Chicago has had a LIV golf tournament all three years since the Saudi-backed circuit started play in 2022. Last week’s stop at Bolingbrook Golf Club produced a LIV attendance record for its tournaments held in the U.S. and the two before that at Rich Harvest Farms, in Sugar Grove, were also well received.
Still, there’s no indication the circuit will be back in 2025. If that’s the case it’d mean another sparse season for major tournament play in the Chicago area. The PGA Tour doesn’t return until the President’s Cup at Medinah in 2026. The LPGA and U.S. Golf Association don’t have a Chicago course on their schedules.
LIV has announced only its first four tournaments for 2025. The season tees off Feb. 6 at a new site – Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Then comes Adelaide, Australia Feb. 14-16, Hong Kong March 7-9 and Singapore March 14-16. Adelaide drew a LIV record 94,000 at its tournament this year.
This year’s LIV schedule had 14 tournaments, seven in the U.S. The event at Bolingbrook wasn’t announced until the season was well underway. There may be a wait this time, too, as sources say LIV is interested in taking a tournament to Brickyard Crossing, a Pete Dye design that has four holes running inside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. That may be a Midwest site that could knock Chicago off the schedule.
What is certain is that the LIV players want to be back in Chicago.
“I have a pretty good track record in Chicago, so I’m always happy to come back,’’ said Jon Rahm, who won both the LIV Individual Championship and LIV/Chicago on Sunday. His feelings are based on more than just his big week at Bolingbrook. He enjoyed his PGA Tour stops here, too.
“I’ve played Olympia Fields twice and won once,’’ he said. “I’ve played at Medinah and finished top-five. I’ve played at Conway Farms and was definitely top-10 and came to Bolingbrook and won. I would encourage (LIV) to come back here. I definitely like coming here and playing golf in this city.’’
Bryson DeChambeau, whose resume includes wins in the U.S. Amateur at Olympia Fields, the John Deere Classic in downstate Silvis and last year’s LIV stop at Rich Harvest, also wants to come back.
“It’d be great. Illinois is a fantastic state,’’ he said. “Golf courses are always fantastic and, shoot, Bolingbrook played close to a major championship test. I’d love to see us come back here and have more of this type of golf. I truly love it. I feel our games are well-suited to a place like this. Hopefully we’ll get another shot.’’
HERE AND THERE: The 38th Illinois State Senior Amateur concludes its three-day run at Itasca Country Club.
Biggest event left on the Chicago calendar is the Illinois PGA Players Championship Sept. 30-Oct. 1 at The Glen Club in Glenview. It’ll decide who wins the IPGA Player of the Year award.
Two IPGA senior events are in October – the Match Play at Chicago’s Ridge Country Club Oct. 7-9 and the Senior Players Championship Oct. 14-15 at Twin Orchard, in Long Grove.
Last event on the Chicago District Golf Association schedule is the Senior Amateur Four-Ball Championship Sept. 30-Oct. 3 at Ivanhoe.
Trophies, rings — and cash– highlight Jon Rahm’s big day. (Joy Sarver Photos)
The PGA Tour was reeling when the LIV Tour signed stars like Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka and Bubba Watson for its first season in 2022. The most devastating loss came early this year, however, when Jon Rahm jumped ship for a contract worth well over $100 million.
The exact amount that convinced Rahm to make the jump is uncertain, but getting a young star of his stature gave the Saudi-backed LIV circuit a huge boost, and Rahm didn’t disappoint, either.
He wasn’t an immediate hit. He needed 11 tournaments to get his first LIV win, but that victory in the United Kingdom set the stage for Rahm’s rousing climax to the season on Sunday at Bolingbrook Golf Club. Winning the LIV Individual Championship isn’t as impressive as winning any of golf’s four majors yet, but it was special – and unique.
Not only did Rahm, 29 and a pro golfer since 2016, pick up an $18 million bonus for winning the season-long title, he also captured the LIV/Chicago crown. That meant another $4 million. Rahm’s rookie LIV season produced winnings of $34,754,821.
Where the two-championship day fits into the Rahm legacy is to be decided later, but it pads a record of accomplishment that includes the 2023 Masters, the 2021 U.S. Open and DP World Tour wins in 2017, 2019 and 2023.
Rahm’s only opponent for the LIV Individual title was Chile’s Joaquin Niemann. No one else was mathematically eligible after 11 world-wide tournaments. Niemann made birdies on two of his first three holes and battled to the end. Still Rahm was three strokes better.
