Author: lenz

Chicago 10 must travel to find a U.S. Open sectional this year

Chicago’s two local qualifying tournaments for the U.S. Open are over. Now comes the hard part for the 10 golfers who survived.

They were the lucky ones among the 180 who entered the 18-hole eliminations at Northmoor, in Highland Park, and Seven Bridges, in Woodridge, the last two weeks. Next up is the U.S. Golf Association’s self-proclaimed “longest day in golf’’ – on June 3, when the 11 sectionals, all 36-hole sessions, are contested around the country to complete the 156-man field for the 113th Open proper at Merion, in Ardmore, Pa., from June 13-16.

Chicago’s 10 can pick their own sectional. Chicago won’t host one for the first time in at least five decades. Based on geography the closest is at Old Warson in St. Louis, but some players may opt for Columbus, Ohio. More qualifying spots will likely be available there with most of the PGA Tour players who haven’t already qualified the week before at the nearby Memorial tournament.

Most of the record 9,865 entries for this year’s Open were eliminated in the 111 local eliminations. Chicago’s 10 survivors are headed by 2011 Illinois Amateur champion Brad Hopfinger of Lake Forest, who has been playing on the Gateway Tour since leaving the University of Iowa. He posted the low round at the Chicago locals – a 66 at Northmoor.

Co-medalists at Seven Bridges were Chicago’s Michael Smith and Libertyville’s Michael Schachner, a perennial Illinois Open contender and mini-tour player who once shot a 60 while playing collegiately at Duke. Both posted 69s at the local.

Two of the top teaching club pros, Rich Dukelow and Travis Johns, also qualified for the sectionals. Dukelow was the Illinois PGA player-of-the-year in 2011. Johns, who won that honor in 2010, joined the staff at Medinah last week.

St. Charles assistant Curtis Malm, who swept Illinois PGA player-of-the-year and assistant player-of-the-year honors in 2012, didn’t survive the locals. He shot 74 at Seven Bridges, one shot out of a playoff for the final two sectional berths available.

Jeray advances

The lone Chicago area member on the LPGA Tour has qualified for the U.S.Women’s Open. Berwyn’s Nicole Jeray made it by posting a 143 total for 36 holes at Elkridge Club in Baltimore in last week’s first qualifying session. She was five strokes behind medalist Christina Kim and is assured a spot in the Women’s Open proper at New York’s Sebonack course June 27-30.

Life is looking up for Jeray, who missed the cut in her first three LPGA starts. In addition to surviving the Open qualifier she made the cut in her last two LPGA events and now has season winnings of $6,211.

Tuesday’s Chicago sectional at Cantigny didn’t produce a Chicago qualifier, though Chelsea Harris, a former University of Iowa golfer from Normal, was the first alternate. She lost in a playoff with Ana Menendez of Raleigh, N.C., for the second and last Open berth. Carolina Powers, of East Lansing, Mich., was medalist with a 71-72—143 for the 36 holes.

NCAA-bound

Northwestern is in the NCAA women’s finals for the second time thanks to a final-round charge in last week’s East Regional. With Winnetka freshman Elizabeth Szokol shooting a 4-under-par 68 coach Emily Fletcher’s team climbed from 10th to sixth in the final 18 of the 54-hole test.

NU’s only other berth in the finals came in 2000. This time the freshman-dominated squad will compete May 21-24 at the University of Georgia’s course

Both Big Ten champion Illinois and Northwestern are in the men’s NCAA tourney, which starts with regional play on Thursday. The Illini are the sixth seed of 14 teams in a regional in Fayetteville, Ark., while the Wildcats are the sixth seed among 13 teams at Baton Rouge, La.

Did you know?

The 62nd Illinois PGA Match Play Championship, first of the section’s four major tourneys, is in progress at Kemper Lakes in Long Grove. The semifinals and finals are on Thursday.

CENTRAL MICHIGAN: New lodge triggers a rebirth for Forest Dunes

ROSCOMMON, Mich. – There never was a doubt about the quality of the 18 holes at Forest Dunes. The course has consistently been ranked as the No. 2 public layout in golf-rich Michigan, behind Arcadia Bluffs.

A Tom Weiskopf design that opened in 1999, Forest Dunes is –in the words of general manager Todd Campbell — “in the middle of nowhere.’’ Still, the national course raters have found it. Golf Digest had it No. 20 among America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses for 2011-12 and No.99 among America’s Greatest 100 for the same period. GolfWeek ranked Forest Dunes No. 87 on its Best Modern Courses list. And, in August of 2013, Golf Magazine added Forest Dunes to its Top 100 Courses in the U.S. Forest Dunes made that prestigious poll at No. 72.

Despite consistent recognition from raters, Forest Dunes has spent most of its existence in limbo – until now. The new Lake AuSable Lodge (pictured above) opened in April and every room was sold out the first two nights. The opening of the $1.5 million facility, built in just seven months, is the most significant new addition to the Michigan golf scene in 2013.

