Author: lenz

French Lick hosts biggest-ever LPGA Legends event

FRENCH LICK, Ind. – The stage is set for what amounts to more than just a golf tournament. The Legends Championship presented by Humana is a week-long celebration of women’s golf at French Lick Resort.

The Legends is the official senior tour of the Ladies PGA. It has been in existence since 2000, but the 54-hole tournament that tees off on Friday, is the circuit’s biggest event yet. It offers a record purse of $500,000 with Sunday’s champion receiving $75,000.

Veteran competitor Jane Blalock, chief executive officer of the circuit, calls it “the most significant event in the history of the Legends Tour.’’

French Lick, with a rich history in women’s golf, unveiled its new Legends Hall of Fame on Thursday night at the West Baden Springs Hotel prior Friday’s first tee shot by a field of about 60 LPGA stars of the past on the resort’s Pete Dye Course.

Kathy Whitworth, winner of 88 LPGA tournaments and six major championships, and Jan Stephenson, the leading career money-winner on the Legends circuit, will be the first inductees to the new Hall and Louise Suggs, Betsy Rawls and Mickey Wright were also honored on Thursday.

Suggs won the 1958 French Lick Women’s Open, the first of three LPGA events staged on the resort’s Donald Ross Course. That layout also hosted the LPGA Championships of 1959 and 1960, with Rawls and Wright the respective champions. Whitworth was in the field for those two majors.

“With our history of women’s golf – past, present and future – and the addition of the Legends Championship, it was a natural fit to create a Hall of Fame here for these legendary golfers,’’ said Dave Harner, French Lick’s director of golf. “Stephenson and Whitworth have done so much for women’s golf and are perfect choices for our first year of honoring these legendary golfers.’’

The Ross Course, which also hosted the 1924 PGA Championship won by Walter Hagen, underwent a renovation in 2008, but it won’t be the site of the Legends tourney. The well-received Dye Course, the last course designed by the legendary Indiana-based architect, will be the site of the competition that includes nine members of the LPGA Hall of Fame and six former Solheim Cup captains. The Dye course has previously hosted the Professional Players National Championship and the Big Ten men’s and women’s championships.

Among the competitors in the Legends Championship are Nancy Lopez, Joanne Carner, Betsy King, Beth Daniel, Pat Bradley, Amy Alcott, Donna Caponi and Hollis Stacy. All won at least 18 LPGA tournaments and were major tournament winners.

Laura Davies, Liselotte Neumann, Blalock and Rosie Jones are also among the leading competitors. Blalock and Caponi will join Hall of Famers Sandra Haynie and Sandra Palmer in a 36-hole Super Legends event on Saturday and Sunday.

NORTHERN MICHIGAN: Leading resorts announce a bigger cooperative effort

HARBOR SPRINGS, Mich. – For 26 years the resorts in Gaylord joined forces in a successful joint promotion under the title of the Gaylord Golf Mecca. Now there’s an even larger joint promotional effort in effect there.

Leading resorts in the towns of Traverse City, Petoskey, Harbor Springs, Gaylord, Bellaire, Boyne City and Thompsonville have united to proclaim their area as the America’s Summer Golf Capital (ASGC).

Together the resorts offer 34 courses with designs by such high-profile architects as Robert Trent Jones Sr., Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Tom Fazio, Tom Weiskopf, Arthur Hills, Jim Ingh and Steve Smyers.

Award-winning courses from Boyne, Treetops, Shanty Creek, Grand Traverse, Crystal Mountain, Otsego Club, Tullymore and St. Ives, Manitou Passage, Lochenheath, Manistee National and Forest Dunes are included in ASGC.

“It really is a list of Who’s Who in Michigan’s golf industry….Many of the courses are regulars on the major lists of where to play,’’ said Barry Owens, ASGC president and the general manager at Treetops.