Sergio Garcia, from Spain – just like Rahm – was the main challenger for the LIV/Chicago title. Garcia and Niemann were two shots back and still hopeful until Rahm rolled in a 10-foot birdie putt at the 17th to seal the deal. With rounds of 69, 64 and 66 Rahm was 11 under par for the 54 holes and had a three-shot victory margin over both rivals.
Rahm also captains the Legion XIII team, and that unit made the podium – a LIV tradition for its first three finishers in the individual and team events at each tournament. Legion XIII finished second to Bryson DeChambeau’s Crushers. They’ll battle again in the season-ending LIV Team Championship Sept. 20-22 in Dallas.
Winning golf tournaments was nothing knew for Rahm, but captaining a four-man team was. Though Rahm didn’t get a win for a few months, Legion XIII won in the first tournament.
“I wasn’t sure how that was going to go,’’ said Rahm, `but it wasn’t that big of an adjustment. It’s been a lot of fun.’’
Rahm caught a flight home Sunday night to join his family. The arrival of the Rahms third child is imminent.
With just one tournament left in the season Rahm reflected on his dramatic decision to leave the PGA Tour.
“LIV is different than any other golf tour out there, but yet it’s closer to any other sport out there,’’ he said. “I enjoyed all the places we went to this year. It was fun. I absolutely love being out here. It’s been a fantastic experience for me and my family.’’
It wasn’t by any means an easy season, though. His wife Kelly experienced complications in her pregnancy that was disconcerting. His driver wasn’t working in the early part of the year, and the problem wasn’t solved until he changed shafts at mid-season. Winning – or lack there of – was also frustrating.
Though he had 10 top-10 finishes that first win didn’t come until the season was winding down. He got it at the United Kingdom, then one got away at West Virginia’s Greenbrier when he lost in a playoff to Brooks Koepka. Those two events led into the visit to Bolingbrook, a course with no big-tournament history. Rahm made only one bogey in the tournament, and none in the weekend rounds.
“During the practice rounds I thought that would be impossible,’’ he said. After that he was a clutch player. On Sunday he not only picked up big money, he also took home two trophies and a dazzling ring.
“This season wasn’t a bumpy road, but it was a windy one,’’ he said. `I wasn’t clutch in the season, but I was here. When I decided to join LIV I felt I could make an impact. I accomplished a goal.’’
A 64 on Saturday has put Jon Rahm in position to win two titles on LIV Tour. (Joy Sarver Photos)
A golf tourney’s never over until the last putt drops, and that won’t happen in the LIV Individual Championship until late Sunday.
After Saturday’s second round at Bolingbrook Golf Course, however, a couple things seem likely:
Jon Rahm figures to win the $18 million bonus for his play through the 13-event regular season, which concludes with the 54-man shootout at Bolingbrook. Only Joaquin Niemann can beat him, and he must overcome a three-shot deficit in the final round. Rahm goes into it with 235.17 points to Niemann’s 208.20.
Rahm started the tournament with a slight lead in the standings. Niemann passed him after shooting one stroke better in Friday’s first round and Rahm answered with a bogey-free 64 on Saturday to Niemann’s 69.
That means Rahm is in prime position to win both the LIV Individual Championship as well as the third playing of LIV/Chicago. The first two LIV/Chicago champions – Cam Smith and Bryson DeChambeau — were crowned at Rich Harvest Farms, in Sugar Grove. Bolingbrook, hosting the biggest competition in its 22-year history, has proven to be tougher than expected.
Rahm is at 7-under-par 133 as the 36-hole leader and he has a one-shot lead over Sergio Garcia, who posted a 65 on Saturday. They’ll play together in Sunday’s final round with Brooks Koepka, the first round leader who followed his opening 62 with a 73 and is in third place.
Those three will start at No. 1 in the LIV’s shotgun format that has all players starting their rounds at the same time. Sunday’s start is at 12:05 and Niemann will start his round off No. 1, too, but in the second group with Adrian Meronk and Ian Poulter as his partners.
This missed putt on his final hole on Saturday kept Sergio Garci from a share of the LIV/Chicago lead.
“It’s going to be a fun day, no matter what,’’ said Rahm. “It’s a weird combination – a championship within a championship. It’d be nice to play with (Niemann) so I can see what’s going on. I’m looking forward to it, but at the end of the day it’s what we work for all year.’’
Rahm jumped from the PGA Tour to the Saudi-backed circuit at the start of this season. His departure was a huge blow to the PGA Tour, and LIV was a challenge for him. He won only one tournament in 11 starts but was top-10 in the others. His long-awaited first win came in the United Kingdom two starts ago. He lost to Koepka in a playoff in Greenbrier, in West Virginia, leading into the Bolingbrook stop.