Forest Dunes has been largely lacking in lodging options despite its out-of-the-way location (Grayling, 20 miles away, is biggest nearby town). Now, however, Forest Dunes is prepared to welcome overnight guests. The Lodge has 14 luxury rooms and suites. Its 28 beds can accommodate 32 people, plus it’s located 35 yards from the No. 1 tee.

Six cottages, built 10 years ago by Forest Dunes’ original owners, can accommodate another 30 comfortably.

“But we never marketed them,’’ said Campbell. Now the effort to do that is on.

Though snow had to be shoveled off some spots on the course a week before its 2013 opening Forest Dunes reported 188 rounds on some weekend days in early May, which exhausted the supply of golf carts available. Various promotional efforts, particularly on social media, obviously got the word out about the rebirth of the place.

Forest Dunes’ clubhouse includes the upscale Sangamore Restaurant, appropriate for weddings and proms in addition to business gatherings, and the Kendall/Seltzer Golf Getaway School flourishes with a 10-acre practice facility. Dave Kendall is a two-time Michigan PGA Teacher-of-the-Year and Jack Seltzer a member of the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame.

“People have been intrigued by what we have going on here,’’ said Campbell, hired in January of 2011 after spending 17 years at Garland Resort – a 72-hole Michigan favorite. “Before our doors were opened we had two-thirds of our budget booked. We created a frenzy.’’

In truth, Forest Dunes has had an interesting history. A group of investors from Arizona got the project started. They envisioned a very exclusive private facility and hired Weiskopf, whose Michigan design work includes the well-regarded Cedar River layout at Shanty Creek, in Bellaire.

“They wanted to build a phenomenal golf course in an unbelievable setting in Central Michigan,’’ said Campbell. That wasn’t an easy thing to do at the time.

Weiskopf was still moving dirt when financing was shifted to the Carpenters Union Pension Fund. The course was well-received upon its opening and a clubhouse was built in 2004, but the Pension Fund tried four different management companies and couldn’t decide what direction to take. Should it be exclusively private? Should it be a high-end public layout? Should it be something in between?

In 2011 the course was put up for sale, and that’s when Lew Thompson entered the picture. A recreational player, he has only dabbled in golf. From Huntsville, Ark., he made his fortune in the trucking industry but his arrival was just what Forest Dunes needed long-term.

“His is an absolutely American story,’’ said Campbell. “He looks like Abe Lincoln without the beard – a 6-6 gangly guy who lived in a home with a dirt floor as a teenager and sold his car to marry his high school sweetheart. As a young man he wanted to be a truck driver, so he bought a truck.’’

He used that truck to haul poultry from nearby Arkansas farms, and his business grew from there. Now Lew Thompson & Son Trucking delivers nation-wide.

Thompson’s introduction into golf came when he bought a Jack Nicklaus-designed layout, The Bridges, in Montrose, Colo. He immediately fired Troon Golf, its managing company, and the general manager. That GM moved to Forest Dunes, which was then under Troon management, and advised Thompson to consider buying that course.

He eventually did, then hired Campbell in January, 2012. Thompson’s been largely a hands-off owner, as Campbell combined duties selling real estate with managing the course. He had no interest in making Forest Dunes a private facility, but it still has members from the previous ownership.

“We’re in the middle of nowhere, but we’re near two main arteries (I-75 and US-27),’’ he said. “We’re not going to discount. We needed 15,000 players to pay $100 to $150 to play Forest Dunes, and we got them. We took a business that was losing close to $2 million and nearly brought it into the black last season.’’

His goal now is to put Forest Dunes on par with Arcadia Bluffs and its beautiful lakeshore setting. The next step in that process came in June, 2013, when Campbell announced the hiring of Chad Maveus as the club’s head professional. A Northern Michigan University graduate, Maveus had been an assistant for nine years at California’s Pebble Beach Golf Links.

Martin’s Fox Run, Arrowhead renovations are unveiled

April storms created a nightmare for Chicago’s golf course operators, but they were especially troublesome at Fox Run, the Elk Grove Park District facility.

Fox Run has undergone a $2 million renovation for two years under the supervision of Aurora architect Greg Martin. He started on the front nine in 2011 and completed the back late last fall. Unfortunately storms cancelled the grand opening outing.

All 18 holes are open now, though, with Martin improving the irrigation and creating new practice and chipping areas. He also replaced cart paths, re-designed some bunkers and altered some of the holes to create more challenging options.

Fox Run isn’t the only new Martin project opened in the past few days. The West Nine at the 27-hole Arrowhead facility in Wheaton has also re-opened, completing a project that had Martin renovating the East Nine in 2010 and the South in 2011.

