For nearly four decades now Nicole Jeray has been virtually Chicago’s lone representative on the Ladies PGA tours.

While she’s transitioned from full-time tournament player to full-time instructor at Mistwood, in Romeoville, Jeray, 51, is still an enthusiastic competitor and this week is her biggest tournament of the season.  She’s in the field for the U.S. Senior Women’s Open, which tees off on Thursday at NCR Country Club in Kettering, Ohio.

Even with a full teaching load at Mistwood and her duties as a high school coach at Nazareth Academy in LaGrange Park, Jeray can still compete.  She tied for 15^th at the Senior LPGA Championship in July and tied for 14^th last week in a Legends of the LPGA tournament in Minnesota.

Tournaments are scarce for the top senior women, and Jeray’s only other event this season was the Illinois Women’s Open.

“There’s only a handful of events to play in but two of the most important ones were in the same week,’’ she said. “After we played the Senior LPGA in Kansas the players who are teaching had to take a red eye flight to get to Kingsmill (Virginia) for the LPGA Teaching Division Championship.  They got no practice round, then had to play for three more days.  I would have been with them except that I had the Illinois Women’s Open to play in.’’

A two-time IWO champion, that tournament is a Mistwood fixture so she couldn’t miss that one.

Jeray won’t have that problem in the Senior Women’s Open, but she will have to compete against legendary defending champion Annika Sorenstam, who won the tournament by eight shots last year.

“You have to be 50 years old to play in the Open (as compared to 45 in the Senior LPGA),’’ said Jeray.  “The younger you are, the easier it is to play, but most of the Hall of Famers will be in the Open because it’s such an historical tournament.’’

KORN FERRY FINALS:  No local players qualified for The Tour Championship, which concludes the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs in Atlanta this weekend.  That’s not the case in the Korn Ferry Finals.  Illinois alums Thomas Detry and Nick Hardy are in a good position going into the second of the three-tournament series.

The Nationwide Championship tees off Thursday with Detry coming off a tie for fourth place finish and Hardy a tie for 15^th in last week’s Boise Open in Idaho.  The top 25 after the Finals conclude next week at Indiana’s Victoria National will earn PGA Tour cards for the 2022-23 season.

Hardy, hampered by a wrist injury that sidelined him for a month in his rookie PGA Tour season, is battling to retain membership on the premier circuit.  Detry, from Belgium, was a tour non-member this year but got in the playoffs thanks to going five-for-five on making cuts in the PGA Tour events he played in.

Boise wasn’t so friendly for Northwestern alum Dylan Wu, a PGA Tour rookie, and Patrick Flavin, who earned a spot by notching four top-25 finishes in nine PGA Tour starts.  Wu tied fur 37^th and Flavin tied for 56^th.  Both need high finishes in the last two events in the Finals to be PGA Tour members next season.

COMING AND GOING:  Last week’s BMW Championship in Delaware marked the second straight year the Western Golf Association took its biggest event out of Chicago.  Next year’s will be at Olympia Fields, but It’ll be a short-lived return for the tournament, which made its last Chicago appearance at Olympia in 2020.

The WGA has announced the BMW will go to Castle Pines, in Colorado, in 2024; Cave’s Valley, in Maryland, in 2025; and Bellerive, in St. Louis, in 2026. The choice of Bellerive was impacted by the fact that the President’s Cup is scheduled for Medinah that year.

Andy Mickelson has an interesting dual role in the Illinois PGA Championship, which tees off today at a new site – Makray Memorial in Barrington.

Not only is Mickelson the defending champion, he’s also – as the Illinois Section’s tournament director — the key figure in the public course landing the state’s premier event for club professionals.

The IPGA Championship, which also is a qualifier for the PGA Professionals national finals, has been played primarily at private clubs since its debut in 1922.

Stonewall Orchard, a public facility in Grayslake, was part of a three-course rotation with privates Olympia Fields and Medinah when they divided hosting duties from 2005 to 2018.