Garcia and Rahm, both from Spain, have won the Masters. Garcia, 44, did it in 2017 and Rahm, 29, in 2023. Rahm also has a big win in Chicago, capturing the BMW Championship at Olympia Fields in 2020. That was a pandemic year and the tournament was played with no fans in attendance. Rahm’s win was dramatic, coming when he rolled in a 65-foot putt to beat Dustin Johnson in a playoff.
Like Rahm, Garcia has only one win on the LIV circuit. It came this year at Valderrama, the world-famous course in Spain. Garcia, who has played all three LIV seasons, sees similaries between Valderrama and Bolingbrook.
“(Bolingbrook) isn’t playing easy,’’ said Garcia. “It’s been a combination of a bit of wind with small, hard greens. You have to be very precise, and I appreciate all the opportunities I get with LIV and in the majors. At my age I still feel I’ve got some game in me.’’
Only 18 of the 54 players are under par for the first 36 holes. That impressed Rahm, who has played two rounds without making a bogey.
“I didn’t see scores being that high at all,’’ he said. “On paper the course should be fairly easy, but the chips can be tricky. That makes it a bit complicated.’’
Saturday’s round featured a hole-in-one by England’s Tyrrell Hatton on the No. 6 hole. LIV said attendance was “more than 15,000 and reported it was the biggest LIV crowd for a tournament at a United States venue.
The team title in the tournament will also be decided on Sunday, with the defending champion Crushers and Cleeks tied for the lead.
Chile’s Joaquin NIemann has wrestled the lead away from Jon Rahm in their battle for an $18 million bonus. (Joy Sarver Photos)
The bottom line story at the LIV Individual Championship is the battle between Spain’s Jon Rahm and Colombia’s Joaquin Niemann. They’re the only players mathematically eligible to win the $18 million bonus, to be awarded to the season-long champion after Sunday’s final round at Bolingbrook Golf Club.
Neither did anything special in Friday’s first round. Rahm and Niemann, played together. Niemann started the day three standings points behind Rahm and shot a 2-under-par 68, one better than his rival. That enabled Niemann to regain the point lead he held for most of the season until Rahm had a win and runner-up finish in the two tournaments immediately preceding the visit to Bolingbrook.
Brooks Koepka was the star of Friday’s show, shooting a course record 8-under-par 62, to climb into third place in the point race and in position to capture the last of the bonus money on the line. The second place finisher gets $8 million and the third $4 million.
That bonus money is very much up for grabs. Neimann has 204.95 points to Rahm’s 199.17. Koepka, who won the final individual tournament last year to get third-place bonus money, can’t catch either Rahm or Niemann. It remains a two-man show but $20 million for individual competition at Bolingbrook and $5 million for team play is still available for the rest of the 54-man field.
“This was a goal, to have a chance to win – and hopefully win,’’ said Rahm, whose wife is expecting their third child imminently. “I consider myself a seasoned veteran. I’ve got to go and play golf and, if at some point it’s time to go, then I’m gone. I can’t be thinking about that.’’
Jon Rahm’s bid for LIV’s big bonus will carry on for two more days at Bolingbrook.
Rahm and Niemann won’t play together in today’s second round.
“It’s always nice to play with Jon,’’ said Niemann.“I’m going to miss him. Maybe on Sunday we might get together again.’’
Niemann won two of the first three tournaments of this season and was the point leader until Rahm got hot the last month.
“The first half of the season I played amazing,’’ said Niemann. “The last part hasn’t been the best, but I feel it’s getting there.’’
All three players at the top of the individual leaderboard are team captains. Koepka’s Smash is tied for second, Niemann’s Torque is tied for seventh and Rahm’s Legion XIII is down in 12th place. Team play at Bolingbrook will affect the seedings for the season-ending LIV Team Championship Sept. 20-22 in Dallas.
Koepka’s 62 on Friday opened a four-stroke lead on Paul Casey in the tournament standings. Casey is a member of the team-leading Crushers, captained by Bryson DeChambeau, the individual winner in Chicago last year. The Crushers are trying to repeat as both Chicago and the LIV Team champions.
“A good player gets hot and they can shoot 62 pretty easy,’’ said Koepka. “There’s a bunch of guys out here who can do that. When it’s your day, it’s your day.’’
Koepka erased the Bolingbrook record set by Mac Meissner by one stroke. Meissner set in it the third round of a Forme Tour event, held at Bolingbrook in 2021. The course was set up as a par-72 when Meissner set the record. It’s a par-70 this week.
