Author: lenz

Stricker finds JDC a rare `home game’ with 4 other Illini alums in the field

SILVIS, IL. – The John Deere Classic doesn’t draw one of the best fields on the PGA Tour, and this week’s 46th playing of the tournament has to contend with the first Olympic Games golf competition since 1904.

The JDC does have Steve Stricker, however – and that counts for a lot.

Stricker has won the tournament at TPC Deere Run three times and shot 60 in one memorable round there. He’ll in the featured pairing off the No. 10 tee, along with past champions Zach Johnson and Brian Harman, at 8:20 a.m. today. Play begins off both Nos. 1 and 10 at 7:20.

“It’s always special coming back here. It’s a special place for me and my family,’’ said Stricker, one of five former University of Illinois golfers in the 156-man field. “There’s a great hometown feel here. This is the way the PGA Tour used to be week in and week out, and we don’t get this feel very often anymore.’’

At 49, Stricker is embroiled in an unusual season as his PGA Tour career is winding down. It all started with a second-place finish at Memphis.

“That got me thinking about getting in majors,’’ he said. “I had tried qualifying for the U.S. Open but missed out on a playoff by a shot. I was trying to gain some Ryder Cup points and some FedEx Cup points and Memphis got me into the British Open.’’

Not only did Stricker get into the Open, he finished a strong fourth after going to Europe a week early to play in the Scottish Open the week before.

“I played well a couple times and that got me into a tournament or two that I wasn’t expecting to get into,’’ he said. “It’s been fun getting back into the swing of things.’’

Stricker is feeling so good about his game that he even envisions making the Ryder Cup team again. How he plays this week will have an impact on his chances, but Stricker will be at the team competition against the Europeans regardless. U.S. captain Davis Love III already named him as one of his assistant captains.

“I’m trying to play my way on,’’ he said. “I don’t know if I can make it on points, but I can get the attention of Davis and the other (assistant captains). I’ve got to play a couple good tournaments to show that I’m worthy.’’

One big thing that he’ll have going this week is his familiarity with TPC Deere Run. He’s making his 15th appearance in the tournament and has found the course better than ever.

“It’s the best I’ve ever seen it. The course is in unbelievable shape,’’ said Stricker. “It’s going to be a great week for everybody here.’’

Here’s how the Olympics might impact the John Deere Classic

SILVIS, IL. – Organizers of what is now established as the John Deere Classic have coped with a variety of challenges for 45 years as a small market tournament on the PGA Tour – but never was the challenge anything like this one.

Golf will be contested at the Olympic Games for the first time since 1904 beginning on Thursday. That’s also the same day the John Deere Classic tees off at TPC Deere Run in this small town the outskirts of Moline, IL., and Davenport, IA.

Normally the JDC is held in July, the week before the British Open. That’s been a good date for the event, especially after tournament director Clair Peterson hired a jet to take any interested players directly to The Open as soon as the last putt dropped in the JDC. That was an amenity widely appreciated by the players.

Going head to head with the Olympics is different, though the Games didn’t get the respect anticipated from the golf’s top players. Six of the top 10 in the world rankings decided against going to Brazil, many citing concerns over the Zika virus. They included Jordan Spieth, who would be defending this JDC title this week if he hadn’t decided to take the week off altogether.

Of the four American players competing in Rio three didn’tt arrived until late Monday. Bubba Watson, Matt Kuchar and Patrick Reed all played in the PGA Tour’s Travelers Championship in Hartford, Ct., which ended on Sunday. Only Rickie Fowler was in Rio for the Opening Ceremonies.

So where did that leave the JDC? At least long-time favorites Steve Stricker and Zach Johnson are in the field. Both are making their 15th straight appearance at TPC Deere Run.

“It’s a special place for me,’’ said Stricker, who won the tournament three times. “The fans really get behind me and Zach. The course is in unbelievable shape – the best I’ve ever seen it. It’s going to be a great week for everybody here.’’

Johnson felt the same way, though he called the scheduling of the tournament opposite the Olympics “unfortunate.’’

“The Olympics has put a wedge in our schedule. It’s affected every tournament post-U.S. Open,’’ said Johnson, a JDC board member. “I don’t know if there’s a positive for anybody. There may not be many negatives either. It’s just different.’’

Olympics or not, the JDC is meaningful a lots players – whether they’re here or not.

“You can look at it a number of ways,’’ said Johnson, a former Masters and British champion. “There are only two weeks left before the (FedEx Cup) Playoffs. There are only so many weeks left of Ryder Cup points. There are a lot of things at stake, so guys want to play and get some points here and there. But the Olympics touched the majors, too. It made you think about when to play and when to rest, which is more important this time of year.’’

Johnson has been a major contender the last seven stagings of the JDC. That stretch included a victory (in 2012), a playoff loss, two runner-up finishes and two ties for third.

