Two of the very best amateurs in the Chicago ranks will play as professionals for the first time in this season’s first local pro tour event.

Tee-K Kelly, two-time Illinois State Amateur champion, and Nick Hardy, who whipped Kelly with a record-setting performance in their last meeting in the State Am, have accepted sponsor’s exemptions into the Web.com Tour’s Rust-Oleum Championship. It’ll return to Ivanhoe Club from June 4-10, shortly after Hardy wraps up a great collegiate career at Illinois.

“I’ve had a great college experience and have learned a lot from Coach (Mike) Small,’’ said Hardy. “I look forward to a strong finish with my teammates and then moving on to the next phase of my golf career. I know how valuable a sponsor exemption is, and I’m very appreciate to the Rust-Oleum Championship for giving me this opportunity.’’

Hardy, from Northbrook, had such an invite to the Rust-Oleum in 2016 and missed the 36-hole cut. He received another exemption into last year’s John Deere Classic prior to his senior season for the Illini and qualified for all 72 holes. Hardy also qualified for two U.S. Opens as an amateur but his most brilliant moment came in the 2016 Illinois State Amateur at St. Charles Country Club, when he was a record 24-under-par and beat runner-up Kelly by 10 strokes

Kelly, from Wheaton, won the Illinois Am in both 2013 and 2015. He played collegiately at Ohio State and won an NCAA Regional before turning pro. He spent last season on the PGA Latinoamerica Tour where he won the Puerto Plata Open in the Dominican Republic and had four other top-10 finishes. He didn’t earn promotion to the PGA’s satellite Web.com Tour, however, so he must either play his way into tournaments or get in via sponsor exemptions.

Rust-Oleum director Scott Cassin called Hardy and Kelly “two of the finest young players to come out of the state of Illinois in decades.’’

There’ll likely be at least two others looking for similar professional opportunities soon. Arlington Heights’ Doug Ghim, the low amateur at last week’s Masters, and Highwood’s Patrick Flavin, the first player to win both the Illinois State Amateur and Illinois Open in the same year in 37 years, are also finishing up their college careers, Ghim at Texas and Flavin at Miami of Ohio.

All four are on strong college teams that are expected to earn berths in the NCAA regionals that begin on May 14 at various sites around the country. The finals are May 25-30 in Stillwater, Okla.

Ravinia Green to host Illinois Open

The Illinois PGA has decided on the alternate site for the finals of the 69th Illinois Open on Aug, 6-8. It’ll be Ravinia Green, in Riverwoods.

Ravinia will join The Glen Club, in Glenview, as the site for first- and second-round play in the 54-hole competition. The Glen, home of the IPGA offices and the Illinois Golf Hall of Fame, will host the third round, which will involve the low 50 and ties after the first 36 holes.

“Once again we feel we have two outstanding courses,’’ said IPGA executive director Carrie Williams. “Ravinia Green is a tighter-tree-lined layout and contrasts in style to The Glen Club. We’re also looking forward to showcasing the club’s recently updated amenities.’’

Ravinia Green has never hosted the Illinois Open, biggest event on the IPGA schedule. The club has 100 bunkers on its par-72 course, which measures 6,866 yards from the back tees, and water comes into play on 10 holes.

Heritage beckons Donald

Once the world’s No. 1-ranked player, former Northwestern star Luke Donald’s game has declined in recent years – but not at the PGA Tour’s RBC Heritage Classic. Donald has always been stellar in that event, which traditionally follows the Masters.

The 50th anniversary playing of the tournament at Harbour Town in Hilton Head, S.C., tess off on Thursday. Donald has been runner-up five times in the event and was in the top-3 in seven of the last nine years. He’s never won it, though. Last year he finished on stroke behind champion Wesley Bryan.

PGA Tour records became detailed in 1934, and only six players have been runner-up in one tournament five times, and just two have more runner-up finishes in the same event. Jack Nicklaus finished second in the Canadian Open seven times and Phil Mickelson was runner-up in the U.S. Open six times.

Nicklaus also made the list of six a second time with his five runner-up finishes in the Ford Championship at Doral – an event which is no longer held. Others with five runner-up finishes were Payne Stewart in the Honda Classic and Greg Norman in the BMW Championship.