Greg Norman (left), head of the LIV Tour, made his presence felt on the first tee of the opening round.
Money. That’s what differentiates the LIV Tour’s third tournament in Chicago from the others in the circuit’s first three seasons.
The event that tees off on Friday at Bolingbrook Golf Club will have the standard purse for the Saudi-backed circuit — $20 in the individual competition and $5 million in the team competition. That was also the case in LIV’s first two Chicago events at Rich Harvest Farms, in Sugar Grove.
This three-day event – last of the regular season — will also decide the three players picking up bonus checks for their season-long performances. Those checks are hefty, too — $18 million for first place, $8 million for second and $4 million for third.
Only Spain’s Jon Rahm and Chile’s Joaquin Niemann are still mathematically in contention for the top prize, but five others – Tyrrell Hatton, Sergio Garcia, Louis Oosthuizen, Cameron Smith and Brooks Koepka – could claim third-place money.
Niemann, who won two of the season’s first three tournaments, held the point lead until Rahm got hot in the last two. He won his first LIV title in the United Kingdom and had a playoff loss to Brooks Koepka in the last event at Greenbrier in West Virginia. Rahm goes into Bolingbrook with 195.17 points and Niemann with 192.20.
“I’m probably going to need to win,’’ said Rahm. “(Niemann) is going to be up there. I’m going to need another good week.’’
“(Rahm) has been playing great lately, so he’s probably going to do the same. I’ve got to try to bring my A-game,’’ said Niemann. He didn’t do it at Greeenbrier, finishing tied for 15th after three straight top-six finishes.
Niemann, however, is the season money leader with $14.5 million in 12 tournaments. Rahm, who had to withdraw at Houston, has $12.7 million.
Much more is on the line than bonus money, too. Bolinbrook is the last tournament for players to secure their positions on the LIV circuit for next season. The top 24 get in. Those from 25-48 fall into the Open Zone and can move around the teams. Those from 49 or below go to the Drop Zone and are relegated off the circuit for individual spots in tournaments in 2025.
Bolingbrook also decides the three teams that will receive first-round byes in the season-ending Team Championship Sept. 20-22 at Maridoe in Dallas.
The LIV Golf League doesn’t have a season climax to match the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs, but it does have a two-tournament wrapup to its third season, the first of which tees off Friday (SEPT. 13) at Bolingbrook Golf Club.
It’s both the climax to Chicago’s golf season and the LIV Individual Championship. Suspense might be lacking, since only Jon Rahm or Joaquin Neimann can win hefty bonus for taking the season-long point competition. No one else is mathematically eligible – not even Bryson DeChambeau. He’s no stranger to Chicago and the defending champion in LIV’s Chicago stop, having won last year at Rich Harvest Farms in Sugar Grove.
DeChambeau is down in ninth place in the individual point race but the team he captains, the Crushers, are the leaders going into LIV’s season-ending Team Championship coming up Sept. 20-23 at Maridoe in Dallas.
The Crushers, who won the Chicago stop and league team title last year, hold a narrow lead over Rahm’s Legion XIII in this year’s team standings. DeChambeau has the same three teammates – Paul Casey, Charles Howell III and Anirban Lahiri – who formed the winning team in 2023 at Rich Harvest.
DeChambeau gave the best individual performance since LIV’s founding when he finished 61-58 on the weekend to win the Greenbrier tournament last year. This year he’s without a win but has six top-10 finishes in 12 starts.
Playing away from the Saudi-backed LIV circuit in golf’s major championships, however, he’s been quite good. He won the U.S. Open at North Carolina’s Pinehurst, holding off Rory McIlroy in a stirring duel on the final nine holes, and finished as the runner-up to Xander Schauffele in the PGA Championship.
Those are the kinds of finishes that have made DeChambeau LIV’s most popular player, and his results on Illinois courses in recent years is rivaled only by the now retired Hale Irwin.
DeChambeau’s Illinois success extends beyond his playoff victory over teammate Lahiri last year at Rich Harvest. Shortly after winning the 2015 NCAA title for Southern Methodist he followed up by capturing the U.S. Amateur at Olympia Fields. And, his first PGA tour win came at the 2017 John Deere Classic in downstate Silvis.
His play got only better after he joined the players exiting the PGA Tour for the more lucrative, though controversial, LIV circuit. In fact, he’s become one of LIV’s best spokesmen.
