Author: lenz

Final round weather issues don’t concern Kyle Jones at Ivanhoe

Nothing much went according to form in Saturday’s third round of the Web.com Tour’s Rust-Oleum Championship at Ivanhoe Club, and it’ll be much the same on Sunday – at least at the start of the final round.

The probability of inclement weather led tournament organizers to schedule play in threesomes off both the Nos. 1 and 10 tees. Rounds will start between 8 and 10 a.m. as opposed to the usual starts off No. 1 and the 54-hole leaders beginning their rounds at mid-day.

“It’ll be fine,’’ insisted Kyle Jones, who took over the tournament lead from playing partner Maverick McNealy. “It’ll be nice getting done at a good time.’’

The trophy presentation, as well as the awarding of the $108,000 first place check is planned for 3 p.m., and Jones isn’t the only one with a chance. Jones, at 15-under-par 201 after his 68 on Saturday, is one swing ahead of Christian Bland and two ahead of both Justin Lower and Chase Wright.

If any of those four win on Sunday it’ll be a surprise. Jones, who played collegiately at Baylor, is 67th on the Web.com Tour money list. Brand is 124th, Lower is 50th and Wright 35th. None are near the top 25, the dividing line to determine who secures spots on the PGA Tour in 2019, but a strong finish on Sunday could change that.

Jones was in the final pairing in Round 3 with 36-hole front-runner McNealy, the former collegiate hotshot for Stanford. After shooting 64 in the second round McNealy shot 73 in the third and enters the final round in a tie for ninth.

The names at the top of the leaderboard were also reflective of what happened to the four local hopefuls. None of them improved their position from the second to the third round. Lake Forest’s Brad Hopfinger dropped 12 places, into a tie for 16th. Nick Hardy fell 18 spots , into a tie for 40th. Scott Langley, the former NCAA champion from Illinois who is No. 2 on the Web.com money list, fell 14 places to a tie for 51st and Deerfield’s Vince India dropped 13 places into a tie for 65th.

Still, all four could improve enough to claim a good paycheck on Sunday based on the wild leaderboard changes on Saturdays.

Jones, who doesn’t even have a top-20 on the PGA’s alternate circuit this year, is holding the 54-hole lead for the first time.

“I’m excited, but I’ll try not to think about it too much because it might get into my head,’’ said Jones. He’ll be paired with Brand and Lower in the final threesome off the No. 1 tee. Brand and Lower are frequent practice partners who travel from tournament to tournament together.

“We’re in separate hotels this week, but he’s one of my best friends out here,’’ said Brand. “The secret to finding a good road trip buddy is not wanting to strangle each other, and he’s easy to get along with. We’ll have fun, but he wants to beat me more than anybody else on tour. We have our money games on Tuesdays, and there’s a lot of good trash-talking going on.’’

Saturday’s play did produce some low scores. Ryan Yip, a Canadian who played collegiately at Kent State, was low man with an 8-under-par 64. Brand carded a 65 as did Bill Kennerly, who is tied for fifth with Yip.

“It was a great day,’’ said Brand. “Ivanhoe played great, and the sun came out for us. When I woke up I wasn’t sure that would happen, but the course is in phenomenal shape.’’

Brand had one semi-miraculous shot. He hooked his drive into the trees at No. 10 but hooked a 7-iron second shot from 200 yards to 10 feet of the cup and proceeded to roll in the birdie putt.

Yip had one, too – a holed out bunker shot for birdie at No. 14.

“I had one foot in the bunker and one out, and I was falling backwards,’’ said Yip. “I was just trying to get the ball on the green.’’

Ex-Masters champ Weir fits right in with the young Web.com Tour stars

Former Masters champions don’t usually play in Web.com Tour events like this week’s Rust-Oleum Championship at Ivanhoe Club. Mike Weir, the Canadian left-handed golfer who won the 2003 Masters, made it a point of coming this year, however, and Friday he was glad he did.

“Other than the Canadian Open I probably won’t play in any more PGA Tour events,’’ said Weir. “I would have probably gotten into Memphis (the PGA Tour’s St. Jude Classic) this week, but I wanted to come here.’’

His first round on Thursday was nothing special, a 1-under-par 71, but Weir climbed the leaderboard in a hurry on Friday after posting a 5-under 67. Weir’s 6-under 138 total left him six strokes behind leader Maverick McNealy midway through the $600,000 championship.

McNealy shot the low round of the tournament so far – a 64 – on Friday. His leading challengers include Lake Forest’s Brad Hopfinger, who is tied for fourth and four shots back after his 66 in the second round. None of the finalists, though, are as intriguing as the veteran Weir, who has played only sparingly – and without much success – the last few years.

“I played a lot better today,’’ said Weir. “Yesterday I just didn’t hit enough fairways. Today I hit every fairway. That was the key to the round.’’

Weir, 47, got into the field at Ivanhoe on a special exemption saved for players nearing their eligibility for PGA Tour Champions – the 50-and-over circuit. The closer to 50 a former major champion is, the more opportunities he’ll have on the PGA’s alternative circuit.

“I’m still a couple years away. I haven’t played a lot of golf in the last couple of years, but I want to stay sharp and I still love to compete,’’ said Weir. “I turn 48 next May. Then I can play a more full schedule on theWeeb.com. That would be the goal if I don’t get my card.’’

Weir, who has won $27 million in PGA Tour events, played in only four tournaments on the premier circuit this year, missing the cut in three and finishing tied for 73rd in the Domincan Republic in March.

That’s a long way from his status in the game just a few years ago. Weir was ranked in the top 10 of the Official World Golf Rankings for 110 weeks between 2001 and 2005. He won eight times during his years on the PGA Tour, the last coming at the 2007 Fry’s Electronics Open, but his play tailed off after he suffered a torn ligament in his right elbow in 2010.

