Author: lenz

Streelman uses Bears, Urlacher to get ready for BMW Championship

It was back to work this week for Kevin Streelman, Chicago’s lone homegrown PGA Tour player and one of the elite 70 players in the field at the BMW Championship at Conway Farms in Lake Forest.

Last week’s break in the FedEx Cup Playoffs gave Streelman a chance to get away from the rigors of the pro golf tour. He had played in tournaments four of the previous five weeks and six of the last eight.

“I didn’t touch a club for a week,’’ said Streelman. “Just rested and got my body in shape.’’

And had some fun. He went to his first Bears’ game in seven years on Sunday, accompanied by seven friends from his high school days at Wheaton Warrenville South, and then had dinner at MJ’s Steakhouse.

Born in Winfield, the 34-year old Streelman spent the first 18 years of his life living in Wheaton where he played most of his junior golf at Cantigny. When he headed off to college at Duke his parents moved to Winfield and Streelman eventually settled in Scottsdale, Ariz., but he isn’t staying anywhere near his old home town during the BMW Championship. Instead he’s staying with retired Bears’ star Brian Urlacher who lives four minutes from the Conway Farms course.

“I’ve known him for a few years and played some golf with him in the offseason,’’ said Streelman.

It might seem that Streelman, being from the Chicago suburbs, would have at least some local knowledge of Conway Farms – a private facility about to host its first PGA Tour event – but that’s not the case.

“I played a college tournament there – Northwestern’s tournament,’’ said Streelman, “but I vaguely remember it. That was at least 10 years ago. I don’t know what to expect, but we should be able to make a lot of birdies there.’’

That’s to be expected. The players remaining in the FedEx Cup Playoffs make a lot of birdies no matter where their tournaments are played. Conway will be no exception with $8 million on the line beginning on Thursday and more in the offing for the top 30 in the standings after the BMW Championship concludes on Sunday.

Streelman stands 16th in the playoff standings and has a great chance to make the 30-man field for The Tour Championship next week in Atlanta. Another $8 million purse is available there, and the winner of the FedEx Cup gets a $10 million bonus. That lucky fellow could be Streelman if he gets hot.

“I’m confident in my numbers to believe I’ll get through to the last 30,’’ said Streelman, “so I have nothing to lose. Winning in front of my home crowd would be a dream, but I’m not putting pressure on myself.’’

The season already has been a rousing success for Streelman. He made the cut in 16 of 23 tournaments and earned $2.9 million. He also won his first PGA Tour event, the Tampa Bay Classic – a tournament that will be known as the Valspar Classic in 2014 thanks to a new sponsorship agreement.

Next year will be a big one for Streelman, regardless of what happens on the course. His wife Courtney is expecting their first child sometime in 2014.

For now, though, the BMW Championship is his main concern. His swing coach of two years, Darren May, arrived Sunday night and they’ve worked to sharpen his game for this week’s challenge. Streelman needs to climb in the FedEx standings if he’s to make a run at the $10 million bonus in Atlanta. He started the playoffs in 13th position but dropped slightly after finishing in a tie for 19th at The Barclays and a tie for 41st at the Deutsche Bank Championship – the first two playoff events.

The ranking system is complicated, but it’s possible that Streelman could climb all the way to No. 1 if he wins at Conway Farms. If he finishes fourth or better he could climb into the top five heading to Atlanta, and any player ranked that high would win the $10 million bonus by winning The Tour Championship.

A move to the north will freshen up the BMW Championship

The PGA Tour hasn’t visited the north suburbs in 41 years, when the Western Open was staged at Sunset Ridge Country Club in Northfield. That’s surprising, given the golf enthusiasm demonstrated annually in the area and the wide area of quality courses available.

Other golf tours did make appearances. The U.S. Women’s Open was played at Merit Club in Libertyville in 2000. The PGA’s satellite Web.com Tour was a fixture at The Glen Club in Glenview through 2007. The Champions Tour had regular stops at Kemper Lakes in Long Grove in the 1990s and finally returned this June at North Shore Country Club, also in Glenview.

The PGA Tour, the biggest and best in the world, was always a no-show after Jim Jamieson’s final putt dropped in his six-stroke victory in the 1972 Western. Finally the draught is going to end. This week the PGA Tour returns on a course that didn’t even exist when Jamieson won.

Conway Farms, a private facility in Lake Forest, will open its gates on Monday for the BMW Championship and the top 70 players on the FedEx Cup Playoffs point list will battle for $8 million beginning on Thursday.

The Western Golf Assn., based in north suburban Golf, staged its biggest Chicago tournaments at Cog Hill in Lemont the last two decades but opted for a fresh look this time in an effort to improve fundraising for its Evans Scholars Foundation. The tourney will also be played at Conway in 2015, assuming the sponsorship agreement with the automaker is extended.

BMW needs plenty of space to showcase its products during the tournament, and Cog Hill offered much more of than than Conway Farms will, but the Lake Forest location has re-invigorated the event and intrigued the players. Most of them won’t have seen the course until Monday because Conway Farms’ start as a golf course wasn’t all that long ago.