Last week Johnson was paired the first two rounds with Jim Furyk at the Travelers Championship in Hartford, Ct. Furyk barely survived the 36-hole cut before shocking the golf world with a record 58 on Sunday. TPC Deere Run was the site of Paul Goydos’ 59 in 2010, on the same day that Stricker shot a 60.

“(Low scores) are much more attainable here,’’ said Johnson. “You have three par-5s and a drivable par-4. TPC River Highlands (in Hartford) is harder top to bottom.’’

The JDC has led the PGA Tour events in birdies in four of the last five years, and another low-scoring affair seems likely. Johnson and Stricker head the field, as usual, and the rest of the competitors include more than the usual number of college stars who have just entered the professional ranks. They include Aaron Wise, of Oregon; Charlie Danielson, Illinois; Jordan Niebrugge, Oklahoma State; Jon Rahm, Arizona State; and Lee McCoy, Georgia.

First-time winners are not unusual at the JDC. Twenty players have notched their first PGA Tour title at the JDC, the last being Brian Harman in 2014.

The 156 starters will be playing for an $4.8 million purse with Sunday’s champion receiving $864,000. The starters also include former major championship winners Angel Cabrera, Trevor Immelman, Lucas Glover, Stewart Cink and David Toms plus former JDC champions John Senden and Jonathan Byrd.

It’s tee time for both John Deere Classic and the Olympics

Golf will be contested at the Olympic Games for the first time since 1904 beginning on Thursday. That’s also the same day the John Deere Classic – the PGA Tour’s only annual event in Illinois – tees off at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, on the outskirts of the Quad Cities.

The Olympics didn’t get the respect anticipated from the game’s top players. Six of the top 10 in the world rankings decided against going to Brazil, many citing concerns over the Zika virus. They included Jordan Spieth, who would be defending this JDC title if he hadn’t decided to take the week off altogether.

Of the four American players competing in Rio three just arrived on Monday. Bubba Watson, Matt Kuchar and Patrick Reed all played in the PGA Tour’s Travelers Championship in Hartford, Ct., which ended on Sunday. Only Rickie Fowler was in Rio for the Opening Ceremonies.

So where does that leave the JDC, which was moved from July to accommodate the Olympics?

“The Olympics has put a wedge in our schedule. It’s affected every tournament post-U.S. Open,’’ said Zach Johnson, a PGA Tour mainstay and JDC board member. “I don’t know if there’s a positive for anybody. There may not be many negatives either. It’s just different.’’

Johnson, leading off the pre-tourney media sessions on Tuesday, called the scheduling opposite the Olympics “unfortunate.’’ Normally the JDC is in July, the week before the British Open.

“You can look at it a number of ways,’’ said Johnson. “There are only two weeks left before the (FedEx Cup) Playoffs. There are only so many weeks left of Ryder Cup points. There are a lot of things at stake, so guys want to play and get some points here and there. But the Olympics touched the majors, too. It made you think about when to play and when to rest, which is more important this time of year.’’

Johnson is making his 15th straight JDC appearance and he’s been a major contender the last seven stagings that included a victory (in 2012), a playoff loss, two runner-up finishes and two ties for third.

Last week Johnson was paired the first two rounds with Jim Furyk at the Travelers Championship in Hartford, Ct. Furyk barely survived the 36-hole cut before shocking the golf world with a record 58 on Sunday. TPC Deere Run was the site of Paul Goydos’ 59 in 2010, on the same day that three-time champion Steve Stricker shot 60.

“(Low scores) are much more attainable here,’’ said Johnson. “You have three par-5s and a drivable par-4. TPC River Highlands (in Hartford) is harder top to bottom.’’

So, that could mean another low-scoring JDC. Johnson and Stricker head the field, which was supplemented by more college stars who have just entered the professional ranks than usual. They include Aaron Wise, of Oregon; Charlie Danielson, Illinois; Jordan Niebrugge, Oklahoma State; Jon Rahm, Arizona State; and Lee McCoy, Georgia. Also getting in via a sponsor’s exemption was Frankfort’s Brian Bullington, who will make his PGA Tour debut.

The 156 starters will be playing for an $4.8 million purse with Sunday’s champion receiving $864,000. The starters also include former major championship winners Angel Cabrera, Trevor Immelman, Lucas Glover, Stewart Cink and David Toms plus former JDC champions John Senden and Jonathan Byrd.

Here and there

Marty Schiene, the former Illinois Open champion and PGA Tour player, has taken on another coaching challenge. Former head coach at Chicago State and associate coach at Loyola, Schiene is now the assistant to veteran DePaul men’s coach Betty Kaufmann.

Luke Donald, who threw out the first pitch at the Cubs’ game on Tuesday, will have a celebrity partner at his annual Taste of the First Tee event. Rory McIlroy will join him for the Sept. 12 benefit for the First Tee of Greater Chicago at Medinah Country Club.