“I had some tough years when I was battling through injuries from 2010 through 2015,’’ said Weir. “That was a difficult time for me, but the last couple of years it’s been pretty easy. I’m enjoying being around these young guys. I’m enjoying my golf a lot more than I ever have.’’

Especially on Friday, when his round included seven birdies.

“Today is progress,’’ said Weir. “That’s a good sign. My mindset is to get out here and compete. I can still find my way around a golf course, and when I’m out here I want to win, so it’s nice to be in the mix here.’’

Weir isn’t the only former major champion in the field at Ivanhoe. Shaun Micheel, who won the PGA Championship in 2003, is just two strokes behind Weir and was well under the cut line of 3-under-par 141 through the first two rounds.

More than anything, though, the Rust-Oleum Championship is a place to help young stars work their way onto the PGA Tour, and Hopfinger improved his case for cracking the top 25 on the Web.com money list. The top 25 at season’s end get PGA Tour cards. Hopfinger was No. 38 at the start of the week but will move up significantly if he continues his second-round play in the weekend rounds.

Hopfinger will have company from three other Chicago players in the final 36 holes. Northbrook’s Nick Hardy, making his professional debut, climbed 57 places into a tie for 22nd after shooting a 67 on Friday.

Scott Langley, another former University of Illinois golfer who is No. 2 on the Web.com Tour’s season money list, and Deerfield’s Vince India, who got into the field as a sponsor’s exemption, also made the cut.

Sainz has best start among Chicago players at Ivanhoe

The 156 starters in Thursday’s $600,000 Rust-Oleum Championship at Ivanhoe Club included six Chicago area players and two more who played collegiately at Illinois. None were a threat to first-round leaders Andrew Novak, of Raleigh, N.C., He claimed the 18-hole lead with a 7-under par 65.

However, four of the locals got off to solid starts. Elgin’s Carlos Sainz Jr. posted a 3-under-par 69 and Lake Forest’s Brad Hopfinger, Deerfield’s Vince India and Libertyville’s Michael Schachner shot 2-under 70s.

Schachner, an Ivanhoe member, and India got into the field on sponsor exemptions and were late starters.

Sainz, who is tied for 17th place after Round 1, made birdies on four of the first six holes. He and Hopfinger are former Illinois Open champions in contention to earn PGA Tour cards for 2019.

Schachner, an Ivanhoe member and mini-tour player, was the surprise of the day while playing in the last group to tee off. India,, a college teammate of Hopfinger’s at Iowa, is a former Web.com Tour regular who has had trouble getting into tournaments this season. That trio is tied for 39th place.

Hopfinger, standing No. 38 on the Web.com Tour money list, has the best chance to advance to the main circuit at the moment. The top 25 at the end of the season advance. Sainz is down at No. 91, but coming into the portion of the season where he historically has played his best.

“I’m looking forward to the summer,’’ said Sainz. “We’re in the middle of our season now and have next week off. Then we have 11 tournaments in a row. I don’t know if I’ll play all 11, but you never know. I played 14 in a row in 2014.’’

Hopfinger was just one stroke ahead of Sainz in the fall qualifying school. Hopfinger earned full Web.com Tour privileges. Sainz had to play well in the early season chances he got. He was first alternate in the season opener before getting a chance to play.

“I was one shot out of full,’’ said Sainz, “but I got into two of the first four events based on how I finished at Q-School. Some players who tied me (in Q=School) didn’t get into anything. Then I had a top 10 (actually a tie for eighth in Colombia) and that pretty much gave me (playing) status for the rest of the year.’’

Sainz spent one unsuccessful season on the PGA Tour but could be on his way back now that he will get starts on the top alternative circuit.

“I’m happy to be on this tour again,’’ he said. “I’ve started to play some good golf. Though my scores aren’t always reflecting it, we’re on the right track.’’

Hopfinger is playing his fifth tournament in a row and had his second top-10 of the year two weeks ago at Nashville. He’s not sure how much more money he’ll need to win to make it to the PGA Tour for the first time.

“The goal is to finish in the top 25,’’ he said. “You just try to play good golf every day. That’s all you can do. You can’t think about how much you have to make.’’

As for the other locals, things didn’t go so well. Northbrook’s Nick Hardy posted a so-so 72 in his first professional round after completing his outstanding collegiate career at Illinois. A five-foot birdie putt on the final hole lifted Hardy’s spirits for Friday’s second round, when he is in the last group off the tee at 2:15 p.m.

“I didn’t have my best stuff,’’ Hardy said of Round 1. “I’m just happy to get the first round out of the way.’’

This Illinois PGA pro is also in graduate school at Northwestern

A golf professional’s job is never an easy one. Some inevitably wind up working harder than others, however.

And then there’s Tony Semonick.

Semonick, 28, has worked on head professional Jim Sobb’s staff at Ivanhoe Club since his graduation from Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Mich., in 2012. His work days aren’t like any other assistant pros, however. He’s also a college student, and not just at any old school. He’s working on his Masters of Business Administration degree at Northwestern University’s well-respected Kellogg School.

“Ivanhoe gets more time. I’m there six days a week,’’ said Semonick, “but I don’t know anyone else doing something like this.’’

Semonick’s undergraduate degree was in Professional Golf Management, and Ferris State has been a collegiate pioneer in offering programs in that area. The school became the first university program sanctioned by the PGA of America in 1975. Semonick is from Livonia, Mich., so Ferris State was a good geographical fit.

Ivnahoe has been a good fit, too. Sobb brought Semonick to Ivanhoe as an intern three months after his graduation from Ferris State and he’s stayed on in an assistant’s role.

