Author: lenz

Szokol makes it into the LPGA’s most lucrative tournament

The golf season has a series of climax events these days. The PGA Tour had its season climax in either September, when the FedEx Cup Playoffs concluded, or October, when the Ryder Cup ended. Take your pick.

PGA Tour Champions concluded its season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs last Sunday when Phil Mickelson won the last tournament and Bernhard Langer captured the series title  for the sixth time.

That leaves only  the last of the “climax’’ events – this week’s CME Group Tour Championship in Naples, FL.  With a $5 million purse and $1.5 first-place prize, it’s the biggest money event in the history of women’s golf and Elizabeth Szokol, the Chicago area’s only LPGA player, will be right in the thick of it.

Szokol, 27, qualified for the event for the first time.  Created in 2011, it’s limited to the top 60 players and ties in a season-long point race.  Szokol, in only her second LPGA season, missed the cut in last week’s regular season finale – the Pelican Championship — but it didn’t keep her out of the big-money wrapup to the season. She was a comfortable 44th in the standings going into Pelican and safely into the Naples shootout that begins on Thursday at Tiburon Golf Club’s Gold Course.

Chicago golfers have found it tough to break into the LPGA over the last three decades. Other than Szokol the only one to do it was Berwyn’s Nicole Jeray, who starred at Northern Illinois before spending a long career on the LPGA and its satellite tour.

Jeray, though still competing on the LPGA’s Legends Tour for senior members, has taken on a heavy teaching load at Mistwood, in Romeoville.  Szokol’s road to the LPGA was similar.  She was a high school star at New Trier, then spent two seasons at Northwestern before concluding her collegiate career at Virginia.

She turned pro in 2017, won an event in her second year on the LPGA’s Symetra Tour and gained LPGA membership in 2018 with four top-10 finishes in her last five starts. Her rookie LPGA season in 2019 was somewhat of a struggle but she improved in 2020, making seven cuts in 14 starts and earning $110,873.

The improvement was much more dramatic this year when she had three top-10s in 21 starts, the last coming in October – a third-place finish in the $3 million Founders Cup in New Jersey.  It earned her a $198,627 paycheck, a big factor in the $515,640 she has earned for the season.  That figure could grow in a hurry, given the money on the line this week for the LPGA’s best players.

While Szokol’s missed cut last week was a disappointment, her time spent at Pelican – a Donald Ross design that opened in 1925 – may have played a positive part in her strong 2021 showing.  Szokol had her best finish (11th) of 2020 in the Pelican.  It was a new event then and was played without spectators because of pandemic concerns. This year she is spending more time at the Pelican club because her swing coach, Justin Sheehan, is the director of golf there.

 

HERE AND THERE: Michael Feagles, a stalwart on the University of Illinois teams the last four years, is guaranteed 12 starts on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2022 thanks to his tie for fifth place finish in the final stage of the circuit’s qualifying competition.  The Illinois Open champions of the last two years, Bryce Emory and Tee-K Kelly, aren’t guaranteed any starts but do have conditional status on the circuit for next season because they made it through all three stages of qualifying….The Illinois PGA had three of its members qualify for last week’s PGA Assistants Championship in Florida but only Kevin Flack, of Mauh-Nah-Tee-See in Rockford, qualified for all 72 holes.  He tied for 42nd…..All the Chicago area gang – Kevin Streelman, Luke Donald, Doug Ghim, Nick Hardy and Dylan Wu – will play in the last full field PGA Tour event of the year, this week’s RSM Classic in Sea Island, Ga…..Bernhard Langer will have knee surgery in Germany this week and won’t hit aa golf ball for at least six weeks.  The 64-year old star still plans to be a full-time player on the Champions Tour in 2022, however.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A weird finish sets the stage for the LPGA’s biggest money event

 

Nelly Korda has won bigger tournaments, but none as dramatic as this Pelican Championship.