“Building upon the success of Pure Michigan, our state’s award-winning tourism campaign, this collection establishes yet another reason to choose Michigan,’’ added Chris Hale, vice president of Shanty Creek.

Northern Michigan has been a favorite golf destination of mine since the 1970s, and – even though the area is loaded with great courses — repeat visits have kicked in. This year included returns to The Heather at Boyne Highlands and The Bear at Grand Traverse. Neither has lost anything in popularity over three decades. No. 18 at The Heather, a Robert Trent Jones design, has one of the best finishing holes in Michigan (pictured above).

Boyne offers the largest collection of courses in the Midwest, with 11 layouts spread over Boyne Highlands, Boyne Mountain Resort in Boyne Falls and The Inn at Bay Harbor.

Also on the list of return visits – after too many years away – were Gaylord layouts Marsh Ridge and The Natural. Marsh Ridge isn’t very long – only 6,231 yards from the tips – but its par-3s are memorable with their array of forced carry tee shots (The best of those — at No. 10 — is pictured below). The Natural offers a scenic tour over rolling hills and scenic wetlands. Both are great fun.

A new stop this season — to the Kingsley Club – may have led me to the best of Michigan’s hidden gems.

Finding the Kingsley Club isn’t easy. Not only is it located in a small town but to get to the course you need to find an obscure two-lane blacktop road that’s lined by hilly farmland. That road becomes a dirt road, then blacktop returns briefly only to revert to dirt again. Eventually you get through a dense forest of hardwood trees and find an understated wood sign that tells you that you’ve arrived at what well may be the best course in Michigan.

To call Kingsley Club the best in this golf-rich state would be unfair to the fine layouts that I haven’t visited yet (and I’m happy say there aren’t many of those left).

Once you get to the Kingsley Club, though, you’re in for a treat. This Mike DeVries design isn’t a brutal test of golf, though it is challenging. It’s not oppressively long; in fact, the scorecard lists it at under 7,000 yards (6,936 from the tips). It has what I consider the strongest short par-3 in the country, if not the world. Kingley’s No. 9 can play as short as 73 yards but no longer than 165. But don’t think it comes up short, as far as the challenge goes. The end result is a 12-year old course that is ranked No. 23 on GolfWeek’s Top 100 Modern Courses.

Kingsley Club is private. Its 150 members hail from 20 states and over 60 North American cities. They include such prominent names as Brad Faxon and Dr. Gary Wiren. Guests have come from Australia, England, Ireland, Scotland and Canada.

Not to be forgotten, though, is the understanding that the club is also open to new members and will accept limited public play. Understandably a PGA professional will need to make playing arrangements for uninvited guests, but for those lucky enough to wangle a tee time the experience will be worth it.

SOUTHWESTERN WISCONSIN: Name change is appropriate at Geneva National

LAKE GENEVA, Wis. – What’s in a name? Plenty, if you’re familiar with Lake Geneva’s biggest golf facility.

As Geneva National Golf Club its 54 holes were eye-catching from the outset. So was its stately clubhouse (below), but the golf was the thing. Each 18 is named after its designer – Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino and Gary Player. The courses were all created in the 1990s, when the three players were still competing on the pro tours. (Player’s course was different from the other two in that involved building nine holes in 1995, and he returned to finish the 18 in 2000).

Because of the high-profile designers and the quality of the three layouts it became difficult to look beyond the golf at Geneva National. Now, thanks to a variety of ownership changes and renovations, that’s changed.

Paloma Golf Group LLC now owns and operates the entire project that is no longer just Geneva National Golf Club (though that name still exists for the members who belong to it). Now the entire place is Geneva National Resort.

“Geneva National Resort ties in all the properties that we currently manage,’’ said Jesse Seykora, who just completed his second year as the marketing manager of all that is Geneva National – and that is plenty.

“To avoid confusion we decided to rebrand this beautiful property,’’ said Seykora. “Our goal was to elevate the level of services and amenities we offer to the level of the legendary golf, which is what we feel is the crown jewel of the Lake Geneva area.