Last summer Semonick decided he needed more on the academic side and eventually enrolled at Kellogg School of Management, which is Northwestern’s business school.

“I applied to Michigan, Michigan State, Indiana and Northwestern,’’ he said, “but Northwestern was my first choice. With its part-time program it made more sense for me to keep working.’’

During the winter months Semonick spends more time on Northwestern’s campuses in Evanston and downtown Chicago, but he doesn’t avoid either after Ivanhoe members start turning out to play golf in the spring. He takes classes on Mondays, the quietest day of the week at Ivanhoe, and Tuesdays.

Monday is Semonick’s usual day off but his Tuesdays can be killers. Semonick checks in at Ivanhoe at 6:45 a.m. and runs the ladies league in the morning. When his duties there are done he returns to his home in Barrington, changes clothes and catches the 3:18 p.m. train to Chicago. It arrives at 4:30 p.m., and Semonick either takes the two-mile walk to the NU campus or grabs a ride through Uber.

Northwestern provides dinner before Semonick’s three hours of classes begin at 6 p.m. When they’re over he catches a 9:30 p.m. train back to Barrington. After a few hours rest he’s back in Ivanhoe’s pro shop for another day tending to golf projects.

“Jim’s been great, and the hours have been pretty flexible,’’ said Semonick, who needs to obtain 20 ½ credits to get his MBA with a major in finance and strategy. He’s on track to complete his requirements in August of 2019.

After that Semonick isn’t sure what he’ll do. He doesn’t expect to stay in golf, though.

“Probably not,’’ he said. “At first I thought I’d stay in golf, but then I started seeing other opportunities. There are greater opportunities elsewhere.’’

He won’t rule returning to golf, but “in a corporate role,’’ he said. He could envision himself as a financial analyst for one of the equipment or management companies.

TRAVEL NOTEBOOK: More from the Missouri Ozarks; Changes on Indiana’s Dye Trail

Old Kinderhook’s ninth hole offers a full-length view from the facility’s lodge.

The Ozarks is an unusual region of the country. Broadly defined, this beautiful area encompasses parts of Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas and Oklahoma.

Golf-wise its central point is Missouri’s Branson area and Johnny Morris’ array of exciting projects there. Top of the Rock and Mountain Top are Morris courses completed in recent years. Ozarks National, a Bill Coore-Ben Crenshaw design, is set to open on Sept. 1 and Tiger Woods’ Payne’s Valley is targeted for 2019. That’s going to become America’s greatest golf destination eventually.

There’s another part of the Ozarks – a segment that still in Missouri – that shouldn’t be missed either, however.

A 100-mile drive north of Branson is the long-respected Lake of the Ozarks Golf Trail, an area with a conglomeration of 13 courses that are plenty good, too.

Heading that list is Old Kinderhook, a Tom Weiskopf design in Camdenton. You can be assured the ideal combination of good golf and good lodging when you visit this place. This year the 700-acre facility has a new professional in Shane Blankenship. Formerly at Sullivan Country Club in the central part of Missouri, Blankenship is well decorated as both a teacher and player and is directing the Old Kinderhook golf school while Jason Woods is the head professional at Old Kinderhook.

With its attractive elevation changes, the Old Kinderhook course is a tester, and its conditioning was excellent on our visit. The Lodge at Old Kinderhook has on-site restaurants, marina, spa, swimming pools, fitness center and even a volleyball facility. In short, other activities are available besides just golf at that location.

Golf isn’t the only nice viewing at Old Kinderhook. Volleyball works, too.

Stay & Play packages include other facilities as well. Osage National, in Lake Ozark, is an Arnold Palmer design and his original renderings of all 18 holes are on display in the recently updated Eagle Bar and Grill.

Blankenship isn’t the only new pro on this trail. Jamie Martin moved to Bear Creek Valley in Osage Beach.

Troon Golf has taken over the management at The Lodge of the Four Seasons’s Ridge and Cover courses in Lake Ozark. The Tan-Tar-A Resort is in the process of transitioning to a Margaritaville Resort property, with the grand opening scheduled for 2019.

The Pete Dye Golf Course at French Lick remains the highlight of Indiana’s re-launched Dye Trail.

CHANGES ON PETE DYE TRAIL: Indiana’s collection of Pete Dye-designed courses has been re-launched, with the Indiana Office of Tourism Development taking over the managing and marketing.

The Trail has one new addition, the Ackerman-Allen Course on the Purdue University campus in West Lafayette. Plum Creek, one of the original members located in Carmel, is under new management and — while still open for play — is no longer part of the Dye Trail.

Ackerman-Allen is part of the Birck-Boilermaker Golf Complex that is the home for Purdue’s teams. One course at the Complex, the links-style Kampen, was included in the original Dye Trail.

The other, known as the South Course and later Ackerman Hills, was designed by the Bill Diddel. He was a prolific Indiana-based architect who had 160 courses on his resume, including 52 in his home state. Diddel, who died in 1985 at age 100, was as much of a Hoosier legend as Dye — but not just for his architectural efforts. He was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame and also won the Indiana Amateur golf title five times.

Diddel’s design earned a significant place in golf history in 1961 when Jack Nicklaus won his only NCAA individual title there. Purdue was also the NCAA team champion that year, creating a moment of athletic glory for the host school. While there was some reluctance to tearing down a course with so much history, the replacement quickly won over the players.

Backed financially by Sam Allen, a former Purdue golfer who became the chief executive officer of John Deere Company, the Dye renovation was named the Ackerman-Allen Course.