Chicago’s busiest architect also completed bunker work at Prairie Bluff, in Romeoville, late last fall and will tackle two local courses this year – Wilmette and Settler’s Hill, in Batavia. Work on his biggest project, though, isn’t expected to begin until the fall of 2014. That’s when Oak Meadows, the historic Addison facility operated by the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County, becomes his main focus.

Even the courses most severely his by flooding have re-opened, and Mistwood has an added attraction for its players. The Romeoville site of the Illinois Women’s Open now has its new state-of-the-art Performance Center in operation.

Alive in the U.S. Open

Northwestern golfers Jack Perry and Matthew Negri were among the five survivors of Monday’s U.S. Open local qualifying round for the U.S. Open at Northmoor in Highland Park.

Both made birdie on the last hole of the 90-player elimination. For Perry that assured him a spot in sectional qualifying. For Negri it meant he was in a two-man playoff for the fifth and last spot. Negri survived the first extra hole despite a water ball. He drained a 12-foot par-saver to stay alive and then won the spot with a birdie on the second.

Lake Forest’s Brad Hopfinger was medalist with a 4-under-par 66 and the other survivors were club pros Rich Dukelow of Cantigny and Travis Johns of Twin Lakes.

Chicago has another 90-player local elimination on Monday at Seven Bridges in Woodridge. It’s one of 111 contested between May 3-16 nation-wide. There’ll be 11 sectionals across the country on June 3 to determine the final qualifiers for the U.S. Open proper at Merion, near Philadelphia.

Going collegiate

NCAA tournament play begins on Thursday, with Northwestern’s co-Big Ten champion women’s team the No. 10 seed in the East Regional at Auburn, Ala. NU dominated the Big Ten individual honors after claiming its first league title. Coach Emily Fletcher was coach-of-the-year and Kaitlin Park was the circuit’s top freshman. Park and Hanna Lee were both all-Big Ten first-team selections.

Illinois’ men were also dominant after ruling the Big Ten for the fifth straight year. Mike Small of coach-of-the-year, Thomas Pieters player-of-the-year and Thomas Detry the top freshman. Northwestern was the only school with more than one first-team all-star. Perry and Nick Losole were so honored.

Michael Fitzgerald, the player-of-the-year in the Chicagoland College Conference for Holy Cross, also qualified for the National Assn. of Intercollegiate Championship in Salem, Ore.

Did you know?

The Illinois PGA holds its first of four major championships starting on Monday. The 62nd IPGA Match Play title have a four-day run at Kemper Lakes in Long Grove. Curtis Malm, St. Charles assistant, is the defending champion. He beat Dukelow 2-up in the final and used that victory as a springboard to earning IPGA player-of-the-year honors.

MEDINAH’S RYDER CUP MEMOIR: The biggest of our book projects

The 39th Ryder Cup matches, held in September of 2012 at Medinah Country Club, provided plenty of drama world-wide. An inside look at that big global sports event was developed in a Special Edition produced for Medinah’s membership.

Len Ziehm authored this 144-page book, which was produced by Nick Novelli, Medinah’s Archival Director. A professional photographer for 36 years, he established Novelli PhotoDesign in 1986 and has worked with Medinah’s Heritage Committee since 1999.

From left, Len Ziehm, Lynn Marinelli, Nick Novelli.

Also collaborating on the well-received Medinah Special Edition, presented to the club’s membership on April 27, 2013, was Lynn Marinelli. She has been active at Medinah since 1960 and took over the publication of the club’s Camel Trail publication in 1986. She declared the Ryder Cup Special Edition “frosting on the cake’’ and said it would mark the end of her editorial career at Medinah.

THESE ARE Len Ziehm’s other book contributions:

THE DREAM SEASON — a memoir of the 1995 Northwestern football season, which concluded with the Wildcats’ improbable appearance in the 1996 Rose Bowl. (Published in 1996 by Performance Media, Chicago Sun-Times Features, Inc.)

CHICAGO’S GREATEST SPORTS MEMORIES — a collection of decade-by-decade reports of the city’s biggest athletic events, edited by Roland Lazenby. (Published by Sports Publishing Inc. in 2000).

THE SOLHEIM CUP –a year-by-year account of the premier team event in women’s golf (Published by PING, Inc. in 2005).

CHICAGO FIRE: 10 Years of Tradition, Honor and Passion – a look back at the first decade of Chicago’s Major League Soccer franchise. (Published by Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Fire Soccer in 2008).

Celebrity pro-am will make new Champions Tour event special

Tampa’s loss is Chicago’s gain.

The Champions Tour is preparing for its return to Chicago after an 11-year absence, and the new version will be much different than the 12 tournaments played here from 1991-2002. The Encompass Championship will be top-heavy in pro-ams when it takes over North Shore Country Club in Glenview from June 17-23, and about 10 of the amateurs will be celebrity types.