BELLAIRE, FL. – With the biggest money tournament in the history of women’s golf coming up this week it’s easy to think of the two-year old Pelican Championship – the last event of the LPGA’s regular season – as anything more than a warmup event.

It was certainly no ho-hum affair on Sunday, however. It came down to a duel between American stars Nelly Korda and Lexi Thompson, Korda winning on the first hole of a four-player sudden death playoff after Thompson gave away two good chances to win and another to extend the playoff in the final three holes of the day.

Both American-born Florida residents, Korda (Bradenton) and Thompson (Delray Beach) will remain in the Sunshine State for the CME Group Tour Championship.  It tees off on Thursday with $5 million in prize money and a $1.5 million winner’s check on the line.

The Pelican purse was only $1.75 million, but it presented Thompson with the chance for a win she badly needed.

Long one of golf’s top women players, Thompson is the youngest to qualify for the U.S. Women’s Open (she was 12 when she did it).  She turned pro at 15 and won her first major title at 19. Now 27, she has gone over two years without notching her 12th tour title.

Thompson and Korda started the final round in a tie for the lead and still shared the top spot through 70 holes when both were 20-under par and dominating the field. Then Korda took a triple bogey at the 17th, missing a two-foot putt to conclude her nightmare.

Though Thompson three-putted for bogey she still took a two-stroke lead to the final hole of regulation. That didn’t solve her problems, however.  Thompson hit her approach over the green at 409-yard par-4 eighteenth – the hardest hole throughout the tournament.  Korda hit hers to 20 feet and made the birdie putt.

Thompson, feeling the pressure, putted from off the green to four feet but her par putt to win didn’t touch the cup. That set the stage for the four-way playoff between Thompson, Korda and two faster finishers – New Zealand’s Lydia Ko and South Korea’s Sei-young Kim. All finished at 17-under-par 263.  Ko and Kim, hitting their approaches over the green, were out when  Korda made another birdie putt from the same spot she had connected from moments earlier.

“I lost face (after the triple bogey),’’ said Korda, “and I was trying to focus on next week, in a sense. I had the same putt twice is a row.’’

Both went in.

Thompson also putted from the same spot she had to win the tournament in the regulation 72 holes, but this one — for birdie to keep the playoff going – also wouldn’t drop.

“It was a great week. I played a lot of good golf and made a lot of good putts,’’ she said, “but it just wasn’t meant for me in the end.’’

Even with its record prize money the CME Group Tour Championship will be hard-pressed to match the drama that unfolded on Sunday.

Korda goes into the LPGA’s season finale with lots of momentum. The reigning Olympic champion and No. 1-ranked player in the Rolex Rankings won her fourth tournament of the season on Sunday, the first American to do that since Stacy Lewis did it in 2012.

The Pelican, meanwhile, wasn’t just unusual for its weird finish.  The tourney offered two-year leases for new Lamborghinis to players who made a hole-in-one on the 12th hole. Austin Ernst did it in the tourney’s pro-am and Pavarisa Yoktuan in the second round on Friday.  The third, by Su Oh, was especially noteworthy.  She started her round at No. 12 and was the first player to tee off on the featured on during the final round. That’s when she holed a 7-iron from 157 yards.

 

 

 

 

 

Christina Kim goes from LPGA onlooker to contender in a hurry

Lexi Thompson (left) and Jennifer Kupcho share the 36-hole lead in the Pelican Championship.

BELLAIRE, FL. – The Pelican Championship, the last regular season tournament on the Ladies PGA Tour, reached only its halfway point on Friday but the week has already been a big success for Christina Kim.

The 37-year old LPGA veteran is lucky to be in the field.  She came up one shot short of making it in Monday’s qualifying round, then was practicing at the Pelican course later the same day when she got a call informing her that she was awarded one of two sponsor exemptions.

“I jumped up in the air and was doing somersaults on the ground because I was just so overjoyed,’’ said Kim, always a free spirit who is known for her flamboyant attire.

The good times didn’t end there. She was high on the leaderboard after Thursday’s first round after posting a 65 and held the lead briefly on Friday when she followed it with a 66.