“We’ve changed the vision of the game of golf,’’ he said in the lead-up to LIV’s final two stops of this campaign. “There is so much opportunity now moving forward than there previously was. Golf was a bit stagnant. There was more to be done and things weren’t necessarily done in the way that some of the players thought they could have been done.
“LIV came around, and we all saw this opportunity of team golf and being partial owners of teams and creating business value across the world. That was a big decision for me, to be part of something like that.’’
Like many LIV players, he’s broadened his interests beyond tournament play.
“What we can do with building academies, creating driving ranges, education centers,’’ he said. “There’s just so much we can do when we bring people together to help grow this game globally.’’
David Feherty, one of the TV voices for LIV after having previously worked for The Golf Channel on PGA Tour events, said DeChambeau “has really blossomed at LIV, especially with how (he) deals with people.’’
“Just getting a little bit older,’’ said DeChambeau. “I’m about to turn 31. Being a little more understanding of others and understanding what the game of golf needs is a huge component for me…. LIV has been a gigantic platform for me.’’
The professional game remains in turmoil, and DeChambeau doesn’t see a quick end to that.
“The game of golf is in an interesting place right now,’’ he said. “It’s going to get figured out. I know that. I have zero doubt it will get figured out, but it’s going to take some time.’’
Bolingbrook Golf Club is getting ready for a visit from the LIV Tour. (Rory Spears Photo)
The Illinois PGA has four major tournaments for its members each season, and Brian Carroll won the third of 2024 last week.
Carroll, the head professional at The Hawk in St. Charles, captured his second Illinois PGA Professionals Championship in three years. The first, in 2022, was a springboard for Carroll to win the 2023 Player of the Year award, and it might be again. He’ll have to overtake Andy Svoboda, in his first year at Butler National in Oak Brook, to do it, though.
Svoboda maintains a comfortable lead in the Bernardi point standings heading into the final of the section’s four majors – the IPGA Players Championship Sept. 30 to Oct. 1 at The Glen Club in Glenview.
In last week’s IPGA Professionals Championship Carroll passed defending champion and 14-time winner Mike Small in the second round and then held off Matthew Rion, of Briarwood in Deerfield; Svoboda and 2021 winner Andy Mickelson of Mistwood in Romeoville.
Carroll was at 15-under-par 201 in the 54-hole event at Elgin Country Club. Rion was two shots back in second and Svoboda and Mickelson shared third, five strokes off the pace.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to play well in that event over the years,’’ said Carroll. “Typically over three days I know that if I play my game and limit my mistakes I’ll be close at the end. My whole golf career was a series of runnerups and close calls until two years ago, so it’s nice to get a string of majors over the last couple years.
After winning his first IPGA title at Makray Memorial, in Barrington, in 2022, he added the IPGA Players in 2023 and now another IPGA Professionals Championship.
“The initial goal last week was to make the PGA Professional (national) Championship,’’ said Carroll. “That’s really important to me to qualify each year, and I’ve made it eight years in a row now.’’
The IPGA tourney is a qualifier for the national event, coming up in April in Port St. Lucie, FL. The Illinois section will have 11 players in the next national event there.
For now, though, the challenge is to chase down Svoboda in this year’s last big local event, the IPGA Players. Svoboda, who was the Connecticut PGA Champion last year, had a big year since taking the Butler National job. He qualified for both the PGA Championship and U.S. Open, was runner-up to Medinah’s Travis Johns in the IPGA Match Play tourney and the low IPGA player with a tie for seventh at the Illinois Open.
LIV tourney is next
Chicago gets its third visit from the LIV Golf League next week. The first two visits from the Saudi-backed circuit were played at Rich Harvest, in Sugar Grove. This year’s event will be Sept. 13-15 at Bolingbrook Golf Club.
Bolingbrook gets a more important event than Rich Harvest did. Next week’s stop is the LIV individual championship, which will decide a season-long point race that includes 12 tournaments around the world.
Only Jon Rahm and Joaquin Neimann are still mathematically in contention for the season’s top prize, an $18 million bonus.
Rahm, a former world No. 1, left the PGA Tour for LIV at the start of the season. He didn’t win his first LIV tournament until July and lost in a playoff to Brooks Koepka in the last event two weeks ago. This week he was quick to discredit media reports, stemming from unnamed sources, that he regrets leaving the PGA Tour.
“There is zero validity to that, and I don’t know where it came from. I don’t know why they feel the need to say that some of us are unhappy when we’re not. I’m very comfortable with my decision, very happy with my decision,’’ he told the New York Post. “And, I’m very, very eager for the future of my team and the league.’’