“The old course was pretty nice,’’ said Dan Ross, the head professional, “but not to the level that things are now. There are five sets of tees instead of three, so more people can enjoy it. It’s such an enjoyable, fun layout. Pete did a phenomenal job.’’

Dye changed all the green complexes and much of the routing while switching the course from bluegrass to bentgrass. He also built two new holes, a par-4 and par-5 at Nos. 15 and 16. The new course opened in the summer of 2016 and both courses were used for last year’s Indiana Open.

Could there possibly any more stunning views than those offered at French Lick Resort’s Dye Course?

NEW LEADER AT BAY HILL: Don Emery is now the president and general manager at Arnold Palmer’s By Hill Club & Lodge in Orlando, Fla.

Emery had been at California’s famed Riviera Country Country Club the previous six years as general manager. Before that he was GM at Interlachen in Winter Park, Fla.

During his stint at Riviera that club hosted top-flight events in both golf and tennis. It was the site of the 2017 U.S. Amateur and the PGA Tour’s Northern Trust and Genesis Open in golf as well as the annual International Tennis Association Women ‘s All-American Championship.

MORE HONORS FOR NEMACOLIN: Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, in Farmington, Pa., continues to dominate Golfweek Magazine’s Best Courses You Can Play list.

Nemacolin’s Mystic Rock layout was named Pennsylvania’s best public course the last four years and it’s also No. 45 in the publication’s Best Resort Courses in the U.S.
Shepherd’s Rock, like Mystic a Pete Dye design, opened last July and made its debut on the rankings list at No. 5 among the Best Courses You Can Play in Pennsylvania.

TAGMARSHALL AT PINEHURST: Tagmarshall, a sophisticated pace of play system, is now operational at North Carolina’s Pinehurst Resort. It’s a course intelligence system that uses small tags attached to golf bags or installed on carts to transmit location data. Its supporters contend that Tagmarshall turns pace of play into an asset with reductions of 15 to 17 minutes per round reported at some courses.

Other facilities using Tagmarshall include the Ocean Course at Kiawah in South Carolina, Whistling Straits and Erin Hills in Wisconsin, East Lake in Atlanta and Valhalla in Louisville.

Pinehurst Resort is always at the cutting edge in providing for its golfers.

Langley heads big local contingent in Web.com tourney at Ivanhoe

The future of the Web.com Tour’s Rust-Oleum Championship may be in doubt, but one thing is certain. The $600,000 event, teeing off at Ivanhoe Club on Thursday, has the loyalty of the best local players.

This year’s event marks the professional debut of Northbrook’s Nick Hardy and tourney director Scott Cassin also awarded sponsor exemptions to Wheaton’s Tee-K Kelly, Deerfield’s Vince India, Elgin’s Carlos Sainz Jr. and Libertyville’s Michael Schachner.

Hardy won’t be alone among the University of Illinois alums in the field. Scott Langley, the NCAA individual champion for the Illini in 2011, is challenging Korean Sungjae Im for the Web.com money lead, and Langley is hot. He finished tied for second behind winner Joey Garber in last week’s Rex Hospital Open in Raleigh, N.C., and another former Illini, Brian Campbell, tied for fourth.

Im, Garber and Campbell are also in the Rust-Oleum field as players continue their battle to finish in the Top 25 on the season money list, which means promotion to the PGA Tour in 2019.

Also a factor in the Top 25 drama is Lake Forest’s Brad Hopfinger, a former champion of both the Illinois State Amateur and Illinois Open. Hopfinger stands No. 38 on the money list and a good finish at Ivanhoe would propel him into Top 25 range.

“What makes this tournament so compelling is the high level of competition due to the stakes being so high,’’ said Cassin. “And there’s no doubt that many of the players in the field will be competing next year on the PGA Tour.’’

Some already have. The rest of the field includes Elmhurst’s Mark Wilson, a four-time winner on the PGA Tour; former Masters champion Mike Weir and Shaun Micheel, a past winner of the PGA Championship. The Web.com Tour isn’t just for the kids, however. Seasoned veterans Stuart Appleby, Erik Compton, Brendon deJonge, Jason Gore and Dicky Pride will also compete at Ivanhoe.

Monday’s two qualifying sessions, at Stonewall Orchard in Gurnee and White Deer Run in Vernon Hills, didn’t bring out the best in local talent, however. None were included among the six qualifiers for the tourney proper from each site. Highlighting the qualifying sessions was an 8-under-par 64 by Bo Andrews, a Raleigh resident, at Stonewall.

Also surviving among the 163 entrants in the general qualifiers was Dan Woltman of Beaver Dam, Wis. Woltman also made the field through general qualifying in 2016 – the tourney’s first playing at Ivanhoe – and shared the lead through 54 holes before finishing fourth.

This week’s 72-hole test, which concludes on Sunday, ends Rust-Oleum’s three-year contract to host the event at Ivanhoe.

Lumsden, Meyer reach U.S. Open

College stars Ryan Lumsden of Northwestern and Dylan Meyer of Illinois were among those surviving Monday’s sectional qualifying rounds for next week’s U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills in New York.

Lumsden made birdie on the last hole of the Columbus sectional to get his berth at Shinnecock. Meyer finished second in the Springfield, Ohio, sectional.

The Open started with 8,537 entrants, and 156 will tee off at Shinnecock. Meyer will be joined by Illini alum and PGA Tour Champions star Steve Stricker, who tied for second in the Memphis sectional. Lumsden is the ninth Northwestern golfer in the last 20 years to qualify for the U.S. Open and the fourth to do it while still an amateur.

Wheaton’s PGA Tour mainstay Kevin Streelman opened with a 66 in the first round of the 36-hole competition at Columbus but had his Open hopes dashed with a 73 in the afternoon. He finished one shot behind Lumsden.