Kim isn’t leading going into Saturday’s third round. Jennifer Kupcho and Lexi Thompson (both 65-64) lead her by two strokes and Wei-Ling Hsu and first-round leader Leona Maguire are on stroke back but Kim – in a four-way tie for fifth — at least has a good chance of at least retaining her playing privileges for next season thanks to the unexpected sponsor’s invite.

“I’m 98th in points and the top 100 keep their cards,’’ she said.  “Not stressful at all….well.’’

The pressure is still on in the second-year event that has a $1.5 million purse. Pelican, originally home to the Belleview Biltmore Golf Club, was designed by Donald Ross in 1925 and re-designed by Beau Welling. Last year’s first playing of the LPGA event was done without fans because of pandemic concerns.  The fans are out this time in the final event before the CME Group Championship next week in Naples, FL.

The CME, with a $5 million purse, pays $1.5 million to the champion and is the biggest money event in women’s golf. The event is limited to the top 60 on a season-long point race and that group will include – for the first time – the Chicago area’s lone LPGA Tour player. Winnetka’s Elizabeth Szokol missed the cut here but is already safely into the top 60 qualifiers for next week’s stop at Tiburon Golf Club.

 

Flavin claims first PGA Tour check — almost $100,000 — with his Dad on bag

Monday qualifiers are a way of life for Patrick Flaviin, the budding golf touring pro from Highwood.

One of only two players to win both the Illinois State Amateur and Illinois Open in the same year, Flavin estimates he’s played in 30 such nail-biting rounds in hopes of getting into tournaments on either the PGA Tour or the Korn Ferry Tour, its developmental circuit. Never have his efforts paid off as handsomely they did last week’s in Bermuda.

The 18-hole session to determine four qualifiers for the Butterfield Bermuda Championship, a PGA Tour stop, was held a full week early because of pandemic-related protocols related to travel.  Many players skipped the qualifier and even the tournament proper because of difficulties in inherent in getting to Bermuda.

Flavin, though, finished third in the early qualifier – only the second time he earned a spot in a PGA Tour stop. (He qualified for the Waste Management Open last year  in Phoenix but didn’t survive the 36-hole cut).

After qualifying in Bermuda his father Mark gave him a further boost by volunteering to be his caddie. They made a great team.

In the first three rounds Flavin shot 69-66-68.  After eight holes on Saturday Flavin was tied for the lead – the first time that has happened on the PGA Tour.  A 72 on Sunday dropped him into a tie for 17th place but the 9-under-par performance for the week earned him $99, 125. That’s more than three times the size of his previous biggest check, $30,000 for a victory on the PGA Latinoamerica Tour.

Mark Flavin has caddied for his son only occasionally. He was on a road trip on the West Coast when he learned that Patrick had survived the Monday qualifier in Bermuda. He immediately drove back to Chicago, then caught a flight to Bermuda.  Word of the father-son hookup spread among the gallery at Bermuda.

“It was awesome. I felt a ton of support all week,’’ said Flavin.  “The whole week changed my perception of my game.  Now I’ll try to get more sponsor exemptions, and that could change my career.’’

A solid college player at Miami of Ohio,  Flavin’s stock soared when he won the Illinois Amateur and Open in 2017, a feat pulled off only once previously – by former PGA Tour journeyman David Ogrin 37 years earlier.

After turning pro the following year Flavin won on the Latinoamerica circuit and earned membership on the Forme Tour, a temporary substitute for the Canadian circuit. Last year his fifth-place in the Evans Scholars Invitational at The Glen Club, in Glenview, gave him temporary membership on the Korn Ferry circuit. He had hoped to earn full-time status for 2022 but didn’t survive the second stage of qualifying in Tampa, FL., a week before the trip to Bermuda.

“That was a huge bummer, but I’m proud of the bounce-back,’’ he said. “I just never got it going (in Tampa), and that was pretty devastating, but I handled it well.’’