Bing Singhsumalee, a University of Illinois sophomore from Naperville, made it to the round of 32 at last week’s U.S. Women’s Amateur. Her Illini team has scheduled its second annual pro-am event Oct. 6-7 at Lincolnshire Fields, in Champaign.

Michael Natale and Steve Sawtell combined to win the inaugural Chicago District Golf Association Amateur Four-Ball Championship last week at Eagle Brook, in Geneva. The CDGA’s 15th annual Senior Amateur Championship will conclude its four-day run on Thursday at Wynstone, in North Barrington.

The Dave Pelz Scoring Schools will start at Cog Hill, in Lemont, on Aug. 24. Single day and three-day sessions are available.

Illini’s Meyer spoils Horsfield’s bid for a sweep of Western Amateur honors

Sam Horsfield flips his putter after birdie putt at No. 10 fails to drop, giving Dylan Meyer the lead for good.

Dylan Meyer wasn’t one of the high-profile players on the University of Illinois’ powerhouse golf teams the last couple seasons. New pros Charlie Danielson and Thomas Detry filled that role.

When school resumes later this month, though, it figures to be Meyer’s turn – and on Saturday he proved ready for the challenge.

About to enter his junior season for the Illini, Meyer captured the 114th Western Amateur title at the Knollwood Club, in Lake Forest, with a 3 and 1 victory over Sam Horsfield, who dominated the tournament until the title match.

Horsfield, a University of Florida sophomore from Manchester, England, was the tourney medalist by nine strokes and survived his first three matches after that. He was even 2-up on Meyer five holes into the title match before the momentum changed.

Meyer won Nos. 6 and 7 to get the match to all square and took the lead for good with his first birdie at the 601-yard par-5 tenth. Horsfield lipped out a putt from 10 feet that would have halved that hole, and he had lipouts three more times before conceding the par-3 17th hole and the match to Meyer.

“There wasn’t a point that I had total control. Sam’s a great player, and I expected him to do everything,’’ said Meyer. “When I was 2-down my mind was re-setting. My caddie and I had a plan – to be relentless.’’

Illinois’ Dylan Meyer shows off his prize for winning the 114th Western Amateur.

It eventually paid off, as Meyer now joins a select group that includes Jack Nicklaus, Ben Crenshaw, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods as Western Amateur champions.

“I didn’t play bad at all. Dylan played great,’’ said Horsfield, who is No. 1 in the Scratch Players World Amateur Rankings (compared to No. 15 for Meyer). “It’s been a great week. I’m proud of how I played and excited where my game’s at.’’

There’s still one big event before school starts – the U.S. Amateur at Michigan’s Oakland Hills course. It begins on Aug. 15 and all the Western Amateur stars will be there, including Meyer and Nick Hardy, his Illini teammate from Northbrook who won the Illinois State Amateur by a shocking 10 strokes three weeks ago. Meyer stayed with Hardy’s family during the Western Am.

Meyer, from Evansville, Ind., needed to survive a sudden death playoff on Thursday to make the Sweet 16 match play qualifiers. He switched drivers in the middle of the tournament, which improved his game but didn’t enabled him to approach Horsfield’s prodigious blasts off the tee. Most impressive of those came at the 426-yard fifth hole, where Horsfield’s tee shot came up just 50 yards short of the green.

That was the pattern throughout the match, but Meyer – a slender 140 pounds – wasn’t distracted.

The end comes when Sam Horsfield conceded the final to Dylan Meyer on Knollwood’s 17th green.

“I know my place. I know my game. I know my stature,’’ said Meyer. “I just accept it. I’m not going to be Jason Day or Dustin Johnson. I’d be a Zach Johnson. I’d short-game a golf course to death.’’

That’s pretty much how he won this tournament. He reached the final four by whipping Doug Ghim, a University of Texas player from Arlington Heights, in Thursday’s quarterfinals and then baffled Will Gordon, of Davidson, N.C., in Saturday’s semifinals, going 3-up on the front nine before winning 4 and 2.

Horsfield had a more difficult semifinal. His opponent, Davis Riley of Hattiesburg, MS., shot a 6-under-par 30 on the front nine and birdied the 10th to go 4-up. Horsfield then won the next six holes and the match to put himself in position to be the first medalist to win the title since Chris Williams in 2012. Meyer, however, spoiled that dream.

The walking gallery kept growing during asDylan Meyer and Sam Horsfield battled at Knollwood.

Upgrades provide big boosts at Eagle Ridge, Ruffled Feathers

Eagle Ridge, Illinois’ premier golf resort in Galena, has changed – and for the better – since its latest ownership change.

Capital Crossing acquired the facility in 2013 and brought in Texas-based Touchstone Golf to manage Eagle Ridge’s 63 holes and Mount Prospect-based Bricton Group to manage the rest of the resort. Touchstone manages courses in 10 states but Eagle Ridge is its only facility in the Midwest.