Triggering the name change was the ownership’s acquisition of Interlachen, a resort directly across Lake Como from the Geneva National clubhouse. Interlachen had been shuttered, with chains on its doors, for several months before Geneva National ownership took it over.

That resort opened in 2009 under the name of The Lodge at Geneva Ridge while renovation work was being done on 146 guest rooms and suites, the Aspen ballroom, the outdoor wedding pavilion and the facility’s spa. As improvements continued the place seemed less and less like a lodge, so that was dropped from the title. Now it’s simply Geneva Ridge Resort.

Meanwhile, the Inns of Geneva National were also getting spruced up. The Inns, which create a unique boutique experience, consist of six villas, each with six separate guest rooms. They’re ideal for business retreats and, of course, group golf outings that extend beyond just one round.

Geneva National ownership also took over the Hunt Club Steakhouse, a local dining landmark that dates back to 1912. (Its pleasant bar dining, with views overlooking two holes on the Gary Player Signature Course, have made this a long-time personal favorite).

The Inns at Geneva National increase the lodging options for the resort’s three acclaimed courses.

What’s important to note here is that the golf remains top-notch.

The Player layout, which many claim is the toughest of the three (I disagree), was recently ranked No. 36 by Golf Digest magazine among Women-Friendly Courses in America. That accolade wasn’t determined just on the course, but also on the much wider-than-usual offering for women in head professional Dave Winget’s pro shop. The addition of popular teaching pro Heidi Haas, the sister of pro tour player Hunter Haas, has also become a big plus for the resort.

Trevino has attached his name to very few courses, which alone makes that Geneva National course special. It’s nestled more in the woods than the other two layouts and has has plenty of right-to left doglegs, which best fit Trevino’s game. Right-to-left holes also best fit the shape of my shot (all too frequently, I’m afraid), but my favorite Geneva National layout is the Arnold Palmer Signature Course. It’s the longest of the three at 7,171 yards from the tips and has the highest rating (74.7).

Those numbers aren’t as meaningful as the three finishing holes. They’re terrific. No. 16 is a par-3 with a tee shot facing Lake Como. No. 17, a par-5, is one of Palmer’s best holes anywhere. Water runs the length of the hole on the left side — just like the famous finishing hole at California’s famed Pebble Beach — and the approach shot plays as a dogleg left, which means another look at the water. Bunkers abound on the finishing hole, but they’re overwhelmed by the view of the majestic white clubhouse.

BMW CHAMPIONSHIP: A home game was just what Luke Donald needed

This has been a tough season for Luke Donald. The world’s No. 1 player for 55 weeks in 2011 and 2012 missed the cut in both the British Open and PGA Championship. Some home cooking, though, got him out of his funk.

The former Northwestern golfer came into the BMW Championship on his home course and, presto!, his golf game is back in business.

Donald entered the tournament at No. 54 in the FedEx Cup Playoff rankings, leaving him with seemingly little hope of getting into the top 30 for next week’s Tour Championship in Atlanta. Missing that one would be painful, since another $8 million is on the line, and every qualifier will pick up at least $300,000 for just playing 72 more holes.

Oh, yes, there’s the matter of the $10 million bonus that goes to the FedEx Cup winner after the Tour Championship concludes the four-event series.

Donald has little hope of claiming the big prize, but at least he has a chance. His 67-66 finish at Conway Farms boosted him into a four-way tie for fourth place in the BMW Championship and elevated him from 54th to 29th in the FedEx Cup rankings.

“I thought I had to finish top five at the very worst for the week, and I was hoping that being a member here would help me,’’ said Donald. “I think it did a bit.’’

Despite his sub-par season Donald was in the spotlight at Conway, where he’s been a member been a member for 15 years. He started playing at the Lake Forest course when he was still a student at Northwestern and he campaigned with the Western Golf Assn. and PGA Tour to get the tournament moved from Cog Hill, the tourney’s home in Lemont for 20 years.