“The celebrity pro-am format will play well with the community here,’’ predicted Tom Ealy, president of Encompass – a Northbrook-based insurance firm that is a division of All-State. Very few pro tournaments on any of the tours have gone that route, the notable exception being the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on the PGA Tour.

Ealy felt a Chicago version would be ideal after a Champions Tour event in Tampa lost the Outback restaurant chain as its sponsor. As part of an agreement with the PGA, Encompass agreed to sponsor the Tampa event in 2012 and move it to North Shore for the next three years.

“We only had 45 days from the day we signed our contract, but (the Tampa event) exceeded our expectations,’’ said Ealy. “It was a very well-run tournament for 25 years, and we loved what we saw.’’

So now Ealy, planning for its Chicago debut, is rounding up volunteers and pro-am participants. He’s also started his celebrity recruitment. This week he announced the first three – retired and present football stars Joe Theismann and Robbie Gould and TV and film actor Dennis Haysbert.

“We have asks out to some very high-profile people,’’ said Ealy. “Maybe some tournaments don’t have a celebrity format because – if they don’t get the right celebrities – it might not be positive for your tournament. But we think having a Chicago-themed event adds to people’s interest.’’

Standard pro-ams will be held on Wednesday and Thursday and the first two rounds of the 54-hole $1.8 million tournament will have 81 amateurs (some celebrities) playing with the 81 professionals. The tourney will conclude with only the pros playing on Sunday.

Ealy, who took over as Encompass president 18 months ago, went after the golf event “because it was very apparent that we needed to build our brand.’’ The tournament will do that and also help two charities – Bears Care and the Illinois Veterans Fund of McCormick Foundation.

Ealy expects the professional field to be outstanding.

“We’re really excited. The current commitment list has 27 of the top 30 from last year plus six Hall of Famers,’’ said Ealy. The Hall of Famers are Bernhard Langer, Hale Irwin, Tom Kite, Nick Price, Ben Crenshaw and Sandy Lyle. Fred Couples and Tom Watson haven’t entered yet but Ealy is hopeful.

The Encompass Championship falls between last year’s spectacular Ryder Cup at Medinah and the PGA Tour’s BMW Championship, which comes to Conway Farms in Lake Forest in September.

“We know about the Ryder Cup and BMW,’’ said Ealy, “but we’ll be the only tournament that stays here every year.’’

A strong statement

There’s no question about which state has the best golfers in the Big Ten these days. Illinois’ men won the conference tournament for the fifth straight year on Sunday and Northwestern’s women won their first-ever league title, tying with Purdue for the top spot at French Lick, Ind.

Not only that, but NU’s Hana Lee shot the low round (68) of the women’s competition, Illinois’ Thomas Pieters was medalist among the men and NU’s Jack Perry won the Les Bolstad Award for the lowest scoring average in the Big Ten this season. He’s the first Wildcat to win that award since Luke Donald took it from 1999-2001.

A wide Open field

Local qualifying rounds for June’s U.S. Open at Merion in Philadelphia begin here on Monday when Perry and 89 others compete for sectional berths at Northmoor in Highland Park.

Another 90-player local will be held on May 13 at Seven Bridges in Woodridge. Curtis Malm, the Illinois PGA’s player-of-the-year in 2012, heads the field there. The U.S. Golf Assn. announced a record 9,860 entries for the Open – 774 more than the previous high in 2009.

For the first time in many years Chicago won’t have a sectional qualifier, which sends its top players to the starting field at Merion. The closest one will be at Old Warson in St. Louis on June 3.

Celebrity involvement will make Encompass a spectator-friendly tourney

The Champions Tour is returning to the Chicago area for the first time since 2002 and nobody – repeat nobody – is as happy about this most positive development as I am.

Chicago’s been losing its pro tour stops, and the return of the Champions will help correct that. The Encompass Championship will be held June 17-23 at North Shore Country Club in Glenview. It will add to the rich history the 50-and-over circuit has had in Chicago – even if the cycle has endured an 11-year absence attributable to sponsorship problems.

Plus, the new event will introduce a new, spectator-friendly format and should draw virtually all of the top players. They’ll be well-rested because the Champions Tour doesn’t have an event the preceding week, when the U.S. Open is contested at Merion in Philadelphia.

The Champions Tour dates back to 1980, when it was known as the Senior PGA Tour and had just four events and purses totaling $475,000. An indication of just how far the circuit has come is reflected in the Encompass purse — $1.8 million with the winner receiving $270,000

Encompass Insurance, headquartered in Northbrook, sponsored the Encompass Pro-Am of Tampa Bay in April of 2012 as part of an agreement with the PGA Tour that called for the creation of a new tournament in Chicago for the following three years. This will be the first of those three.

Previous Chicago tournaments on the Champions Tour were known as, first, the Ameritech Senior Open from 1991 to 1999 and, finally, the SBC Open, from 2000 to 2002.