Now he’ll be a travelin’ man who may not know where he’s going from one week to the next. Flavin is a member of the Latinoamerica and Canadian circuits but will squeeze in as many PGA and Korn Ferry qualifiers as he can.  The next one is next Monday, for the PGA’s Houston Open.

“I’ve got a lot of places to play, for sure,’’ said Flavin, who is spending this week in Phoenix before heading to Houston. In December he’ll play in Latinoamerica tournaments in Argentina and Chile.  Then, who knows?

Small, Biancalana will play in a golf major in 2022

Mike Small considers himself a golf coach first and a player second,  but he proved again how good a player he can be in qualifying for another major championship last week — this one of the senior variety.

The University of Illinois men’s coach was free to compete after his Illiini concluded the 2021 portion of their season with a strong runner-up finish in the Isleworth Invitational in Florida, an event that saw Illini sophomore Piercen Hunt win the individual title.  Only No. 3-ranked Arizona State could beat the improving Illini at Isleworth

A  few days later Small and eight Illinois PGA members competed in the 33rd Senior PGA Professional Championship in Port St. Lucie, FL, a competition that sends the top 35 to the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship at Harbor Shores, in  Benton Harbor, Mich., next May.

Small finished solo third, one shot out of a playoff, when the 72-hole event wrapped up on Sunday and Roy Biancalana, teaching pro at Blackberry Oaks in Bristol, tied for 29th so the IPGA will have two of its best players in the national event next spring.

Tour Edge rewarded

Batavia-based club manufacturer Tour Edge has raised its profile by signing top players on PGA Tour Champions the last few years, but that payoff reached new heights on Sunday when Bernhard Langer became the oldest player to win on the 50-and-and-over circuit.

Langer, who joined the Tour Edge staff this year, won the Dominican Energy Classic in Richmond, Va., at age 64. It was his 42nd Champions Tour victory but first since March of 2000. The win came in the first of the Champions Tour’s three season-ending playoff series events. The second is next week — the TimberTech Championshiip  in Langer’s hometown of Boca Raton, FL.

Two other Tour Edge players, Tim Petrovic and Ken Duke, also finished in the top five at the first playoff event. The series ends with the Charles Schwab Cup Championship in November.

 

HERE AND THERE: Arlington Heights’ Doug Ghim, a rookie on the PGA Tour in the 2020-21 season, earned a spot in the 78-player Zozo Championship in Japan last week and tied for 66th place after a disappointing 74-73 finish on the weekend….Northbrook’s Nick Hardy, who earned $86,000 for making the cut in his first two events as a PGA Tour member, returns to action in the Butterfield Bermuda Championship this week.  Luke Donald and Northwestern alum Dylan Wu are also  in the field….The Illinois Open champions of the last two years, Aurora’s Bryce Emory and Wheaton’s Tee-K Kelly, have reached the final stage of the Korn Ferry Tour qualifying.  The finals are Nov. 4-7 in Savannah Ga. , and Illinois alum Michael Feagles will also be in the field….A staff shakeup at the John Deere Classic has tournament director Clair Peterson moving up to executive director and Andrew Lehman assuming the tournament director’s role. Lehman had been the assistant tournament director….The Chicago District Golf Assn. has named Nick Tenuda, of Mount Prospect, as its Player of the Year and Frankfort’s Mark Small as Senior Player of the Year.

 

Opening nears for Palm Aire’s `re-imagined’ Champions Course

BEFORE AND NOW: When we moved to Sarasota the fairway on the  No. 11 hole of The Champions Course at Palm Aire Country Club  was under construction — but look at it now. (Mike Benkusky Photos)

SARASOTA, FL. — It’s getting exciting now.  We’ll soon have a new golf course – or at least a “re-imagined’’ one – to look at while we’re enjoying either our early morning coffee or late afternoon beverage of choice from the lanai of our new home.