The bulk of Touchstone’s 36 properties are in California (16) and Texas (7). Steve Harker, formerly with American Golf, started the company in 2005. His team now includes Mark Luthman who — as regional director of operations for Chicago-based KemperSports — was a leader in the planning, pre-opening and operations of Oregon’s Chambers Bay, site of the 2010 U.S. Amateur and 2015 U.S. Open. Luthman is Touchstone’s executive vice president and chief operating officer.

Bricton, a major hotel management group, is headed by president Ed Doherty – a former Evans Scholar. Touchstone and Bricton combined to form Brickstone, the firm that oversees Eagle Ridge’s total operation, and its first order of business was to address the shortcomings on the golf side.

While the resort’s website alludes to “renovation’’ work done on its three 18-holers – The General and the North and the South courses – as well as the nine-hole East course, that’s a bit misleading. Renovations generally connote total revamping of a course and usually include design changes. That wasn’t needed at Eagle Ridge.

All four courses were designed by one-time Chicago-based architect Roger Packard, with two-time U.S. Open champion Andy North helping out on The General – the showcase course. All four courses – which opened between 1977 and 1997 — are blessed with the “wow factor’’ thanks largely to the elevation changes throughout the 6,800-acre property.

While Packard’s designs have remained intact, the work done since Touchstone arrived has still been extensive.

“There wasn’t any construction on the fairways,’’ said Reagan Davis, the director of golf. “Packard did a great job, but a lot of places were overgrown and a lot of the tees and landing areas were claustrophobic. The native areas were overgrown, and a lot of the trees weren’t trimmed. People would measure a round on The General by how many balls they lost.’’

That’s not the case anymore. Davis estimates that $700,000 was spent on cleaning up the courses.

“We went in and trimmed all the trees we could,’’ said Davis. “We pushed back the tee boxes and tried to make the courses like they were originally. It speeded up play on The General. We picked up 35 minutes of time (per round).’’

On a busy day a round might have gone 5 hours 25 minutes before. Now it’s more like 4 hours 30 minutes, and rounds are rarely over 5 hours.

The General also got a new restaurant. “Spikes’’ is gone and has been replaced by WoodStones, which features a $30,000 oven that can cook a wood-fire pizza in four minutes. The restaurant is even featured on the more dramatic welcoming signs at the main entrance.

“We wanted something more for the community and not so much for the resort or the golfers,’’ said Davis. “We keep it open about 10 months out of the year, and it’s done well.’’

There’s some other newcomers at Eagle Ridge as well – 30 goats. They’ve been brought in to roam the steep slopes where mowing equipment can’t be used.

ANOTHER NEW LOOK: Ruffled Feathers, in Lemont, has completed its own major renovation project. Dallas-based Arcis Golf has unveiled its $2 million renovation of the only Pete Dye-designed course in the Chicago area. Both the course and clubhouse underwent extensive upgrades, and Arcis has announced it will spend $50 million in major capital improvements at its 66 public and private facilities nation-wide.

As for the Ruffled Feathers work, general manager Victor Rodarte described it as “a true revival of the entire property.’’

Arcis also operates five other Chicago area courses – Fresh Meadow, in Hillside; Mill Creek and Eagle Brook, in Geneva; Tamarack, in Naperville; and Whitetail Ridge, in Yorkville.

LOOK OUT FOR SOBB: August won’t be as busy a tournament month as July was, but there will be two section championships conducted by the Illinois PGA and Ivanhoe’s Jim Sobb could wind up in contention for two player-of-the-year awards when they’re done.

The IPGA Senior Championship is Aug. 8-9 at Whisper Creek, in Huntley, and the IPGA Championship proper is Aug. 29-31 on Olympia Fields’ South course. Sobb, who was the overall player-of-the-year in 2000, is sixth in the standings now behind leader Travis Johns, of Medinah. Last year Sobb was eighth, so he’s remained consistently competitive after passing the age of 50.

He was also the senior player of the year in both 2014 and 2015 and ranked second behind Mistwood’s John Platt in the senior standings at the time of this printing.

BITS AND PIECES: The Chicago golf community lost two giants from the club professional ranks with the passing Leon McNair and Hubby Habjan in a span of a few days in July. McNair, 75, led in the development of Fox Bend, in Oswego, and Habjan, 84, was a long-time head man at Onwentsia, in Lake Forest. Both are members of the Illinois Golf Hall of Fame.

The LPGA’s UL International Crown may be over but its Legends Tour will hold its main event not far away – at Indiana’s French Lick Resort from Aug. 18-21. The Legends Championship festivities will include the inductions of Elaine Crosby and Sandra Haynie into the Legends Hall of Fame that is permanently housed at the nearby West Baden Springs Hotel. Crosby and Haynie will become the seventh and eight members of the Hall, joining Jan Stephenson and Kathy Whitworth, who went in in 2013; Nancy Lopez and Jane Blalock, who were added in 2014; and Joanne Carner and Rosie Jones, who were inducted last year.