It only opened on Aug. 3, 1991 but it didn’t take long for the Tom Fazio-designed layout to gain the respect of the top players. The best college players checked it out at the men’s NCAA Championship in 1997 and the Big Ten Championship in 2006. The best juniors were there for the 1998 U.S. Junior Amateur and the American Junior Golf Association’s Canon Cup in both 2002 and 2006.

Luke Donald, at one time the world’s No. 1-ranked player and one of the 70 competing this week, started playing at Conway when he was a student-athlete at Northwestern and he’s now a Conway member.

Some other professionals played it in competition at two U.S. Open qualifiers – a local elimination in 2007 and a sectional qualifier in 2008. Mainly, though, the Lake Forest masterpiece has been a haven for amateurs. Most recently it was the site for the 2009 Western Amateur and the 2012 U.S. Mid-Amateur.

This week, though, Conway Farms moves into a new era. The BMW Championship will be the first PGA Tour event held on the 7,216-yard par-71 layout.

Course architect Fazio doesn’t know how the PGA Tour stars will react to his fourth Chicago creation, but he’s comfortable with his finished product.

“If you could give a class on golf course architecture you’d use Conway Farms,’’ said Fazio, who collaborated with his uncle, George Fazio, on the creation of Butler National in Oak Brook – the all-male club that hosted the Western Open from 1974-1990—and was sole architect for both Aurora’s Stonebridge Country Club, a stop for tournaments on both the Ladies PGA and Champions tours in past years, and The Glen Club.

“There were very few restrictions, a lot of land to work with (209 acres) and the owners were committed to a qualify golf experience,’’ said Fazio. “It was a textbook, fun way to create a golf course.’’

Tournament director Vince Pellegrino believes the course will be ideal for both players and spectators because of that.

“It’s not going to be the most difficult course they play, but they won’t tear it up – and it’s not bad for TV and for the people on the grounds to see birdies and eagles,’’ he said. “We encourage that. That’s OK, but it’ll be a good challenge for the best players in the world.’’

Conway Farms’ creation started with three golf-minded families who purchased the property on what was old Conway Road in 1956. It was all farmland until Fazio was hired. His creation includes two great short par-4s – Nos. 7 and 15. They may be the most memorable holes, but No. 17 is a par-3 that’s hard to forget with its downhill fairway and long-range views of the area and the par-5 finishing hole is a fun adventure with a creek running from the left side, then across the fairway and then behind the green.

The Conway membership –it’s by invitation only — has welcomed tournament play on its walking-only course. Chief operating officer Todd Marsh and director of golf Jeff Mory have been on hand almost from the beginning and the 255 regular members are serious about their golf. Marsh says 169 have single digit handicaps.

“That may put us in the top five clubs in America,’’ said Marsh. “Our members are passionate about their golf. We may have the busiest practice facility in the Midwest because they take their golf seriously.’’

“We have known that Conway Farms is a world-class golf club,’’ said Conway president Dave McDonough, “and we’re excited to know the world is going to realize it as well.’’

Pro-ams are an important part of the BMW Championship

The biggest reason the top golfers on the PGA Tour will be at Conway Farms in Lake Forest this week isn’t because of the $8 million in prize money that’ll be on the line. The Western Golf Assn. conducts its BMW Championship to raise money for its Evans Scholars Foundation.

While the 72-hole tournament doesn’t start until Thursday, the preliminary events are just as important to the Foundation. The top players will be participating in two pro-ams that are big fund-raisers. Amateurs’ entry fees go to the Scholarship fund, which has sent over 9,000 caddies to college since legendary amateur golfer Chick Evans created the Foundation in 1930.

First event of BMW Championship Week will be the CDW (Computer Discount Warehouse) Pro-Am, which tees off shotgun style at 12:30 p.m. on Monday after informal practice rounds provide players their first look at a course about to host its first PGA Tour event. Most of the pros participating will be ranked from Nos. 53-70 in the FedEx Cup point standings. Most of the top 52 will be in the bigger, day-long Gardner Heidrick Pro-Am on Wednesday, the day before the 72-hole tournament tees off.

Proceeds from the week’s festivities will help provide full tuition and housing scholarships for 240 Evans Scholars this year. An Evans Scholarship is valued at more than $70,000 over four years, so the WGA is facing an ongoing financial challenge.

While caddies remain a big part of the game, golf has changed over the years and the WGA has changed with it.

“Back in the day caddie programs were thriving,’’ said John Kaczkowski, president and chief executive officer of the WGA. “Then the influx of golf carts caused caddie programs to diminish.’’

Still, the WGA is planning to increase its Scholars to 920 annually. It recently revived a partnership agreement with a 20th university, Notre Dame, and initiated a program designed to introduce girls from disadvantaged families to the benefits of caddying.

“We endorse caddies. We think caddie programs are still important to the game of golf,’’ said Kaczkowski, and plenty of golf clubs – most of them private — agree.

It remains a big deal to get an Evans Scholarship, and funding them comes from a variety of sources, starting with the WGA’s 383 members clubs across the country. More than 26,000 of those clubs’ members contribute money to the Evans Scholars Par Club. With the WGA having offices in the Chicago suburbs of both Golf and Oak Brook, it’s not surprising that 70 of the WGA’s member clubs and one-third of its Par Club members are from the Chicago area. More than $11 million is raised annually from the donations of Par Club members, including Evans Scholars Alumni.