The Champions Course, at Palm Aire Country Club, was in the early stages of a renovation when we moved in. We’ve closely  followed its transformation.  Illinois-based course architect Mike Benkusky, who has been coming to town on a weekly basis, is planning his next return for the Grand Opening.

While the official date for that hasn’t been set, it won’t be far off.  The club’s greens committee will address the matter at its November board meeting.

“They’re not rushing it – and that’s good,’’ said Benkusky, who did most all of his work in the Midwest after opening his office in Lake in the Hills 15 years ago.  The choice $2 million project was his first work in Florida. The course  opening was originally targeted for Nov. 1, then was pushed back to mid-November.

“Everything’s looking good.  The greens look very good. We’re right on schedule,’’ said Benkusky.

It’s been fascinating to see this project unfold, as we reside off the green at the 11th hole.  Watching the work begin in near darkness each morning has become part of our daily routine. No. 11 was a 538-yard hole from the back tees prior to Benkusky’s arrival and the scorecard from the tips was 7,005 yards.  Now the proposed yardage for No. 11 is 581 yards and the championship yardage is 7,207.

This Florida course had an Illinois flavor even before Benkusky’s hiring and our moving in. The original designer was Dick Wilson when the course opened in 1957 and Palm Aire’s other 18-holer, The Lakes, was designed by Joe Lee.

Wilson may be best known for his work at the more famous Florida courses Bay Hill and Doral’s Blue Monster and Lee was a prolific designer whose creations extended far beyond the  Sunshine State.  From a Chicago perspective, however, their most noteworthy project is one they did together in the 1960s – the Dubsdread Course at Cog Hill, a long-time PGA Tour site in Chicago’s south suburbs.

Palm Aire was called DeSoto Lakes when Wilson did his work, and the PGA Tour conducted the DeSoto Open there in 1960, Sam Snead winning the title. A year later another Hall of Famer, Louise Suggs, won Golden Circle of Golf Festival, an LPGA event, on the course. That was one of Suggs’ five wins that season.

The Champion was also a site for the televised All-Star Golf (later Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf) , two National Left-Handed Golfers Championships and  the LPGA Legends Tour’s Handa Cup team event.

A name change, from DeSoto Lakes to Palm Aire, was made in 1981 and Lee not only designed The Lakes course, which opened the following year, but he also made his first hole-in-one during that course’s opening day.

On a cloudy day the view of the No. 11 green of The Champions course from our lanai is particularly eye-catching.

Ray Hearn takes on some big golf projects at Boyne resorts

 

The first hole of Boyne Highlands’ Donald Ross Memorial course is in the process of getting a new look.

HARBOR SPRINGS, Michigan – Michigan-based architect Ray Hearn has worked on courses across the country for 25 years, but the projects he has recently  taken on close to home may have a more far-reaching impact.

Stephen  Kircher, Boyne’s president and chief executive officer, and  Bernie Friedrich, senior vice president of golf,  brought in Hearn, who has headquarters in Holland, Mich., to tackle a variety of projects. One of the most interesting is on the Donald Ross Memorial course at Boyne Highlands Resort.

This course was already something special. Bill Newcomb was the original architect of the Ross course and each of its 18 holes created a composite of classic holes that Ross designed in the early part of the century.

The Ross Memorial course opened in 1989 and Golf Digest tabbed it the Best New Resort Course in the U.S. in 1990. Its replica holes have been used in 14 U.S. Opens, 11 PGA Championships, eight U.S Amateurs and three Ryder Cups.

Courses represented include Seminole, in Florida;   Oakland Hills and Detroit Golf Club, in Michigan;  Pinehurst and Charlotte Country Club, in North Carolina; Oak Hill, in New York; Plainfield, in New Jersey; Scioto and Inverness, in Ohio;  Oak Hill in New York; Bob O’Link, in Illinois; Royal Dornoch, in Scotland; Salem Country Club, in Massachusetts; Aronimink, in Pennsylvania; and Wannamoisett, in Rhode Island.

That’s quite a collection of holes, and Hearn is revising two of them.