During Ameritech’s sponsorship run the tourney was considered one of the best on the Senior PGA Tour. The ASO was first held in 1989, at Canterbury in Cleveland, and Michigan’s Grand Traverse Resort was the site in 1990 before the tourney began its Chicago run. Bruce Crampton and Chi Chi Rodriguez were the first two champions.

Chicago had a taste of senior golf prior to the ASO’s arrival at Stonebridge, a then-new private club with a course designed by Tom Fazio. The facility had opened on the Aurora-Naperville corridor in 1990.

In 1988 the U.S. Golf Assn. staged its U.S. Senior Open at Medinah, with Gary Player winning. That event would also come to Olympia Fields in 1997, Australian Graham Marsh emerging as the champion. Those 72-hole competitions contributed to the popularity of the senior golf in Chicago but didn’t have the same free-wheeling flavor as the annual 54-hole tour stops that began in 1991.

Mike Hill, then the hottest player in the 50-and-over ranks, won the tourney’s first staging at Stonebridge and Dale Douglass took the second. Those tournaments were only mildly successful compared to what was to come.

Michael Jordan was in his heyday as a basketball player then, and his passion for golf was just starting. In 1992 he played 54 holes at Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club in Florida even though he was scheduled to play in the NBA All-Star Game that night. After his golf marathon — but before he left Bay Hill for his basketball game — Jordan let it be known that he wanted to play a round with Palmer – any time, anywhere.

That round materialized at the 1993 ASO’s Thursday pro-am, with a then-record 17,500 following the two sports legends around the course. Palmer shot a 1-over-par 73 and Jordan, who billed himself as an 8-handicapper, had an 81. George Archer’s victory in the tournament proper seemed anti-climactic.

John Paul Cain’s win in the 1994 ASO was interesting, as he became a rare sponsor’s exemption to use the invitation as the prelude to a championship run.

The best golf at Stonebridge – and my favorite ASO/SBC memory – came in 1995, the tourney’s last staging on that course. Joe Jimenez, then 69 years old, shot a 62 and set a record for the most strokes below age. On the same day eventual champion Hale Irwin shot 63. Those dazzling scores, shocking at the time, underscored just how good senior golf could be.

That ’95 win earned Irwin the moniker of “Mr. Chicago.’’ He had won the Western Open at Butler National in 1975 and the U.S. Open at Medinah in 1990. (He wasn’t done, either. Irwin would go on to win back-to-back ASO titles in 1998 and 1999 after the event moved to Kemper Lakes).

Irwin’s wins there came in the third and fourth of six stagings at Kemper. The first two were won by a Morgan, Walter in 1996 and Gil in 1997.

The tourney remained at Kemper after Irwin’s victories there, but the tourney made a name change. The last three tourneys were known as the SBC Open, with Tom Kite the champion in 2000 and Dana Quigley in the last staging at Kemper in 2001. Irwin went to a playoff with Bob Gilder when the tourney moved to Harborside International in 2002. Gilder got the win that time, and the senior stars haven’t been seen here since. The end of the run was sad, for both the players and Chicago’s always loyal golf fans.

That’ll all change when the Encompass Championship tees off at North Shore, a private club that hosted the Western Open in 1928, the U.S. Open in 1933, the U.S. Amateur in 1939 and 1983 and the Western Amateur in 2011.

Tournament director Mike Galeski expects most every top player on the Champions Tour to compete in an exciting new format. They’ll have standard pro-ams on Wednesday and Thursday and then begin the tournament proper with an amateur partner. The 81 pros and their 81 amateur partners, some of them celebrity types, will compete as two-man teams Friday and Saturday in a tournament within a tournament, then the pros will decide their champion on Sunday in the third and final round of the 54-hole test.

The galleries should be sizeable, and not just because of the big names playing. Ticket prices are reasonable — $20 in advance or $25 at the gate, and those 18 and under will be admitted free.

CDGA’s date changes will streamline Chicago golf calendar

There are two major changes coming to amateur golf in the Chicago area for 2013. Both involve scheduling, and both represent improvements from the way things were.

For starters, the Chicago District Golf Assn. made one major schedule change, as well as a few others. The big one has the men’s 83rd Illinois State Amateur leaving its longstanding August spot on the calendar and moving to July 16-18. It’ll be contested at Aldeen, in Rockford.

The Illinois Mid-Amateur and Illinois Public Links are also moving back in the schedule, and that’s good, too.

Secondly, on the women’s side, the 80th staging of the Illinois Women’s Amateur is getting a slightly later date and a rare appearance in the Chicago Area. It’ll be played at Cantigny, in Wheaton, from June 25-28. That puts it closer to the only other big event in women’s golf for Illinois players. The 18th Illinois Women’s Open, which will get a July 31 start at Mistwood in Romeoville, is expected to have an amateur-dominated field again.