Jeff Harrison, the WGA’s vice president-education, said 715 students applied for Evans Scholarships last year. Applicants are judged on caddie record, academic record, financial need, character and leadership. They must put in at least two years – usually it’s at least four – as a caddie and hold above a B average in college preparatory classes in high school.

Financial need for the applicants varies, but Harrison said the average family income of the 2013 recipients was $60,000. Applications are screened and finalists attend one of five selection meetings, held from November through March, where they are interviewed by WGA directors, Evans Scholars alumni, golf officials and special guests. The location of these meetings varies, and over 100 are in the selection audience at some of them. The audience votes, and the applicants are informed of the results via mail within a week after their interview session. Getting selected is a cause for joyous celebration.

The WGA has Scholarship House facilities at 14 universities and partnerships with six other schools. Among them is a special one at Northwestern, which hosted the WGA’s new Caddie Academy this summer. Twelve high school girls from disadvantaged families lived at the Evans Scholars house on the NU campus while working as caddies at six North Shore clubs.

Four Evans Scholars supervised the six-week program, taking the girls to the clubs Tuesday-Sunday and conducting mentoring sessions at night. On Mondays the girls had supervised outings or field trips.

“The biggest obstacle to caddying is geography,’’ said Kaczkowski. “If you grow up where there’s no caddie programs, how will you caddie? We want to remove geography from the equation.’’

Expanding tournament schedule to include BMW could pay dividends for Stricker

The 70-man field for next week’s BMW Championship at Conway Farms in Lake Forest is finally official. It will include four players with Illinois connections, including Conway member Luke Donald.

Donald’s play has dropped off since he was the world’s No. 1-ranked player in 2011, but he will go into the BMW Championship ranked No. 54 in the FedEx Cup point standings. Also owning ranking spots high enough to get into the select field are Steve Stricker (8), Kevin Streelman (16) and D.A. Points (21).

That’s where they stood after Henrik Stenson won the second of the four $8 million playoff events on Monday – the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston. Stricker, like Points a University of Illinois alum, was the big newsmaker there.

When this PGA Tour season started Stricker declared himself semi-retired. Wanting more family time, he planned to play only 10 events and the FedEx Playoffs weren’t in the mix. In fact, Stricker skipped The Barkleys – first event of the Playoffs – and came to Boston only because he had a chance to make the U.S. team for the season-ending Presidents Cup matches Oct. 3-6 in Dublin, Ohio.

Stricker needed a good finish in Boston to earn one of the 10 automatic berths on the U.S. team, and he got it with a second-place finish. That created another change in plans.

He had planned to go bow-hunting for elk in Colorado with some of his buddies during the BMW Championship, but that trip was rescheduled because Stricker needed to stay sharp for the Presidents Cup.

“We pushed this trip back a couple days so I could play in Chicago,’’ he said after his strong finish in Boston. “I’ll play in Chicago, but I’m not sure about Atlanta (The Tour Championship – last of the Playoff events). We’re supposed to leave on Monday after Chicago but, if I’m up there and have a chance to win or top-10 going into Atlanta I’ll probably go to Atlanta.’’

The change of heart is understandable, given the money available in the Playoffs. Each of the four events has a limited field and an $8 million purse. The 70 qualifying to play at Conway Farms will be reduced to 30 for The Tour Championship. In addition to the tournament purses $35 million in bonus money will be disbursed after the Atlanta stop ends on Sept. 22. The FedEx Cup winner gets a $10 million bonus.

Heading to Conway Farms the leader in the point race is Stenson, who moved ahead of Tiger Woods with his win in Boston. Also standing between Stricker and the big prize are Adam Scott, Matt Kuchar, Graham DeLaet, Phil Mickelson and Justin Rose. They’ll all be teeing it up in Lake Forest to continue the chase for the biggest financial reward golf has to offer.

Ticket-takers

The Western Golf Assn., which conducts the BMW Championship, has reported “brisk’’ ticket sales for the first PGA Tour event on the North Shore since the Western Open was played at Sunset Ridge in Northfield in 1972. Still, tickets in most categories are still available through either BMWChampionshipUSA.com or by calling 847-724-4600.

BMW Week starts Monday and runs through 15, with the tournament proper conducted over the last four days. One-day grounds tickets are $40 online or $55 at the gate. Practice round tickets are $10, and juniors age 16 and under will be admitted free when accompanied by an adult.

Date-specific daily tickets are also available in the United Fairway Club, which features indoor seating and upgraded food and beverage options behind the 15th hole. They’re priced at $75 per day for Sept. 12-13 and $85 for Sept. 14-15. Weekly badges for the United Fairway Club are $195.

Did you know?

Two local competitions will be played during BMW Championship Week. The Illinois Senior Open is Monday and Tuesday at McHenry Country Club and the Olympia Fields Fighting Illini Invitational will be staged at Olympia Fields from Sept. 13-15.

The latter will feature some of the best college teams in the nation, headed by coach Mike Small’s Illini – second in last spring’s NCAA Championship. Small himself is coming off his 10th win in the Illinois PGA Championship, which was played on Olympia’s South course last week.