The second induction class in the Illinois Junior Golf Hall of Fame will be enshrined tonight at Cantigny, in Wheaton. As was the case with last year’s first class, this one will be headed by a local golfer who went on to win multiple times on the PGA Tour.
Last year it was Wheaton’s Kevin Streelman, who blossomed as a junior player at Cantigny before winning twice on golf’s premier circuit. This year it’s Gary Hallberg. He came out of Barrington to win back-to-back Illinois State Amateur titles in 1978 and 1979, starred collegiately at Wake Forest, captured the Illinois Open as both an amateur (1977) and professional (1982) and then won three tournaments during a solid PGA Tour career.
Hallberg, 65, lives in Colorado now. He was inducted into the Illinois Golf Hall of Fame in 2017.
The IJGA Hall of Fame recognizes individuals who contributed to the game in a variety of other ways than playing, and that’s underscored by this year’s class:
The Makray family has hosted the Illinois State Junior Amateur since 2007 at its course in Barrington.
Betty Kaufmann, former coach of the DePaul University men’s team, was an IJGA board member from 1994 to 2015.
Bruce Slovitt, who passed away in 2006, served in a variety of roles on the IJGA board and the Illinois Junior Amateur winner receives the Slovitt Cup in his honor.
Roger Ulseth was the first paid executive director of the IJGA in 1992 and the final tournament of the IJGA season is dubbed “The Rog’’ in his honor.
Kevin Weeks, a renowned teaching professional at Cog Hill in Lemont, has been a particularly ardent supporter of junior golfers. He’s helped 95 of them earn Division I college scholarships since 2000.
A shot for the ages
Timmy Crawford, who starred as an amateur at St. Viator High School and as a collegian at both Loyola and Illinois, is trying to make it in the professional ranks now and had a spectacular start at the Korn Ferry Tour’s Ascendant Championship in Colorado.
Crawford needed to survive a nine-man playoff at a Monday qualifier to get into the field. Then, in the third round of the tournament, he pulled out his driver on the 365-yard third hole in hopes of cutting a dogleg on the par-4. As it turned out, he did more than that.
His shot hit the green, bounced twice and then rolled into the cup for a hole-in-one. It was the fifth par-4 ace in the history of the PGA Tour’s alternate circuit and the first since 2012.
Crawford wound up fifth in that tournament, then played in four more events including last week’s first of the four playoff events in Boise, Idaho, without making another cut.
HERE AND THERE
Two local titles will be decided today (WEDNESDAY, AUG. 28). The Illinois PGA Championship wraps up its three-day run at Elgin Country Club and the inaugural Illinois Super Senior Women’s Open concludes its two-day stint at Pine Meadow, in Mundelein.
Amateurs held the first four places in the men’s Illinois Super Senior Open last week. Dave Esler, of St. Charles, shot 67-71 to win the title by two shots over Algonquin’s Gary Hanson. Ted Pecora, of Winnetka, and John Haffner of Winfield, tied for third. Esler, a course designer, was the tourney’s first amateur winner since Jim Kennedy took back-to-back titles in 2013 and 2014.
The University of Illinois men’s schedule was announced this week, with coach Mike Small celebrating the start of his 25th year at the helm with an especially busy September that includes two stops at Chicago area courses. The Illini, who led the 72-hole stroke play portion at last year’s NCAA finals, open with the nationally-televised Folds of Honor event in Michigan Sept. 9-11, then host their Olympia Fields/Fighting Illini Invitational Sept. 20-22 and compete in Northwestern’s Windon Memorial at Conway Farms, in Lake Forest, Sept 29-30.
The college golf season isn’t underway yet but, no matter how you slice it, the University of Illinois is already making its presence felt at a variety of levels.
Over the weekend Jackson Buchanan, an Illini senior from Dacula, Ga., advanced to the semifinals of the 124th U.S. Amateur at Hazeltine in Minnesota.
Another match win would have given Buchanan a spot in next spring’s Masters, but Iowa sophomore Noah Kim beat him 2-up before losing the title match to Spain’s Jose Luis Ballester, who plays collegiately at Arizona State. Both finalists qualified for the Masters.
Buchanan was last year’s Big Ten Player of the Year and qualified for this year’s U.S. Open.
Another Illinois-connected player, Brian Campbell, earned his PGA Tour card for the 2025 season. Campbell, another of Illinois coach Mike Small’s stars of the past, assured himself a place in the top 30 on the Korn Ferry Tour standings at season’s end. (He’s No. 10 now, and the top 30 get PGA Tour cards).
