BENTON HARBOR, MI. – Little known foreign players won the last two titles in the Senior PGA Championship, and that could happen again. Japan’s Kiyoshi Murota shot the best score of Friday’s second, holing from off the green twice en route to a 6-under-par 65 – and is in a six-way tie for the lead…
Author: lenz
Stadler ailing for his Encompass title defense
Chicago’s only pro tour stop of 2014, the Encompass Championship, is less than a month away. It’ll return to North Shore Country Club in Glenview from June 16-22, and this week’s tourney update suggests the event has some issues. Defending champion Craig Staler visited North Shore and revealed health issues that have sidelined him for…
NCAA CENTRAL REGIONAL: Illini, Campbell rule at Rich Harvest
Illinois saw its five-year reign as men’s Big Ten golf champion come to an end two weeks ago, but the Illini still have a longer run going. They qualified for the NCAA finals for the seventh straight time on Saturday by winning the Central Regional at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove. Coach Mike Small’s…
IPGA MATCH PLAY: Malm notches three-peat; Harris is next target
Curtis Malm hadn’t even been born when Bill Ogden won three straight Illinois PGA Match Play titles from 1970-72. That’s the last time any player scored a three-peat in the section’s first of four major championships. Malm ended that dryspell when he took a 1-up victory over Medinah teaching pro Travis Johns in the 63rd…
Rich Harvest is good site for Illini to earn a return to NCAA finals
Jerry Rich makes no bones about it. The biggest event he’ll ever host at his Rich Harvest Farms course in Sugar Grove is the International Crown, which won’t arrive until 2016. Rich calls that new LPGA international team event “my legacy,’’ but that doesn’t mean that Rich Harvest won’t take on other big events. Five,…
India’s 61 in U.S. Open qualifying precedes Malm’s bid for a three-peat
Deerfield product Vince India has been struggling as a rookie on the PGA’s satellite Web.com Tour this year, but he didn’t struggle on Monday in a local qualifier for the U.S. Open. The former University of Iowa golfer shot a 10-under-par 61 to earn medalist honors in a local qualifier at Waterlefe, in Sarasota, FL….
Harbor Shores prepares for its second Senior PGA shootout
You know what might be the nicest part of the Senior PGA Championship? It’s the one golf major played on any of the pro tours that seems to like coming to the Midwest. In fact, this Champions Tour shootout is the major played closest to Chicago in 2014. The closest the PGA Tour gets for…
Chicago trio seeks success on Web.com Tour
The PGA Tour changed its qualification procedures last year, relegating its brutal 90-hole fall Q-School tournament to offering only spots on the satellite Web.com Tour in 2014. The new format, though, resulted in unprecedented success for Chicago players. Rarely did a local golfer make it through Q-School to the PGA Tour under the older format,…
NU, Illini will defend titles in Big Ten golf at French Lick
Illinois and Northwestern have become perennial contenders for the men’s and women’s golf titles in the Big Ten Conference, and that’ll again be the case when collegiate postseason play begins this weekend. The NU women shared last year’s Big Ten title and are the highest-ranked conference team (No. 12) in the national polls. Last year…
Winter damage is creating a difficult spring at Chicago golf courses
Chicago golfers beware. In most years virtually all Chicago courses are in full swing by the time the Masters tournament tees off in April. This year that wasn’t the case, and that’s not all. The Midwest Golf Course Superintendents Assn. is conducting a survey of its courses this week and executive director Luke Cella doesn’t…