Donald believes his campaigning was worth it, and expects the tourney to return to Conway in 2015.

“It’s done well on all fronts – on fan attendance, on selling (corporate hospitality) tents and the players have been very positive about it,’’ said Donald. “It looks great on TV, and it’s been a success from my standpoint.’’

Donald was a success on the course thanks to birdies on the last two holes. He knew they would probably be needed to qualify him for Atlanta.

“There were nerves the last couple holes, probably from 15 onwards,’’ he said. “I knew I had gotten myself into position where we had a chance. Fortunately I was able to hit some good shoots when I needed it hit them.’’

Donald, 35, felt the need to do a painful thing as his game was seemingly slipping away. He recently replaced Pat Goss as his swing coach, turning to Chuck Cook instead. Goss was the head coach at NU when Donald played there and their working relationship continued into the professional ranks.

Goss remains Donald’s short-game coach, and his college loyalty is still intact. He left immediately after Monday’s round to attend Wildcat Golf Day at Evanston Golf Club. From there it’ll be on to East Lake in Atlanta where he hopes his sudden golf turn-around will continue. It’s still mathematically possible he could win the FedEx Cup.

“It’s unlikely, but it’s certainly been done before when you look at what Bill Haas did a couple years ago, winning – I think – from the 27th position,’’ said Donald. “I’ve notoriously played pretty well at East Lake. I’ve had chances to win there.’’

Donald was one of only two players to move into the top 30 at the BMW Championship. Nick Watney, who rallied with a 64 on Monday to finish second, also climbed into the top 30 at No. 12. Harris English and Lee Westwood, in the top 30 before the BMW Championship, finished outside of it.

Three others will Illinois connections advanced to East Lake. University of Illinois alum Steve Stricker, who was in the tie for fourth at Conway Farms, is No. 6 for the Playoffs. The five ahead of him – Tiger Woods, Henrik Stenson, Adam Scott, Zach Johnson and Matt Kuchar – will win the $10 million if they win in Atlanta. If none do Stricker could claim the biggest money prize in golf.

Wheaton’s Kevin Streelman goes in at No. 19 after finishing in a tie for 33rd on Monday. Another Illinois alum, D.A. Points, slipped to No. 28 after tying for 57th in the BMW Championship.

BMW CHAMPIONSHIP: Monday finish dampens first visit to Conway Farms

Slugger White, the PGA Tour’s vice president for rules and operations, knew rain was going to fall at the BMW Championship on Sunday. He just didn’t know how much.

The PGA Tour deals with weather issues all year long, and usually has the answer to minimizing the problems related to them. That wasn’t the case in the circuit’s first visit to Conway Farms in Lake Forest.

After Saturday’s third round White’s staff checked the weather forecasts. It called for about half the rain that pelted the course on Sunday and forced the suspension of the final round of the $8 million championship.

“We thought to was going to be about six hours of maybe constant rain, but just an accumulation of maybe a half an inch,’’ said White. “That’s not too much in a six-hour period. To me it was almost like a mist.’’

So the PGA Tour staff set time times similar to Saturday – all players off the first tee in twosomes beginning at 7:15 a.m. instead of sending them off in threesomes off both Nos. 1 and 10 to condense the playing time required.

White arrived at 6 a.m. on Sunday and it didn’t take long for him to realize the rain might be more than just a mist.

Play started on time but had to be suspended at 10 a.m. It resumed at 1:31 p.m. but was stopped again at 2:28 when puddles formed on the greens and fairways and in the bunkers. White and his staff went back out at 4 p.m. after the rain had subsided in hopes of getting the players back on the course. He was surprised again.

“It wasn’t even close to what we had when we started at 1:30. That was the reason there was no sense in going back out,’’ said White. “This course drains well, but Mother Nature just won’t give us a break as far as shutting this faucet off.’’