KemperSports has taken over the management of Boughton Ridge, the nine-hole executive length course that has served Bolingbrook residents for over 35 years. KemperSports will also manage its Ashbury’s restaurant.

The Schaumburg Park District’s ninth annual Links Technology Cup has been scheduled for Aug. 10 at Schaumburg Golf Club. It includes a Taste on the Tee showcase of food and beverages on most every hole. Proceeds benefit the district’s recreation scholarship program.

Dates opposite the Olympics won’t be a big problem for the JDC

If you had asked me, I would have told you.

The PGA Tour should not have made all those changes to its mid- to late-summer schedule just to accommodate the Olympics. All that did was inconvenience tournament organizers, leave most of the players in limbo and confuse ticket-buyers who had gotten used to watching specific tournaments on specific dates year after year after year.

No PGA Tour tournament was more impacted on that front than the John Deere Classic. The lone annual PGA Tour stop in Illinois drew Aug. 11-14 dates – the same days the 72-hole Olympic men’s competition will be conducted in Brazil. The JDC had thrived with July dates the week before the British Open in recent years.

Fortunately the JDC, in its 46th year, has been a resilient event. That’s been proven over and over, when the tournament struggled for survival in one of the circuit’s smallest markets. Going way back, what’s now the well-established JDC had to deal with weak fields, sponsorship problems which resulted in a variety of title changes and moving from one course to another. But nothing, it seems, can stop the JDC now – and it certainly won’t be these Olympic Games.

The seriousness of the Zika virus notwithstanding, the continuous dropouts of top players from the Olympics – the number was at 18 at the time of this printing – suggests that tournament will be special only because it’s the Olympics and the first time golf will be contested since 1904. It certainly won’t be because of the quality of the field.

When all is said and done it wouldn’t be surprising if the JDC draws as much TV attention from golfers as the Olympics’ golf competition will. Only 60 players will be in the Olympics and at least a few of those who could have competed in Brazil may well wind up competing at TPC Deere Run.

Zach Johnson — the former Masters, JDC and British Open champion who has long been on the JDC board of directors – long predicted that the John Deere Classic would have a “late developing field.’’ Look for some big name players to enter after the last of this year’s four majors. The PGA Championship, because of all the shuffling inspired by the Olympics, was played only two weeks after Henrik Stenson’s spectacular win in the British Open at Royal Troon. The PGA – last of the majors — concluded on July 31.

Enough said about the Olympics. Suffice it to say, the JDC will do just fine even without being in the global golf spotlight. The event’s annual media day underscored that. Paul Scranton, this year’s volunteer chairman, announced that the JDC has 1,750 volunteers ready to go for a worthy cause.

Last year’s JDC raised $8.7 million that was dispersed among over 500 local charities. (In its 45-year history the tourney’s charity donations have topped $71 million).

An impact study conducted last year by sponsor John Deere and Western Illinois University determined that the tournament added over $54 million to the Quad Cities economy and this will be another big year, Olympics or not.

As for the golf, the JDC field won’t have Jordan Spieth – and his absence won’t go unnoticed. It won’t go unnoticed at Brazil, either. On JDC media day, just as tournament director Clair Peterson was about to address the assembled writers and broadcasters, The Golf Channel announced that Spieth had decided against going to Brazil. The gathering immediately grew silent, wondering if the JDC’s two-time champion might defend his title after all.

Spieth quickly put an end to that line of thought, saying he didn’t think his playing in a tournament opposite the Olympics would be “appropriate.’’ For Spieth that was the right decision.

For many others bypassing the Olympics, though, such a stance might not work. Brendon de Jonge, for instance, could have played for his native Zimbabwe in Brazil. Instead he withdrew himself from Olympic consideration citing “job security.’’ The Zika virus wasn’t the overriding factor for him. He wants to play in the FedEx Cup Playoffs and a player must be in the top 125 on the point list to make it.

The JDC will have two of its longstanding stars in Johnson and three-time winner Steve Stricker, who is coming off a surprising fourth place finish in the British Open. Other early commitments came from former major championship winners Angel Cabrera, Trevor Immelman, Lucas Glover, Stewart Cink and David Toms.

Other commits among players who have won events on the PGA Tour in the last two years came from Ben Crane, Chesson Hadley, J.J. Henry, Billy Hurley III, Pater Malnati, Troy Merritt, Seung-Yul Noh, John Senden, Scott Stallings, Robert Streb, Brian Stuard, Vaughn Taylor, Nick Taylor and Brendon Todd.

With a purse of $4.8 million, a first-place prize of $864,000 and 500 FedEx Cup points on the line, the tourney is well worth playing with the lucractive Playoffs closing in.

