a bar who made ends meet by taking a variety of other jobs – one of which even called for cleaning toilets. Mother Rosie worked nights in a factory while Rory was growing up. Both worked to give McIlroy the opportunity to fully develop his golf skills.

As was the case with “Tiger Project’’ I take issue with a phrase on the book cover. It promised “The Heartache and Triumph of Golf’s Most Human Superstar.’’

Shipnuck  went beyond golf, even providing inside looks at McIlroy’s various girlfriend issues and recounting a spicy conversation during a U.S. Open in which McIlroy took issue with the money Shipnuck would receive for writing the book.

All in all, two thought-provoking books – both in the 300-page range — on subjects that figure to merit such in depth treatment for many years to come.