He scheduled the resumption of play for 8 a.m. on Monday, and Golf Channel will pick up coverage at 9 a.m.

White expects better weather on Monday when 64 of Sunday’s 70 starters will take to the course. Only six finished their final rounds before play was suspended for the day and 22 hadn’t even teed off. That group included leader Jim Furyk, who is scheduled to tee off in the last twosome at 9:40 a.m. on Monday.

Vince Pellegrino, vice president, tournaments for the Western Golf Assn., said gates would open at 7 a.m. on Monday and that anyone with a Sunday ticket would be allowed to return on Monday. Tickets will also be on sale, at the full price of $55. Some hospitality venues will be open.

Parking options may have to be adjusted, based on how the designated lots handled Sunday’s one inch-plus rainfall.

“We had a great week through Saturday,’’ said Pellegrino. “It’s just one of those things that’s unavoidable. We’re anticipating having a good-sized crowd (on Monday). We will have public transportation, the shuttles to and from Metra, as well.’’

Barring a playoff, White expects the tournament to be completed in six hours. He’s expecting scattered lake showers in the morning with sunshine peeking through as the day progresses.

The BMW Championship, first PGA Tour event ever at Conway Farms and first on Chicago’s North Shore since 1972, is the 22nd event of the season that has had delays in play for various reasons – fog, lightning, thunderstorms, snow, hail, sleet, frost, darkness, high winds.

Now a roving tournament after being an annual Chicago event until 2007, the BMW Championship has had suspensions in six of the last nine years. The last without a suspension was in 2011 at Cog Hill, in Lemont.

This season the PGA Tour has had two previous unscheduled Monday finishes – the Farmers Insurance Open because of fog and the Arnold Palmer Invitational because of thunderstorms.

Players competing for the biggest monetary prize in golf will have their travel plans altered thanks to this latest Monday finish. The top 30 in the FedEx Cup standings after the BMW Championship advance to the final stop in the four-event series, The Tour Championship that tees off on Thursday at East Lake in Atlanta.

All three of the FedEx Cup Playoff events this year have had a suspension in play, but only the BMW Championship was forced to finish a day later than scheduled.

BMW CHAMPIONSHIP: Leaders benefitted by not hitting a shot

For Jim Furyk, leader of the BMW Championship through 54 holes, Sunday turned into a day to watch football on television. For Steve Stricker, his closest pursuer, it was a day for family time.

For all the 64 players left in the third event of the four-tournament FedEx Cup Playoff series it was a day to change travel arrangements. They had to figure out how to get to Atlanta for the final tournament that tees off on Thursday.

“You’re used to getting to a tournament on Monday and having a routine, practice rounds, all that kind of stuff,’’ said Brandt Snedeker, winner of the FedEx Cup and its $10 million bonus last year and two strokes behind Furyk now. “Things are just going to be thrown off, but we’re used to this. It happens probably four or five times a year that we have to play on a Monday.’’

Furyk was supposed to start his final round at 12:40 p.m. on Sunday but won’t do it until 9:40 a.m. on Monday. He’s glad he didn’t have to hit a shot in Saturday’s downpours.

“It’s probably a positive because if I did get out on the golf course it would have only been for a hole or two,’’ he said. “It’s tough to get real excited about that. No one wants to slop it around in bad weather on a golf course where we’re playing the ball down.’’

The lift, clean and place rule is frequently put into effect when rain hampers tournament play, but it couldn’t be done at the BMW Championship because play had already started without that rule in place. It can’t be instituted after play starts because it wouldn’t be fair to all the players.

Of the six players to finish their round on Sunday the best was Rory McIlroy, the tourney’s defending champion. He shot 68, the same as his score on Saturday. Finishing at 7-over-par 291 for the 72 holes, he is the clubhouse leader but he won’t hold that honor for long once more players finish on Monday.