Makray Memorial has an interesting history that dates back to 1953 but the open- to-the-public 18-holer has never hosted an event of the Illinois PGA’s stature. The Illinois State Junior has been held at Makray since 2007, and current PGA Tour member Doug Ghim set the coursre record of 65 in 2011 at that event.

The course was called Hillcrest Acres when it opened its doors. Paul Makray Sr. purchased the course in 1962 and renamed it Thunderbird. When Makray died in 1999 son Paul Makray Jr. and his siblings decided to completely re-design and rebuild the facility in honor of their father. It was closed in 2002.

“We moved two million cubic yards of dirt and brought in 100,000 truckloads in the re-construction process,’’ said Makray director of golf Don Habjan, who was on board for the last year of the Thunderbird days.

The course became Makray Memorial when it re-opened in 2004, and Paul Makray Jr. is now its sole owner. The 4,000 square foot clubhouse is one of the very best in the Chicago area and the 6,875-yard course has never been tested as thoroughly as it will be over the next three days.

The 54-hole tournament calls for 156 starters playing 18-hole rounds Monday and Tuesday before the low 50 and ties decide the champion on Wednesday.

Mickelson, the winner at Ivanhoe last year, has overseen a change of direction in IPGA tournament scheduling over the last few years that has also encompassed the Illinois Open and the Illinois Women’s Open. The Illinois Open has undergone format changes and the IWO has relaxed its residency requirements in an effort to get more players and encourage better competition. Selecting Makray was different.

“What inspired this change (for the IPGA Championship) was a combination of finding a good venue for tournament play — and this course definitely falls into that mix,’’ said Mickelson,  “and we needed one that was able to give us four days in the middle of August. We had to balance those two things together. The course is very demanding, and it’s going to be a fun event.’’

Mickelson was early in his days as director of golf at IWO base Mistwood, in Romeoville, when he won the PGA National Assistants Championship in 2015 and the Pebble Beach National Championship for TaylorMade club professionals in 2016.

His next big win came last year at Ivanhoe, but he won’t be the favorite this week. Frank Hohenadel, his head professional at Mistwood, might be. They go back to their high school days, when Mickelson was at Lincoln-Way and Hohenadel at Andrew.

“We’ve been very solid the last three-four years, playing some of the best golf of our lives,’’ said Mickelson, “but our PGA section is one of the strongest. That keeps you going.’’

Medinah’s Travis Johns, the 2019 champion; Brian Carroll of The Hawk Country Club in St. Charles, leader in the IPGA Player of the Year standings; and Blackberry Oaks teacher Roy Biancalana, coming off a win in the Illinois PGA Senior Championship, are also strong contenders.

And then, of course, there’s Mike Small. The University of Illinois men’s coach had ruled the section nine straight years until Hohenadel beat him at Medinah in 2011.  Small, now 56,  won four more titles after that, the last in 2020.

“He’s the best-ever in Illinois,’’ said Mickelson.  “He’s still a very special player who has no issues keeping up with the younger guys.’’

Very few golfers have earned membership on the PGA Tour without going through the nail-biting Qualifying School experience. Gary Hallberg, who grew up in Barrington, was the first to do it in 1980 when he needed to earn just $8,000 in a few late season tournaments to avoid Q-School.

Requirements have toughened over the years when such luminaries as Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth accomplished the feat.  Now Highwood’s Patrick Flavin is making a game attempt at it, and the next three weeks will determine whether he can get the job done.

Flavin’s route to make the PGA Tour has been more complicated, but it’ll be a great accomplishment if he succeeds. Just making it into the three-tournament Korn Ferry Tour Finals was a difficult feat in itself.

Last fall he couldn’t survive the second stage of the Korn Ferry’s three-stage qualifying school and basically had no tour to play on.  His options for the PGA Tour were Monday qualifiers, which usually meant finishing in the top four of about 200 hopefuls, or getting a sponsor’s exemption into big events and then playing well when those rare opportunities arose.