Golf course architect Ray Hearn has taken on his first projects at Boyne resorts.

Nos. 1 and 16 of the Ross Memorial are getting touched up by Hearns.  No. 1 is from the sixth hole at Seminole  and No. 16 is from the tenth hole at Pinehurst No. 2. Most of the work is being down on Ross Memorial’s No. 1, but the work there spills over into No. 16 as well.

“We’re capturing the flavor a little more than the first time through, when Bill Newcomb did it,’’ said Hearn.  “There’s so much more information available for architects to work with now.’’

In the case of Seminole, that course was restored by the architectural team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw two years ago.  Now Hearn is restoring a hole from a hole that was already restored once.

“We’re looking only at the original drawings of this hole,’’ Hearn said. “The bunkers were originally a lot larger, and Seminole is obviously in a different climate in Florida than we have in Michigan..  We took out quite a few trees to open up the hole like the original one.  Now there’s massive waste areas on both sides of the hole.’’

Tinkering with a Donald Ross design can be dangerous. Hearn is aware of that.

“There’s a small percentage of Ross aficionados who question the idea of the Ross Memorial, but I think it’s good,’’ said Hearn.  “A lot of players would never get the chance to play those other holes, so getting to play them is fun. But, for those who take them too seriously, I respect that, too.’’

The Ross Memorial course already has a beautiful finishing hole, patterned after No. 18 at Oakland Hills.

Despite his firm’s 25-year history and its proximity to the resorts, this is the first time that Boyne Golf and Hearn have joined forces and his work there will extend far beyond the Ross Memorial.

His biggest project there may be a redo of the Moor course, which opened in 1974.

“We’re in Phase 1 of that,’’ said Hearn.  “We’ve begun tree removal and adjustments of the grass lines of the fairways and greens.  It could be highly controversial, too.’’

The bunkers will be addressed next.  In the end, the work on the Moor will be extensive.  Hearn wants to create more angles and options for shots and adjust the course for changes in hitting distance .  There’ll be new cupping areas on the greens and new run-up areas to the putting surfaces.

Ken Griffin, Boyne’s director of  golf sales and marketing, calls the changes “subtle but significant.”

Sounds like a new course might be in the making, but Hearn says that’s not the case.

“I just like great golf.  I’m not trying to put the Ray Hearn stamp on this,’’ he said.  “I’m trying to create a throwback to a golden age look and feel – a tribute to that era.’’

Hearn will be creating a new par-3 course as part of the more long-range plans. He’ll be putting a new course in place and eliminate the modest one that’s there now.  In short, Boyne is joining the country-wide trend of building new short courses. Ground-breaking on this one is not expected until early 2023.

“I’m creating my favorite nine greens from overseas, from Scotland, Ireland and England,’’ said Hearn.  “This course will be visually stunning and interesting to play.  It won’t have formal tees and it’ll have fairway levels everywhere.  I want golfers to have the opportunity to put tees anywhere they want so they can practice options from different lies and angles.’’

Finally, The Monument course will also get some attention.

“It’s a very nice, enjoyable course,’’ said Hearn, “but the trees on it have gotten bigger and bigger and have started to infringe on the fairways.’’

That’ll be corrected, allowing Hearn to open more angles and options from the tees.

Boyne, with  10 course spread over three Michigan resorts, has long been a leader in golf while maintaining its similar role among ski resorts.

“They’re always looking forward, always thinking of improving.  They’re visionaries,’’ said Hearn.

That vision extends beyond these golf course projects.  The Main Lodge at Boyne Highlands has already undergone some upgrades and more are coming.  The first phase involved the transformation of the Main Lodge, with 87 guestrooms remodeled and renamed with Scottish and English heritage.

The next phase, to begin in the spring of 2022, involves construction of a  new multi-level European spa and the redesign of the Tower lobbies. Eventually a steak and sushi restaurant and a new convention center will be added as well.

The Main Lodge at Boyne Highlands has already received a room upgrade, but more things are coming.