Dustin Johnson was the last player to complete his round on Sunday. He put his second shot into water at the par-5 18th and settled for a 72, good for a 72-hole score of 293. Though he doesn’t have to play on Monday, he will be watching closely to see if he winds up in the top 30 in the series standings and qualifies to play in Atlanta.

Kevin Chappell, Johnson’s playing partner, shot the same score at Conway Farms and will also have to sweat out Monday’s round to see if he’s still alive in the playoffs.

Stricker, one shot behind Furyk, joined the leader in being thankful he didn’t have to play on Sunday.

“We got the better end of the deal,’’ said Stricker. “It looked like pretty tough conditions for everybody.’’

Zach Johnson, three shots behind Furyk and also in the mix for the title, doesn’t feel a later arrival in Atlanta will matter much because the players all know that course already.

“There’s not a winner in all of this,’’ said Johnson. “If anything I feel really bad for the fans. I certainly feel bad for the WGA (Western Golf Assn.) and BMW because it was such a great championship up until this point.’’

Monday, in a sense, will be anticlimactic, with fewer fans likely to attend. The players will also be dealing with a changed course after the day-long rains. Soggy greens are slower than dry ones and wet fairways don’t allow for as much roll as they do before the rain falls.

“It’ll be completely different,’’ said Johnson. “Maybe you can be a little more aggressive, but yet you’ve still got to pay attention to how the course is playing. This course can bite you if you get too aggressive. You’ve just got to roll with it and hopefully get the speed of the greens down early.’’

BMW CHAMPIONSHIP: Schedule change continues to benefit Stricker

Play less, but play better. Not a bad formula for a golfer as long as it works.

It’s definitely worked for Steve Stricker this season. Seeking more family time Stricker cut his PGA Tour schedule almost in half but that didn’t reduce his skill level. On Saturday the University of Illinois alum from Madison, WI., posted a 7-under-par 64 at Conway Farms to move into second place in the BMW Championship.

Even Stricker has been surprised by the results and wouldn’t be surprised if other PGA Tour player scale down their schedules in light of his success.

“I thought about it a lot of years,’’ he said after moving within one stroke of leader Jim Furyk with 18 holes to go in the $8 million tourney. “Doing it was the hard part. I had no expectations. I didn’t plan to play much in the playoffs, but then I finished second (at the Deutsche Bank Championship two weeks ago in Boston) and got to thinking `I’ve got a chance to win this thing.’’’

Indeed he does.

He went to Boston in hopes of winning a spot on the U.S. Presidents Cup team. He accomplished that goal, so he came to Chicago and – after a few days deliberation – decided to skip a hunting trip and go to The Tour Championship next week in Atlanta as well.

Thanks to his hot round on Saturday Stricker is on the brink of moving into the top five in the FedEx Cup standings. If he does that in Sunday’s final round he’ll control his own destiny next week. Any player in the top five going into Atlanta will get the coveted $10 million bonus if he wins there.

That’s a ways off, but Stricker went on the prowl Saturday. Furyk and Brandt Snedeker led after two rounds and Stricker trailed them by six strokes but still had hope.

“I had a number in mind, which I don’t typically do,’’ said Stricker, who set 8-under-63 as his target in good scoring conditions on Saturday. He missed by a stroke but his score still had the desired effect. It pulled him closer to the lead.

The key to Saturday’s good score was the 99-yard sand wedge that Stricker put straight in the hole for an eagle at No. 15.

“I heard the clank, but it was a shock to see it go in,’’ said Stricker. “Holing that shot was something I really needed to get back into it.’’

He gave one of those shots back at the par-3 17th when he hooked his tee shot into the bleachers left of the green, but he got up and down from a green-side bunker for birdie on the finishing hole. That got him within striking distance of Furyk, who ignited the tournament with his 59 on Friday.