LPGA Legends event will bring something special to French Lick

If you had to pick one thing to feel good about in this golf season, what would it be? For me it’s what’s happening on the women’s side – both locally and nationally.

The Illinois Women’s Golf Assn. showed again that it isn’t reluctant to play its State Amateur in the Chicago area anymore. It was at Flossmoor in 2010, Ravisloe in 2012 and Cantigny this year, and the last two champions were Chicago players. This 80-year old tournament should move around the state, but from 1971 through 2008 it was almost entirely a downstate attraction. The tourney will benefit from continuing to play it regularly at Chicago courses.

The Illinois Women’s Open doesn’t have a location problem – it’s a fixture at Mistwood in Romeoville – but this year the tourney finally drew a heavy contingent of professional players. A bigger purse and a renovated course may have contributed to that.

On the professional side Jerry Rich surfaced again in a big way. Rich lured the Solheim Cup to his Rich Harvest Farms, in Sugar Grove, in 2009 and will host an even bigger event – the International Crown – in 2016. Rich wants to host the competition beyond that date as well. Hopefully he’ll be successful.

But this September couldn’t be a better time to spotlight women’s golf. Let me explain.

The men who labored on the PGA Tour have their Champions Tour to play on once they turn 50. As the Senior PGA Tour it was an immediate hit upon its founding in 1980, but the Ladies PGA Tour has struggled to get a similar circuit going. Now progress is clearly evident.

Its Legends Tour was created in 2000 but its growth has been slow. No more than three tournaments were held annually from 2000 to 2005. There was sporadic growth the next seven years, the number of events climbing to seven by 2012.

Just a year later the Legends actually seems like a bonafide circuit with a very big event coming up soon. The Legends has 13 tournaments on its 2013 schedule, three of them coming in September including its biggest event yet. The Legends Tour Championship presented by Humana will be played at one of my favorite getaway places, French Lick Resort in Indiana. It’ll be part of a week-long celebration of women’s golf that runs from Sept. 23-29.

In the weeks leading up to that big one there’ll be the Harris Charity Classic in Maine from Sept. 12-15 and BJ’s Charity Pro-Am in Massachusetts on Sept. 18.

The big one, though, is at French Lick — a four- to six-hour drive from Chicago depending on your starting point. The 54-hole tournament has, as of this printing, 66 entrants with 10 of them LPGA Hall of Famers and seven former Solheim Cup captains. They’ll play for a $500,000 purse, the biggest in Legends history, and the champion will received $75,000.

Not only that, but there’ll be a 36-hole Super Legends competition on the last two days of the week, featuring stars of the more distant past like Sandra Haynie (winner of the U.S. Women’s Open at LaGrange in 1974), Donna Caponi, Jane Blalock and Sandra Palmer.

Not only that, but there’ll be a Legends Hall of Fame established at French Lick with active Legend Jan Stephenson, winner of the circuit’s first tournament 13 years ago, heading the first class of inductees.

And, not only that, but there’ll be a two-day amateur event – the Alice Dye Invitational – to kick off the celebration. That event, to be held for the fourth time, has been extremely popular as part of French Lick’s annual calendar. Alice is the wife of Pete Dye, and both are course designers. The acclaimed Pete Dye Course will be used for the Legends competition, though it would be just as appropriate to have the women tee off on the Donald Ross Course there.

The hilly Ross layout hosted the men’s PGA Championship in 1924, with Walter Hagen winning, but it has an even bigger place in LPGA history. That circuit wasn’t organized until 1950, and three tournaments in its first decade were played at French Lick. The 1957 French Lick Women’s Open was won by Louise Suggs, and that event’s success led to the LPGA Championship being scheduled at the resort in 1959 and 1960. Two of the greatest women golfers of all time, Betsy Rawls and Mickey Wright, were the champions.

Suggs, Rawls and Wright will be inducted into the Legends Hall along with Stephenson and retired Legend Kathy Whitworth. The Hall will reside off the Atrium of the West Baden Springs Hotel.

I went to the Legends tourney announcement at French Lick 15 months ago. The event intrigued me then and excites me now. There aren’t nearly as many former LPGA stars who want to still compete as there are on the men’s side, but there are enough. I had Pat Bradley and Val Skinner as playing partners during my visit. Their skills haven’t diminished much, and they have growing company in that regard.

The Legends Tour now lists 120 members with a combined 675 LPGA tournament wins, including 70 major championships. Among the Legends members are two players who came out of Illinois to become LPGA regulars – Allison Finney (Winnetka) and Nancy Scranton (Centralia).

Though scheduling tournaments has been challenging, the Legends has paid out $10 million in prize money during its first 12 seasons and raised $13 million for charity. There have been events of one sort or another in 12 states – but not Illinois – plus Japan and Australia.

And now the Legends will put on their biggest show yet in southern Indiana. Adult tickets are $12.50 per day. In addition to the three days of Legends tournament play there’ll be a day-long clinic given by the LPGA greats as well as a pro-am in which they’ll be the featured attraction.