Fullmer is WWGA’s Woman of Distinction

Sandra Fullmer, one of Chicago’s best amateur golfers, receives a major honor.

Sandra Fullmer lives in California, now but the Women’s Western Golf Association gave its top honor – its Woman of Distinction award – to her at the WWGA’s annual meeting on Thursday at Lake Shore Country Club in Glencoe.

Fullmer was selected for the coveted award in 2020 but the annual meeting was canceled because of pandemic concerns.  The WWGA, formed in 1899, made the presentation a year late to  honor a great player who competed against the top LPGA players in some tournaments but remained a life-long amateur. LPGA legend Patty Berg was the first recipient of the Woman of Distinction Award in 1994.

Many of Fullmer’s competitors were on hand for the awards presentation.  She enjoyed a great amateur career, winning the Mexico Amateur four times and also capturing the German and Spanish titles in 1959.  Then she moved to Chicago where she won the Chicago Women’s District title four times in the 1960s.  She also took five Illinois State Senior crowns between 1988 and 1993 and won the WWGA Senior Championship in 1988 and 1989.

Following her best competitive days Fullmer spent over 20 years on the WWGA board of directors, was its president in 2003-04 and chaired both its Women’s Western Amateur and Western Junior.

Fullmer’s father, Percy Clifford, was her instructor as well as being a top player and course designer in Mexico.  Her late husband Paul was the executive director of the American Society of Golf Course Architects for over 35 years. They were long-time Itasca Country Club members.

 

Pinns heads latest Illinois Golf Hall of Fame induction class

Gary Pinns is probably best known in Illinois golf circles for winning the Illinois Open five times.  No one else has done that.

Pinns has done much more than that, howeve3r. He gave the PGA Tour a four-year shot before making an instantly successful transition into teaching. He’s been doing that as director of instruction  at Oak Brook Golf Club for 31 years and has won numerous awards for his teaching prowess.

For those reasons he will be among six inductees into the Illinois Golf Hall of Fame during ceremonies at The Glen Club, in Glenview, on Friday.

The Hall of Fame inducts new members every two years, and Pinns will   joined by one other teaching pro, Dr. Jim Suttie. Suttie’s pupils include PGA Tour players Paul Azinger, Chip Beck, Jeff Sluman, Kevin Streelman and Mark Wilson.

Other inductees, all deceased, include Phil Kosin, creator of Chicagoland Golf magazine and radio show as well as the Illinois Women’s Open; Bessie Anthony, the state’s first great women’s player in a career that was highlighted by a title in the 1903 U.S. Women’s Amateur; Mason Phelps, an Olympic champion and two-time Western Amateur winner more than a century ago; and Herbert James Tweedie, a pioneer architect who designed 21 Chicago area courses in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Pinns’ career is one that stretches through all phases of the sport. A Wheaton resident now, he won the Illinois high school title for Glenbard East in 1974, then was a two-year captain at Wake Forest on teams that featured eventual PGA Tour members Gary Hallberg, Scott Hoch and Robert Wrenn.

First of the Illinois Open wins came at age 19 in 1978 at Elgin Country Club.

“My last tee shot went right and hit a tree,’’ recalled Pinns.  “The ball came back in the fairway, and I won. Once you win one time you think you can win again.’’

He dd – again and again and again and again. Pinns  picked up three more titles in the 1980s and the final, most dramatic one on his long-time home course at Village Links of Glen Ellyn in 1990. That one led him to enter qualifying for the Ben Hogan Tour – one of the predecessors of what is now the Korn Ferry Tour. From the developmental tour Pinns went on to the PGA circuit.

“I probably played in 75 tour events and made the cut in 30 of them,’’ he said.  The highlight was his lone top-10 finish at the now defunct Greater Milwaukee Open. Eventually, at age 33, the realities of the real world set in. Married with two children by then, Pinns needed another means of support and teaching was it.  His brother Doug has long been a teaching pro at Village Links.