Campbell, 31, turned pro in 2015 and earned his card for the 2017 season but couldn’t retain it. He’s been a Korn Ferry player since then.
And, beginning on Monday, Small goes after his 15th title in the Illinois PGA Championship at Elgin Country Club. Small, who took his first title in 2001, won last season at Thunderbird, in Zion. That made him the winningest PGA professional at the section championship level across the PGA of America’s 41 sections nationwide.
Weather hampered last year’s event. It was scheduled for its traditional 54 holes, but had to be cut to 36. This year’s tourney concludes Wednesday and also determines nine qualifiers for next year’s PGA Professional Championship.
It’s Rahm vs. Neimann at Bolingbrook
LIV/Chicago, coming up Sept. 13-15 at Bolingbrook Golf Club, represents that circuit’s individual championship. However, only two players – Jon Rahm and Joaquin Niemann – are mathematically eligible to win the season-long individual title. It’s determined on a point basis.
Rahm didn’t win Sunday’s last regular season LIV event at West Virginia’s Greenbrier, losing to Brooks Koepka in a playoff, but he did pass Niemann in the point race.
Niemann, who won two of the season’s first three tournaments, led in points all season until Rahm’s strong showing at Greenbrier. Niemann tied for 15th there. Top bonus money will be on the line when they tee off at Bolingbrook.
“I’m probably going to need to win,’’ said Rahm, who has been in the top 10 in 11 of his starts in his first LIV season. “(Niemann) is going to be up there. I’m going to need another good week, and hopefully get it done.’’
The third-place finisher also gets a point race bonus, and five players – Tyrrell Hatton, Sergio Garcia, Louis Oosthuizen, Cam Smith and Koepka – still have a chance at getting that consolation prize.
HERE AND THERE: Brien Davis and John Ehrgott teamed up to win the ninth Chicago Distlrict Amateur Four-Ball Championship at Mauh-Nah-Tee-See in Rockford. The CDGA will conduct its 32nd Illinois State Mid-Amateur Monday and Tuesday at Park Ridge Country Club.
Chicago golf community leaders, Paul Voykin and Chris Bona, have passed on. Voykin, who was 93, was a prominent superintendent, spending 47 years at Briarwood in Deerfield. Bona, 59, was head professional at Boulder Ridge, in Lake in the Hills since 2007.
The PGA Tour announced its 2025 schedule with the John Deere Classic, Illinois’ only annual stop on the circuit, keeping its dates of this year – June 30 to July 6 – at TPC Deere Run in Silvis. The BMW Championship, conducted by the Chicago-based Western Golf Association, will be played at Cave’s Valley in Maryland for the second time. Dates are Aug. 11-17.
Whistling Straits, in Kohler, WI, is back on the U.S. Golf Association calendar. The course will host the 2028 U.S. Amateur, the 2033 U.S. Junior Amateur and the 2037 U.S. Girls Junior.
This sign on the Donald Ross Memorial course sums up Boyne’s commitment to its guests. (Joy Sarver Photos)
BOYNE FALLS, Michigan – Having three top golf resorts is somewhat like having three children. How do you decide which one gets taken care of first?
That’s a potential dilemma at Boyne Mountain, The Highlands and Bay Harbor – the three resorts that have a combined 10 golf courses and plenty of other amenities and attractions. Just a few miles apart, they’re all special places with special needs.
So, how does the Boyne group management handle it? It’s all about planning. A 10-year plan was drawn up in the aftermath of the pandemic.
“We have a 10-year plan for every hole on every course at all the resorts,’’ said Ken Griffin, the director of sales and marketing for the resorts. “There are very specific plans for continual upgrades.’’
And it’s been working – though not without an occasional hiccup. The biggest was at The Highlands, where an exciting new par-3 course and putting course were to be installed.
They were almost finished last year, then a super storm hit.
“We only had two holes to go,’’ said Griffin. “Then we got 25 to 30 inches of rain. We had three-four feet of sand ripped out in the first week of November.’’
With a ski lift in the background Doon Brae will be the first golf course that will double as a ski slope in the winter.
Work resumed in the spring but neither the course, dubbed Doon Brae (Scottish for “short walk downhill’’), or the 27-hole putting course have opened to the public yet. The Grand Opening for both has been pushed back to 2025.
Michigan architect Ray Hearn did the design work as part of a series of projects he’s undertaken at the resorts. Each of the nine greens at Doon Brae has a different template, each reflecting a style of green — Ridan, Punch Bowl, Volcano, Postage — played in Scotland.
Just as intriguing is the course’s location.