“We’re pleased and excited about the players who have committed to play in this year’s tournament,’’ said Peterson. “Because of the compressed nature of this year’s PGA Tour schedule we know many other players will make their decisions closer to the tournament.’’

For starters, though, the JDC was given five sponsor exemptions for the seeming inconvenience of being scheduled opposite the Olympics. Two of the first five – NCAA champion Aaron Wise of Oregon and Charlie Danielson, the Big Ten player of the year from Illinois – attended media day.

The other three had good reasons for not being there. Jordan Niebrugge was competing at the British Open, having secured a spot off his sixth-place finish there the previous year, and Lee McCoy and Jon Rahm were taking advantage of sponsor’s exemptions to the Barbasol Championship, the PGA Tour stop played opposite the British. The JDC invite will give them another early start on golf’s premier circuit.

“We have a long history of introducing our golf fans to that next great class,’’ said Peterson, citing Johnson, Spieth, Justin Thomas, Camilo Villegas, Tiger Woods, Matt Kuchar, Bryson DeChambeau, Lucas Glover, Webb Simpson and Bill Haas as those “young players coming out of college that we were able to help kick-start their careers.’’

That’s an impressive list, and Wise and Danielson were most appreciative.

“The John Deere is going to be an incredible opportunity,’’ said Wise. “For us to get an exemption into a PGA Tour event is awesome. It’s what we need; it’s what we work towards.’’

“I’m just trying to play as much good golf as I can before Q-school,’’ said Danielson. “It’s just about staying fresh, staying competitive and getting ready to go get my card.’’

He expects to start his first pro season on the Web.com Tour “unless something spectacular happens.’’ Danielson shouldn’t be ruling that out. After all, the slogan for the John Deere is “Magic Starts Here.’’ It has for many players in the past and certainly could for him, Wise and the other young stars who will gather with an array of seasoned professionals at TPC Deere Run for pre-tournament activities starting on Aug. 8.

Hardy, Ghim bow out of Western Amateur; Horsfield, Meyer survive

Friday was not a good day for the local players who made it to match play in the 114th Western Amateur at Knollwood Club in Lake Forest.

Northbrook’s Nick Hardy lost in the Round of 16 to Davis Riley, of Hattiesburg, Miss., 4 and 2 and Doug Ghim of Arlington Heights, survived his first match in 19 holes but was walloped by Hardy’s University of Illinois teammate Dylan Meyer 5 and 4 in the quarterfinals.

Friday’s matches whittled the field in the prestigious championship to four players. Tourney medalist Sam Horsfield, a University of Florida sophomore from Manchester, England, will face Riley, a sophomore at Alabama, in the first semifinal at 8 a.m. and Meyer will take on Will Gordon, a sophomore at Vanderbilt from Davidson, N.C., at 8:15.

Meyer, from Evansville, Ind., needed to survive a playoff on Thursday to make it into the Sweet 16 for the match play portion of the tournament. He was sorry to see Hardy eliminated.

“We root for each other, and I we really wanted to play each other in the finals,’’ said Meyer, “but we’ll meet up again at the U.S. Amateur.’’

That’ll be the last big summer event before the collegiate stars return to their school teams. The U.S. Amateur will be played at Oakland Hills, in Michigan, starting on Aug. 15. Ghim will be there, too.

“It’s been fun testing my game against such a difficult golf course,’’ said Ghim, soon to be a junior at Texas. “I still consider this a good week, though I didn’t have my best game. I tried to be patient, but I kept burning the edges. It didn’t happen this week, but there’ll be more matches in the future.’’

Hardy started slowly against Riley and never recovered. He missed five putts inside of 10 feet on the front nine. The Meyer-Ghim match was similar, in that Meyer built a 3-up lead in the first eight holes and remained in control the rest of the way.

Horsfield, who was nine shots better than the rest of the field in the 72-hole stroke play portion of the tournament, needs to win both his matches today to become the first medalist to win the overall title since Chris Williams did it at Exmoor, in Highland Park, in 2012.

Horsfield dominates stroke play portion of Western Amateur at Knollwood

Englishman Sam Horsfield claims his reward after leading Sweet 16 qualifiers in Western Am.

Just qualifying for the Sweet 16 at the Western Amateur is a great accomplishment, and Northbrook’s Nick Hardy and Arlington Heights’ Doug Ghim both did that on Thursday at Knollwood Club in Lake Forest.

They were only bit players in the third and fourth round of the stroke play portion in the 114th playing of this championship, however. Sam Horsfield, a University of Florida sophomore from Manchester, England, dominated the 72-hole portion that determined the 16 who advance to match play on Friday.

Horsfield opened with a course record 9-under-par 63 on Tuesday, stumbled to a 75 on Wednesday and then cruised in with a 67-64 finish on Thursday to posted a 15-under-par 269 total for the 72 holes. That at least approached the records for the prestigious tournament. The record books are sketchy with the tourney’s Sweet 16 era going back “only’’ to 1956.