Immediately after the flop at Korn Ferry Q-School Flavin survived a Monday qualifier to land a spot in the PGA Tour’s Bermuda Open.  His father Mark hurried to the tournament site to work as his son’s caddie and they made a good team.  Patrick tied for 17^th and earned his first FedEx Cup points.

That success led to Flavin taking a rarely-used route to PGA Tour membership.  If he could earn enough FedEx points as a non-member of the PGA Tour to finish among the players ranked from 126 to 200 on the big circuit’s season-long  standings he would be eligible for the satellite circuit’s Korn Ferry Finals.

That meant scrounging for tournaments and, thanks to more good showings in Monday qualifiers, he made it into nine PGA Tour events and three Korn Ferry tournaments.  To supplement his schedule and earning potential Flavin also made three appearances on the PGA’s LatinoAmerica tour and one on the Canadian circuit.

“I played in basically everything I could play in the last couple years,’’ said Flavin before departing for the Boise Open, which tees off on Thursday (TOMORROW) to open the Korn Ferry Finals. “There was a lot of travel, and all of it wasn’t fun, but it all paid off.’’

He received a sponsor’s exemption to the John Deere Classic and tied for 10^th.  That finish gave him a spot in the following week’s Barbasol Championship, and he tied for 21^st there.  Those finishes meant more FedEx Cup points, to go along with earlier points gathered at the Puerto Rico Open (tie for 22^nd) and Corales Puntacana tourney in the Dominican Republic (tie for 54^th).

After Boise the Korn Ferry Finals go to Columbus, Ohio, and Evansville, Ind.  All are 72-hole events with 36-hole cuts and $1 million purses.  The top 25 on the point list over those three events go immediately to the PGA Tour, which starts its 2022-23 season the following week at the $7 million Fortinet Championship in Napa, Calif.  The rest of the field is eligible for the 2023 Korn Ferry season, but there won’t be a tournament until after the New Year.

“It’s been hard not knowing where your next tournament is going to be, but now I’ve got three in a row.  That takes some weight off my shoulders,’’ said Flavin.  “I feel great.  I’m super confident.  I’m ready to take care of business.’’

Northbrook’s Nick Hardy is also in the Korn Ferry Finals, but he’d rather not be there.  As a PGA Tour rookie Hardy failed to finish in the top 125 in the FedEx standings.  To retain his PGA Tour card he’ll also have to finish in the top 25 in the Korn Ferry Finals.

At least Flavin and Hardy still have playoff golf in their immediate futures.  Wheaton’s Kevin Streelman and Arlington Heights’ Doug Ghim made it into the FedEx Cup Playoffs but neither survived the 36-hole cut at last week’s St. Jude Classic in Memphis.  That eliminated both from the last two FedEx tournaments.

The renovation of the Settler’s Hill course in Batavia wasn’t easy – even for veteran Chicago area golf architect Greg Martin.

His recent or current area projects include The Preserve at Oak Meadows (Addison), Park Ridge Country Club, Fox Bend (Oswego), Arrowhead (Wheaton), Phillips Park (Aurora), Springbrook and Naperbrook (Naperville) and Wilmette Golf Club. Only The Preserve project is comparable to Settler’s Hill in terms of magnitude.

Work began in the fall of 2020 when the course was still open for play.  It was closed for all of 2021 and didn’t re-open until last week.  The long wait, though, was worth it. The Forest Preserve District of Kane County now has a course that is unlike any other in the Chicago area, if not the state of Illinois.

“It was a long journey,’’ said Martin. “Working with a landfill creates a little different challenge, and now all the holes are unique.  All have a personality.’’