“I got busy right away in the first month  because my name was known,’’ said Pinns.  “I needed it to happen then, and it’s turned out that teaching has been a better life than tour life. It’s been very satisfying, and  I ‘ve been very fortunate.’’

He now has three adult children and has been working 60-hour weeks during this busy summer for recreational golfers. Tournaments are a thing of the past.

“I lost interest in competition because I couldn’t work at it,’’ said Pinns, who believes his record five Illinois Open titles will withstand the tests of time.  Mike Small the University of Illinois men’s coach, has won the Illinois PGA Championship 13 times and is Pinns’ only challenger since he stopped playing. Small won four Illinois Opens but is now playing mainly in the senior ranks.

“My record won’t be broken,’’ predicted Pinns.“It’s harder now because there’s a lot of good players. When I was working at it I had just a few good club pros to beat.’’

 

WWGA honors Fullmer

Sandra Fullmer, an Illinois Golf Hall of Fame inductee in 1997, will add the coveted Woman of Distinction Award from the Women’s Western Golf Association on Thursday at Lake Shore Country Club in Glencoe.

Fullmer had an outstanding playing career, winning four Mexican Amateur titles as well as the Spanish and German amateur crows in 1959 before moving to Chicago.  She kept winning here,  claiming four Chicago Women’s District titles, three Northern Illinois Women’s titles and five Illinois State Senior crowns as well as the National Club Championship for Women in 1991.

She’s also been a long-time WWGA board member and a past president of the organization that has been a leading organizer of women’s events since 1899.

 

HERE AND THERE: The Chicago District Golf Assn. championship season concludes on Thursday with the end of the four-day Amateur Senior Four-Ball at Ravinia Green in Riverwoods….The leading assistant professionals from Illinois and Wisconsin will collide in a four- ball match play competition  on Friday at Strawberry Creek, in Kenosha…..White Eagle Country Club, in Naperville,  has announced plans for  a $12.5 million upgrade of its facility.  The club, site of the Illinois Open in 2020, will be the site of the Mid-American Conference tournament next April.

 

Late qualifier Malm repeats in IPGA Players

Curtis Malm, may have been the defending champion in the Illinois PGA Players Championship this week, but he was lucky to even be in the field.

The 36 players invited into the last of the IPGA’s four major tournaments is determined off a season-long point list, and Malm was one spot out until Shaun McElroy, of North Shore in Glenview, dropped out.

“It was the same as last year,’’ said Malm.  “I didn’t play much.  This was only my fourth event.  I snuck in off my finish (11th) at the (IPGA) Championship.’’

Malm’s win was no fluke, though.  The director of golf at White Eagle, in Naperville, has  been one of the section’s top players for years. He won the Illinois Open as an amateur in 2000, then went on to win   back-to-back titles in the IPGA Match Play as well as the IPGA Players. Now he needs only to win the IPGA Championship to own a title in all four of the section’s majors.

“That’s No. 1 on my priority list,’’ said Malm, whose club will host next year’s Illinois Open for the second time in three years..  “It would be the culmination of everything if I could finish the Illinois PGA Grand Slam.’’

Malm  shot 68 in Tuesday’s final round of the 36-hole IPGA Players at Knollwood Club in Lake  Forest. His 3-under-par 141 was good enough for a one-stroke win over Brian Carroll of The Hawk, in St. Charles. Reigning IPGA champion Andy Mickelson, of Mistwood in Romeoville, and Garrett Chaussard, director of instruction at Skokie Country Club, tied for third, two behind Malm.

The tournament came down to the final hole.  Malm made birdie after hitting a wedge shot to three feet.  Then he waited for the rest of the field to finish.  Carroll, his main challenger, needed to make par from a green-side bunker to force a playoff but he couldn’t connect on his par-saving putt.

Chaussard came into the last event offering Player of the Year points trailing only Chris French, of Aldeen in Rockford.  French faded to a 79 in the final round and wound up in a tie for 13th place.  That enabled Chaussard to earn his second Player of the Year honor in the last three years.