Using that as guideline, Horsfield had the fourth-best stroke play score in the history of the tournament, the best being a 265 by Aron Price at long-time host site Point O’Woods, in Benton Harbor, Mich., in 2004.

Danny Lee, the last medalist to go on to win the overall title in 2008, shot 268 at Point O’Woods and Chris Williams also posted that number at North Shore in Glenview in 2011. Their scores in relation to par and margin of victory were not available.

Horsfield, who won his qualifying medal by nine strokes over runner-up Michael DeMorat of Merritt Island, FL., was concerned with only one record.

“I knew the course record was 63 and I tried to make my birdie putt on the last hole for 62,’’ he said. That putt didn’t drop and Horsfield missed his comeback putt as well.

“Finishing bogey-bogey somewhat sucks, but I achieved my goal of making it to match play,’’ he said. “It was a special day. I had all things clicking.’’

At least that was the case most of the time. He needed a tuneup on the range between rounds on Thursday to work out a minor kink in his swing. After that it was clear sailing.

“In the afternoon I was in control of my game’’ he said. “Once I got to 3-under after nine I had nothing to worry about. My caddie and I decided to look at the rest of the round like it was a practice round.’’

Horsfield reached 17-under and led by 11 at one point on the final nine but that was incidental.

“If somebody told me I’d get to 17-under before the round I wouldn’t have believed it,’’ he said. “I told my girlfriend I wanted to get to 15-under, and once I was there I kind of just hit it around.’’

Earning medalist honors in no way guarantees that match play will be a similar walk in the park.

“Match play is a different animal,’’ said Horsfield, who was also a Sweet 16 qualifier last year. “You’re not playing the golf course, you’re playing your opponent. A lot of great names have won the medal. It’s a pretty neat accomplishment, but it’s over. I came here to win the tournament.’’

Hardy, the reigning Illinois State Amateur champion, finished 71-69 and tied for fourth. Ghim went 73-70 on Thursday and ended in a tie for sixth. They’ll be in the first round of match play, which starts at 8 a.m. on Friday. Winners will play in the afternoon quarterfinals, and the four survivors will decide the title on Saturday with semifinals in the morning and the title match in the afternoon.

Hardy will host Davis Riley, of Hattiesburg, MS., in the Round of 16 while Ghim will take on Max McGreevy, of Edmond, Okla. Horsfield’s opponent is Joaquin Niemann of Chile, who survived a six-man playoff for the final five spots in match play.

Among the other playoff survivors was University of Illinois golfer Dylan Meyer, who will face DeMorat. Four members of the Sweet 16 are foreigners.

Ghim is in the hunt again in Western Am after 2 rounds

Doug Ghim doesn’t play in many Chicago tournaments — but he’s ready for this one.

Doug Ghim lives in Arlington Heights but the Chicago area rarely gets a chance to see how good he is. Wednesday, though, was one of those days.

Ghim started fast and finished strong to climb into a tie for second place after two rounds of the stroke play competition at the 114th Western Amateur at Knollwood Club in Lake Forest. Posting scores of 69 and 71, he trails England’s Sam Horsfield by one stroke entering Thursday’s 36-hole session, which will decide the 16 qualifiers for the match play portion of the competition on Friday and Saturday.

The field was cut from Tuesday’s 156 starters to the low 44 and ties for Thursday’s double round. Ghim is tied with four others, among them Todd Mitchell — the 38-year old veteran from Bloomington – at the 36-hole mark. Northbrook’s Nick Hardy is also in the mix, two strokes behind Ghim.

Ghim has taken an unusual path to success. He skipped high school competition at Buffalo Grove after his freshman year, preferring instead to play in national junior tournaments. Then, rather than attend college close to home, he opted for the perennial powerhouse program at Texas.

Both Ghim and Hardy are entering their junior seasons. Hardy is at Illinois, and he has enjoyed a great summer. He won the Illinois State Amateur by 10 strokes and finished as low amateur at the Illinois Open in the last three weeks. Ghim didn’t play in either one.

“I wanted to play the State Am but was late for registration,’’ he said, “and I didn’t have time to qualify for the Illinois Open, which was a bummer. I wanted to play. I wish I could have given Nick a run for his money but I just totally forgot that I wasn’t exempt for those events. It didn’t even cross my mind that I’d have to qualify.’’

The No. 9-ranked amateur in the world, Ghim has a loftier status than Hardy, who is No. 24. They could meet in the Western Am, but both have to survive Thursday’s 36-hole session to qualify for the Sweet 16 first.

“It might seem like I’m not trying to play locally, but I love playing around here, where I can sleep in my own bed,’’ said Ghim. “It’s nice to have this big tournament, with the best players in the world, in my hometown.’’

Ghim is used to big tournaments. He played for Team USA in the Palmer Cup in England this summer and also competed in tournaments in Pittsburgh and San Francisco.