The community of French Lick fell on difficult economic times in the years after the LPGA’s last event there. It has recovered big-time as a golf destination, as attested to the landing of the 2015 Senior PGA Championship last month. French Lick has also hosted both the men’s and women’s Big Ten Championships twice and the Professional Players National Championship was also played there in recent years.

Now it’s the LPGA Legends turn. The event marks a breakthrough for the LPGA and women’s golf in general. It will be well worth the half-day drive.

Streelman, Points in good shape but Wilson is out of BMW Championship

Streelman, Points in good shape but Wilson out of BMW Championship

Now there’s just one FedEx Cup Playoff tourney left before the PGA Tour makes its first return to the Chicago area since 2011.

The Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston has a Friday-Monday run this week, and the low 70 in the standings after that 72-hole $8 million shootout come to Conway Farms in Lake Forest for the BMW Championship — tourney of similar duration and purse from Sept. 12-15.

Adam Scott won The Barclays on the outskirts of New York on Sunday and vaulted into second place behind Tiger Woods in the FedEx point race. Woods finished in a four-way tie for second in the first of the four playoff events.

Conway Farms is a new site for the BMW Championship, replacing Cog Hill in Lemont, and at least two players with Illinois connections won’t be there. Elmhurst’s Mark Wilson and University of Illinois alum Scott Langley qualified for 125-man field at The Barclays but didn’t play well enough to move on to the Deutsche Bank Championship.

Four other locals are still alive in the battle for the $10 million bonus that goes to the FedEx leader after the Tour Championship is played in Atlanta the week after the Conway Farms stop. Luke Donald, a Conway Farms member, and Luke Guthrie, another Illinois alum, can’t afford a letdown in Boston.

Donald tied for 41st at The Barclays and is No. 54 in the standings. A missed cut in Boston and he might not stay in the top 70. Guthrie missed the cut last week but is still at No. 81.

The Barclays was much more productive for Wheaton’s Kevin Streelman and Illinois alum D.A. Points, however. Streelman tied for 19th and moved up to No. 12 on the point list. Points, finishing with a 67 on Sunday, tied for sixth and moved up 10 spots in the standings to No. 15.

Changes coming at Olympia Fields

The 91st Illinois PGA Championship concludes Wednesday on Olympia Fields’ South course but bigger things are coming on the more famous North layout, site of four major championships — the 1928 and 2003 U.S. Opens and 1925 and 1961 PGA Championships.

Mark Mungeam, the North course architect the last 20 years, will supervise a renovation that calls for the reconstruction of all existing bunkers and the addition of five more. The ones that are being added were part of the 1938 design created by architect Willie Park Jr. but they were covered up over the years.

The bunkers will get Best (THIS IS BRAND NAME) sand, which is white and more playable than the more tradition varieties, according to Olympia head professional Brian Morrison. All the tee boxes will be given a rectangular shape that is rounded at the corners. Morrison said the renovation isn’t being done in preparation for the 2015 U.S. Amateur, which will be played on both the North and South courses as part of the club’s centennial celebration.

“We’re not required to do it (by the U.S. Golf Assn.),’’ said Morrison. “We are doing this mainly for the playability of our members.’’

Support for military veterans

The Illinois PGA Championship will again serve as the Chicago kickoff for Patriot Golf Day events. IPGA players were asked to make a voluntary donation to the charity that supports military veterans and the section will match the amount, to be determined after Wednesday’s final round.

Meanwhile, eight Chicago courses operated by Billy Casper Golf participated in last week’s World’s Largest Golf Outing, a fund-raiser for the Wounded Warrior Project. The Outing involved 826 golfers from 110 Casper-operated courses in 28 states. It raised $725,000.

Did you know?

The Western Golf Assn. will spend this week putting on the new Hotel Fitness Championship – first of four events in the Web.Com Tour Finals. The tourney begins Thursday at Sycamore Hills in Ft. Wayne, Ind.

The Chicago District Golf Assn. will conduct two of hits bigger tournaments back-to-back. The Illinois Mid-Amateur concludes its two-day run on Wednesday (AUG 28) at Flossmoor and the Illinois State Senior Amateur is on tap for Kankakee Elks on Thursday.

Malm’s 63 at Elgin bodes well for his chances in IPGA tourney

Clearly Curtis Malm is the player to watch in next week’s 91st Illinois PGA Championship on Olympia Fields Country Club’s South course.

Malm, first assistant professional at St. Charles Country Club and the IPGA’s player-of-the-year in 2012, fired a 9-under par course record 63 at Elgin Country Club on Monday in the section’s fifth stroke play event of the season.

In April he won the first of the section’s majors – the IPGA Match Play Championship at Kemper Lakes in Long Grove – for the second straight year. Malm also tied for third in the second major, last month’s Illinois Open at The Glen Club in Glenview, and is at the top of the player-of-the-year standings again.

“I haven’t played as well as I did last year as far as consistency goes,’’ said Malm, “but my game’s getting there.’’

He took on expanded duties at St. Charles this year, adding the role of membership sales director, and that has reduced Malm’s practice time. He is also lacking in knowledge of Olympia Fields’ South course. Malm hopes to get in his first round ever there on Thursday. Otherwise his first will be on Monday in the first day of the three-day championship.