These changes have been generally – but not universally – well-received. Let’s have a look at them both.

In moving back the State Amateur the CDGA staff felt it was easing the burden on its top players. The U.S. Amateur was in August, too, and that put two of their primary events close together. In fact, they were held on back-to-back weeks in 2012.

Now the U.S. Am is Aug. 12-18, in Brookline, Mass. – roughly a month after the Illinois Amateur champion is determined.

“It’s a good thing,’’ said Dave Ryan, the Taylorville veteran who was the CDGA’s Player-of-the-Year in 2012. “For a lot of kids (the State Am) was up against the U.S. Amateur, and it was hard for them to get to both.’’

From a non-contestant standpoint, the schedule changes are good because they create a month of golf excitement in Illinois rather than spacing out the events, as has been the case in the past. The PGA Tour’s John Deere Classic is the week before the Illinois Amateur and the Illinois Open is the week after.

Quinn Prchal, the surprise winner of last year’s State Am, isn’t quite as convinced.

“It does appear that in 2013 most of the Illinois and Amateur tournaments are concentrated within a fewer number of weeks,’’ he said. “I imagine that scheduling golf tournaments is challenging.’’

He plans on defending his Illinois Amateur title “unless I qualify for the USGA Public Links.’’ That national championship is July 14-20 at Laurel Valley, in Pennsylvania.

Prchal became one of youngest State Am champions in history when he took the title at Kokopelli, in Marion, at 18 — just a few months after his high school graduation. He’s now a freshman at Princeton. The engineering student earned a starting spot on the Princeton team and had one individual top-10 finish (the Brickyard Collegiate in Macon, Ga.) and one team win (the Ivy League Match Play Championship, held on Princeton’s course) as his collegiate golf career got off to a promising start.

Ryan, conversely, may be the oldest-ever CDGA Player-of-the-Year, having won the honor at age 58. Now a year older, he spent much of the winter playing recreational golf in Scottsdale, Ariz. The lone exception was his participation in an April two-man team event at Whisper Rock, the prestigious club that includes such pro stars as Phil Mickelson and Fred Couples (as well as Wheaton’s Kevin Streelman) among its members.

Though he will continue his busy tournament schedule within Illinois, Ryan isn’t predicting another Player-of-the-Year season.

“I’m starting to feel aches and pains I’ve never felt before,’’ said Ryan, “and last year will be a tough act to follow. I got lucky last year. It was unusual for someone my age to do that.’’

Ryan expects to play in virtually the same events he played in during the 2012 season with one exception. He’ll skip the 94th CDGA Amateur (June 24-27 at Edgewood Valley, in LaGrange) to play in a qualifying round for the U.S. Senior Open on June 24 at Ruth Lake, in Hinsdale.

But he likes the other, less-high profile schedule adjustments made by the CDGA, those involving the Illinois Mid-Amateur (now Aug. 27-28 at Flossmoor) and the Illinois Public Links (now July 8-9 at Bowes Creek in Elgin). The Mid-Am was in April and the Public Links in May in 2012.

“Those were good moves because (they avoided) the spring weather,’’ said Ryan. “We had snow one time at the Public Links.’’

Last year was an unusual one, and not just because Ryan was the CDGA Player-of-the-Year. Though he won that award, he wasn’t Player-of-the-Year in the Senior ranks. That honor went to Lake Bluff’s Curtis Skinner, who accumulated enough points with his runner-up finish in the U.S. Senior Amateur.

That extraordinary tournament showing won’t lead to Skinner playing more locally, so the schedule changes “won’t affect me at all.’’

“If I had more time I would play in more of the state stuff,’’ said Skinner, “but Match Play events take up significant time, and amateur golf can be very expensive.’’

Especially if you have to travel to do it. By virtue of his showing at U.S. Senior Am, Skinner, now 55, earned spots in the U.S. Senior Open in July in Nebraska and U.S. Amateur as well as a return to U.S. Senior Amateur, in North Carolina.

His biggest focus will be on the U.S. Senior Open, where he missed the cut by one shot in 2011 when he made bogey on the last hole of the second round.

On the women’s front, the Illinois Women’s Golf Assn. could get another Northwestern vs. Illinois final again at Cantigny, assuming the college stars from both schools enter again. Elizabeth Szokol, now an NU freshman, won the 2012 title match over Michelle Mayer, now an Illini sophomore, at Ravisloe, in Homewood.

With IWGA leadership largely coming from Downstate, the Illinois Women’s Amateur was generally played away from the Chicago area. Last year was a rare exception, and in moving to Cantigny for this year the women will decide their champion on a course that has already hosted the men’s State Amateur three times.

Getting the chance to play Cantigny was a big reason for the date change, according to IWGA president Karen Tillett of Springfield. Cantigny was booked earlier in June.