Very little golf will be played at Knollwood after the Western Am ends on Saturday. After a members event on Sunday and an outing on Monday the course will be closes to enable a re-grassing of the greens. Those surfaces are a big challenge for the field in the Western Am.

“I’ve been drawing off my experience of two years ago (when he was the Western Am medalist at Beverly Country Club in Chicago),’’ said Ghim. “The courses are similar, and the greens may be firmer than those at Beverly.’’

“They’re a lot like Beverly’s, maybe even faster,’’ chimed in Hardy. “They’re not hard to read, just hard to putt. I love how they have Knollwood in this condition and, if I can win, it’d be my biggest win ever. But we’ve still got to get to match play. Then it’s anyone’s tournament.’’

Knollwood welcomes Western Am — golf’s most physical tourney test

Ten straight days of major tournament action in the Chicago area comes to an end on Wednesday with the conclusion of the Illinois Open at Royal Fox in St. Charles, but the break won’t be a long one.

The 114th Western Amateur tees off next week, starting with practice rounds on Monday at Knollwood Club in Lake Forest. No tournament is as physically demanding as the Western Am. There will be 18-hole rounds Tuesday and Wednesday, Aug. 2-3, before the 156-man starting field is whittled to the low 44 and ties.

Those players will go 36 holes on Thursday Aug. 4, and the top 16 will advance to match play to decide the champion. There will be two rounds of matches on Friday, Aug. 5, with the semifinals and final on Saturday, Aug. 6.

Few non-professional tournaments carry the prestige of the Western Am, and only two are older – the British Amateur, which dates to 1885, and the U.S. Amateur, which was first played in 1895. Past Western champions include Jack Nicklaus, Ben Crenshaw, Curtis Strange, Phil Mickelson, Justin Leonard and Tiger Woods.

This year’s elite invitational field has representatives from 20 countries. The defending champion is Dawson Armstrong of Brentwood, Tenn., a sophomore at Lipscomb University. Armstrong emerged the surprise champion at Rich Harvest Farms, in Sugar Grove, when he overcame Aaron Wise in a playoff that went 20 holes.

Wise went on to become the NCAA medalist and lead Oregon to the team title. He recently turned professional and will play in next month’s John Deere Classic on a sponsor’s exemption.

Six members of this year’s Western Amateur field played in the U.S. Open at Oakmont in June and nine qualified for at least one of golf’s major championships played over the last two years.

“The depth of our field is what has made the Western Amateur one of the most prestigious amateur golf championships in the world for more than a century,’’ said Vince Pellegrino, senior vice president of tournaments for the Western Golf Association.

The WGA also conducts the Western Junior and BMW Championship, a PGA Tour event coming up at Crooked Stick in Indiana in September. The Western Am, though, provides more golf than either of those. The finalists will play the equivalent of two 72-hole tournaments plus a practice round in a five-day period.

That’s what makes it special, according to Adam Wood, a junior-to-be at Duke from Zionsville, Ind. He won the Western Junior in 2012 and was a Sweet 16 qualifier in last year’s Western Am.

“We love to have longer tournaments,’’ said Wood. “The players love a format like this one. The more golf you can play, the better.’’

Local entries are headed by Northbrook’s Nick Hardy, who played in the last two U.S. Opens, was a Western semifinalist last year and won the Illinois State Amateur with a stunning 28-under-par performance last week. Also likely to contend are Arlington Heights’ Doug Ghim, a junior at Texas; Wheaton’s Tee-K Kelly, the State Am runner-up and a two-time winner of that title; and Bolingbrook’s David Cooke, the 2015 Illinois Open winner..

Here and there

Wheaton’s Kevin Streelman has the last tee time (2:15 p.m, EDT) off the first tee in the PGA Championship’s first round Thursday at Baltusrol, in New Jersey. Luke Donald, the only other player with local ties in the field, has a more attractive pairing. He’ll go off with Matt Kuchar and Danny Lee at 1:05 p.m.

Dennis Johnsen, general manager and head professional at Pine Meadow in Mundelein, has been named the recipient of the PGA of America’s National Youth Player Development Award.

Medinah will host the second playing of the Bush Cup, a Walker Cup-style match between Army West Point and Northwestern, on Oct. 14. In last year’s first Bush Cup West Point and Yale played to a tie at Winged Foot, in New York. David Feherty will receive the Bush Foundation’s Humanitarian Award at the event’s dinner.

The Illinois PGA seniors and assistants will hold stroke play events on Monday (AUG 1) at Flossmoor Country Club.

The Chicago District Golf Association will conduct qualifiers for the U.S. Mid-Amateur at Willow Crest in Oak Brook on Thursday and Cantigny, in Wheaton, on Monday. The CDGA Amateur Four-Ball Championship will also begin a four-day run at Eagle Brook in Geneva on Monday.