Settler’s Hill was built with 13 holes on a landfill, and five on the edges of it.  That alone makes it unusual for Chicago courses.  Harborside, on Chicago’s South Side; Chicago Highlands, in Westchester; and Willow Hill (Northbrook) are also landfill projects but Settler’s Hill was one of the first.

Built on a site that had housed the County Farm and Home, Settler’s Hill was a nine-holer when it opened in 1988.  It became an 18-holer when designer Bob Lohmann unveiled his second nine in 1991.

Martin’s renovation features some startling elevation changes.  He likens the new design to “a roller coaster ride,’’ and that becomes obvious at the highest points – the tees at Nos. 13 and 17 and the green at No. 14.

There’s a drop of about 90 feet at No. 17, a dogleg par-5 that may be the biggest eye-catcher even though the drops are slightly longer on the other two holes.  There are also two new par-3s and the routing has changed to correct a problem with the original design.  Neither nine started or finished at the clubhouse on that one.

“We took a great property that just needed a little care and thought,’’ said Martin.  “We moved a couple holes around and opened up some views to give it more of a prairie look.’’

While the course is open, the $6.8 million project isn’t finished. The original clubhouse – located in an old barn – will house the pro shop until the new clubhouse is finished next year.  The old barn will be transformed into a banquet facility. A new four-hole short course is ready for youth play now and a new practice range is also available.

FED EX PLAYOFFS TEE OFF: Wheaton’s Kevin Streelman and Arlington Heights’ Doug Ghim are in the 125-man field for the first of the three tournaments in the PGA Tour’s season-ending playoff series.  First event tees off on Thursday in Memphis.

Neither Streelman nor Ghim survived the 36-hole cut in last week’s Wyndham Championship and they’ll need strong showings in Memphis to qualify for the second playoff event – the BMW Championship in Delaware. Only the top 70 in the season-long point race after the Memphis stop will advance to the BMW Championship. Streelman goes to Memphis at No. 83 and Ghim at No. 114.

HERE AND THERE:  Rich Harvest Farms owner Jerry Rich has confirmed that two of his course’s greens have been affected by poa annua but says they’ll be ready when the controversial new LIV Tour visits Sept. 16-18. Rich also reports that  “Corporate and general admission ticket sales are going crazy.’’

Last week’s local tournament schedule had four big events going head-to-head.  This week the Chicago District Four-Ball Championship, which concludes its three-day run today at Chicago’s Ridgemoor course, is the lone attraction.

Two of Chicago most prominent course superintendents, Mike Bavier and Luke Cella, have joined forces on the fourth printing of a recently-published book  “Practical Golf Course Maintenance – the Art of Green Keeping’’ (Wiley & Sons Publishing, Hoboken, N.J.)  “It’s not a technical book, unlike past editions,’’ said Cella, executive director of the Midwest Association of Golf Course Superintendents.  “It reflects all the new rules of golf, and all the photos have been updated.’’

Luke Donald, always the gentleman, badly wanted to captain the European Ryder Cup team but feared his chances were gone after Sweden’s Henrik Stenson was selected on July 20.

Donald, a member of four Ryder Cup teams and a vice captain for two others, wasn’t even named a vice captain for the matches in Rome in 2023.  The Euros were going to have Thomas Bjorn and Edoardo Molinari as the helpers for Stenson.

Now Donald, the former Northwestern star and long-time resident and supporter of golf in Chicago, is back in business.  He was officially named the European Ryder Cup captain on Monday after a tumultuous few days for Stenson.

Stenson was removed from the captaincy after he joined the controversial Saudi-backed LIV Tour, then hinted at taking legal action against the DP World Tour – the European PGA circuit — for his removal.  Stenson regained his focus in time to win last week’s LIV event in Bedminster, N.J., however, and that meant a huge payday in his first event on the new circuit.  He received $4 million for the individual win and another $375,000 for being part of the runner-up team in a separate competitive category.