KPMG countdown begins

The biggest tournament of this Chicago golf season, the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, will follow the Rust-Oleum Championship with its June 26 to July 1 run at Kemper Lakes in Kildeer. It’s the third of the five annual major championships on the LPGA Tour.

Canadian Brooke Henderson, who won the KPMG event in 2016 and was runner-up to Danielle Kang last year at Olympia Fields, was a late withdrawal from last week’s U.S. Women’s Open in Alabama. No reason for the WD was provided at the time but Henderson has since revealed that her grandfather, 81-year old Bob Moir, had passed away after a brief battle with caner.

Here and there

Roy Biancalana, a former Illinois State Amateur and Illinois Open champion who played briefly on the PGA Tour, recently returned to the Chicago golf scene and proved he can still compete. Now living in St. Charles, Biancalana qualified for the U.S. Senior Open by shooting a 3-under-par 69 in the Chicago qualifying round at Village Links of Glen Ellyn.

The 57th Radix Cup matches between the top players in the Illinois PGA and Chicago District Golf Association will be staged next Wednesday, June 13, at Oak Park Country Club in River Forest.

First of the season’s Western Golf Assocation tournaments is the 101st Western Junior. It tees off on June 18 at Evanston Golf Club in Skokie with Californian William Mouw attempting to become the first repeat winner of the nation’s oldest national junior championship since Ben Downing in 1940-41. Mouw won last year at Park Ridge Country Club.

Here’s what to expect at this year’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship

The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, coming to Kemper Lakes in Kildeer from June 26 to July 1, is the biggest golf tournament coming to the Chicago area this season and it figures to be the biggest for many years to come.

Formerly called the LPGA Championship, this tournament is – with the U.S. Women’s Open – the top event on the premier women’s tour. It’s big, no doubt about it.

The men have a PGA Tour Champions major, the Constellation Senior Players Championship, coming to Exmoor Country Club in Highland Park in July at the same time the U.S. Golf Association brings its first U.S. Senior Women’s Open to Chicago Golf Club. Neither carries the historical significance that the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship does.

And, sad to say, neither the PGA of America, the U.S. Golf Association, the PGA Tour, PGA Tour Champions or the LPGA have any of their major tournaments scheduled in Chicago in future years. Such big events are generally scheduled many years in advance so it’s appropriate to savor this one coming to Kemper Lakes this month.

There’s some interesting symmetry involved in the connection of this tournament with this club. In 1989, when Kemper Lakes was just 10 years old, the club landed the men’s PGA Championship – the most prestigious event Kemper has ever held. The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship will come close.

Kemper was a young, public venue in 1989. Now, 29 years later, Kemper has landed another long-prestigious championship in similar circumstances. Kemper doesn’t have much of a track record in women’s golf. The club, now private, has never hosted a women’s professional tournament. The only thing remotely close on the women’s front was the 1992 U.S. Women’s Amateur.

So, a primer is in order. Here’s what you need to know to fully appreciate this upcoming KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

For starters, the KPMG event is the second-longest running tournament in women’s golf, having been founded in 1955. The U.S. Women’s Open is the only older one, having been first played in 1946. To put both in perspective, the LPGA Tour itself played its first season in 1950.

Three tournaments in the LPGA’s inaugural season were played in the Chicago area. The Chicago Weathervane Open, a 36-hole tournament, was played in May at Skycrest Country Club (now Twin Orchard in Long Grove). Louise Suggs won the $750 first prize. In July of that year there were two events at Tam O’Shanter in Niles. Babe Zaharias won both the All-American Open and World Championship, events staged by innovative golf promoter George S. May.

The U.S. Women’s Open made its debut in 1946, with Chicago-based Patty Berg the champion. The LPGA Championship was first played nine years later, when Beverly Hanson took home a $1,200 first prize from a $6,000 purse at Orchard Ridge in Fort Wayne, Ind.

Neither the U.S. Women’s Open nor LPGA Championship have stopped much in Chicago, making this month’s tournament a rare treat. The Open came to LaGrange Country Club in 1974 and 1981, with Sandra Haynie and Pat Bradley the champions. It didn’t return until 2000 when Australian Karrie Webb was the winner at the Merit Club, in Libertyville.

The LPGA Championship wasn’t played in these parts until last year, when Olympia Fields was the site of Danielle Kang’s first professional victory. In an unusual bit of scheduling the tourney was scheduled in the Chicago area two years in a row, Kemper landing this year’s event. The tourney goes to Hazeltine, in Minnesota, in 2019 and Aronomink, in Pennsylvania, in 2020.

Under LPGA management the tourney bounced around the country with only one major controversy. That came in 2005 when the organization’s professionals-only policy was altered so that 15-year old Michelle Wie could compete, a move designed to spur attendance and media attention. Many of the professionals objected, though Wie proved she could compete by finishing the runner-up to Annika Sorenstam.

Wie turned pro in October of that year and the professionals-only policy was restored for the 2006 LPGA Championship. Wie will also be in the field at Kemper Lakes and – unlike most every other player in the field – has tournament experience on the course. When she was just 11 Wie competed in the 2001 U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship at Kemper.

A longer-lasting change impacted the tourney in 2015, when management was shifted from the LPGA Tour to the PGA of America and KPMG was included in the title. The sponsorship and management change has bolstered the tournament, and a record purse of $3,650,000 will be on the line at Kemper Lakes. The champion will receive $547,000, up from the $525,000 that Kang picked up for winning at Olympia.

It’s been a long time between Kemper Lakes’ hosting of the men’s and women’s PGA Championships but one tournament official was involved with both.