Malm’s round at Elgin – his lowest ever in competition — featured seven birdies and an eagle. (He had a 62 in an informal round at Blackberry Oaks in Sugar Grove).

Other than Malm, the favorite at Olympia figures to be Illinois coach Mike Small, who won by 11 strokes the last time the event was played at the storied south suburban private club in 2010. Small has won the tourney a record nine times, but not since his runaway win at Olympia, where he is an honorary member. Steve Orrick, from Country Club of Decatur, is the defending champion. He won last year at Stonewall Orchard, in Gurnee.

FedEx Playoffs tee off

Kevin Streelman, at No. 13, is the top-ranked of six players with Illinois backgrounds in the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs, which begin on Thursday with The Barclays tourney at Liberty National in New York.

The top 125 on the season-long PGA Tour points list qualified for The Barclays, a 72-hole no-cut tournament with an $8 million purse. It’s the first of four such events, and the point winner after they’re over claims a $10 million bonus. Third stop in the series is the BMW Championship at Conway Farms in Lake Forest.

Joining Streelman among the Illinois hopefuls in The Barclays field are D.A. Points (ranked No. 25), Luke Donald (55), Luke Guthrie (72), Mark Wilson (102) and Scott Langley (124). Only the top 100 on the points list after The Barclays play in the following week’s Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston, and the top 70 after that one advance to Conway Farms.

Leader in the standings going into the playoffs is Tiger Woods, who won the FedEx Cup in its first year – 2007 – and became the only two-time champion with a victory in 2009. Last year’s winner, Brandt Snedeker, is No. 3 in the current standings behind Woods and Matt Kuchar. Phil Mickelson is No. 4, Bill Haas (FedEx Cup champion in 2011) is No. 5, U.S. Open winner Justin Rose is No. 7 and John Deere Classic champ Jordan Spieth No. 8.

NU has a super freshman coming in

Matt Fitzpatrick, who will begin his freshman year at Northwestern next month, continued a brilliant summer by winning the U.S. Amateur at Brookline, MA., on Sunday. That means his first year of college could be a wild one. By virtue of his U.S. Am win Fitzpatrick is eligible to play in the Masters, U.S. Open and British Open in addition to his college events.

Before winning the U.S. Am the 18-year-old from Sheffield, England won the British Boys title in 2012, was low amateur in this year’s British Open and runner-up in the English Amateur. His latest win elevated Fitzpatrick to the No. 1 world ranking for amateurs. He was also a shoo-in when the European Walker Cup selections were announced on Sunday.

The U.S. also made its Walker Cup selections. They featured Jordan Niebrugge, an Oklahoma State sophomore from Mequon, Wis., who won the U.S. Amateur Public Links, Wisconsin Amateur and Western Amateur titles in a three-week hot streak that preceded his first-round loss in the U.S. Am.

Playing in BMW Championship isn’t a done deal for Donald, Wilson

Luke Donald and Mark Wilson, Chicago-based PGA Tour players and members of the Western Golf Assn. board of directors, put on an exhibition this week to promote next month’s BMW Championship at Conway Farms in Lake Forest.

The nine-hole closed-to-the-public event, which included new Northwestern basketball coach Chris Collins and Bulls’ guard Kirk Heinrich, raised $45,000 for the WGA’s Evans Scholars Foundation. It also underscored the PGA players’ uncertainty about their status regarding the upcoming FedEx Cup playoffs.

Only this week’s Wyndham Championships in North Carolina preceded the four-tourney FedEx Playoffs – the biggest money opportunity in all of golf. Each of the four events – the BMW is the third – offers an $8 million purse and limited fields. Financial windfalls await the players who play the best at this time of the year.

Naturally, Donald and Wilson want to cash in, but need to improve their current position to do it. The top 125 on the season-long FedEx point stands get into The Barclay’s – the New York-based first playoff event that tees off on Aug. 22.

The top 100 after points are awarded in The Barclay’s qualify for the Deutsche Bank Championship in Boston, which begins on Aug. 30. The top 70 after the Deutsche Bank go to Conway Farms and the top 30 after that one play in the Tour Championship in Atlanta.

Based on the current standings Wilson will be hard-pressed to survive the first playoff event and Donald will have a challenge qualifying for the BMW Championship that will be played on his home course.

Donald, the world’s No. 1 player barely a year ago, dropped to No. 54 in the FedEx standings after missing the cut at last week’s PGA Championship. Wilson didn’t play in the PGA and is No. 95. He entered the Wyndham in hopes of boosting his playoff position.

“My game’s a work in progress at the moment,’’ said Donald. “Golf’s like that with its ups and downs. It’s been trying at times, but I’m looking forward to the Fed Ex events. Each tournament offers five times as many points (as the previous ones). There’s always a chance to make big leaps and bounds, and one great week can turn around your year.’’

The playoff format can also create volatile swings in the point standings, so Donald and Wilson could fall or climb dramatically depending on how they play beginning in two weeks.

“In the last two years I came into the playoffs in great position,’’ said Donald, who was No. 3 in the FedEx standings when he held the top world ranking. “This time I’m a little further back, so it’s a different mindset. One good tournament can shoot me up the board. I’m excited about that chance.’’