Donald, while finishing in an eight-way tie for 49^th place in the PGA Tour’s Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit on Sunday, didn’t confirm his captaincy until Monday’s announcement but did quip that – if selected – he “wouldn’t pull a Henrik.’’ He offered more thoughts on that after his selection was announced.

“I was surprised (Stenson) put his name forward if his plan was to go to LIV,’’ said Donald. “I hate to talk about rumors, but rumors are that he’d been in contact with the rival tours – whatever they were – and he was very interested.  Everyone knew that.  They (the European tour) obviously took his word that he wasn’t going to do that.  We all have to sign a clause or contract saying that we won’t have anything to do with LIV.’’

Donald, 44 and struggling with his game the last few years, was offered a job on the LIV broadcast team but turned it down.  He did, though, say he’d keep Bjorn and Molinari as his vice captains.

Given his age and earlier success as a player, Donald would seem a good candidate to jump to the better paying LIV Tour.  He was the world’s No. 1-ranked player for 56 weeks, but that was a decade ago.

While he never won a major title, he did have top-10 finishes in the Masters, U.S. Open, PGA Championship and British Open and notched 17 professional victories. While still an amateur he won the 2000 Chicago Open by six strokes against a field of professionals.

While a Florida resident now, Donald maintained a home in the Chicago area for many years after his graduation from Northwestern and he has been a major supporter of the Wildcats’ golf program and the First Tee of Greater Chicago.

Donald, interestingly, finished in a tie for 49^th on Sunday with – among others – Zach Johnson, the U.S. Ryder Cup captain.  Donald’s captaincy will initially be more challenging than Johnson’s.

The PGA Tour indefinitely suspended all LIV Tour participants on Feb. 28 but the DP World Tour only fined its players who competed on the rival circuit. They included European Ryder Cup mainstays Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter and Stenson.  Will they be able to play on Donald’s team?

“That’s something that’s certainly up in the air,’’ said Donald.  “There’s no real clarity now, and there’s some legal action going on.’’

He’s convinced those issues will be resolved and is “so excited and truly honored’’ to finally be Europe’s captain.

“I’m really looking forward to the next 14 months and getting my team ready for Rome,’’ said Donald.

The controversial LIV Tour Invitational Series’  stop in Chicago is closing in. The Saudi-backed circuit holds its third tournament starting on Friday at Trump National Bedminster in New Jersey, and the fourth –called The International — is in Boston from Sept. 2-4.

Then it’s on to Rich Harvest Farms, in Sugar Grove, from Sept. 16-18 in what looms as the highest profile competition of the Chicago golf season. The LIV Tour may include many more big-name players by that time, since it falls after the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs.

Since the last LIV stop — the circuit’s American debut at Pumpkin Ridge in Oregon — the circuit has added Henrik Stenson, Jason Kokrak, Charles Howell and Paul Casey to its roster and gained more notoriety when Stenson was stripped of his captaincy of the European Ryder Cup team because of his defection.

More PGA Tour players are expected to make the jump after the FedEx Cup Playoffs end on Aug. 28.

Rich Harvest Farms owner Jerry Rich sent some of his staff members to Pumpkin Ridge and liked the reports they brought back.

“If our tournament turns out anything like that one Illinois golf fans are in for a real treat,’’ Rich said in his latest report to friends of Rich Harvest.

Rich also addressed a question that has been posed frequently since he joined the LIV Tour in his first venture into men’s professional golf.  A most successful LPGA team event, the Solheim Cup, was staged at Rich Harvest in 2009 and many big amateur events have also been held there.

So, why did Rich get involved with the Saudi circuit?

“The answer is simple and obvious: The Kids Golf Foundation,’’ said Rich.  “Every event I host at Rich Harvest Farms supports the Foundation and their mission of bringing golf into the lives of children and providing them with opportunities for personal growth and career enhancement.’’

LIV tournaments are different than PGA Tour events. They’re limited to 48 players, and they play 54 holes using a shotgun start. There’s also a team component to each event and prize money is significantly higher than it is in PGA Tour events.