Kerry Haigh, chief championships officer for the PGA of America,
worked on the tournament for Northbrook-based KemperSports in 1988 and 1989 after spending four years with the LPGA. His role in golf got much bigger after that, when he joined the PGA of America.

“I know how wonderful the women PGA players are. They’re incredible,’’ said Haigh following a two-day planning session at Kemper Lakes seven weeks before the tournament proper. “Their overall fitness and dedication are comparable to the men’s tour.’’

He feels Kemper will be comparable to the much older Olympia Fields as a venue for the tournament.

“Olympia Fields was outstanding,’’ said Haigh “There are more trees there, and it was a wonderful test of golf. Kemper Lakes has a lot more water. It comes into play on six or seven holes. It’s a more modern course and, in its own way, could be more difficult and challenging than Olympia Fields.’’

Haigh remembers Kemper Lakes from 29 years ago, when the top men battled for the PGA Championship there and the late Payne Stewart emerged the champion.

“It’s matured beautifully,’’ he said. “The bunkers are significantly more in play now, and they’re more penal. It’s a really good test and the greens can make it really difficult.’’

Exmoor hosts the next of bunched up Champions Tour major tourneys

While PGA Tour Champions has always been fun to cover, I’ve always felt there was one thing that was strange about it — the circuit’s designated major championships.

Like the LPGA, the Champions circuit has designated five tournaments as major championships, while the PGA Tour has stuck to just four – the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship

I’ve got no problem with the premier circuit having only four – though I believe The Players Championship should be added to the mix eventually. I’ve also got no problem with the LPGA and PGA Tour Champions having five majors — but there is one big difference.

The LPGA spreads its majors throughout the year better than any of the three most prominent tours. Its first major, the ANA Inspiration, teed off on March 29 and the last putt of its last major, The Evian Championship, will drop on Sept. 16. The PGA’s four majors are in April, June, July and August. Good spacing is evident for both tours.

With PGA Tour Champions, however, it’s much different. Its five majors are played over an 11-week span and the first two are played on back-to-back weeks. The Region Traditions, at Greystone in Alabama, is May17-20 and the KitchenaAid Senior PGA Championship at Harbor Shores in Benton Harbor, Mich., is May 24-27.

There’s not much separation between the last two, either. The Constellation Senior Players Championship comes to Exmoor Country Club in Highland Park from July 12-15 and just two weeks later the last of the circuit’s majors, the Senior Open Championship presented by Rolex, comes to the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland. The competitive rounds there are July 26-29.

In between the first two and last two is the U.S. Senior Open, at The Broadmoor Resort in Colorado Springs from June 28 through July 1.

PGA Tour Champions has 27 tournaments this year compared to 48 for the PGA Tour in its 2017-18 wrap-around season and 34 for the LPGA. It would seem that scheduling its majors so close together would diminish the excitement of each one. That may not be the case, however.

Greg McLauglin, tournament director for the Western Golf Association from 1992-99, has been president of PGA Tour Champions since 2014. His circuit has thrived thanks in part to offering refreshing alternatives to the other two tours and the unusual scheduling for this year is at least good for Chicago golfers. Two of those majors are within easy driving distance for all the readers of Chicagoland Golf.

The KitchenAid PGA Championship, a two-hour drive from most parts of the Chicago area, provides plenty of familiarity for players and fans alike. It has been played at Harbor Shores three times already.

England’s Roger Chapman was the surprise winner the first time, in 2012 – which was shortly after the Jack Nicklaus-designed course opened. Harbor Shores has hosted every other year since then and that routine will continue through at least 2024.

In 2013 the tourney had another surprise winner at Bellerive in St. Louis, Japan’s Kohki Idoki taking the crown. England’s Colin Montgomerie won his first major on any tour in the 2014 at Harbor Shores and successfully defended his title at French Lick, in Indiana, in 2015.

Then it was back to Harbor Shores, where Rocco Mediate held off Montgomerie to claim the 2016 crown. Bernard Langer won in 2017 at Trump National in the Washington D.C. area. He’ll defend at Harbor Shores.

Seven weeks after the event there the stars of PGA Tour Champions come to the Chicago area for the Constellation Senior Players Championship at Exmoor, a private club with a Donald Ross-designed course. It hosted some big events since its founding in 1896, but not lately. The last significant championship played there was the Western Amateur in 2012. That tourney will return to Exmoor in 2022.

While PGA Tour Champions has played many of its regular tour stops at Chicago area courses, the Constellation Senior Players Championship will be the first of the circuit’s majors to make an appearance since Olympia Fields hosted Australian Graham Marsh’s victory in the 1997 U.S. Senior Open.

Last year’s Constellation Senior Players Championship was played at Caves Valley in Baltimore, Md., with Scott McCarron winning the title. That was McCarron’s first major title on any tour and highlighted a great season in which he won two other events and had three runner-up finishes.

While more details of the Exmoor shootout will be forthcoming closer to the event, particulars have already been revealed for the event at Harbor Shores. The Makers Trail is a new feature along the Nos. 16 and 17 holes. It’ll be a private bar serving beers and wines made by the breweries and wineries of West Michigan. There’ll also be a family fun zone at holes 7-9.

The Senior PGA is the oldest of the five annual major events on PGA Tour Champions, having been first played at Georgia’s famed Augusta National in 1937. Mediate’s sizzling 19-under-par 271 performance was the second lowest score in tourney history when he deprived Montgomerie of a three-peat the last time the event was played in Michigan. Only six-time winner Sam Snead’s 20-under in 1973 at Florida’s PGA National bettered Mediate’s performance.