“That was an incredible round,’’ said Stricker, “and then (early starter Matt) Kuchar got 61 today. I knew the conditions were going to be a bit easier but it really didn’t have much influence. I was just trying to get to 13-under.’’

Paired with Furyk in the final round, Stricker has developed a reason for why his reduced schedule is paying off.

“It’s because I have a good balance in life, and I’m comfortable with the decisions I’ve me,’’ he said.

BMW CHAMPIONSHIP: Furyk’s 59 takes attention away from Streelman

Life is good for Kevin Streelman this week.

On Sunday Chicago’s only homegrown PGA Tour player enjoyed a Bears’ game and steak dinner with some old high school buddies. On Friday the plan was to watch a high school football game between Wheaton South, Streelman’s alma mater, and arch-rival Wheaton North. Each night in between were spent playing video games with retired Bear Brian Urlacher and short commutes to the golf course from Urlacher’s house four minutes away.

All that relaxation has apparently benefitted Streelman’s golf game. The long-time Wheaton resident coped with windy, colder conditions in Friday’s second round of the BMW Championship just fine, tacking a 70 to his 66 of Thursday to stay contention midway through the $8 million tournament at Conway Farms in Lake Forest.

He’ll enter the weekend in a four-way tie for fourth place, trailing co-leaders Brandt Snedeker and Jim Furyk by five strokes and third-place Zach Johnson by two.

“I’m driving it great, hitting some nice punch shots and really rolling the ball well,’’ said Streelman. “Knowing that I’m in for next week (The Tour Championship in Atlanta), I’ve got nothing to lose. I’m just going to free-wheel it and see what happens. I really feel comfortable, especially in this city – my favorite city in the world. I love the people’’

The feeling is apparently mutual. The crowds have been behind him from the outset.

“All the screams, Wheaton South screams. The support’s been awesome,’’ he admitted.

Streelman came into the third leg of the four-event FedEx Cup Playoffs ranked No. 16 of 70 survivors. He’s a shoo-in to make it into the top 30 qualifiers for Atlanta, given his current 6-under-par standing at Conway Farms.

His score in the second round didn’t match that of his first, but the change in conditions had something to do with that – especially the wind.

“It got me on 11,’’ he said about hitting his tee shot into the water on the par-3 hole.

With the wind in his face Streelman’s shot was barely wet. He found the ball sitting on the rocks bordering a pond. He might have played it from there, but quickly thought better of it.

“The corner of the ball was sitting on solid rock,’’ he said. “That ball could have gone anywhere. It was best to take my medicine.’’

Streelman went back to the front tee and hit a wedge shot fat, leaving him lying three 30 yards short of the green. From there he hit a great chip to within two feet, settled for a double bogey that dropped him from 6-under to 4-under and moved on. He retrieved the two shots lost on that hole with birdies at Nos. 14 and 15.

Already this year Streelman has accumulated $2.9 million in tournament winnings and claimed his first win on the PGA Tour, at the Tampa Bay Championship. His winnings will climb dramatically in these last two big-money events of the season and scoring figures to be better in Saturday’s third round than it was on Friday for all the players.

“Tomorrow the winds should be calmer and it’ll be a little warmer,’’ said Streelman. “The wind will be coming back from the south. It’ll turn in completely the opposite direction and some of the par-5s that were playing super short will play into the wind and some of the par-4s that were playing extremely difficult will be a bit easier. It’ll be a birdie-fest. That should be fun for the fans.’’

BMW CHAMPIONSHIP: Stricker raves about Snedeker’s putting

Steve Stricker posted a solid 66 in the first round of the BMW Championship on Thursday, but he knew he was just a side show.

Playing partner Brandt Snedeker put on a putting display that was hard to match, and Stricker found it a challenge to focus on his own game instead of becoming more of a spectator.

“I watched a great round,’’ said Stricker, himself no slouch in the putting department. “Watching Snedeker pour them in from all over the place is always fun. He’s probably the best putter I’ve ever seen.’’