The Bedminster event will have the Navy parachute team skydiving onto the course to start play each day. Gates there will open three hours before the first tee time to enable spectators to participate in other onsite activities.  General admission is $75 per day.

FED EX COUNTDOWN:  All the Chicago-connected players on the PGA Tour are in this week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit for a very good reason.  They only have two tournaments left to qualify for the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

The top 125 on the season-long point list qualify for the first of the lucrative postseason events and Kevin Streelman (No. 82), Northwestern alum David Lipsky (90) and Doug Ghim (111) are inside the cutline now. Nick Hardy is the best of the others at No. 138 with only the Wyndham Championship left after the Rocket Mortgage Classic.

Ghim helped his cause at last week’s 3-M Classic, finishing in a tie for 16^th, but he was in a tie for third after three rounds before dropping down the leaderboard with a 77 on Sunday.

HERE AND THERE: The 73^rd Illinois Open starts on Monday at White Eagle, in Naperville.  The host site was hit hard by a tornado over the weekend, forcing a closing of the course.  Over 50 trees went down and a scoreboard and tent were destroyed. The club plans to re-open for an outing on Thursday,  and the Illinois Open is expected to go on as scheduled. The Last Chance Qualifier  event is today on the Prairie Course at Countryside, in Mundelein.

With Onwentsia Club in Lake Forest drenched by six inches of rain the Illinois PGA Senior Masters was canceled on Monday. Plans to reschedule are in the works.

The Phillips Park course, in Aurora, unveiled two new simulators in its pro shop this week.

Glen Ellyn’s Andy Pope, who had a long career on the Korn Tour while qualifying for five U.S. Opens, is no longer on that circuit, but he captured the Florida Open title last week.

A year ago a costly bogey on the 17^th hole at Mistwood, in Romeoville, prevented Hinsdale’s Mac McClear from winning the Illinois State Amateur title.  He wound up in a three-man playoff for the crown, with Crystal Lake’s Ethan Farnam repeating as the tourney’s champion.

That setback didn’t hold back the University of Iowa junior this time.  He was in control most of the way en route to a three-stroke victory over Tommy Kuhl, a fifth-year senior at Illinois from downstate Morton.  They were the only players under par for the 72-hole test at Westmoreland Country Club, in Wilmette.

“It was a long time coming, but this really feels good,’’ said McClear. “Last year didn’t stay in my head. I played well, but Mistwood wasn’t my favorite course.  I liked this one better.  I didn’t like Mistwood’s water.  This was definitely my kind of course.’’

Windy weather the last two days hampered the scoring when the tourney was played on a North Shore course for the first time in its rich history.  McClear shot 68-77 in Thursday’s 36-hole climax to the 91^st annual championship while Kuhl went 68-75.  McClear posted 5-under-par 283 for the four rounds.

McClear, who won the Big Ten individual title last year, owned a five-stroke lead after Thursday’s morning round, but that advantage was gone after he hit the back nine in the afternoon.

Only Kuhl presented a challenge.  He pulled even with McClear, but then made three bogeys early on the final nine when his rival got hot.

“From 10 to 15 I really played good.  I almost birdied five of those six holes,’’ said McClear.  He was up six shots with three holes to play but then threatened to give that lead away, too.

A triple bogey seven at No. 16 brought Kuhl within two shots, but McClear also made a bogey at the 17^th.  Playing one group behind Kuhl, McClear watched his rival make double bogey on the 18^th and nursed his way through the final hole to secure the victory.

The loss left Kuhl nearly in tears.

“I wanted this tournament.  It was one of my goals,’’ he said.  “I just got beat by a better man.’’

They’ll meet two more times before returning to their college teams.  McClear and Kuhl both qualified for the Western Amateur, coming up Aug. 1-6 at Exmoor, in Highland Park . Then the U.S. Amateur will conclude their summer seasons.