Donald, who didn’t qualify for the Masters, missed the cut in five of his eight starts in the 2017-18 season. His best finish was a tie for 32nd.

Maybe a tie for 50th place doesn’t sound great – even if it came in golf’s hallowed Masters tournament. Maybe a 74-74 finish in the weekend rounds and an 8-over-par 296 score for the 72 holes wasn’t worthy of much wild cheering at Augusta National.

Make no mistake, though. What Doug Ghim did over four days in the first major golf championship of the year was something special — very special.

Very rarely do 21-year olds who are still in college get invited to the Masters. Ghim did via one of the last invitation criteria. He was the runner-up in last year’s U.S. Amateur at Riviera, a California course that has almost as rich in history as Augusta National.

Ghim lost the U.S. Amateur title to a younger Doc Redman in sudden death at Riviera. but Redman didn’t beat Ghim in the Masters. Neither did the other four amateurs in the field. Just getting to the Masters was a major accomplishment.

Only two other Illinois amateurs did it in the last 35 years and neither of them made the cut, much less contend for the coveted trophy given annually to the low amateur. Ghim departed Sunday with much more hardware than that. He also picked up crystal glasses for making three eagles. Every player who makes an eagle at the Masters gets a nice prize from the club. The most eagles made by one player in any Masters is four, and Ghim had his sites on that target entering Sunday’s final round.

He didn’t break the record, but he did have a spectacular finish, holing a bunker shot for birdie on his last whole of the tournament.

The rousing finish capped off a week in which Ghim finally earned the attention that was lacking during much of his amateur career. The low profile was partly Ghim’s fault. He played only one year of high school golf at Buffalo Grove and left Illinois for Texas for college golf. Most all of his pre-college tournaments were national junior events held around the country.

As a result, Ghim didn’t get the attention of pro tournament organizers when they were handing out sponsor exemptions to worthy amateurs. The Masters, in fact, was Ghim’s first PGA Tour event and he got through it without a veteran caddie’s guidance. His father (and swing coach) Jeff was on his bag.

Those unusual circumstances led to Golfweek magazine asking Ghim to write a daily blog off his experiences. While recounting the eagles was part of that writing exercise, the highlight was his third round pairing with Bernhard Langer, a two-time Masters winner who has dominated the Champions Tour in recent years.

“I’ve played with so many nice people this week, and they really didn’t need to be,’’ said Ghim. “But Mr. Langer may have been the nicest guy that I’ve played with all week. He’s a very classy individual. He really appreciates good golf, and I could tell he appreciated my efforts as an amateur.’’

Langer even raked a bunker for Ghim.

“A Masters champion is raking your footprints. That was the funny highlight of the day,’’ said Ghim.

Ghim, who turns 22 next week, regretted missing the Western Intercollegiate college tournament to play in the Masters. His Longhorns’ teammates have their biggest events still ahead, however. That’s how he looked at it while accepting his trophy with overall champion Patrick Reed in the traditional presentation ceremony in Butler Cabin, which adjoins the Augusta National course.

“Now I’d like to help my team to a national championship, like Patrick Reed did twice (when he was attending Augusta State, a collegiate powerhouse located in the same Georgia town as Augusta National),’’ said Ghim.

Ghim figures to delay turning pro at least until after June’s U.S. Open. He has an exemption to that event off his U.S. Amateur showing as well.

Very soon after that Ghim will join the professional ranks where his chances of success seem very good. Matching the excitement of being low amateur in his first Masters, though, will be hard to beat.

“That is probably the most honorable thing that I’ve done as a golfer,’’ he said. “I’ve had the opportunity to play on a Walker Cup team, a Palmer Cup team, on a national championship with my (Texas) team and finish second at the U.S. Amateur but to be (in the Masters) and play against the best players in the world is definitely a confidence boost moving forward.’’

The 82nd Masters tournament tees off on Thursday, and how it unfolds could have far-reaching effects within the golf industry. At least that’s how Steve Mona, executive director of the World Golf Foundation, sees it.

Mona will release his group’s most recent report on the U.S. Golf Economy at the National Press Club in Washington DC on National Golf Day, which is April 24. The last such report was issued in 2011, and Mona gave a sneak preview of the upcoming report exclusively to The Daily Herald with the Masters closing in.