Wilson, hampered by a sore ankle, is also having a somewhat down season. He tied for ninth in his last start at the Canadian Open, though, and that was cause for optimism.

“I’ve worked through some swing thoughts,’’ he said, “and I’m rounding into form.’’

Wilson had spent much of his practice time in Chicago at Cog Hill, the Lemont facility that hosted the BMW Championship for 20 years prior to the WGA’s decision to move it to Conway this year. He’s not nearly as familiar with Conway as Donald is, but welcomes the change and thinks the 70 players who make it will, too.

“I played in the NCAA Championship there (in 1997) and have come on a regular basis,’’ said Wilson. “We play a lot of new courses every year on tour, and there’ll be a little learning curve, but our games travel.’’

Look out for Hardy

Nick Hardy, a 17-year old senior at Glenbrook North High School, shot a stunning 65 on Monday to lead the first round of the 36-hole stroke play qualifying at the U.S. Amateur in suburban Boston.

Hardy, who plans to attend the University of Illinois and recently played a practice round with Michael Jordan, shot his six-birdie opening round at Charles River Country Club. His second round was Tuesday at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass. – a former U.S. Open site that will be the venue for six days of match play beginning on Wednesday. The title match is on Sunday.

The U.S. Amateur started with 312 finalists from nation-wide qualifying tournaments. The low 64 after Tuesday’s second round of stroke play advancing qualify for the match play portion of the championship.

Did you know?

Emily Fletcher, who coached the Northwestern women’s team to its first Big Ten title and was the league’s coach-of-the-year, had her contracted extended through 2015.

Michael Smith of Twin Lakes, in Palatine, defeated Midlothian’s Frank Hohenadel in a three-hole playoff for the Illinois PGA Assistants title.

Top area amateur Blake Biddle of St. Charles has transferred from Nevada Las Vegas to Arkansas.

Goss, Mory develop unique Academy for juniors

Pat Goss and Jeff Mory, both long prominent in Chicago golf, are busy guys.

Goss is director of golf at Northwestern, head coach of the NU men’s team and the swing coach of Luke Donald. Mory is director of golf at Conway Farms, the Lake Forest course that includes Donald among its members. It will host the PGA Tour’s BMW Championship in September.

Mory’s pupils include University of Iowa golfers Vince India and Brad Hopfinger – the Illinois State Amateur champions of 2010 and 2011, respectively.

In one way or another Goss and Mory have worked together for over 20 years, and now they’re collaborating again – with a relatively new program that isn’t yet as high-profile as Goss’ NU golf program or Mory’s world-class golf club.

In 2011 the two co-founded the Wildcat Golf Academy in an effort to fill a need in junior golf. Goss describes the Academy as “the first NCAA-legal sports club for golf.’’ Sports clubs are common in other sports, like volleyball and soccer, but it wasn’t so easy to get similar opportunities for golfers. Lots of paperwork needed to be done, but it was all worthwhile.

“There’s a huge demand for us to work with junior golfers,’’ said Goss, “but it was hard for me because it’s against NCAA rules to give private lessons to a high school boy. This program is NCAA approved. It’s the only program of its kind in the country.’’

Mory, an Illinois high school champion in 1982, was the Northwestern men’s coach from 1990-97. During that period he was the Big Ten coach-of-the-year in 1994. Goss was, at first, one of his NU players.

In 1992 Goss became Mory’s assistant and took over as head coach when Mory moved to Conway Farms. The Wildcats have won four Big Ten titles and 32 tournaments in Goss’ 18 seasons. His players have won seven Big Ten individual titles – Scott Rowe (1995), Jonathan Loosemore (1996), Donald (2000 and 2001), Chris Wilson (2006), Eric Chun (2009) and David Lipsky (2010).

Coinciding with their success in their other jobs, Goss and Mory broadened their scope by creating the Wildcat Golf Academy.

“We felt something was missing for junior golfers,’’ said Goss. “If they’re going to improve this is the direction to go.’’

The Wildcat Golf Academy is a year-around program. Budding golfers don’t need to head to warm weather climates in the winter. They can get what they need to grow their skills in the north suburbs. Academy members work at the Luke Donald Practice Facility at The Glen Club in Glenview in the spring, summer and fall and use either the Gleacher Golf Center, located in the landmark Patten Gymnasium, or the all-purpose Trienens Center on NU’s Evanston campus in the winter.

Patten is famous for being the site of the first NCAA basketball tournament in 1939. The Gleacher Center, which opened as part of a renovation in 1987, is historic as well. It was the first facility of its kind in college golf with its 2,000-square foot pitching and putting green and adjacent sand trap. The Trienens Center can be netted like a dome for golf and has enough room for pitch shots.

Goal of the Academy is to develop highly motivated junior golfers who have the desire to compete at the highest level locally, regionally and nationally. The same teaching principles that Goss and Mory have used on their other jobs are utilized in the Academy, but the staff is much larger than just the two co-founders.

The Academy has three levels. Sam McKenney handles the juniors, youngsters who start at age 10 and must have taken lessons before they enroll. McKenney is an assistant coach for both men’s and women’s teams at Northwestern and also a teaching professional at Knollwood Club in Lake Forest.