“It’ll be the only course that we know of where golf is played in the summer and skiing is done in the winter,’’ said Griffin.
Doon Brae will be a walking course, but the walks up the ski hill will be minimal. The longest hole is 136 yards and only two holes require uphill walks. Though pushcarts may be available and carry-bags available, Griffin expects many players will simply carry a few clubs in their rounds.
Despite the weather problems affecting Doon Brae the ongoing upgrades are going on full speed at all three resorts. They don’t just encompass golf course work projects, either. Boyne Mountain received an impressive (and expensive) Skybridge last year, and it’s become a major tourist attraction. Extensive work has begun on the lodge at The Highlands.
Though it can’t be called an upgrade, Boyne has also taken on a new project beginning next year. The Epson Tour, the developmental circuit for the Ladies PGA Tour, will conduct a tournament the next three years on The Heather course at The Highlands. The resorts’ courses haven’t been lacking for players, but pro tour events are another matter.
“We’ve never done a tournament like that,’’ said Griffin. “Pre-Covid we were close to getting the Champions Tour (the PGA’s 50-and-over circuit) but negotiations fell apart.’’
Rain problems and tournaments aside, the beat goes on with new projects at the resorts.
“We’re re-investing at a higher level than I’ve ever seen,’’ said Griffin, who has worked for the resorts for 16 years.
Not only is the lodge at The Highlands being renovated now, it will become the base for an Epson Tour tournament. The LPGA’s development circuit will play on the Heather course in 2025.
HERE’S WHAT’S been happening at each Boyne resort:
BOYNE MOUNTAIN, in Boyne Falls: The oldest of the trio, the Mountain celebrated its 75th anniversary last year and the addition of the Skybridge was a huge project. Hearn also supervised major upgrades on the Alpine and Monument courses there.
The Mountain has only two courses, but that could change one of these days. Legendary architect Pete Dye designed a course for that resort prior to his death in 2020. Center lines were cut, then work ended abruptly because Boyne management preferred to build a water park. It opened in 2004 and is now the largest indoor water park in Michigan. Land for a future Dye course, however, is still available.
“There’s no further design plans for a course, but we know that we have the space for one,’’ said Griffin.
The village at Boyne Mountain is always busy place, day or night.
THE HIGHLANDS, Harbor Springs: The Donald Ross Memorial course here is one project that won’t be completed quickly. Every hole but one is a replica of holes that Ross designed around the world. Hearn has revised Nos. 1, 2, 13, 15 and 16. Work is being done one hole at a time to minimize a reduction in play and No. 9 is being tackled this year, meaning the Ross is temporarily a 17-hole course.
No. 9, a replica of the 14th hole at Scotland’s Royal Dornoch, is the only one of the 18 holes that wasn’t designed by Ross himself.
“But it’s the course where he grew up, where he learned golf,’’ said Griffin. It’s also the course where Ross worked as a golf professional for the first time.
The Ross course is not a project to be taken lightly. The Boyne hierarchy wants each hole to be as accurate as possible. To show how serious the staff takes this project is reflected by the work undertaken on the 15th hole – a replica of No. 11 at Aronimink in Pennysylvania. The original version at The Highlands had five bunkers. Now, after a renovation, it has 22.
“We thought what we had was the original, but it wasn’t,’’ said Griffin, “so we moved it up the line and redid it.’’
The tee shot on No. 18 offers one of several views of Lake Michigan when you play at Crooked Tree.
BAY HARBOR, Petoskey: This resort’s Links/Quarry Course, designed by the late Arthur Hills, is the best revenue producer of the 10 at the three resorts, but Crooked Tree may be a bigger success story there. Hills didn’t design Crooked Tree. Harry Bowers was the original architect, and Boyne purchased the course from the family that built it.
“It’s the only of one of our 10 courses that we didn’t build,’’ said Griffin. “The last three holes (16, 17 and 18) were not good holes, and about 10 years ago Arthur Hills Jr. redesigned them. Ten years ago the lowest number of rounds (on the Boyne courses) were at Crooked Tree. Now, with the Heather and the Hills (Arthur Hills-designed course at The Highlands), Crooked Tree is in our top three.’’
The Inn at Bay Harbor, Autograph Collection, is the youngest of Boyne’s three resorts.
Chicago has had a LIV golf tournament all three years since the Saudi-backed circuit started play in 2022. Last week’s stop at Bolingbrook Golf Club produced a LIV attendance record for its tournaments held in the U.S. and the two before that at Rich Harvest Farms, in Sugar Grove, were also well received.