Last year’s tournament was played at Trump National, in Virginia, with Langer winning the title for the first time. Long the dominant player on PGA Tour Champions, Langer has had narrow misses in all three of his chances at Harbor Shores. He tied for fourth in 2012 and tied for third in both 2014 and 2016.

Chicago-based Jeff Sluman, though he has over $30 million in winnings as a tournament golfer, has yet to contend at the Senior PGA Championship. His best in Benton Harbor was a tie for 15th in 2014, but there’s another factor involved this time. Sluman is 60 now and 10-year birthday milestones have triggered good results in the past.

Sluman was 30 when he won the PGA Championship and his win at Tucson just before his 40th birthday triggered a hot streak in which he won seven more events – four of them on the PGA Tour – in the next seven years. After he turned 50 it took Sluman less than a year to win for the first time on PGA Tour Champions.

Now he’s hopeful that 60 will bring similar good fortune, and either Harbor Shores or Exmoor would be a good place for that to happen.

Mistwood, Kemper Lakes host big women’s tourneys at the same time

It’s a shame, it really is.

In the biggest year ever for women’s golf in the Chicago area the biggest women’s professional tournament and the biggest women’s amateur event will be played on virtually the same dates.

The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship is June 26 to July 1 at Kemper Lakes in Kildeer. It’s one of the five annual majors for women on the Ladies PGA Tour. The Women’s Western Amateur, a national championship that’s been played for 117 years, is June 26 to 30 at Mistwood in Romeoville.

Mistwood is the first public facility to host the tournament since 2007 when another Illinois layout, Stone Creek in Urbana, was the site. Stone Creek also hosted in 2003 and two other public courses – The Links at North Fork in Minnesota and Purdue University’s Kampen Course in Indiana – have also been the tournament’s venue since 1995.

As for this year, there are other key dates for the top women players within the Chicago area. The Illinois Women’s State Amateur is June 11-14 at Aldeen, in Rockford. The Illinois Women’s Open is July 16-18, also at Mistwood, and the first-ever U.S. Senior Women’s Open is July 12-15 at historic Chicago Golf Club, in Wheaton.

Unfortunately the U.S. Senior Women’s Open is impacted by scheduling conflicts every bit as unfortunate as those impacting the Women’s Western Amateur. Also holding dates on July 12-15 are the PGA Tour’s John Deere Classic, in downstate Silvis, Ill., and the Constellation Senior Players Championship, one of the five majors on PGA Tour Champions, at Exmoor in Highland Park.

Still, that’s a great load of fine women’s golf, so there’s no sense belaboring the poor scheduling. It’s way too late to change anything anyway, but it’s an ideal time to focus on the Women’s Western Amateur. This venerable championship is in a state of flux – and that’s not to suggest it’s a bad thing.

The Mistwood staging marks the end of an era. The 2019 tournament will be the first time the Western Golf Association and Women’s Western Golf Association have formally worked together on a tournament in over 100 years. The WGA was the initial sponsor of the Women’s Western Amateur in 1901, before the women organized their own association in 1903.

That’s not to say they haven’t worked together since then. The WGA has provided administrative support to WWGA championships since 2012. The Women’s Western Golf Foundation was founded in 1971 and has distributed more than $4.1 million scholarship awards to over 700 young women from 45 states and the two organizations jointly sponsor a Women’s Western Evans Scholar, awarding a four-year tuition and housing college scholarship to a female caddie who excels academically, has an outstanding caddie record and demonstrates financial need.

Effective on Aug. 1, 2018, however, the WGA and WWGA are forming a partnership in which the WGA will formally assist in managing WWGA championships.

“Having their help will have such a positive impact,’’ said Susan Wagner, who has served the WWGA in many capacities non-stop since 1977. “We’re looking forward to working with the Western.’’

This is a transition year, though. There’s no doubt about that. The Women’s Western Amateur is undergoing a format change, the first that Wagner can recall since the format for the championship match was changed from 18 to 36 holes in 1992. It’s being made in part to set the stage for 2019.

For the first staging at Mistwood the tournament will be limited to 120 players, based on the lowest handicap index. Last year the field was limited to 144 players.

As per previous years there’ll be a 36-hole qualifying session spread over two days to determine the match play qualifiers. In previous years the low 64 qualifiers went to match play. This year the number will be only 32, and there will be playoffs if there are ties for the 32nd position.

In previous years the players who didn’t qualify for the championship flight of match play would be flighted into lower level flights. This year there will be only the one flight. How well that will be received by the players remains to be seen but it does more closely resemble the format used in the Western Amateur men’s event that will be played at Sunset Ridge, in Northfield, from July 30 to August 4.

In the Women’s Western Amateur there will be three days of match play with two rounds on both Thursday and Friday, June 28 and 29, leading into the 36-hole championship match on Saturday, June 30.

The field will be stellar, as usual. Maddie Szeryk, last year’s winner, will not defend her title. She will be playing in the Ladies British Open in England instead, but her sister Ellie will be competing at Mistwood.

With the entry deadline still days away the field already included at least four prominent Chicago players – 2017 semifinalist Nicole Ciskowski, 2016 Western Junior champion Kate Lillie and 2016 Western Junior runner-up Penelope Tir. Jessica Yuen, who developed a solid game growing up at Mistwood and competing for Nequa Valley High School, will also be in the field. She is now a sophomore standout at the University of Missouri.

Another player to watch is 57-year old Ellen Port, the women’s coach at the University of Washington and a former WWGA director. She has won seven U.S. Golf Association championships. Players from 15 states and eight countries were among the early entries.

While nothing is official the 2019 Women’s Western Amateur is expected to be played again in the Chicago area, at a course to be determined.