In 2011, according to Mona, golf provides $68.8 billion to the U.S. economy and creates 2 million jobs. There has been a slow decline in the number of facilities, though. The U.S. peaked at 16,052 courses. Now there are barely 15,000.

Within the Chicago area 22 courses, 17 of them open to the public, closed since 2001 and only one has re-opened. Still, Mona is hopeful.

“There will be a larger amount of economic impact in the next report,’’ he said, adding that the size of the U.S. golf market has remained stable.

“Golf contributes more to the U.S. economy than the spectator sports and the performing arts,’’ said Mona. “People don’t realize how large it is.’’

The rise in Masters ticket prices should give an indication of that. Arguably the most difficult tickets in all of sports, the Masters’ average price of tickets sold this year tops at $1,870 for Thursday’s opening round. That’s the highest average ticket price for any tournament day in Masters history and up nearly $300 from a year ago. The average price of a Sunday ticket this year is $1,554, nearly $200 more than in 2017.

“The Masters is typically the No. 1-rated golf event in terms of TV ratings,’’ said Mona. “It sets the tone for the year in golf, so this could be an epic year for the golf industry if we get a compelling story line. If we get Tiger (Woods) or Phil Mickelson in contention, or Rory McIlroy going for the career Grand Slam or maybe Jordan Spieth, Dustin Johnson, or Justin Thomas challenging, that would be fantastic. Golf at the highest level creates a lot of opportunities to drive interest in the game. We’re very hopeful for what could happen.’’

Streelman, Donald didn’t make it

Kevin Streelman and Luke Donald, the two most prominent PGA Tour players with Illinois backgrounds, have played in several Masters but didn’t make the 87-man field that will tee off at Augusta National on Thursday.

In addition to Doug Ghim, the Arlington Heights resident who qualified as the runner-up in last year’s U.S. Amateur, the starters include former University of Illinois standout Thomas Pieters; Matt Fitzpatrick, who briefly attended Northwestern; and Bryson DeChambeau, winner of both the 2015 U.S. Amateur at Olympia Fields and last year’s John Deere Classic.

Cook returns to Medinah

Medinah Country Club, which has hosted multiple U.S. Opens and PGA Championships as well as the 2012 Ryder Cup, has named a replacement for director of golf course operations Curtis Tyrrell. He’s Steve Cook who spent 20 years as director of agronomy at a course with a similar tournament resume – Oakland Hills in Michigan.

A University of Illinois graduate, Cook started his professional career with a three-year stint as superintendent for Medinah’s Nos. 1 and 3 courses in 1986.

Tyrrell ended a 10-year run at Medinah in January to take a similar position at Bonita Bay, in Naples, Fla. Bonita Bay has five 18-hole courses.

Here and there

More superintendents changes have Stephen Hope leaving well-regarded downstate Illinois course Canyata to take the head job at Crystal Tree in Orland Park and Steve Kuretsky moving up from superintendent to director of agronomy of Cantigny’s four courses in Wheaton. He replaces Scott Witte, who was named director of Cantigny Park Horticulture after spending 23 years in charge of Cantigny’s courses.

Ken Lapp has retired after spending 71 years with Jemsek Golf. Lapp started when he was 12 years old and was named superintendent at Fresh Meadows, in Westchester, when he was 19. He moved to a similar post at Cog Hill in Lemont in 1973 and worked there for the past 45 years. Lapp is moving to North Carolina to be closer to family members.

Northwestern’s Dylan Wu is among five finalists for the Byron Nelson Award as the Wildcats prepare for their next competition, Purdue’s Boilermaker Invitational on April 14-15.

The NU women, runners-up to Arizona in the NCAA finals last year at Rich Harvest Farms, upset No. 1-ranked UCLA in a match play event last month. The Wildcats, ranked 13th nationally, are in the Silvarado Showdown tournament in Napa, Calif., starting on Sunday.

Both the Illinois men’s and women’s teams are coming off tournament wins. The Illini men have won their last two events and the women captured the Mountain View Collegiate in Arizona last week. Both play in Ohio State-organized tournaments before the conference championships start. The women are in the Lady Buckeye Invitational April 14-15 and the men in the Kepler Intercollegiate April 21-22.

Every Masters golf tournament is special, but next week’s 82nd version will have even more so because Doug Ghim will be playing.