Goss and Mory oversee the other two levels – academy and elite — with a staff of well-qualified instructors. They include David Inglis, assistant coach of the NU men’s team; Beth Miller, assist for the NU women’s squad; Conway Farms assistants Harlan Chemers and Jamie Fischer; Dan Massello, assistant professional at Evanston Golf Club; and Daniel Gray, assistant at Skokie.

While the Academy is for “highly motivated’’ players, Goss admits “there are different levels of commitment within the group.’’

The junior level is geared for kids to learn in a fun manner. The academy is for fifth graders and up and the elite is where students work in small groups twice a week directly with Goss and Mory. Fitness training is also included, directed by Cory Puyear – Northwestern’s strength and conditioning specialist who also works with golfers on the pro tours. Participants must live within 50 miles of the Evanston.

The Wildcat Golf Academy has quadrupled in size since its first sessions but the most interesting aspect is the summer-to-winter ratio.

“The offseason (winter) is become a critical time,’’ said Goss. “We do all the things we can’t do when the players are competing. The lowest number of our participants is in the summer, the highest in the winter. That’s the opposite of most teaching programs.’’

The effectiveness of the program is showing in tournament play, particularly in the Illinois Junior Golf Assn. events. Academy members like Bennett Cotton, Chip Savarie John Kryscio, Jason Paek, Blake Yaccino and Ethan Farnam have been among the very best in those competitions.

Remember those names. Could one of them emerge as the “next Luke Donald’’ in a few years? It’ll be interesting to find out.

Registration information is available at www.wildcatgolfacademy.com.

NORTHERN MICHIGAN: Guss takes charge at Treetops’ Academy

GAYLORD, MI. — Treetops has grown into – arguably at least – Michigan’s most spectacular golf resort and one of its main features is its teaching program.

Started in 1990 by Rick Smith and Henry Young, the school thrived as the Rick Smith Golf Academy and Smith became prominent far beyond his home state as both a teacher and course designer. His success as an instructor at Treetops led to him eventually becoming a swing guru for Phil Mickelson and he now also works with PGA Tour players Rory Sabbatini, Jerry Kelly and Sang-Moon Bae – winner of this year’s Byron Nelson Classic.

Joy gets her swing fined-tuned by Jason Guss, the Michigan PGA’s Teacher-of-the-Year.

Smith remains the owner and architect for three courses – Tradition, Signature and Threetops – at Treetops North. Threetops is widely regarded as America’s best par-3 course.

Inevitably, Smith’s success in teaching and course architecture led to his spending more time away from Michigan – he’s even designing a course in China now — and that led to a revamping and renaming on the teaching side. It’s now the Rick Smith and Jason Guss Golf Academy.

The name change isn’t something superficial within Michigan golf circles. Guss’ return to Treetops – he was one of Smith’s teaching assistants for 13 years – was made to expand the Academy and he’s done that significantly. Not only does it remain as the oldest continuously-operated golf school in Michigan, it’s also the state’s only three-time honoree of America’s Top-25 Golf Schools, as determined by Golf Magazine.

As for Guss, in 2013 he was named the Michigan PGA’s Teacher of the Year. We could see why on a visit to Couples Golf School, one of his expansion projects for the Academy. It consisted of an informative, fast-moving six hours of instruction conducted in two three-hour morning sessions. Guss did the bulk of the instructing with Gary Bissell backing him up.

The first three hours were spent hitting lots of balls on the range with the focus on swing technique supplemented by video analysis. The second three hours were devoted to short game skills – half on putting and half on chipping and pitching.

Guss left Treetops to start his own Academy at the nearly Otsego Club in 2011. That was an understandable move given that he had been recognized by Golf Digest as among the nation’s Best Young Teachers in 2010 and was selected to that publication’s advisory committee on equipment analysis for its popular Hot List issue. On that project Guss has spent three-day sessions working with scientists, retailers, teachers and amateur players to determine the best products coming into the marketplace.

Under the new setup Guss leads the Academy effort as director of golf performance with Smith there strictly part-time. Young and Bissell round out the instruction staff along with Judy Mason, long-time staffer for the Treetops’ Ladies Golf School.

The view from No. 2 at Threetops creates one of the most memorable tee shots I’ve ever played.

Though offering a wide variety of teaching options, Guss is heavily involved in junior programs and one of his youngest pupils won an American Junior Golf Assn. 54-hole tournament.

The Academy, located at Treetops North, — on Wilkinson Road three miles north of Treetops proper, has indoor facilities and computer swing analysis equipment – Trackman and Tomi Putting System. We made use of it in our two-day program, but benefitted more from the unlimited golf offered as part of the package. In addition to the six hours of instruction, we had 18-hole afternoon rounds at the Tradition and Fazio Premier layouts topped off by a spin around Threetops.

Treetops North is one of the few facilities where you can play 63 holes without changing golf carts. We played 63 holes during our latest Michigan visit, but not all at Treetops. Our first round was at nearby Boyne Highlands the day before the Couples School started, and we didn’t get to play the third 18 at Treetops North. That’s the Signature course, and we expect to play it on our next visit.