There were times in his career that other players gave Stricker such accolades. This season, though, he opted to step back a bit. He played a limited schedule, but the success he had in the tournament he did play encouraged him to juggle his plans this month.

He added the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston to his schedule in hopes of earning an automatic berth on the U.S. team for the President’s Cup matches later this month in Dublin, Ohio. After securing the President’s Cup berth he added the BMW Championship to stay sharp for that team event against a team of International stars.

At that point he had no intention of playing in next week’s Tour Championship at East Lake in Atlanta. Stricker had planned to go elk hunting instead but, after giving it more thought, he changed his schedule again. He’ll got to East Lake hoping for the same start there that he had at Conway Farms.

“I just hung in there,’’ he said. “There’s a lot of birdie holes out there. I didn’t hit it the greatest, but I managed my game well.’

That will be more of a premium in the second round, when the weather forecast suggests the Lake Forest course will present a more difficult challenge. Stricker will start the day in a four-way tie for third place, three shots behind Snedeker with England’s Justin Rose, the U.S. Open champion, rounding out the threesome.

That trio drew great crowd support on Thursday, in part because Stricker – a University of Illinois alum from nearby Madison, WI. is a gallery favorite and Snedeker was hot.

“There were a lot of people out there,’’ said Stricker. “I got a lot of shout-outs from Wisconsin and Illinois, but I think the crowd was getting ahead because of who was behind us.’’

The Stricker-Snedeker-Rose threesome played one group in front of top threesome in the FedEx Cup standings – Henrik Stenson, Tiger Woods and Adam Scott.

BMW CHAMPIONSHIP: 66 isn’t good enough for Tiger

Forget that shocking tie for 65th place finish that Tiger Woods posted in the Deutsche Bank Classic in Boston two weeks ago. That knocked the world’s No. 1-ranked player from first to second in the FedEx Cup Playoff standings, but that blip is a distant memory now.

Woods didn’t have his best stuff on Thursday in the first round of the BMW Championship at Conway Farms either, but he still signed in for a 5-under-par 66. A number like that never hurts, and it could have been much lower.

“I certainly wasted a lot of shots out there,’’ said Woods. “I missed three short ones ( putts from inside five feet) and I played the par-5s stupendously. I’m not exactly happy. I didn’t get much out of that round.’’

Still, Woods went head-to-head with the Nos. 1 and 3 players in the FedEx Cup standings and whipped them both. Leader Henrik Stenson shot 72 and third-place Adam Scott 67.

Woods, the only player to win the FedEx Cup twice, had seven birdies on his scorecard, the round ending when a 23-footer dropped for the last bird at No. 9. Woods started play at No. 10, birdied that hole and then had five birdies against two bogeys before that last long one dropped.

Usually the par-5s are easy pickings, but Woods played them in even par. He didn’t see the course until Wednesday’s pro-am, and most that round was spent plotting strategy with caddie

Conway Farms got its real first test from Woods on Thursday. He success in Chicago has been legendary. The Western Golf Assn. staged its biggest tournament at Cog Hill, in Lemont, for 20 years, ending in 2011. Woods won the Western Open there three times and the BMW Championship on the same layout in 2007 and 2009.

The PGA of America brought its PGA Championship to Medinah in 1999 and 2006. Woods won both. Now he’s in position to win at Conway Farms as well. He enters Friday’s second round in a four-way tie for third, three strokes behind leader and defending FedEx Cup champion Brandt Snedeker.

Numbers at least as good as Thursday’s will probably be needed if Woods is to stay with the leaders. Conway presented little problems in the first round, even with the wind kicking up and the temperature dropping when Woods was on his second nine.

“(The wind) was the only defense it had,’’ said Woods. “But it was still warm most of the day, so the ball was traveling and the greens were soft. Some of the holes we were hitting 3-wood just over 300 yards. The course played short.’’