“We’ve never had it this late before,’’ she said. “We were fortunate to get into Cantigny.’’

The IWGA will host its 34th Junior tournament July 30-31 at the University of Illinois’ course in Savoy and its 44th Senior tournament Sept. 17-19 at The Den at
Fox Creek in Bloomington. The Senior event will also include a Hall of Fame induction for the IWGA. Renee Sloan, the University of Illinois coach, will become on the fourth inductee into that Hall, which was created in 2008.

Affrunti’s finally playing again after shoulder rehab

Finally there’s some good news involving Joe Affrunti, the Crystal Lake golfer who suffered a serious shoulder injury months after earning his PGA Tour card.

Affrunti earned the right to play on golf’s premier circuit by finishing in the top 25 on the Web.com Tour money list in 2010. In June of 2011, however, he suffered a torn labrum in his left shoulder that required major surgery and lengthy rehabilitation time.

At least now he’s playing again. On a medical exemption with the PGA Tour, Affrunti is competing on the Web.com circuit again. He made the cut in two of his four starts, earning $4,500. This week’s South Georgia Classic will be the fifth and last Web.com start he’s allowed as part of medical exemption procedures. Then where he plays will be determined on a week to week basis.

“It’s confusing,’’ he said. “I get five medical starts to see how I’m feeling, then I can enter a (PGA Tour) event. I’m allowed 14 starts on the PGA Tour, but I still have to (be eligible to) get in (the tournaments). I won’t get in all 14 until next year.’’

As a low qualifier off the Web.com circuit, his eligibility for PGA Tour events is extremely limited. He was, for instance, only the 14th alternate for last week’s Heritage Classic.

“My first tournament back will probably be in Memphis (St. Jude Classic in June),’’ said Affrunti, “but I can play on the Web.com as long as my (PGA Tour qualifying) number doesn’t come up.’’

Affrunti played at Illinois and won the 2004 Illinois Open at The Glen Club before earning his playing privileges on the pro circuits. Injuries, though, have slowed a promising career. He had major wrist surgery before the shoulder flareup.

“I don’t think I”ll ever be 100 percent,’’ he said. “My wrist surgery was five years ago, and it still acts up. With the shoulder I went a long time without playing. The rehab took a lot longer than I thought it would, and I’ve had trouble being consistent. But you never know when you’ll have good weeks, when your games will come around. The more you play, the more comfortable you feel.’’

An Illini-NU duel?

The Big Ten men’s championship, which tees off Friday at French Lick Resort in Indiana, figures to be an all-Illinois affair with Northwestern trying to end Illinois’ run of four straight titles.

“We’ll go in seeded one-two,’’ said NU coach Pat Goss, whose Wildcats had a run of three straight Big Ten Match Play titles snapped by the Illini in February. “They have kids on their team who have experienced nothing but winning the Big Ten. That’ll give them a lot of confidence. If both of us get going we should have a fun battle.’’

NU tuned up by winning its Spring Invitational at The Glen Club. Illinois finished third in last week’s Boilermaker Invitational at Purdue.

The men’s tourney will be contested on French Lick’s Pete Dye Course when the conference women’s title will be decided at the nearby Donald Ross Course. Michigan State goes for a three-peat on the women’s side.

Did you know?

(BULLET) The full 18 holes of Elk Grove’s Fox Run course, renovated by Aurora architect Greg Martin, are expected to be available this weekend. Last Sunday’s grand re-opening outing was cancelled due to the heavy storms that forced the closing of many area courses.

(BULLET) Cog Hill, in Lemont, will hold a Demo Day from 9 a.m. -3 p.m. on Saturday.

(BULLET) The Illinois PGA holds its first stroke play event of the season on Monday at Bloomington Country Club. The IPGA Assistants Match Play Championship will also begin on that day at courses throughout the state.

(BULLET)) Flossmoor’s Ashley Armstrong won her second tournament of the collegiate season for Notre Dame, taking the Lady Jaguar Invitational at Augusta, Ga.

(BULLET) The Illinois Patriot Education Fund and the McCormick Foundation have joined forced in the staging of the May 28 Medinah Patriot Day outing. It’ll be played over the Nos. 2 and 3 courses at Medinah.

(BULLET) Mundelein-based GolfVisions has taken over management of Fyre Lake, a Jack Nicklaus-design near the Quad Cities.

LPGA schedule is finally working in Jeray’s favor

Berwyn golfer Nicole Jeray spent most of the winter in Augusta, Ga., and she had a pass to get into last week’s spectacular Masters tournament there. The Chicago area’s lone member of the Ladies PGA Tour, however, had more important things to do.

“I could have gotten in off my LPGA pass, ‘’ said Jeray. “I’ve been to the Masters numerous times, but now I prefer to watch on TV. Plus, I’ve got work to do for my own tournaments.’’