Ghim, from Arlington Heights, is a senior at the University of Texas who received a Masters invitation because he was the runner-up in last August’s U.S. Amateur. He’s one of six amateurs among the 88 invitees that emcompass the world’s best players.

Rarely has an Illinois amateur played in the Masters, first of the year’s four major championships. There were only two before Ghim. Bill Hoffer, a life-long amateur from Elgin, got into the field in 1983 after winning the previous year’s U.S. Mid-Amateur Championships at Lake Forest’s Knollwood Club. Rockford’s Brad Benjamin was invited after his victory in the 2009 U.S. Amateur Public Links tournament.

Benjamin wouldn’t get in via the same method now because the U.S. Golf Association discontinued its Public Links event. Like Hoffer, Benjamin didn’t come close to surviving the 36-hole cut in his appearance at Augusta National.

Ghim comes to Augusta during a solid senior season at Texas, a long-time collegiate powerhouse. He has the low stroke average for the Longhorns, 69.90 in seven tournaments. In October he won the Golf Club of Georgia tournament and last week, in his last start, he closed with a 67 for a sixth-place finish in the Valspar Invitational in Palm City, Fla.

Though he attended Buffalo Grove High School Ghim has played virtually all his competitive golf far from his home town. That was a decision Doug and his father, golf teacher and frequent caddie Jeff made long ago – after Ghim’s freshman year at Buffalo Grove. He finished third in the Illinois high school tournament that year and never played in another prep event.

The Ghims, still Arlington Heights residents, felt that Doug’s golf development would be best served by playing in top-level junior events around the country. They also felt it wouldn’t be fair to his high school team if he skipped many of its competitions.

Jeff Ghim got his son started in golf when he was 6 years old. Jeff had wanted to be a professional golfer, but three back surgeries ended that dream. He saw considerable promise in his son, however. Unable to afford the private clubs in the Chicago area, the Ghims played the more affordable public courses when twi-light rates were available. They weren’t above fishing golf balls out of water hazards at times, either,

“I’m sure there was financial stress, but I think more than anything he wanted to see if I actually loved the game,’’ said Doug. Obviously he wanted to stick with the game. That’s why he went to Texas in the first place.

“I always felt pretty underrated,’’ said Ghim. “My decision to go to Texas was because I was going to be associating with incredible golfers. I knew every day I’d have to put my name and game up against theirs.’’

During his senior season Ghim held the No. 1 spot in the World Amateur Golf Rankings at one point. He was also able to play ultra-private Augusta National three times with his Texas teammates even before he earned his Masters invite. He’ll go into next week’s tournament far better prepared than Hoffer and Benjamin were when they got their chance.

Drive, Chip & Putt finalist

The finals of the PGA of America’s Drive, Chip & Putt competition provides an unofficial kickoff to Masters week and Naperville’s Andrew Lim, 13, is among the 80 finalists. He’ll compete for the title in the Boys 12-13 division on Sunday, the day before the invitees begin their practice rounds.

Andrew survived a local qualifier at Cantigny, in Wheaton, a sub-regional at Cog Hill in Lemont and a regional at The Honors course in Tennessee to earn his place in the nationally televised finals.

His family plays out of Naperville Country Club where Andrew carries an 8.2 handicap index. He has shot 33 for nine holes and 73 for 18.

Here and there

The usual shifts in the club professional ranks included one major one this year. Alex Mendez, long-time head man at Butterfield in Oak Brook, has taken over at Royal Fox, in St. Charles. Other new head pros include Carson Solien at Oak Park, Andrew Stevens at Stonebridge in Aurora, David Thompson at Crystal Lake, Matt Gebhardt at Calumet in Homewood and Brent Regis at Valley Lo in Glenview.

Most of the Chicago area public courses are open now, or will soon be accepting players. The major exception is Sunset Valley, in Highland Park. It’s undergoing a $7 million renovation of both its course and clubhouse and won’t be ready for play until late summer.

The Golf Scene, hosted by Steve Kashul on NBC Sports Chicago, is entering its 25th season and will soon be included in the Chicago-based Museum of Broadcast Communications. The museum calls Golf Scene the longest-airing golf television show in the U.S. and second-longest show currently on Chicago television.