Craig Stadler’s first Champions Tour win in eight years seemed a foregone conclusion for awhile on Sunday. After all, he had a five-shot lead after playing his first six holes at North Shore Country Club in Glenview. That lead wasn’t so safe, though. A combination of Fred Couples’ birdies and Stadler’s own shaky play turned…
Author: lenz
ENCOMPASS CHAMPIONSHIP: Stadler’s a surprise leader entering final round
ENCOMPASS CHAMPIONSHIP: Stadler’s a surprise leader entering final round Who would have expected Craig Stadler to be the 36-hole leader of the Encompass Championship? Well, certainly not Craig Stadler. The veteran long ago nicknamed the Walrus hasn’t won a tournament since 2004 and hasn’t even been in contention in one since 2007. Three months ago…
ENCOMPASS CHAMPIONSHIP: Another Langer-Frost duel begins
A 3-hour 28-minute rain delay disrupted the return of the Champions Tour to Chicago on Friday, but it didn’t interrupt the season-long duel of the circuit’s two top players. Bernhard Langer, the season money leader and No. 2 in the season-long battle for the coveted Charles Schwab Cup, posted a 5-under-par 67 at North Shore…
ENCOMPASS CHAMPIONSHIP: Irwin aims for sixth victory on Chicago courses
No golfer ever has had the success that Hale Irwin has enjoyed on Chicago courses. Not Fred Couples, not Mark O’Meara, not Bernhard Langer, not Tom Lehman, not even Illinois Golf Hall of Famer Jay Haas or Nick Price – the last winner of back-to-back Western Opens at Cog Hill back in the early 1990s….
Nick Price returns to Champions Tour at Encompass event
Some of Nick Price’s best days in a Hall of Fame career on the PGA Tour came in Chicago, when he won back-to-back Western Opens at Cog Hill in 1993 and 1994. Price’s participation in this week’s new Encompass Championship is big news on the Champions Tour simply because he’s playing again. He hasn’t competed…
Couples, Lehman, two ex-Bulls give Encompass plenty of star power
Everything’s coming together for next week’s Encompass Championship at North Shore Country Club in Glenview. Fred Couples and Tom Lehman have formally entered the first Champions Tour stop in Chicago since 2002, assuring the event one of the strongest fields on the 50-and-over circuit. The 81 starters include all of the top 10 on the…
Mistwood’s new Performance Center is spectacular
Mistwood Golf Club, the long-time Illinois Women’s Open site in Romeoville, closed early the last two years and opened a bit later than most of the other Chicago public courses this spring. Now those hard decisions, made by owner Jim McWethy and his veteran staff, are paying off. The August closings in 2011 and 2012…
Johnson’s JDC title defense is almost as captivating as Stricker’s was last year
Clair Peterson, tournament director for the John Deere Classic, has felt blessed – and with good reason. From 2009-2011 he had a very popular champion whose presence enhanced the interest in the JDC. Steve Stricker, from nearby Madison, Wis., tried to become only the fifth golfer in 140 years to win a major professional tournament…
Wait to get into U.S. Open begins for Medinah’s Travis Johns
Sectional qualifying for the U.S. Open, aptly dubbed “golf’s longest day,’’ was especially long for the Chicago players hoping to land a berth in the Open proper at Pennsylvania’s Merion course in two weeks. None made it through Monday’s 11 nation-wide 36-hole sectionals, and newly named Medinah assistant pro Travis Johns is the only one…
Chicago hopefuls talke U.S. Open dreams to St. Louis’ Old Warson
St. Louis was the site of the Senior PGA Championship, which concluded on Sunday, and it’ll also be the place of choice for the Chicago golfers who survived local qualifying for the 113th U.S. Open, to be played later this month at Merion in Ardmore, Pa. Old Warson Country Club, in St., Louis, will have…