Hopefully that work will pay off starting this week, when Jeray’s tournament schedule dramatically picks up. It’s hard to improve your golf game in Chicago winters, so Jeray has been staying with her boyfriend and practicing at Jones Creek – a challenging Rees Jones design near the site of the Masters. When the weather improves her she’ll do her practicing back at Cog Hill, where Jones recently renovated the Dubsdread course, and work with her long-time swing instructor, Dr. Jim Suttie.

At 42 Jeray is among the oldest players on the women’s circuit. She qualified for the first time after her 1992 graduation from Northern Illinois University, where she won eight collegiate tournaments – an accomplishment that led to her being the youngest inductee into the school’s athletic Hall of Fame in 2002.

As a professional, however, things haven’t come so easily. Not only was the competition much stiffer, but Jeray has had to deal with narcolepsy – a sleep disorder. Still, she remains the only LPGA card member from Chicago since Medinah’s Deedee Lasker, who competed briefly in the 1970s.

Jeray’s dedication and determination is extraordinary. She has been on and off the premier women’s circuit several times and has been to its fall qualifying school 19 times.

“Kind of crazy, isn’t it,’’ she said. “My game is better than it’s ever been. A lot of the girls now are 18 years old, but I’m a mature player. I feel I can compete.’’

Lending credence to that belief is her standing in one of the LPGA’s more important statistical categories. She is second among all LPGA players in driving accuracy, having hit 86 percent of the fairways in her first three tournaments.

“I’m very straight. I just need to putt,’’ she said. “When I putt I make money. I’ve tried all kinds of putters. Now I’m holding one that I feel I can make anything with, so we’ll see.’’

On years when she didn’t have LPGA privileges Jeray competed on the much less lucrative Symetra (formerly Futures) Tour. Her latest venture to Q-school was in December, when she tied for 17th among 122 finalists. It took her 90 holes of regulation play and five playoff holes to earn playing privileges in 2013.

Her current card, though, hasn’t gotten her into every tournament and she’s been in limbo the last four months. Just an alternate in the field for the season-opening tournament in Australia, she didn’t know she could play until a week before the event. She hurriedly made the long trip there, but missed the cut.

“I wasn’t prepared mentally or physically,’’ she said. “People were dropping out like flies, so I got in. Then at Phoenix I signed up for Monday qualifying and got in.’’

With an uncertain schedule Jeray has played in three of the year’s six events, missed the cut in all of them and hasn’t earned a dime yet. That could change starting this week, when her schedule solidifies. She’s playing the next three weeks – the Lotte Championship, which tees off Wednesday in Hawaii; the North Texas Shootout, April 25-28 in Dallas; and the Kingsmill Championship, May 2-5 in Virginia.

“It’s been frustrating. When I left Q-School I knew I’d get into a lot of events,’’ she said. “But from now on I should get into all of the full-field events the rest of the year.’’

Northwestern golfer breaks a Luke Donald record

Luke Donald was a three-time All-American and an NCAA champion for Northwestern before he went on to his brilliant career as a professional, which included his earning the status of the world’s No. 1 golfer.

One of Donald’s most cherished collegiate records went by the wayside on Tuesday when NU junior Jack Perry posted a 54-hole score of 200 in the two-day NU Spring Invitational at The Glen Club in Glenview.

Perry made 20 birdies and posted rounds of 67, 67 and 66 in winning the individual title by eight strokes over Boo Timko of Ohio State. Perry’s 16-under-par score bettered the NU record for a 54-hole tournament set by Donald at the 2001 U.S. Intercollegiates in Mexico and later tied by David Lipsky in a 2002 event in Greensboro, N.C.

NU coach Pat Goss didn’t want to tell Perry how close he was to the record while play was in progress.

“But I was cheering hard for him,’’ said Goss. “He played flawless all week. He’s been on the cusp of greatness.’’

“I had no idea I was aiming for that accolade (Donald’s record),’’ said Perry. “But obviously it’s a good perk for playing well. I thought the record would be about 185, given the type of player (Donald) is.’’

Goss’ Wildcats won the 14-team event by 12 shots over second place Ohio State, and his only disappointment was that Perry’s 25-foot birdie putt on the last hole didn’t drop. He needed it to shoot 199 – a milestone score at the collegiate level, where most tournaments are over 54 holes.

“One of my goals as a coach is to have a player shoot 199,’’ said Goss. “It seems like such a neat number.’’

“That would have been pretty cool,’’ admitted Perry, “but it was still a good two days. We practice here a lot in these weather conditions, so we were well prepared.’’

Much of that practice was done at the Luke Donald Outdoor Practice Facility, which Donald had built at The Glen Club strictly for use by the men’s and women’s teams at NU.

The two-day tournament was the first significant competition of the Chicago season and good preparation for the Wildcats, who will bid for the Big Ten Championships at French Lick, Ind., in two weeks.