In case you missed it, there are other indications that Chicago is becoming a hotbed for women’s golf. Both Illinois and Northwestern earned berths in the NCAA Division I tournament and Elizabeth Szokol, a Winnetka resident who attended Northwestern for two years before transferring to Virginia, won a tournament on the LPGA’s Symetra Tour.

Szokol, in the second tournament of her second season on the Symetra circuit, earned $22,500 for her victory in the IOA Invitational in Georgia. Szokol is the first Chicago area player to win a Symetra Tour event since the circuit was designated as the official developmental tour of the LPGA in 1999.

KPMG Women’s PGA will be Kemper’s biggest event in 29 years

This spring has not been business as usual at Kemper Lakes. The Kildeer club, which had been a tournament hotbed for more than two decades before going private, has been a busy place again even during the period when snow delayed the traditional start of spring.

That’s what happens when a club takes on a major championship. Kemper will host its biggest tournament in 29 years when the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship activities begin on June 26. The four tournament rounds in the $3,650,000 championship are June 28 through July 1.

It’ll be the third of the five designated major championships for the Ladies PGA Tour in 2018. The ANA Inspiration was played in April in Rancho Mirage, Calif., with Sweden’s Pernilla Lindberg winning the title in a three-way playoff with South Korean Inbee Park and American Jennifer Song. The U.S. Women’s Open runs May 31 through June 3 at Shoal Creek in Alabama.

After the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship comes the Ricoh Women’s British Open from Aug. 2-5 in Lancashire, England, and The Evian Championship from Sept. 13-16 in France. The U.S. Women’s Open is the oldest of the five majors, having been first played in 1950, and it has the biggest purse at $5 million.

The KPMG dates back to 1955 when it was know as the LPGA Championship. The ANA Inspiration started in 1983, the Ricoh Women’s British Open in 2001 and The Evian Championship in 2013.

Before that the designated women’s majors included the Titleholders, which was last played in 1972; the Women’s Western Open, which bowed out in 1967; and the duMaurier Classic, which ended its run in 2000.

Last year, in a scheduling rarity, the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship was played at Olympia Fields in Chicago’s south suburbs. Other than the Masters, a major championship is rarely played in the same area two years in a row. That’s what’s happening with the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, however.

Just this man’s opinion, but the tournament will be bigger and better in the move to the north. For one thing, Kemper’s membership is excited about the club’s return to the world spotlight after being away from it for too long. The only bigger event ever held at Kemper was the men’s PGA Championship in 1989.

Last year’s tourney at Olympia Fields came out just fine, but hosting big tournaments is old hat for that club. Kemper’s membership will benefit from last year’s experience at Olympia because many could view what went on there first hand. It’s certain to be a great show with the club receiving long-term benefits from it.

The 2019 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship will be contested at Hazeltine, the Minnesota course that hosted the last Ryder Cup matches and also was the site of multiple U.S. Opens and PGA Championships. That means a profile boost for Kemper Lakes, which will be joining some select company in hosting this year’s tourney.

Acting together, Kemper’s members made one decision that will spice up this year’s event. They decided to give a name to their course’s three-hole finishing stretch – certainly the most difficult on the Chicago golf scene and one of the toughest stretches in the country.

On the men’s PGA Tour side there are plenty of courses with catchy names for their most prominent holes. Augusta National has its Amen Corner. PGA National has its Bear Trap. Innisbrook’s Copperhead has its Snake Pit. Now Kemper Lakes has The Gauntlet. It encompasses the par-4 16th (which has my vote as the most difficult hole on the course), the short 17th (a par-3 with an island green) and the sharp dogleg left par-4 at No. 18. – a good hole for viewing throughout.

Club officials asked for suggestions to name the fearsome finishing stretch, then the list was narrowed to three or four for a members’ vote. The Gauntlet won out, and a big rock has been put near the No. 16 tee to mark the start of it. More decorations will be forthcoming.

“But the whole course is really challenging,’’ said head professional Jim Billiter, the reigning Illinois PGA Player of the Year. “The ladies will love it.’’

Though none have visited Kemper Lakes yet, some may have an inkling of what lies ahead because the tournament staff – headed by tournament director Jackie Endsley and head of operations Eric Nuxhol – have been working out of a trailer in the club parking lot for several months. Bleachers, merchandise and food tents and other on-course necessities will be constructed beginning in late May.

Billiter’s lifestyle also took on a new look because of the tournament. As an assistant pro at Merit Club in Libertyville he got a taste of what tournament preparations required when the UL International Crown – an LPGA team competition – was played there in 2016. The Crown was a new event, and the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship is on a much bigger scale.

Whereas winter golf trips were commonplace for Billiter in past years, he couldn’t leave town much this time.

“It’s been a lot of work buying items for the merchandise tent,’’ he said. “We want to do well. We want to make money for the club and the members and put on a good show for KPMG, and we’re ahead of the game.’’

He fears that the time spent on preparation for the KPMG tourney might negatively impact his title defense in the Illinois PGA Match Play Championship, which will be played at Kemper from May 7-10.

“This winter I was tied up a bit,’’ he said. “In years past I made up to six trips in the winter, with members or for tournament series. This year I made just one, so my (playing) expectations aren‘t as high for this year. Still, this has been a fun, learning experience.’’

The tournament will be fun, too, as it will bring the best women golfers in the world back to Chicago. Former champions include Louise Suggs, Mickey Wright, Betsy Rawls, Kathy Whitworth, Nancy Lopez, Jan Stephenson, Pat Bradley, Beth Daniel, Betsy King, Juli Inkster, Karrie Webb and Annika Sorenstam.

Last year Danielle Kang captured her first title at Olympia Fields, which proves that a big name doesn’t always win this big tournament. Let the firing begin.